Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
EMK Thomas Capital and Advisory Pty (Credit representative number 506062) and its individual representatives are authorized credit representatives of Connective Credit Services Pty Ltd (ACN 143 651 496) (Australian Credit Licence 389328).
Please note this Policy and all personal and/or sensitive information collected and otherwise dealt with by EMK is subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”) and the Australian Privacy Principles (“APP”) contained in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act, as amended from time to time.
Scope
This Policy explains how EMK collects, uses, holds and discloses personal information provided about individuals to EMK, inlcuding through the use of [emkthomas.com.au], and any other websites operated by EMK (collectively “the websites”), mobile applications, social media pages or other applications related to EMK and any services and/or goods offered or provided by EMK (“services”).
This Policy also includes our credit reporting policy and includes information on how we manage your personal information collected in connection with a credit application, or a credit facility (“credit information”).
Acknowledgement
By continuing to use the websites and/or services or when you make an application to use our services, you acknowledge that you have read this Policy and acknowledge and consent to EMK collecting, holding, using and disclosing personal information supplied by you through your use of the websites and/or services. You also consent to EMK retaining and/or using personal information provided by you subject to the terms of this Policy, the websites and any other applicable contracts that apply to any goods or services we provide to you.
Information of Third Parties
If you provide us with personal or sensitive information of third parties, you will be responsible for informing the individual and obtaining the individual’s consent for their personal or sensitive information to be provided to EMK for the purposes indicated in the corresponding sections of this Policy or as otherwise indicated at the time of collection.
Purpose
The purpose of this Policy is to:
- clearly communicate the personal and/or sensitive information handling practices of EMK;
- enhance the transparency of EMK’s information collection processes, and
- give individuals a better and more complete understanding of the sort of personal and/or sensitive information that EMK holds, and the way EMK handles that information.
Personal Information
In this Policy, “personal information” has the same meaning as defined by section 6 of the Privacy Act:
information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:
- whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
- whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.
Personal information may include your name, address (including previous addresses), contact telephone number(s), email addresses and/or other information that is necessary for the delivery of our services to you.
Collection
In the course of regular business activity, EMK will from time to time collect and deal with your personal information.
If you do not want any of your data collected, you can stop using our websites or services at any time (subject to applicable contracts).
EMK collects personal and/or sensitive information from individuals in numerous ways, including when an individual:
- visits our websites;
- emails EMK for any reason, including inquiries, comments and complaints;
- telephones EMK;
- provides EMK with personal information, including for example by providing a business card;
- uses EMK’s services.
We may also collect personal information about you from other people or organisations. This may include your solicitors, accountants and other professional advisors.
EMK does not generally take steps to:
- verify personal information about any individual disclosed to it; or
- seek additional personal information about any individual on the basis of information disclosed to it,
except in circumstances where it is reasonably necessary for EMK to do so, including (but not limited to) confirming the identity of an individual seeking access to personal and/or sensitive information.
When collecting information from you – whether it be via our websites, email, hardcopy, face-to-face or any other services – we will take reasonable steps to inform you of why we are collecting the information, the purposes for which we intend to use that information and to whom it may be disclosed.
We will only collect your sensitive information with your consent and where information is reasonably necessary for one or more of our services.
We note that in certain circumstances, if you do not consent to the use of your personal and/or sensitive information as outlined in this policy or at the time of collection, you may not have access to our services and we might not be able to provide you with our services.
Collection of Credit Information
We may collect your credit information in the course of providing the services. The main sources from which we may collect credit information are:
- Your co-loan applicants or co-borrowers;
- Your guarantors/proposed guarantors;
- Your employer, accountant, real estate agent or other referees;
- Your agents and other representatives like the person who referred your business to us, your solicitors, conveyancers and settlement agents;
- Organisations that help us to process credit applications;
- Organisations that check the security you are offering (e.g. property valuers);
- Organisations that issue identification documents to help us check your identity; and
Cookies
To ensure we are meeting the needs and requirements of our websites users, and to continue to develop our online services, we collect aggregated information through the use of cookies. We use cookies to collect data about your visit and to allow you to navigate from page to page without having to reload each time. You can refuse cookies by using the appropriate setting on your browser, however, if you do so you may not be able to access portions of our websites. The information we store in cookies shall not be linked to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our websites.
Anonymity
Due to the nature of our services, it is impracticable for us to deal with you anonymously or by pseudonym.
EMK does not disclose personal information to any person whose identity cannot be verified.
Use
EMK may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- to verify your identity;
- to deliver our services;
- to send you information and updates pertaining to our services;
- to send you related service information;
- to conduct research about our services;
- to monitor and improve our services;
- to allow EMK to personalise our services;
- to verify your identity under Australian Anti-Money Laundering law;
- to process any inquiries you have about the EMK or our services;
- to respond to your feedback or complaints; or
- to endeavour to protect against, identify and prevent fraud and other unlawful activity, claims and other liabilities.
Any personal information collected by EMK will be used for the purposes for which it was given to EMK, for secondary purposes which are related to those purposes, for purposes which you have otherwise consented to, or any other purposes in accordance with the Privacy Act.
Disclosure
We may disclose your personal and/or sensitive information we hold to:
- our directors, officers and employees;
- third party service providers or contractors who help us provide services (for example, financiers and lenders who may be assessing your finance requirements);
- credit reporting and fraud checking agencies;
- the Australian Credit Licence holder that authorises us to engage in credit activities;
- debt collection agencies, in the event of your default in payment of monies owed to us;
- government, regulatory and law enforcement agencies where the disclosure is required or authorised by law;
- our professional advisors, including our accountants, auditors and lawyers;
- any guarantors or prospective guarantors of a loan;
- our related entities;
- third parties when we contract out some of our functions and activities; or
- a law enforcement agency if we are requested to do so by that agency in relation to suspected unlawful activity.
If you access the services via a third party (e.g. your accountant or financial advisor), we may provide the third party with information relating to you. This may include personal information including your name and address. Similarly, if you instruct a third party to seek information from us relating to the services, this information may be accompanied by your personal information.
If you utilise the services, we may share your information with your representative or any person acting on your behalf. We may also share information with your referees, like your employer, to confirm details about you.
EMK does not otherwise provide personal and/or sensitive information to any other organisations, government agencies or third parties except in accordance with the Privacy Act.
Where appropriate we may handle personal and/or sensitive information relying on applicable exemptions under the Privacy Act, including but not limited to, the related bodies corporate exemption and the employee exemption.
Cross-border data flows
We may disclose your personal and/or sensitive information to recipients located overseas, including but not limited to New Zealand.
Generally, we will only disclose your personal and/or sensitive information to these overseas recipients in connection with our services, as consented to or permitted by law or where we may use an overseas server to host some or all of our business data, including personal and/or sensitive information.
Storage and Security
We take reasonable steps to protect the personal and sensitive information we hold from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. EMK stores your personal and sensitive information physically and/or electronically and has processes in place to endeavour to ensure the security of your personal and sensitive information, such as encryption of data when it is transferred to our service providers and limitations on access to personal and sensitive information within our organisation.
Access to personal information
In situations where EMK holds personal information about you, you are entitled to be given access to any of your personal information by making a written request to EMK (subject to certain exceptions).
If you would like access to your personal information please make a written request to our Privacy Officer. Details of how to contact us are set out in section 19.
We will generally provide access without charge.
Correction of personal information
In the event EMK holds personal and/or sensitive information about you and:
- EMK is satisfied that the information is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading; or
- you believe that any of the information that we hold about you is not current or incomplete,
please make a request to our Privacy Officer for correction (refer to section 19 below).
EMK will take reasonable steps to correct the information to ensure that the information we hold is accurate, up to date, relevant and not misleading.
How long do we keep your personal information?
We will keep your personal and/or sensitive information for so long as is necessary for the purpose for which the personal and/or sensitive information was collected.
External Websites
Please note the websites may contain links to other external websites. These links are provided as a convenience to you. EMK is not affiliated with these sites and accordingly has no control over – and is not responsible for – their content, activities, privacy practice or other policies.
The use of cookies by our partners, affiliates, service providers, and other third parties is not covered by this policy. We do not have access or control over these cookies. Our partners, affiliates, and service providers may use session ID cookies to collect data about your visit to their websites and to tailor and deliver advertising messages to you.
General
Please note that we reserve our right to amend, remove or vary this Policy at any time without notice. You should check this page regularly to take notice of any changes we may have made to this Policy.
Contact
Your privacy is very important to us. For that reason, if you have any questions or concerns about how EMK handles and safeguards your personal and/or sensitive information or if you wish to access, amend personal and/or sensitive information we hold about you or require a copy of this Policy, please make a request in writing.
Mail: Suite 104/ 1 Princess Street, Kew, 3101
Please attention the Privacy Officer
Email: jonathan@emkthomas.com.au
In the event that you decide to contact us for any of the reasons above, we request that you please provide us with sufficient details regarding your reason for getting in touch with us.
We note that if necessary, we will ask you to provide us with a copy of your ID card, passport or other valid identity document.
Complaints
If you wish to complain about our handling of your personal and/or sensitive information, or if we do not agree to provide access to personal and/or sensitive information or to amend or annotate the information we hold about you, you can:
- escalate your enquiry to EMK to a formal complaint in writing or by email to the Privacy Officer using the details set out in section 19 above; or
- Pursue the matter further with the Office of the Australia Information Commissioner (OAIC).
We will investigate and consider any complaint received by us and a response will be provided to the complainant as soon as practicable.
If you are not satisfied with the way in which we handle your enquiry, have a complaint about any practice, procedure or action taken in regard to your personal and/or sensitive information, you can contact the OAIC. Current contact details for the OAIC are available on the OAIC’s website at https://www.oaic.gov.au/about-us/contact-us/.
Last Updated: April 2019