What is your personal information?

When used in this privacy policy, the term “personal information” has the meaning given to it in the Act. In general terms, it is any information that can be used to personally identify you. This may include your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation. If the information we collect personally identifies you, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.

What personal information do we collect and hold?

The kinds of personal information we collect and hold about you, and our use of that information, is dependent on the services we provide you.

Generally, this personal information may include (but is not limited to) your name, address, date of birth, telephone number, email address, details of the services you have enquired about, property value, rental amounts, insurance details, references (in relation to rental arrangements and job applicants) and photo identification.

Generally, we collect your personal information directly from you. From time to time, we may collect personal information about you from third parties (for example, from your representative, from publicly available sources, from your referees where you apply for a position with us).

If you provide us with personal information about a third party, you represent, and we collect it on the basis that, you have that person’s consent for us to collect and handle their personal information in accordance with this privacy policy.

When collecting your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to provide you with certain information as required under the Australian Privacy Principles, including the purpose of collection, who we may disclose your personal information to, any law that requires or authorises us to collect the information and the main consequences if we do not collect all of the personal information we require. If we collect your personal information from another source, we will take reasonable steps to ensure you are aware of the fact and the circumstances of that collection.

How do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. When collecting personal information from you, we may collect in ways including:

• by telephone, letter, fax or email
• during conversations between you and our representatives
• by contracting with us
• by entering competitions,  promotions or requesting information or material from us
• completing surveys, providing feedback or complaining to us

We may also collect personal information from third parties including:

• from third party companies such as credit reporting agencies, law enforcement agencies and government entities
• your representatives (lawyers, accountants and financial advisers)
• your employer
• publicly available sources of information or any other organisations where you have given your consent

What happens if we can’t collect your personal information?

Generally, if we are unable to collect the personal information we require we may not be able to provide you with the products and services you seek. If the information provided is incorrect or incomplete, this may also prevent, limit or otherwise affect our ability to provide products or services to you.

For what purposes do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?

We collect personal information about you so that we can perform our business activities and functions and to provide best possible quality of customer service.

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• to provide products and services to you and to send communications requested by you;
• to answer enquiries and provide information or advice about existing and new products or services;
• to provide you with access to protected areas of our website;
• to conduct business processing functions including providing personal information to our related bodies corporate, contractors, service providers or other third parties;
• for the administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), planning, product or service development;
• to update our records and keep your contact details up to date;
• to process and respond to any complaint made by you; and
• to comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator, or in co-operation with any governmental authority of any country (or political sub-division of a country).

Your personal information will not be shared, sold, rented or disclosed other than as described in this Privacy Policy. We will use and disclose your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, and for other related purposes that you would reasonably expect.

To whom may we dislose your information?

We may disclose your personal information to:

• our employees, contractors, and employees or service providers for the purposes of operation of our website or our business, fulfilling requests by you.
• suppliers and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships, for business, marketing, and related purposes; and
• any organisation for any authorised purpose with your express consent.

Direct marketing materials

We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our services that we consider may be of interest to you. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, fax and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003. If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so. In addition, at any time you may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by contacting us or by using opt-out options provided in the marketing communications and we will then ensure that your name is removed from our mailing list.

How can you access and correct your personal information?

You may request access to any personal information we hold about you at any time by contacting us (see the details below). Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will try to provide you with suitable means of accessing it (for example, by mailing or emailing it to you).

There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality. If that happens, we will give you reasons for any refusal.

If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request us to amend it. We will consider if the information requires amendment. If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.

You may lodge a request to correct personal information that we hold about you if you believe it is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date, irrelevant or misleading by contacting our office via the contact details shown below.

You may ask us to inform you of the source of any personal information about you that we have collected from a third party. We will provide this at no cost, except in limited circumstances where the APPs or other laws permit us to withhold this information.

What is the process for complaining about a breach of privacy?

If you believe that your privacy has been breached, please contact us using the contact information below and provide details of the incident so that we can investigate it. We will deal with the complaint in accordance with our then current Complaints Handling Procedure.

Do we disclose your personal information to anyone outside Australia or Outside Parties?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Third link parties

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

Storage and security of your personal information

We may hold your personal information in electronic formats or in hard copy.

We take reasonable steps to securely store your personal information to ensure it is protected from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure, and from other types of misuse, interference and loss. This includes electronic and physical security measures and procedures, staff training and use of password protection software.

We will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information when we no longer require it for any purpose for which it was collected. We may retain your personal information for as long as necessary to comply with any applicable law, for legal, insurance and corporate governance purposes, for the prevention of fraud and to resolve disputes. Your personal information may also be retained in our IT system back-up records.

The transfer of data over the Internet is inherently insecure. We cannot guarantee the security, during transmission, of any personal information provided to us via our websites. Please bear this in mind when transmitting information by this means to us.

Security

As our website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any assurance regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online. We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk.

Changes to our privacy policy

We may amend, modify or replace this Privacy Policy at any time. You should review our Privacy Policy each time you visit our website or provide us with personal information.

Links

Our website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party website. Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.