When you trust us with your personal information, you expect us to protect it and keep it safe.
Verdia Pty Ltd (ABN 26 600 746 923) values your personal information and is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘Privacy Act’).
About this policy
This privacy policy explains how we manage your personal information.
What is personal information?
Personal information includes any information or opinion, about an identified individual or an individual who can be reasonably identified from their information. The information or opinion will still be personal information whether it is true or not and regardless of whether we have kept a record of it.
The information that we collect about you will depend on the products or services that we provide to you. If you do not allow us to collect all the information we request, we may not be able to deliver all those services effectively.
The types of personal information we collect and hold
We may ask for identification information from you including your name, address, contact details and date of birth, for example:
- If you apply for Westpac Energy Efficient Finance via Verdia
- If you apply to be a Verdia Accredited Partner
- If you sign up for information updates from us, such as a newsletter.
We may also collect your tax file number if we are authorised to collect it and if you choose to supply it.
Throughout the life of your product or service, we may collect and hold additional personal information about you. This could include transaction information, or making a record of queries or complaints you make, or information that forms part of a finance application.
The collection of sensitive information is restricted by the Privacy Act.
The reasons we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information
The main reason we collect, use, hold and disclose personal information is to provide you with products and services. This could include:
- Checking whether you are eligible for finance
- Assisting you with finance applications
- Providing products and services
- Helping to manage products or services.
How we collect personal information
We collect most personal information directly from you. For example, we will collect your personal information when you make a finance application through us, or sometimes when you talk to us in person or on the phone.
We also collect information from you electronically. For instance, when you visit our website.
Sometimes we collect personal information about you from other people or organisations. This may happen without your direct involvement. For example, we may collect personal information about you from:
- Westpac Group companies
- Verdia-accredited equipment and service providers
- Publicly available sources of information, such as public registers
- Your representatives (including your legal adviser, mortgage broker, financial adviser, executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, or attorney)
- Other organisations, who jointly with us, provide products or services to you
- Commercial information service providers, such as companies that provide fraud prevention reports.
Laws that require or authorise us to collect personal information
We are required or authorised to collect:
- certain identification information about you by the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) and Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules Instrument 2007 (No. 1)
- your Tax File Number, if you choose to provide it, by the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth)
- if you have applied for credit or provide a guarantee, certain information about your financial position under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth), and if you give us a mortgage security, certain identification information under property laws in some states and territories, and
- certain information in relation to your application if you have applied for an insurance as required by the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth).
How we hold personal information
Much of the information we hold about you will be stored electronically in secure data centres which are located in Australia and owned by either Verdia or external service providers. Some information we hold about you will be stored in paper files. We use a range of physical and electronic security measures to protect the security of the personal information we hold.
We take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify any personal information after it can no longer be used.
When we may disclose your personal information
We may share your personal information with third parties. This could include companies within the Westpac Group and other organisations we work with.
To protect personal information, we enter into contracts with our service providers that require them to comply with the Privacy Act. These contracts oblige them to only use the personal information we disclose to them for the specific role we ask them to perform.
Generally, we disclose personal information to organisations that help us with our business.
These may include:
- our agents, contractors and external service providers (for example, mailing houses and technology service providers)
- authorised representatives who help to deliver services on our behalf;
- payment systems operators (for example, merchants receiving card payments)
- other organisations, who jointly with us, provide products or services to you
- our financial advisers, legal advisers or auditors
- your representatives (including your legal adviser, accountant, mortgage broker, financial adviser, executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, or attorney)
- fraud bureaus or other organisations to identify, investigate or prevent fraud or other misconduct; external dispute resolution schemes, and
- regulatory bodies, government agencies and law enforcement bodies in any jurisdiction.
We may also disclose your personal information to others outside the Westpac Group where:
- we are required or authorised by law or where we have a public duty to do so
- you have expressly consented to the disclosure or the consent may be reasonably inferred from the circumstances, or
- we are otherwise permitted to disclose the information under the Privacy Act.
Using personal information for marketing
We may use your personal information to offer you products and services we believe may interest you, but we will not do so if you tell us not to. These products and services may be offered by Verdia, by a member of the Westpac Group or one of its preferred suppliers.
We may offer you products and services by mail, telephone, email, SMS or other electronic means, such as through social media or targeted advertising.
We may also disclose your personal information to companies outside Verdia who assist us to market our products and services to you.
If you no longer wish to continue to receive information from Verdia you can contact us at any time at contact@verdia.com.au to have your contact details removed from our database.
Verdia website
Verdia keeps track of the pages you visit on our website to determine which pages are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customised content and marketing and may include:
- the date and time of visits
- which pages are viewed
- how users navigate through the site and interact with pages (including fields completed in forms and applications completed)
- location information about users, and
- information about the device used to visit our website.
Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy obligations of third party links that appear on our website and you should review the privacy policies of these organisations.
We will never ask you to supply personal information publicly over Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform that we use.
Security
We maintain strict standards and procedures to prevent unauthorised access to your personal information, and to ensure the correct use of information.
While we strive to maintain the security of the information we collect, we cannot guarantee the security of transmission over the internet, which is undertaken at your own risk.
Access to and correction of personal information
You can request access to the personal information we hold about you. You can also ask for corrections to be made. To do so, please contact us at contact@verdia.com.au
There is no fee for requesting that your personal information is corrected or for us to make corrections. However, in processing your request for access to your personal information, a reasonable cost may be charged. This charge covers such things as locating the information and supplying it to you.
There are some circumstances in which we are not required to give you access to your personal information. If we refuse to give you access to or to correct your personal information we will give you a notice explaining our reasons, except where it would be unreasonable to do so.
If we refuse your request to correct your personal information, you also have the right to request that a statement be associated with your personal information noting that you disagree with its accuracy. If we refuse your request to access or correct your personal information, we will also provide you with information on how you can complain about the refusal.
Resolving your privacy concerns and complaints
If you are concerned about how your personal information is being handled or if you have a complaint about a breach by us of the Australian Privacy Principles, please contact us.
We will acknowledge your complaint as soon as we can after receipt of your complaint.
We will let you know if we need any further information from you to resolve your complaint. We aim to resolve complaints as quickly as possible. We strive to resolve complaints within five business days but some complaints take longer to resolve. If your complaint is taking longer, we will let you know what is happening and a date by which you can reasonably expect a response.
If you are unhappy with our response, there are other bodies you can go to.
Under the Privacy Act you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner about the way we handle your personal information.
The Commissioner can be contacted at:
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Contact us
You can contact us by:
- email: contact@verdia.com.au
- writing to us at Level 11, 201 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Changes to the Privacy Policy
We may change the way we handle personal information from time to time for any reason. If we do so, we will update this Privacy Policy and post it to our website.