Keeping Your IDX Data Safe: A Letter From Our Founder

We’ve recently heard some concerns from MLS members regarding how IDX listing data is handled post our acquisition by Zillow.  This morning Diverse Solutions founder Justin LaJoie sent a letter to executives at each of our MLS partners to help shed light on this topic.  We’ve shared the letter below to reiterate our commitment to data security for all our IDX users:

There seems to have been some confusion and questions regarding the Zillow acquisition of Diverse Solutions.  So, I’m writing you today to clear this up and open up a dialog.

As most real estate agents will tell you, listing syndication and IDX are two very different animals, and Zillow understood this distinction when they purchased Diverse Solutions.  Simply put, Zillow acquired us because we deliver amazing IDX products, and we’ve expanded into new markets and grown our client base month after month

For nearly seven years, we have preserved these close relationships with each MLS and data provider by regularly updating our products for compliance, providing regular reports on usage, and otherwise maintaining a strict adherence to IDX data policies and display guidelines.  We’ve always been dedicated to the upkeep of our MLS relationships and the overall integrity of our IDX display.  We take these MLS relationships very seriously and respect the value of their data.  We would never do anything to jeopardize the trust the MLS place in us every day.

Zillow recognized the work we’ve invested in creating and maintaining these agreements and worked with us very closely to ensure the acquisition was a smooth transition for every MLS.  Our IDX team contacted each MLS individually and explained how our relationship would continue now that we were part of Zillow.

We explained that Diverse Solutions would operate as usual, with the same restrictions and control over their data, continuing to support existing IDX solutions for approved MLS members.  Any new features, products, or other offerings that would use or otherwise access IDX data would go through the same strict compliance approval process as before.  All MLS data will continue to be controlled by the same team at Diverse Solutions for the same explicit uses as before.

Our IDX data feeds have always been used solely for our family of IDX search products, and all our new or updated agreements reflect this commitment.  We’ve kept your MLS data safe, and now as part of Zillow, we’ll continue to do so.  We will never use your data for any other application including for publication on Zillow.com unless you provide us explicit permission to do so.

Justin LaJoie
Founder, Diverse Solutions