PRIVACY POLICY
This privacy policy applies to the Carthills’ group of entities including Carthills Tailored Accounting, Carthills Financial Services Pty Ltd and Carthills Lending Solutions Pty Ltd.
This policy explains how Carthills handles personal information and complies with the requirements of the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles as set out in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, which amends the Privacy Act 1988.
This policy relates to Carthills’ collection and handling of personal information that is covered by the Privacy Act. It is not intended to cover categories of personal information that are not covered by the Privacy Act.
Carthills recognises that it is important for you to know that any information provided by you to the company is handled properly. We take very seriously our responsibility to protect and maintain the privacy, accuracy and security of your personal information. We do all that we can to maintain the highest standards in dealing with personal information held for you. Carthills staff who handle personal information understand the standards and take all reasonable steps to achieve them.
Collection of Personal Information
We collect only that information which is necessary for the conduct of our business relationship with you, including, but not limited to:
- name and contact details
- date of birth and gender
- bank account details
- employment details and history
- details of your current financial circumstances including assets, liabilities, income, expenditure, investments, insurance cover and superannuation
- documentation used for identification and verification purposes.
Some personal information is considered to be ‘sensitive information’. It may be necessary in some instances for Carthills to collect sensitive information about you, for example, your Tax File Number, professional memberships and health information.
The information we collect is dependent on the purpose for which it is collected or is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of the functions or services we provide.
We collect the information we require:
- only by lawful and fair means;
- with your consent, from you directly when you provide information either over the phone, in a form through our website, or in person at our office;
- from publicly available sources;
- with your consent, from third parties such as your representative/s,
- from Government agencies, and third parties related to Carthills;
- from your use of our website;
- via email and written correspondence from you.
Should we receive any unsolicited personal information, Carthills Tailored Accounting will as soon as practicable but only if it is lawful and reasonable to do so, destroy the information or ensure that the information is de-identified.
Use or Disclosure of Personal Information
We use your information to carry out our business with you, to facilitate our financial and professional dealings with you and to comply with applicable laws and regulations.
We disclose information to the following organisations or individuals when and to the extent necessary to conduct our business and comply with applicable laws and regulations;
- Government and Regulatory authorities, as required or authorised by law;
- The company’s professional advisors (including legal firms, consultants and other advisors) ; and
- Third party service providers we may engage to provide administration, technology, auditing, mailing, printing or financial services. We take reasonable steps to ensure that such third party service providers exercise the same standard of care as us in handling your personal information.
Direct Marketing
Where Carthills has collected information from you, we may use this information for the purpose of direct marketing including articles which may be of interest to you, to notify of seminars and other events, to seek feedback and any other business related purpose. You will have the opportunity to elect not to receive further marketing material from us by contacting us via our online contact form. If we have contacted you by email, you may use the unsubscribe function in that email to notify us that you do not want to receive further marketing information from us by email.
Cross-border Disclosure of Personal Information
During the course of our business relationship with you, we may be required to disclose personal information about you to overseas entities. If such a requirement exists, we shall take all such reasonable steps in the circumstances to ensure that the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to the information. Further, we will advise you in which countries the entities operate.
Adoption, Use or Disclosure of Government Related Identifiers
Carthills will not adopt, use or disclose government agency identifiers, for example, tax file numbers, as our primary means of identifying you unless it is required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order.
Security and Maintenance of Personal Information
Security of information is a high priority to us. We take appropriate commercial measures to ensure the security of your personal information.
Access to, and manipulation of, information, both physical and electronic, is controlled using systems (electronic and manual) which are current and in line with industry standards. These include (but are not limited to) maintaining secure databases, passwords, firewalls, data encryption and restricting physical access to our office.
Our systems are regularly reviewed to ensure that the highest standards possible are maintained.
We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your information is appropriately disposed of when it is no longer required by us. As a general rule we are legally required to keep information for seven years however this may vary depending on specific legal requirements or our business needs.
We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, hold or use is up-to-date, accurate and complete and we take all reasonable steps to correct personal information.
If you believe that information we hold about you is incorrect or out of date, please contact us at the details provided below and we will take all reasonable steps to correct the information. If a third party is relying on the information, then we will also notify them, unless it is impracticable or unlawful to do so.
If you wish to have your personal information deleted, please let us know and we will take reasonable steps to delete it (unless we need to keep it for legal, auditing or internal risk management reasons).
Concerns
If you have concerns about how we are handling your personal information, please contact us and we will try to resolve those concerns.
If Carthills becomes aware of any ongoing concerns or problems concerning our privacy practices, we will take these issues seriously and work to address these concerns. If you have further queries relating to our privacy policy, or you have a problem or complaint, please contact us using the details provided below.
Access to Information
We will provide access to personal information upon request by an individual, except in circumstances in which it is permitted for us to withhold this information (for instance, where granting access would infringe on another person’s privacy).
When you make a request to access personal information, we will require you to provide some form of identification (such as a driver’s licence or passport) so we can verify that you are the person to whom the information relates. If the request is made by telephone, we will ask you several questions to verify your identity.
How to Contact Us
All requests for access to or correction of personal information, privacy complaints, queries in relation to this Privacy Policy, or any other privacy related matter, should be directed to:
The Privacy Officer
Carthills Tailored Accounting
PO Box 6564
UPPER MT GRAVATT QLD 4122
Telephone: 07 3849 6392
Facsimile: 07 3849 6755
Email: privacy@carthills.com.au.
We will respond to your request within a reasonable time and in accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act.
Policy Changes
Over time, aspects of our business may change as we respond to changing market conditions. This may require our policies to be reviewed and revised. Carthills reserves the right to change this policy at any time and notify you by posting an updated version of the policy on our website.
The amended policy will apply between us whether or not we have given you specific notice of any change. By viewing our website, visitors accept all terms and conditions outlined in this Privacy Policy.