Privacy
and Security
All
members of the Northway Group take privacy
seriously and are committed to observing applicable
national and international privacy policies
and information handling practices.
Who
we are
The “Northway
Group”comprises of Northway Broker Limited
(a loan broking company trading under the name
of “PaydayMate.com.au”), Northway
Financial Corporation Limited (a credit provider
of payday loans) and their holding companies,
subsidiaries, affiliates and other related
companies. We are known collectively in this
privacy policy as “Northway Group”or “we/us”.
Northway Group entities may share personal
information with other Northway Group entities,
making it easier for customers to apply for
accounts or services from the Northway Group.
Privacy
law and how it applies to Northway Group
Northway
Group complies with the National Privacy Principles
under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the “Privacy
Act”).
Why
we collect your personal information and
from whom
Payday
loan account holders or those individual persons
applying to open a payday loan account with
us are referred to in this Privacy Policy as “you”.
We collect the personal information we need to provide products and services
we offer, including loan broking services and payday loans. We collect
personal information about our customers so that we can complete loan
broking services and payday loan transactions, administer accounts,
provide customer support, to meet regulatory requirements and to further
develop and research our products and services.
Where practicable, we will collect personal information directly from
the individual concerned. Sometimes we will collect it from a third party,
such as a credit-reporting agency, a data matching organization or from
a publicly available source such as a company or a government body/authority.
The type of information we collect, and where we get it from, will depend
on the product or service you has applied for.
If you deal with us by telephone it is possible your call may be monitored
or recorded. The purpose of doing this will depend on which part of our
business you are dealing with. We may record or monitor your call for
training, quality, verification and authentication purposes.
If we perform an identification check on, or obtain an identification
reference for, an individual who is to become a signatory on an account
with us, we are doing so to comply with the anti-money laundering and
counter-terrorism financing laws of Australia.
If any personal information we need is not available, or not provided,
we may not be able to provide the relevant product or service.
Website
collection
When
using the public area of our website at www.paydaymate.com.au,
you are not required to provide us with any
personal information if you do not wish to
do so and we do not monitor or collect personally
identifiable information from you on your use
of the public sections of the website. We may
track the number of users who visit areas of
the website, but this tracking will not identify
you, unless you use cookies. For more information
about why we use cookies, please go to the
section ‘Our use of cookies’. We
may also record the location of your computer
on the Internet for systems administration
and trouble shooting purposes and to report
aggregate information.
However, we will collect personal information if you commence or submit
an application on-line, or otherwise knowingly provide us with personal
information. We also collect personal information once you are in the
secure section of our site (for example when you use it to make transactions,
update your information or make enquiries).
Our
use of cookies
Cookies
are pieces of information that a website transfers
to your computer’s hard disk for record
keeping purposes and which allow us to provide
you with customized services. Cookies can make
the web more useful by storing information
about your preferences on particular sites,
thus enabling website owners to provide more
useful features for their users. They can also
help us provide information which is targeted
to your interests. Cookies contain no name
or address information or any information that
will enable anyone to contact you via telephone,
e-mail or any other means. Most browsers are
initially set to accept cookies. If you would
prefer, you can set your browser to refuse
cookies. However, given that we may sometimes
use cookies, you may not be able to take full
advantage of our website, if you do so.
Web
Beacons
Our
web pages may contain electronic images, known
as web beacons or spotlight tags. These electronic
images enable us to count users who have visited
certain pages on our website. Web beacons and
spotlight tags are not used by us to access
your personal information, they are simply
a toll we use to analyze which web pages customers
view, in an aggregate number.
Other
terms
There
may also be specific and additional privacy
provisions, which apply to certain sections
of our Website, or accounts you hold with us
or services provided to you, which will operate
in addition to the provisions of this Privacy
Policy. If there is any inconsistency between
the provisions of this Privacy Policy and those
other specific and additional provisions, the
specific and additional provisions will prevail.
Use
and Disclosure
We
will use and disclose personal information
we hold about you for the main purpose for
which we have collected the information. We
will also use and disclose the personal information
for a secondary purpose related to that main
purpose where the individual would reasonably
expect us to do so. Otherwise, we will keep
personal information confidential unless:
- you
agree - this can be express agreement (for
example, where you sign a form or click on
a button electronically); or
- implied
agreement (where your conduct suggests you
agree or you do not inform us that you do
not agree when we offer you that opportunity);
or
- we
are required or allowed by law to make the
disclosure (for example, to comply with anti-money
laundering and terrorist financing laws or
where we receive a court order, are served
with a subpoena, or receive government agency
requests including but not limited to taxation
or Centrelink requests).
We
also use personal information for planning,
product development, to research purposes and
to seek feedback on our products and services,
to build peer/group profiling to enable Northway
Group to compare your account behavior with
peer groups such as age group, account type,
and to detect fraud or money laundering or
terrorist finance activities.
Personal information may be used and disclosed for prudential, risk management
and corporate governance purposes.
Outsourcing
and your personal information
Where
we outsource our functions to Northway Group
members, service providers, contractors or
agents, it may be necessary for members of
the entities to which we outsource to access
your personal information to continue to provide
products and services to you. Northway Group
members, service providers, contractors and
agents will be bound to adhere to the relevant
privacy handling legislation, policies and
practices in relation to the use or disclosure
of your personal information.
The sorts of organizations outside the Northway Group to which we typically
disclose personal information include the following:
- credit
reporting agencies for the purpose of obtaining
a credit report;
- debt
collection agencies - if you do not meet
your payment obligations;
- service
providers - these organizations are required
to keep the personal information we give
them confidential and use it only for our
purposes;
- financial
institutions of direct debit payment arrangements;
and
- where
we decide to sell or merge aspects of our
business or where we acquire new businesses
Direct
marketing
From
time to time we or other members of the Northway
Group may use your personal information to
inform you about Northway Group products and
services including special offers.
If you do not wish to receive this information, simply let us know by
contacting our customer service centre on 1 800 227 493. You can change your mind about receiving
information about our products and services at any time. Simply let us
know by phoning the above number or email to the above email address.
Northway Group does not disclose your information to organizations outside
the Northway Group for the purposes of allowing them to direct market
their products to you.
If the law requires us to provide you with information about our products
or services, we will provide that information to you even if you have
elected not to receive information about our products and services generally.
Ensuring
your personal information is up-to-date
We
rely on the personal information we hold about
you in conducting our business. Therefore,
it is important that the information we hold
about you is accurate, complete and up-to-date.
This means that from time-to-time we may ask
you to tell us if there are any changes to
your personal information. If you find that
information we hold about you is incorrect,
please contact us immediately.
Security
of your personal information
The
security of your information is important to
Northway Group and we take all reasonable precautions
to protect your information from misuse, loss,
unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.
Some of the ways we protect your information include but are not limited
to:
- restricting
access to personal information to employees
who need it to perform their day-to-day functions;
- providing
employee training in relation to privacy
and confidentiality;
- data
encryption technology and firewalls;
- maintaining
technology to prevent unauthorized computer
access including identifiers and passwords.
Changes
to our Privacy Policy
We
may make changes to our privacy policy from
time to time and for any reason. If we do,
we will publish an updated Privacy Policy on
our website.
Access
and correction
Generally,
Northway Group allows individuals access to
the information it holds about them within
a reasonable time after they have made a written
request for access. In some instances, Northway
Group will refuse to give an individual access
to requested information. If it does so it
will provide that individual with the reason
it has refused them access.
We may also decide to provide you with limited information. If we do
so we will let you know why your request has been limited. This may be
because the process you are asking about is commercially sensitive or
the request is vexatious or frivolous.
Northway Group will correct information it has about you if it discovers,
or you are able to show, the information is incorrect. If you seek a
correction and Northway Group disagrees that the information is incorrect,
Northway Group will provide you with its reasons for taking that view.
Northway Group may charge a fee for informing an individual what information
it has about them. This fee will be charged to cover Northway Group's
reasonable costs in locating and supplying the information.
How
to gain access to your Personal Information
You
may request access to a limited amount of your
personal information such as checking your
current address by telephone or via our secured
website.
For more substantial requests such as details recorded on your loan we
will ask you to contact us on our secured website at www.paydaymate.com.au.
Following the receipt of your requests, we will be in contact and provide
you with an estimate of the charge and confirm whether you wish to proceed
with accessing your information.
Responding
to your request
We
will attempt to resolve your concerns within
14 days. However, where the matter is complex,
we will write to you and advise you that we
will attempt to resolve the matter within 30
days.
Additional
Information
Individuals
who would like more information about our approach
to privacy, or would like to find out what
information we hold about them, are encouraged
to contact us at www.paydaymate.com.au.
If you would like more information about privacy laws generally please
contact:
The Privacy Commissioner
Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 1042
Phone: 1300 363 992
Internet: http://privacy.gov.au
Email: privacy@privacy.gov.au
If
you have privacy concerns
If
you have concerns about the way in which we
have handled your personal information or believe
your privacy has been compromised you should
contact us on 1 800 227 493, Fax: 1 800 235
376.
You should advise us that your concern is in
relation to a privacy matter and provide full
details of your concern. We may ask you to
place your concerns in writing in order for
us to fully understand and investigate the
issues you have raised. |
