This Privacy Policy details how we protect your privacy and how we comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth) and the 13 Australian Privacy Principles. This policy also describes:
who we collect information from;
the types of personal information collected and held by us;
how this information is collected and held;
the purposes for which your personal information is collected, held, used and disclosed;
how you can gain access to your personal information and seek its correction;
how you may complain or inquire about our collection, handling, use or disclosure of your personal information and how that complaint or inquiry will be handled; and
whether we are likely to disclose your personal information to any overseas recipients.
In the course of providing our products and services, Privatus may collect personal information from clients, or potential clients.
In the course of providing products and services we may collect:
Personal Information including names, addresses and other contact details, dates of birth and financial information.
Sensitive Information including government identifiers (such as your TFN), your nationality, country of birth, professional memberships and criminal records.
How we collect personal information will largely be dependent upon whose information we are collecting. If it is reasonable and practical to do so, we collect personal information directly from you.
Where possible, Privatus have attempted to standardise the collection of personal information by using specifically designed forms (e.g. our Subscription Forms). However, given the nature of our operations, we often also receive personal information by email, letters, notes, over the telephone, in face-to-face meetings and through financial transactions.
We may also collect personal information from other people (e.g. a third party administrator) or independent sources, however, we will only do so where it is not reasonable and practical to collect the information from you directly.
Sometimes, we may be provided with your personal information without having sought it through our normal means of collection. We refer to this as “unsolicited information”. Where we collect unsolicited information, we will only hold, use and/or disclose that information if we could otherwise do so had we collected it by normal means. If that unsolicited information could not have been collected by normal means then we will destroy, permanently delete or de-identify the information as appropriate.
We only use personal information that is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities (the primary purpose) or for a related secondary purpose that would be reasonably expected by you, or to which you have consented.
Our uses of personal information include but are not limited to:
Providing you with one or more of our financial services or products;
To assess your application for a financial product or service; and/or
To communicate with you about the products and services that we offer.
We may also need to collect personal information in order to comply with our legal obligations, such as the AML/CTF laws, under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006.
It may be necessary for Privatus to disclose your personal information to certain third parties in order to assist us with one or more of our functions or activities. This may include organisations providing fund administration or custodial services under an arrangement with us.
We only collect sensitive information reasonably necessary for one or more of these functions or activities if we have the consent of the individuals to whom the sensitive information relates, or if the collection is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to life, health or safety or another permitted general situation.
We do not use sensitive information for direct marketing purposes unless we have the individual’s consent to do so.
We store personal information in a variety of formats including on databases, in hard copy files and on personal devices, including laptop computers.
The security of your personal information is of paramount importance to us and we take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold about you from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
These steps include:
Restricting access to information on our databases on a need to know basis with different levels of security being allocated to staff based on their roles and responsibilities and security profile.
Ensuring all staff are aware that they are not to reveal or share personal passwords.
Ensuring where sensitive information is stored in hard copy files that these files are stored in lockable filing cabinets. Access to these records is restricted to staff on a need to know basis.
Implementing physical security measures at our premises to prevent break-ins.
Implementing IT security systems, policies and procedures designed to protect personal information storage on our computer networks.
Implementing human resources policies and procedures, such as email and internet usage, confidentiality and document security policies, designed to ensure that staff follow correct protocols when handling personal information.
Undertaking due diligence with respect to third party service providers who may have access to personal information, including customer identification providers and cloud service providers, to ensure as far as practicable that they are compliant with the Australian Privacy Principles or a similar privacy regime.
Personal information we hold that is no longer needed, or required to be retained by any other laws, is destroyed in secure manner, deleted or de-identified as appropriate.
Our website may contain links to other websites. We do not share your personal information with those websites and we are not responsible for their privacy practices. Please check their privacy policies.
Privatus does not use government identifier numbers to identify individuals.
The Notifiable Data Breach (NDB) Scheme came into effect on 23 February 2018 and applies to all organisations with existing personal information security obligations under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act). The Scheme introduced an obligation to notify individuals whose personal information is involved in a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm. If a data breach occurs, Privatus will assist the affected individuals with recommendations on what steps they should take in response to the breach, as well as inform Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
A data breach is when personal information held by an entity is lost or subject to unauthorised access, modification, disclosure, or other misuse of interference. A data breach may also constitute a breach of the Privacy Act, however it will depend on the circumstances.
If Privatus suspects there is a data breach we will assess the situation to see if the issue was an ‘eligible data breach’ for reporting. An ‘eligible data breach’ occurs when the investigation into a ‘suspected data breach’ reveals there has been an event involving personal information that is likely to result in serious harm to the information’s owner. Eligible data breaches will be reported to the effected party, and OAIC.
We only use personal information for the purposes for which it was given to us, or for purposes which are directly related to one or more of our functions or activities. We may disclose your personal information to government agencies, and other recipients from time to time, only if one or more of the following apply:
you have consented;
you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose your personal information in this way;
we are authorised or required to do so by law;
disclosure will lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of an individual or to public safety;
where another permitted general situation applies;
disclosure is reasonably necessary for a law enforcement related activity.
We take all reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we hold, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. These steps include ensuring that the personal information is accurate, complete and up-to-date at the time of collection and when using or disclosing the personal information.
On an ongoing basis we maintain and update personal information when we are advised by individuals or when we become aware through other means that their personal information has changed.
Privatus endeavours to maintain up-to-date customer information. Please contact us if any of the details you have provided change. You should also contact us if you believe that the information we have about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date.
You may request access to the personal information we hold about you, or request that we change the personal information, by contacting us.
If we do not agree to provide you with access or to amend your personal information as requested you will be notified accordingly in writing within a reasonable time frame. Where appropriate, we will provide you with the reason/s for our decision. If the rejection relates to a request to change your personal information, you may make a statement about the requested change and we will attach this to your record.
If you wish to make a complaint about a breach by us of the Australian Privacy Principles, you may do so by providing your written complaint by email, letter or by personal delivery to any one of our contact details as noted below.
You may also make a complaint verbally.
We will respond to your complaint within a reasonable time (usually no longer than 30 days) and we may seek further information from you in order to provide a full and complete response.
Your complaint may also be taken to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
If we do not resolve a complaint to your satisfaction, you may refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (see www.oaic.gov.au).
You can contact us about this Privacy Policy or about your personal information by:
Calling +61 2 8313 7092
Writing to our Privacy Officer at Kyle House Level 11, 27 Macquarie Place Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
If practical, you can contact us anonymously (i.e. without identifying yourself) or by using a pseudonym. However, if you choose not to identify yourself, we may not be able to give you the information or provide the assistance you might otherwise receive if it is not practical to do so.
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