Legal Privacy Policy (including Credit Reporting Privacy Policy)

Privacy Policy (including Credit Reporting Privacy Policy)

Version 2023-2

We recognise that your privacy is very important to you and that you have the right to control your Personal Information.

This policy governs the collection, use disclosure, storage and handling of your Personal Information by us and has been prepared in accordance with our obligations and your rights set out in the Privacy Legislation.

We reserve the right to modify or amend this policy at any time. It is recommended that you check our policy from time to time.

This policy applies to your use of our Website as well as your other dealings and engagements with us. For the avoidance of doubt, unless stated otherwise, this policy will govern our collection of your Personal Information irrespective of the forum.

The meaning of capitalised words in this document are set out in clause 17 below.

TAKE NOTICE THAT YOUR CONTINUED USAGE OF OUR WEBSITE (INCLUDING ACCESSING AND BROWSING OUR WEBSITE) AND/OR SERVICES WILL BE TAKEN TO INDICATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS OF THIS POLICY AND YOUR CONSENT TO US DEALING WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS POLICY (AS AMENDED FROM TIME TO TIME).

This policy is not intended to cover categories of information that are not contemplated by the Privacy Legislation.

This policy explains:

What kind of Personal Information we collect (including credit related information) and what we do with that information.
Where we collect Personal Information from.
How we use Personal Information.
How we store Personal Information.
How you can seek access to and where applicable correct your Personal Information.
How you can make a complaint about our handling of your Personal Information where applicable.
How long we hold Personal Information.
Who you can contact for further information.

What kind of Personal Information we collect

We collect the Personal Information you give us so that we can provide you with products and services and better your experience with us. We only collect Personal Information if it is reasonably necessary for us to carry out our functions and activities, which may include:
1. your contact details such as your name, email address, residential and business addresses, and contact telephone numbers;
2. your financial information such as your occupation, employment, income and expenses, accounts, assets and liabilities, tax file number and tax status – at the time that you apply for credit from us and during the term of any credit provided to you by us;
3. information about your transaction history (either with us or relevant third parties such as your bank) such as transactions you may have had in the past or during the term of your relationship with us, your payment history and the way you dealt or will deal with us; and
4. other information where relevant such as health and medical information (for example to handle a hardship application), government identifiers, and membership of professional bodies, in so far as it is applicable to verify your identity and other personal details.
Personal Information relating to credit

We may collect your credit information which may include, but is not limited to:
1. credit application history – applications you have made to us or other credit providers including the products, the amount of credit, and the start and end date of any applicable credit;
2. account identification – information about account numbers and customer identifier numbers;
3. your payment information – a statement that an overdue payment reported to a credit reporting body has been paid by you;
4. repayment history information – information about payments you owe us or any other credit provider that is overdue by 60 days;
5. creditworthiness – information such as your credit scores, credit ratings, and creditworthiness;
6. court proceedings about you – such as information about a judgment made against you in a court of law, relating to credit provided to you or whether you have been declared bankrupt or insolvent. This includes information on the National Insolvency Index, debt arrangements made by you, insolvency agreements entered into by you, and orders, authorities and directions under the Bankruptcy Act 1966 in relation to your property;
7. variation of contract arrangements – such as either a new arrangement you make with us to vary your consumer credit contract as a result of you being overdue in your payments and about which we have notified a credit reporting body, or the provision of new credit; and
8. information in the public domain about your activities and creditworthiness in any state or territory in Australia, information in the National Personal Insolvency Index not relating to court proceedings, information that we have been provided about a serious credit infringement you have committed – a credit infringement includes fraudulently obtaining or attempting to obtain consumer credit or fraudulently evading or attempting to evade your consumer credit obligations or not intending to comply with consumer credit obligations and if you have not been contactable for over a period of 6 months.
How this policy applies to credit-related information under the Privacy Act

We may collect two types of consumer credit-related information:
1. credit information – this is information relating mainly to your credit related dealings with us which we can disclose to a Credit Reporting body that reports on your creditworthiness (CRBs); and
2. credit eligibility information (CEI) – this is information provided to us by CRBs which may include your credit-related dealings with other credit providers. CEI also includes your creditworthiness information we derive from data provided by a CRB, for example, credit scores, credit ratings and evaluations about you and your creditworthiness.
If we hold or collect CEI or credit information this policy will also apply to that information.
Where we collect your Personal Information from

We collect your Personal Information:
1. by you or a co-applicant contacting us and enquiring after information about us and the services we provide;
2. through your use of this Website, particularly when you register on this Website as a Borrower;
3. when you participate in any promotions we may make available, or competitions that we may run, through this Website or elsewhere;
4. from publicly-available sources; and/or
5. through third parties, as set out below.
Who we may collect your Personal Information from

We collect your Personal Information from:
We also collect information from your computer automatically when you browse our Website. This information may include:
1. the date, time and duration of your visit;
2. your domain;
3. locality;
4. operating system;
5. the server your computer is using to access our Website;
6. your browser and version number;
7. search terms you have entered to find our Website or enter on our Website;
8. pages and links you have accessed both on our Website and on other websites;
9. the last website you have visited;
10. the referral source;
11. the pages of our Website you access and buttons clicked; and
12. your IP Address.

Purposes for which we may collect, hold, use and disclose your Personal Information

Personal Information we collect about you will only be held, used and disclosed for our business purposes and as required or permitted by the law. We may use your Personal Information for the following purposes:
1. responding to queries;
2. providing you with information about us;
3. making a decision to provide you with our services, including evaluating your creditworthiness or whether to accept you as a guarantor;
4. providing you with information about the services we provide;
5. verifying your identity, and carrying out credit and other checks, for the purpose of registering you as a Borrower;
6. managing the products and services we provide;
7. managing your scheduled repayments and one-off repayments with direct debit companies;
8. preventing and defending instances of fraud, unlawful conduct and other risks to you and our products and services;
9. internal and external complaint resolution and assisting other credit providers with the same;
10. enforcing our rights including debt collection and where necessary instituting legal proceedings;
11. undertaking securitisation activities and other activities relating to funding and capital requirements;
12. providing your Personal Information when requested by our funders and investors;
13. enabling our associated entities and selected other entities to promote their products and services;
14. meeting legal and regulatory requirements imposed on us, and any codes of conduct with which we agree to comply;
15. marketing products and services provided by us and our related entities, including inviting you to apply for new or further credit from us;
16. compiling statistical data e.g credit scoring information;
17. participating in credit reporting systems and providing information to CRBs as permitted under the Privacy Act and Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code;
18. dealing with serious credit infringement and assisting other credit providers to do the same; and/or
19. complying with specific Australian laws that make it mandatory for us to collect your Personal Information, and other laws which make it necessary in order for us to comply with our obligations. These laws currently include:
  1. National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009.
  2. Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006.
  3. Personal Property Securities Act 2009 and State and Territory real property and security interests laws.
  4. Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001.
  5. Corporations Act 2001 and other regulatory legislation.
  6. Tax Administration Act 1953, Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 and other taxation laws.
For the avoidance of doubt, we may use your credit information to assist you in seeking a rate offer from us, and we may use your credit information to evaluate any application for credit you submit to it.

We may also use your Personal Information for other purposes not listed above but this will be made clear to you at the time we collect your Personal Information.
Information that is not Personal Information
In addition to Personal Information, we may collect and use any information about your personal and commercial activities that is not otherwise Personal Information,

and our rights and obligations in respect of non-Personal Information shall be the same as in respect of Personal Information, as set out in this Privacy Policy.
Disclosing your information to third parties including overseas

Where permitted under the Privacy Act, we may disclose information about you (including your identity) to a third party including:
1. any party assisting us with carrying out credit and identity checks;
2. co-borrowers – if you have registered as a borrower and you have asked someone else to register as a co-borrower, each of you acknowledge, agree and consent to us providing your Personal Information to the other. We will be entitled to accept instructions from either of you in respect of our access to, use of, and amendment to, your Personal Information;
3. law enforcement agencies;
4. any party assisting us with conducting legal proceedings or other investigations;
5. funders and investors – this includes providing your Personal Information to enable investors, prospective investors, and the trustee who uses investor funds to make loans to you, to comply with their customer due diligence and other obligations under any applicable legislation;
6. our related entities in Australia and overseas. For the avoidance of doubt, this includes disclosure of information about you between Harmoney Australia Pty Ltd and Harmoney Services Australia Pty Ltd;
7. entities providing services to us such as legal and financial services, market research and data providers, mailing houses, call centre operators, and technology service providers;
8. suppliers of goods and services that are financed with the credit we provide;
9. retailers where the payments or credit services provided by us involves payments to the retailers for goods and services provided by them;
10. assignees or potential assignees or where we act as an agent or on behalf of another person;
11. financial institutions such as banks and credit providers;
12. direct debit companies who manage your scheduled and one-off repayments.
13. insurers, assessors, underwriters, brokers and other distributors;
14. Government and regulatory bodies in Australia and overseas;
15. originators involved in debt assignment or securitisation arrangements;
16. debt collectors and other enforcement bodies;
17. entities involved in our business or who acquire an interest in our business.
18. third parties who are authorised to act on your behalf such as accountants, lawyers, referees, and attorneys under a Power of Attorney or Guardianship arrangements;
19. to any other person, with your consent (express or implied); and
20. to any person to whom our assets or business (or any part thereof) is transferred.
Some of these entities may be located overseas and may not have an Australian link. For example, we may employ service providers in New Zealand, India, Fiji, Vietnam or the Philippines. If you ask us to make a payment to an overseas bank or financial institution, we will provide information to that bank or financial institution. However, you acknowledge that they are not our service providers and we do not control how they handle your information. You acknowledge that we are not required to ensure that the overseas recipients treat that information in compliance with Privacy Legislation. We will, however, take reasonable steps to ensure any overseas recipient we deal with uses Personal Information in a manner consistent with the Privacy Legislation.

In addition to the above, we will disclose your Personal Information if we are required to do so under law or if the disclosure is made in connection with either the normal operation of our business in a way that you might reasonably expect (for example, if such disclosure is incidental to IT services being provided to our business, in connection with any insurance or warranty claim, or for the resolution of any dispute that arises between you and us). This disclosure may involve your Personal Information being transmitted overseas.
Equifax Verification Exchange
Without limiting anything else in this Privacy Policy, you agree that:
1. we may use the Equifax Verification Exchange service to access your employment details; and
2. the Equifax Verification Exchange service may collect, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with the Verification Exchange Collection Statement, including disclosure to your employer(s) (or to payroll or other service providers who might act on behalf of your employer(s)) to identify you, and collecting and using your employment income, history and related information from such parties and disclosing that information to us for purposes of this application.
Disclosing your Credit Information to third parties including CRBs

By accessing and using this Website, and providing your Personal Information to us, you acknowledge and agree that you understand that if we disclose your Personal Information to CRBs for the purpose of us providing services to you, the CRBs may hold your information on their credit reporting database and use it for providing credit reporting services, including assessing your creditworthiness and for any other lawful purpose and that the CRB may disclose your information to their subscribers for the purpose of credit checking or debt collection or for any other lawful purpose.

Default information – subject to complying with the requirements of the Privacy Act, we can disclose to a CRB information about payments owed by you to third parties (including a borrower or guarantor) under a consumer credit contract, that has remained overdue for more than 60 days.

CRBs to whom we may disclose your information include:
1. illion
  
  Website: www.checkyourcredit.com.au
  Phone: 1300 734 806
  Address: Attention Illion Public Access Centre PO Box 7405, St Kilda, VIC 3004
2. Equifax
  
  Website: www.equifax.com
  Phone: 1300 762 207
  Address: Attention Equifax Public Access P O Box 964, North Sydney, NSW 2059
3. Experian Australia Credit Services Pty Ltd
  
  Website: www.experian.com.au
  Phone: 1300 783 684
  Address: Experian Australia Credit Services Pty Ltd
  Attention: Consumer Support Team
  GPO Box 1969, North Sydney NSW 2060
Your rights in relation to CRBs

You are entitled under the Privacy Act to opt out of direct marketing pre screenings where CRBs use your credit information for the purposes of marketing their products and services. In addition if you believe that you have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud you can request the CRB not to disclose your credit information subject to time limits prescribed by the Privacy Act during this banning period.
Credit files
By requesting a quote, you authorise Harmoney Services Australia Pty Ltd to obtain a copy of your credit file. This company acts as an access seeker, meaning that its access to your credit file will not leave a credit enquiry, will not be visible to credit providers, and will not impact your credit score.

By submitting a loan application, you authorise Harmoney Australia Pty Ltd to obtain a copy of your credit file. This company acts as a credit provider, meaning that its access to your credit file will leave a credit enquiry, and could impact your credit score.
Marketing communications

By accepting the terms of this policy and providing us with your Personal Information, you agree to us using that Personal Information to contact you (or for our agents to contact you) from time to time to inform you about existing and new products and services that we feel you may be interested in.

We will ensure that any email that you are sent by us (or on our behalf) as direct marketing complies with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and contains an “unsubscribe” option so that you can remove yourself from any further marketing communications.

You can also call or write to us to request that your details be removed from our direct marketing list. We will endeavour to remove your details from our direct marketing list within a reasonable time.
Consequences of you not providing the Personal Information we require

If you do not provide us with all of the Personal Information we have requested from you, we may not be able to complete your registration as a Borrower, and we may be unable to approve your application for a loan, or to provide you with any other services or information that you are seeking from us.
How we store Personal Information

We store Personal Information electronically on our systems and in paper-based form. We will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep secure and protect any Personal Information which we hold about you, including using generally accepted standards of security. Where our service providers hold your information we require them to adhere to our standards of security and confidentiality.

A data breach has occurred if Personal Information that we hold is subject to unauthorised access or disclosure or is lost. In the event of a data breach, we will assess and respond to the data breach in accordance with our applicable policies and procedures. Our policies and procedures have been developed in accordance with guidance from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on handling data breaches and the requirements under Part IIIC of the Privacy Act. If a data breach may cause you loss or harm – financial or otherwise – we will promptly notify you of the data breach so that you can manage the loss or harm.
How you can access or correct your Personal Information (including credit information)

You have rights under the Privacy Act to request access to or correction of the Personal Information we hold about you and to make a privacy complaint, provided this is reasonable and practicable. This is also subject to the exceptions under the Privacy Act. You may also request that the Personal Information we hold about you be corrected if it is misleading, inaccurate, incomplete or irrelevant. We take every step where reasonably practicable to ensure that the Personal Information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up to date.

To access your Personal Information, or to request that we correct your Personal Information (by way of correction, deletion, or addition), please contact our Privacy Officer on 1300 042 766 or email us at privacy@harmoney.com.au.

As some of the information we hold about you may be of a sensitive nature, we will need to verify the identity of anyone requesting access to your Personal Information. Any request for information must be as specific as possible so we can accommodate your request. Where access is granted, it will be provided within 30 days of your request.

We can refuse access to your information if:
1. access would be unlawful;
2. denying access is required or authorised under Australian law or an order of a court or tribunal; and
3. access would prejudice enforcement action or appropriate action relating to unlawful activity or serious misconduct.
If we do not agree to your request, we will notify you of our reason, and advise what further steps you may take.
Privacy complaints

The Privacy Act gives you rights to make a complaint if you reasonably believe that we have not complied with our privacy obligations, including obligations relating to consumer credit information under Part 111 of the Privacy Act and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code. If you believe this is the case please contact our Privacy Officer on 1300 042 766 or by emailing privacy@harmoney.com.au.

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 7 days and we will endeavour to investigate and resolve complaints within 30 days of receipt of the complaint. If we need more time we will notify you of the reasons why and seek your agreement to extend the 30 day period. If you do not agree, we may not be able to resolve your complaint. We may consult with a CRB or other third parties to investigate and resolve complaints about credit-related information.

If you reasonably believe that your complaint has not been handled satisfactorily, you may refer the matter to our external disputes resolution scheme, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), by going to www.afca.org.au, calling 1800 931 678, or emailing info@afca.org.au.
How long we hold Personal Information

We will keep your Personal Information only for as long as necessary to achieve the purpose we collected it for and in all cases for such periods as we are required to in order to comply with any relevant legislation and regulations.
Who you can contact for further information

If you have any queries about this policy or Personal Information we have collected please contact us at privacy@harmoney.com.au or:
- by calling the Harmoney Contact Centre on 1300 042 766
- by writing to Harmoney at the address listed on www.harmoney.com.au

Definitions used in this policy

IP Address	means a number automatically assigned to your computer, which is required when you are using the internet, and which may be able to be used to identify you.
Personal Information	has the meaning set out in the Privacy Act.
Privacy Act	means the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) as amended from time to time.
Privacy Legislation	means such laws as may place requirements on the handling of Personal Information under the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles and where applicable the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014.
“we”, “our”, “us”	and similar terms means Harmoney Australia Pty Ltd (ACN 604 342 823) and its related companies.
“Website”	means www.harmoney.com.au and any subdomains, and any other website we may operate from time to time.
“You”, “your”	and similar terms means, as the context requires: (a) you, during your usage of our Website; (b) you, during your dealings with us as a customer; (c) any agent providing your Personal Information to us; and/or (d) any agent dealing with us on your behalf.