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Our Privacy Policy ...
At
Merrigal Homes we can assure you that your privacy is important to
us. We comply with the National Privacy Principles (Privacy Laws
which have been in effect since 21st December 2001).
This policy and other privacy
statements:
This privacy policy explains how we collect
personal information and how we maintain, use and disclose that
information. It also provides some detail about your privacy rights
along with our general rights and obligations and our policy in
relation to the personal information we keep on record.
When
you purchase a new home or service, the application form includes
notices about privacy and requests for consent. Those privacy
notices (called privacy statements) specify in more detail
how any information about you may be used and disclosed in relation
to the particular product or service.
When you consider
purchasing or using our services, you consent to us collecting,
maintaining, using and disclosing personal information about you and
provided by you or by another person in accordance with the privacy
statement in the application form and this policy.
This
privacy policy does not apply to parties that may be linked or
associated with our website. Those website owners are responsible
for the privacy of the information they collect and you should
contact them directly for details of their privacy policies.
What information does Merrigal Homes
hold?
The types of information we keep on record will
depend on the type of product or service requested by you.
Generally, we keep a record of one or more of the following
types of information about you:
- information that identifies you, such as your name and address
and other information provided by you and people nominated by you;
- if you apply for a loan, credit information about you and
property reports about any property which secures your obligations
to us.
All information sought is required for our business purposes,
which are detailed generally in this privacy policy and more
specifically in our application forms or on the web pages which
allow you to contact us.
We do not actively seek to collect
sensitive information (for example information about your racial
or ethnic origin or any criminal record), unless it is
necessary for our business purposes. If we do have to collect
sensitive information, we will do so in accordance with the National
Privacy Principles.
During the course of our relationship
with you, we may gather information about you relating to all
products and services that we or other members of Merrigal Homes or
our preferred suppliers provide to you. This information is used to
help us form views about how we can improve our relationship with
you.
How Merrigal Homes collects
information from its website:
We collect and hold
information about you when you:
- complete an online form
- provide us with your email address
- access and use our services through our website
We
also collect some statistical information about visitors, from our
website (for example, the number of visitors, pages viewed, time
online and documents downloaded). Some of this statistical
information is collected by using cookies, but none of the
statistical information we collect allows us to identify a visitor.
We use this information to evaluate our website performance and
continually improve our services.
Other than statistical
information, we do not collect any information about you through our
website unless you provide the information to us.
How Merrigal Homes generally collects your
information:
Generally, we only collect personal
information about you from you, unless it is not reasonable or
practical for us to do so. For example, you may authorise us to
collect information from a third party, like your employer to
confirm your income details, or we may engage an agent, such as a
mortgage
broker, to collect information on our behalf, or you may be named
as a referee or beneficiary in another application for one of our
products or services. We may also collect information about you from
other members of the Merrigal Homes or from publicly available
sources such as company registers or land title registries.
How may Merrigal Homes use your
personal information?
We use your personal information
to:
- respond to your request or help us process your application
for our products or services (including performing the
identity check required by the Financial Transaction Reports Act
1988 where necessary)
- ensure our internal business operations are running smoothly
which may include fulfilling legal requirements and conducting
confidential systems maintenance and testing.
When we request your information we may give you more specific
details about the way we use your information.
What rights does Merrigal Homes have to disclose
personal information?
Usually we must get your consent
before we tell anyone about you. You can give us your consent
expressly or it may be implied by your conduct.
Sometimes
the law requires us to give out information about you. For example,
we may be required by the Australian Tax Office or Centrelink to
disclose information about you. Another example is giving your
personal details to a court if we are ordered to do so under a
subpoena.
Depending on the product or service that we
provide to you, if it is necessary we may also disclose your
personal information to:
- any organisation which you request us to or any persons acting
on your behalf, including your financial adviser, broker,
solicitor, or accountant - unless you tell us not to.
- any referees, any person with whom you transact (for example
merchants, to process your transactions) or any financial
institution nominated by you (for example in direct
debit).
We may at other times give you more details
about our disclosure practices in relation to specific products or
services - for example on the forms we use to collect personal
information about you.
How may
Merrigal Homes use your personal
information?
Your personal
information may also be used by us or other members of Merrigal
Homes to help assess your total relationship and product holding
within Merrigal Homes, analyse products and services we provide to
you, and to evaluate the needs of our customers and develop new
products.
Unless you inform us or have previously told us
not to, we may also provide access to your personal information to
consultants of Merrigal Homes to inform you of products and services
offered by Merrigal Homes or preferred organisations which we think
may be of interest or of value to you.
How Merrigal Homes protects the security of your
information:
We take all reasonable steps to protect
your personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access,
modification or disclosure.
We provide the maximum level of
security when you use our online products and services.
We
have physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your
information which is held by us. For example, your personal
information is stored in secured office premises, in electronic
databases requiring logins and passwords for access. Access to
information stored electronically is restricted to staff whose job
description requires they have access. We require all Merrigal Homes
staff to maintain the confidentiality and non-disclosure of customer
information.
Any visitor, for any purpose, to any part of
our premises in which customer personal information is kept is
required to register with a security desk or be accompanied by a
member of staff while in the premises.
We use secure methods
of confidential records destruction to destroy or de-identify any
personal information as soon as the law permits, provided the
information is no longer needed by us for any purpose. Ordinarily,
for information about a particular product or service provided to
you, we destroy the information seven years from the date we supply
you with the product or service.
Changes to our Privacy Policy:
We may amend
this policy from time to time. Not all changes to our privacy policy
will require your consent ... for example where office security
procedures are changed. We will notify you of any change to our
information handling policy that requires your consent before being
implemented.
What are your
rights?
You need not give us any of the personal
information about you or any other person which may be requested in
our communications with you. However, without that information, we
may not be able to process an application, fulfil your request or
provide you with an appropriate level of service.
Information about our Products and
Services:
If you do not want the benefit of receiving
information, special offers or exclusive opportunities about
products and services (which may be supplied by us or any member
of Merrigal Homes or preferred suppliers) which we think may be
of interest or value to you, then please tell us. You can do this at
any time by writing to us (either via traditional post or
e-mail) or by telephoning us at the contact details listed on
our contact us page.
Access to
your information:
You can request access at any time to
the personal information we hold about you. We will process your
request within a reasonable time, usually 14 days for a
straightforward request. More time may be needed, depending on the
nature of the request.
There is no fee for requesting access
to your information, however we may charge you the reasonable cost
of processing your request.
Sometimes we are not required to
provide you with access ... for example, if the law says we can deny
access. If we refuse you access to your personal information, we
will tell you the reason why. If we are not required to provide you
with access to the information requested, we will consider, if
reasonable, whether the use of a mutually agreed intermediary would
allow sufficient access to meet your needs and ours.
Correction of information:
We try to ensure
that all information we hold about you which we collect, use or
disclose is accurate, complete and up to date. You must promptly
notify us if there are any changes to your personal information.
You may ask us at any time to correct personal information
held by us about you which you believe is incorrect or out of date.
We will deal with your request within a reasonable time.
If
we disagree as to the accuracy of the information, you may request
that we attach a statement to that information noting that you
consider it is not accurate, complete or up to date.
If
there is anything you would like to discuss, please contact
us.
In this policy, reference to "we/us" means each
member of Merrigal Homes. Take note that members of Merrigal Homes
may change from time to time. If you have any questions, concerns or
complaints about our privacy policy or practices or would like more
information about particular members' privacy policies or practices,
please contact us.
We will try to answer any questions you
may have, correct any error on our part or resolve any complaint
that you may have about our information handling practices. If we do
not resolve a complaint to your satisfaction, you also have the
right to complain to the Privacy Commissioner. We will provide you
with the Commission contact details if required.
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