Privacy

PRIVACY POLICY
CONSENT & ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Effective: 1st September 2020

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy Consent and Acknowledgement (“Policy”) applies to information collected by BidFin Capital Pty Ltd ACN 622 308 972. It outlines how We manage Your personal information and safeguard Your privacy.

Your privacy is important to Us, and We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (‘APPs’) and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014. We are committed to protecting the personal information that We hold about You.

In this policy:

BidFin, We, Our or Us means BidFin Capital Pty Ltd ACN 622 308 972 of Tower 3, Level 25, 300 Barangaroo Ave, Sydney NSW 2000.

You or Your means customers, and borrowers or guarantors who are individuals.

Services means creating and accessing lending accounts, monitoring payment plans, participating in groups and any other features or content We may add in the future.

 

2. What Laws Require and Authorise Us to Collect Personal Information

We are required by law to collect and verify:

  • Certain identification information about You per the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth);
  • If You have applied for credit or provide a guarantee, certain information about Your financial position under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth).

 

3. Personal and Credit Related Information

BidFin collects personal information that is reasonably necessary for Us to provide You news, updates and invitations (if You are opted in to receive this information), provide financial products and services and to administer these products.

Personal information is any information or an opinion, that could identify You or be used to establish and verify Your identity.

Credit related information includes information about Your financial history and credit situation, for example the types and amounts of loans and loan applications, repayment history, requests for information about You from credit providers, credit defaults, court proceedings, corporate and personal insolvency as well as information that has been derived about You by credit reporting bodies such as a credit report.

 

4. Types of Personal Information Collected

The kind of personal information You consent to Us collecting and holding will depend upon the type of information, products and services that You request from Us and may include:

  • Your full name and date of birth;
  • Personal contact details including Your residential address, email and telephone/mobile numbers;
  • A Government issued identification document such as Drivers licence or Passport;
  • Financial information (of You or Your business) such as income, expenses, financial assets and liabilities;
  • Bank account details; and
  • Your Citizenship status.

We do not collect sensitive information such as Your race, religion, criminal records, and medical history.

You acknowledge if You do not provide Us with the information We ask for, We may not be able to deliver our Services effectively or at all.

 

5. Using Your Personal Information

We use Your personal information to provide Our Services to You including the following:

  • Establish Your identity and assess Your application for Our Services;
  • Tell You about Our products and Services that We believe may interest You, unless You ask Us not to;
  • Administer Our Services and carry out Our internal operations to manage Our relationship with You;
  • Manage Our risks and help identify and investigate and report illegal activity, such as fraud;
  • Conduct and improve Our businesses and improve Our customers’ experience;
  • Comply with Our legal obligations and assist government and law enforcement agencies or regulators.

 

6. How is Personal Information collected

With Your prior consent, BidFin collects Your personal information:

  • Directly from You (including electronically via our website, email, SMS, Our platform or Our service providers platform); 
  • From Your nominated third party, such as a Broker or financial advisor;
  • From publicly or commercially available sources for the purpose of complying with customer due diligence obligations under relevant legislation (e.g. anti-money laundering laws).

If We need to obtain additional sensitive information about You, We will ask for Your consent where required by law.

When You use Our website, and any tablet or mobile applications, We may collect information about Your location or activity including the date of and time of visits, which pages are viewed, how You as the user navigate through the website and interact with the webpages (including fields completed in form and applications), IP address, telephone number, information about the device used to visit Our website and whether You’ve accessed third party sites. Some of this information is collected using cookies.

 

7. Storing Personal Information

The information We hold about You will be stored electronically in secure data centres located in Australia owned by either BidFin or our service providers.

We use a range of physical and electronic security measures to protect the security of the personal information We hold. For example:

  • Access to information systems is controlled through identity and access management;
  • Employees are bound by internal information security policies and are required to keep information secure;
  • All employees are required to complete training about information security.

 

8. Sharing Personal Information

We may disclose Your personal information to other BidFin companies. We may also disclose Your personal information to organisations external to BidFin. These include:

  • Your advisers, accountants, auditors, agents and service providers and anyone to whom You have agreed We may provide Your information to;
  • Other organisations who provide products or services to You jointly with Us, or who We believe can offer services that will be of use to You;
  • Our service providers including credit reporting agencies, collection agencies, legal advisers, and external dispute resolution scheme/s and any other agents, contractors, or service providers;
  • Where We are required or permitted to do so by law.

We also require all Our service providers to comply with the privacy laws.

 

9. Disclosing Personal Information Overseas

When You apply for one of Our products, Your personal information for the purposes of our AML / KYC obligations may be disclosed, encrypted and temporarily stored with Our service providers located outside Australia.

For international transactions, We may provide Your personal information to a corresponding international service provider in order to process the transaction. The countries We disclose Your information to, will depend on the details of the transaction You ask Us to carry out.

 

10. The Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth)

The Electronic Transaction Act 1999 (Cth) requires that, before We can communicate with You electronically (email or SMS), You must give Us permission under the Act for Us to communicate with You in that way.

When You apply for one of Our products, You will be providing Your permission for Us to:

  • Electronically format and send You any information that We are obliged to provide;
  • Enter into a funding agreement by way of digital signatures;
  • Enter into a guarantee agreement (if applicable) by way of digital signatures;
  • Enter into a Direct Debit agreement by way of digital signatures;
  • Send You electronic messages (by email or SMS), rather than providing paper copies.

In giving this permission, You agree to:

  • Using the relevant computer programs and having sufficient internet capacity to interact with Our system;
  • Regularly checking Your email Inbox and/or SMS inbox;
  • Not hold Us responsible if any properly sent electronic message does not reach You; and
  • Notifying Us of any changes to Your electronic addresses and indemnifying Us from any liability if You fail to do so.

 

11. Credit Related Information

When You apply for credit or propose to be a guarantor, We need to know if You’re able to meet payments under Your agreement with Us. We also want to avoid giving You further credit if this would put You in financial difficulty. One of Our checks involve obtaining a credit report about You.

Credit reports contain information about Your credit history which helps credit providers assess Your credit applications, verify Your identity and manage accounts You hold with them. Credit reporting bodies collect and exchange this information with Us.

The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) limits the information that credit providers can disclose about You to credit reporting bodies, as well as the ways in which credit providers can use credit reports.

 

12. Information Exchanged with Credit Reporting Bodies

The information We can exchange includes Your identification details, what type of loans You have, how much You’ve borrowed, whether You’ve met Your loan payments and if You have committed a serious credit infringement (such as payment default). We also ask the credit reporting body to give Us an overall assessment of Your creditworthiness.

 

13. BidFin Service Providers:

We may use:

 

14. Using Credit Related Information

We use this information to confirm Your identity, assess Your creditworthiness and application for our Services under Our credit assessment criteria, manage Our relationship with You and collect overdue payments.

Credit reporting bodies with whom We exchange information may include the information in reports they provide to other credit providers to assist them to assess Your creditworthiness. You can obtain a copy of the credit reporting body’s policy about the management of credit-related information by contacting them or from their website.

If You’ve been or have reason to believe that You’re likely to become, a victim of fraud (including identity fraud), You can ask the credit reporting body not to use or disclose the credit-related information it holds about You.

 

15. Accessing, Updating and Correcting Your Personal Information

You can ask for access to the personal and credit-related information We hold about You. You can also ask for corrections to be made.

We may charge You for any reasonable costs incurred by Us to access Your personal information which is not credit related. You will be charged Our reasonable costs of accessing Your credit-related information if You have already sought access to it in the past 12 months.

There is no fee for correcting Your personal information. If We disagree that Your information should be corrected, We will tell You why in writing.

We can deny or limit access to Your personal information if We cannot identify You, the information relates to commercially sensitive of privileged material, or if Your request is vexatious. Whatever the outcome, We will write to You explaining Our decision.

 

16. Complaints

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 Privacy Act, the Code or the APPs, You can contact Our Privacy Officer on:

Telephone: +61 2 8277 4541

Email: info@bidfin.io

If You are not satisfied with the way We handled Your complaint, You may lodge a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

GPO Box 5218

Sydney NSW 2001

Phone: 1300 363 992

Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au

www.oaic.gov.au