When you trust us with your personal information, you expect us to protect it and keep it safe.
We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘Privacy Act’) and will protect your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. These principles govern how we can collect, use, hold, and disclose your personal information, as well as ensuring the quality and security of your personal information.
If you would like more information about how we protect your privacy, please contact us.
About this Policy
This privacy policy explains how we manage your personal information. We may provide more details on how we manage your personal information when we collect 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 seek to collect about you will depend on the products or services that we provide. If you do not allow us to collect all of the information we request, we may not be able to deliver all of those services effectively.
What Kinds of Personal Information Do We Collect and Hold?
When you apply for our products or services, we may ask for identification information. This could include your name, address, contact details, and date of birth. We may also collect your tax file number if we are authorised to collect it and if you choose to supply it.
If you apply for insurance, we may collect information about what is being insured, the beneficiaries, and your health and financial situation, depending on the type of insurance.
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, and if you make an insurance claim, collecting additional information to assess the claim.
The collection of sensitive information is restricted by the Privacy Act. This includes information about your religion, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, criminal record, sexual orientation, health information, and biometric information.
Generally, we only collect this sort of information if it is necessary to provide you with a specific product or service, and you have consented to that collection. For example, we may collect health information about you to process a claim under an insurance policy or collect voice biometric information to verify your identity or authorise transactions.
For What Purposes Do 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 includes
- checking whether you are eligible for the product or service;
- assisting you where online applications are not completed;
- providing the product or service, and helping manage the product or service.
We may also use your information to comply with legislative or regulatory requirements in any jurisdiction, prevent fraud, crime, or other activity that may cause harm in relation to our products or services, and to tell you about products or services we think may interest you.
How Do We Collect Personal Information?
We primarily collect personal information directly from you. For example, when you apply for or use a product or service, or when you communicate with us in person or over the phone.
We also collect information from you electronically. For instance, when you visit our website or when you apply for or access MiQ Private Wealth products and services electronically. (Please refer to “Do we collect personal information electronically?”)
In some cases, we may collect personal information about you from other individuals or organisations. This can happen without your direct involvement. For example, we may collect personal information about you from:
- Your representatives, including your legal adviser, mortgage broker, financial adviser, executor, administrator, guardian, trustee, or attorney.
- Your employer;
- Other organisations that jointly provide products or services to you;
- Commercial information service providers, such as companies that provide fraud prevention reports;
- Insurers, re-insurers, and health care providers.
What laws require or authorise us to collect personal information?
We are required or authorised to collect personal information in accordance with the following laws:
- The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules Instrument 2007 (No. 1) mandate the collection of certain identification information about you.
- The Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) authorises us to collect your Tax File Number if you choose to provide it.
- The Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) requires us to collect certain information related to your insurance application.
How do we hold personal information?
The majority of the information we hold about you is stored securely in electronic form within data centres located in Australia. These data centres are owned by either MiQ Private Wealth or external service providers. Some information may also be stored in physical paper files. We employ a range of physical and electronic security measures to safeguard the personal information we hold, including:
- Controlled access to information systems through identity and access management.
- Internal information security policies that bind our employees to keep information secure.
- Mandatory information security training for all employees.
- Regular monitoring and review of compliance with internal policies and industry best practices.
We take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information when it is no longer required.
Who do we disclose your personal information to, and why?
We may provide personal information about our customers to organisations outside of MiQ Private Wealth. 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 contractors and external service providers, such as paraplanning and technology service providers.
- Authorised representatives and credit representatives who sell products and services on our behalf.
- Insurers, re-insurers, and healthcare providers.
- Payment systems operators, such as merchants receiving card payments.
- Other organisations that collaborate with us in providing products or services to you.
- Other financial services organisations, including banks, superannuation funds, stockbrokers, custodians, funds managers, and portfolio service providers.
- Debt collectors.
- Our financial advisers, legal advisers, or auditors.
- Your representatives, such as legal advisers, accountants, mortgage brokers, financial advisers, executors, administrators, guardians, trustees, or attorneys.
- Fraud bureaus or other organisations involved in identifying, investigating, or preventing fraud or misconduct.
- External dispute resolution schemes.
- Regulatory bodies, government agencies, and law enforcement bodies in any jurisdiction.
We may also disclose your personal information to others outside MiQ Private Wealth in the following circumstances:
- When required or authorised by law or when we have a public duty to do so.
- When you have given express consent to the disclosure, or the consent can be reasonably inferred from the circumstances.
- When we are otherwise permitted to disclose the information under the Privacy Act.
Do we disclose personal information overseas?
We may disclose your personal information to recipients located outside Australia. This includes:
- information technology data storage.
Do we use or disclose personal information for marketing?
We may offer you products and services through various means, including mail, telephone, email, SMS, or other electronic means, such as social media. However, we will respect your preferences and refrain from doing so if you inform us not to.
If you do not wish to receive marketing offers from us, please contact us.
Do we collect personal information electronically?
We collect information from you electronically, such as through internet browsing, mobile or tablet applications.
When you visit our website, we gather information about your website usage, including:
- the date and time of visits,
- viewed pages,
- navigation patterns, interaction with pages (including completed forms and applications),
- location information, device information, and
- IP addresses.
We use technology called cookies when you visit our site. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your hard drive or in memory. They can record information about your visit to the site, allowing it to remember you the next time you visit and provide a more meaningful experience.
One of the reasons for using cookies is to offer you increased security. The cookies we send to your computer cannot read your hard drive, obtain any information from your browser, or command your computer to perform any action. They are designed so that they cannot be sent to another site.
We won’t ask you to supply personal information publicly over Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform that we use. Sometimes we may invite you to send your details to us via private messaging, for example, to answer a question about your account. You may also be invited to share your personal information through secure channels to participate in other activities, such as competitions.
Do we collect personal information electronically?
We collect information from you electronically, such as through internet browsing, mobile or tablet applications.
When you visit our website, we gather information about your website usage, including:
- the date and time of visits,
- viewed pages,
- navigation patterns, interaction with pages (including completed forms and applications),
- location information, device information, and
- IP addresses.
We use technology called cookies when you visit our site. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your hard drive or in memory. They can record information about your visit to the site, allowing it to remember you the next time you visit and provide a more meaningful experience.
One of the reasons for using cookies is to offer you increased security. The cookies we send to your computer cannot read your hard drive, obtain any information from your browser, or command your computer to perform any action. They are designed so that they cannot be sent to another site.
We won’t ask you to supply personal information publicly over Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform that we use. Sometimes we may invite you to send your details to us via private messaging, for example, to answer a question about your account. You may also be invited to share your personal information through secure channels to participate in other activities, such as competitions.
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.
There is no fee for requesting that your personal information is corrected or for us to make corrections. 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.
Mandatory Data Breach Notification Laws
An eligible data breach arises when the following three criteria are satisfied:
- there is unauthorised access to or unauthorised disclosure of personal information, or a loss of personal information that an entity holds;
- this is likely to result in serious harm to one or more individuals;
- the entity has not been able to prevent the likely risk of serious harm with remedial action.
Should this occur, we are obligated to report the breach to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
Resolving your privacy concerns and complaints – your rights
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
Australian Financial Complaints Authority
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) can consider most privacy complaints involving providers of financial services.
AFCA can be contacted at:
Australian Financial Complaints Authority
GPO Box 3 Melbourne VIC 3001
Phone: 1800 931 678
Email: info@afca.org.au
Website: www.afca.org.au
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
You can contact us by:
- calling MiQ Private Wealth on 1300 567 626
- emailing admin@miqprivate.com.au
- visiting www.miqprivate.com.au
- writing to us at: complaints@miqprivate.com.au
Contact us
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 Fax: 02 9284 9666
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Website: www.oaic.gov.au
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. An up-to-date version is available on www.miqprivate.com.au.
For more information:
- Call 1300 567 626
- Visit miqprivate.com.au
Things you should know
This policy is current as at 1 November 2018. From time to time, we may make changes to our policy or policies, processes, and systems in relation to how we handle your personal information. We will update this policy to reflect any changes.
