Under the Privacy Act, we may only collect personal information by lawful and fair means.
We will collect your personal information directly from you unless doing so is unreasonable or impracticable or you would expect us to collect the information from a nominated third party. For example, where you authorise a representative e.g. an insurance broker, a financial planner, a legal services provider or an agent or carer providing services to you to deal with us on your behalf, we may collect your personal information from your representative.
We might collect your personal information when you or your representative:
- complete a proposal form for an insurance policy
- complete a claim form to lodge a claim
- provide information through our web site, including any of our platforms and portals
- provide information over the telephone
- provide information in an e-mail
- Provide information face to face
- provide information by post
- provide information by facsimile
- lodge a job application with us
- provide a personal guarantee to us.
There may also be occasions when we collect your personal information from a third party or publically available source. This will only be where it is unreasonable or impracticable for us to collect directly from you. Such sources include:
- An underwriting agent
- Your employer
- Your accountant
- A credit reporting body
- Your doctor
- Other medical providers
- A loss investigator
- A loss adjuster
- Insurance References Services (IRS) through their policy and claim database
- Law enforcement
- A witness to an incident
- Another insurer
- A referee for a job application
- Social media such as Facebook.
If you provide personal information to us about another person, particularly if you are acting on behalf of someone else, we proceed on the understanding that in collecting the information you have complied with Australian Privacy Principle 5 Notification of the Collection of Personal Information. Where sensitive information is involved, we proceed on the understanding that you have obtained the person’s consent to collection of the information, or you were otherwise able to collect the information under the Privacy Act. If you have not done, or will not do, either of these things, you must tell us before you provide the relevant personal information to us.
Where we have collected personal information, we may hold it:
- In our electronic environment;
- in electronic environments operated by our external service providers; and
- In a paper form in a file.
Your personal information will only be available to members of our staff who require access for one or more of the purposes we have disclosed. For example, to our claims team when you make a claim under an insurance policy or our surety team if you are providing a personal guarantee or the appropriate managers if you are applying for a job. How we might disclose your information to a third party is outlined in section 6 of this policy.
We may use cookies which are small data files transferred onto your computer or device when you visit our website for record-keeping and to enhance the functionality on the website. Most browsers allow you to choose whether to accept cookies or not. If you do not wish to have cookies placed on your computer, you should set your browser preferences to reject all cookies before accessing our website.
In some circumstances, we will deal with you without you having to identify yourself, or where you adopt a pseudonym in your dealings with us. For example, this would apply where you access general information on our products and services through our website or making initial enquiries about a job we are advertising. However, in most cases it would be impracticable for us to provide the product, service or information you require or consider your application for a job with us unless we have identified you. For example, an insurance contract is provided in accordance with the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 which requires both parties to act in good faith and disclose facts pertinent to issuing an insurance policy or paying a claim.
In some circumstances we may also be required or authorised by law to identify you, for example anti-money laundering laws which require us to sight and record details of certain documents in order to meet the standards set under those laws.