Privacy Policy
Your privacy is important
At Sweetie Lending, we understand that the details you provide us with are not only private and personal but that how we collect, use, hold, exchange and protect your information is important to you. It’s imperative that you feel secure whenever you deal with us. It’s also important that you understand how we protect your privacy, as well as how, when and where we may use your personal information. This Privacy Policy is our commitment to you on what our policies towards your privacy are. You can be confident in the fact that we abide by and are bound by the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) for the protection of personal information.
What information do we collect?
We collect personal information. Personal information means any information or opinion about you as 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. For example identity and contact details, marital status and financial information. We may also collect sensitive information for specific purposes. For example, information about your health to enable the credit provider to assess an application you make for mortgage protection insurance and calculate any premiums. If we need this type of information, we will ask for your consent. Sensitive information is a sub-set of personal information.
How do we collect your personal information?
We will always aim to collect your personal information directly from you. If for some good reason, we are unable to do so, we may involve another organisation. For example, we may need to request a credit report from a credit reporting body when you apply for a credit facility. Before doing so or prior to collecting the information we need, we will inform you of the type of organisations we intend to disclose your personal information to. We may also collect your personal information through third parties who undertake the collection on our behalf.
Why do we collect your personal information?
We collect, use, hold and exchange your personal information so that we can:
- Submit your application for credit and provide you with information about related insurance products;
- Identify and tell you via direct marketing communications about other products or services offered by us or a third party that may interest you (unless you tell us not to);
- Administer our customer relationships;
- For internal purposes, including for reporting and analytical purposes;
- Meet our legal and regulatory reporting obligations;
- Establish a customer marketing program;
- System development testing purposes;
- Ensure your security when visiting our website and to learn which areas of the site are of most interest to you and
Any other purpose related to the above.
Direct Marketing
We take pride in the products and services that we offer. And we love keeping you informed as to the great offers in the credit and financial market place. However, first and foremost we respect your privacy and understand that not everyone wants to be contacted regarding sales and marketing. Unless you tell us not to, you authorise and consent to us:
- conducting marketing activities (provide Marketing Services) via email, telephone, SMS, IM, mail, or any other electronic means.
- marketing our products to you through third party channels (such as social networking sites).
- disclosing your personal information to third parties such as brokers or agents, or for the purpose of connecting you with other businesses. We will never sell your personal information to any external organisation.
Please contact us via info@sweetielending.com should you wish to withdraw your consent.
Cookies and Web Beacons
| Cookies | Web Beacons |
|---|---|
| A ‘cookie’ is a small text file placed on your computer by a webpage server that may later be retrieved by webpage servers. We use cookies on our website to provide you with a better website experience. When you visit the Sweetie Lending website or related landing pages to read, browse, submit or download information, our system will record/log your IP address, date and time of your visit to our site, the pages viewed and any information downloaded. We may automatically collect non-personal information about you such as the site from which you linked to our websites. We do not personally identify you by this information. You can configure your browser to refuse cookies or delete existing cookies from your hard drive. Rejecting cookies may have the effect of limiting access to or functionality of parts of our website.
We generally use this information to report statistics, analyse trends, administer our services, diagnose problems and target and improve the quality of our products and services. |
A web beacon is typically a transparent graphic image invisible to the user that is placed on a website. The use of a web beacon allows the website to record the simple actions of the user (such as opening the page that contains the beacon) through a tracking pixel. We may use web beacons (and cookies) for purposes such as site usage analytics, advertising auditing and reporting, as well as content and “advertising/marketing personalisation”. We may share any data collected from web beacon (and cookies) with third parties to provide you with relevant advertising when browsing Third-Party networks and websites (Third-Party Websites) such as Google and Facebook. |
Information From Third Parties
Our website may contain links to Third-Party Websites (e.g. third-party providers of goods and services). We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any Third Party Website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third-party website. Third-Party Websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices. If you accessed Third-Party Websites through our website and if those third parties collect information about you, we may also collect or have access to that information as part of our arrangements with those third parties. Where you access a Third-Party Website from our website, cookie and web beacon information, information about your preferences or other information you have provided about yourself may be shared between us and the third party.
Advertising and Tracking
We may advertise on Third-Party Websites. When you view our advertisements on Third-Party Websites, the advertising company may use cookies, and in some cases, web beacons, to collect information such as the server your computer is logged onto, your browser type, the date and time of your visit and the performance of their marketing efforts. When you access our website after viewing one of our advertisements on a Third-Party Website, the advertising company may collect information on how you utilise our website (e.g. which pages you view) and whether you commenced or completed an online application.
Using Our Website to Compare and Choose Loans
We may advertise on Third-Party Websites. When you view our advertisements on Third-Party Websites, the advertising company may use cookies, and in some cases, web beacons, to collect information such as the server your computer is logged onto, your browser type, the date and time of your visit and the performance of their marketing efforts. When you use our website, any of our online tools, or any of our online platforms to compare or choose loans, we may share your personal information with our lenders, referral partners, business partners and joint venture partners to assist you in the loan financing process. This is to enable us to provide services such as the “approval confidence rating” so you can enjoy a level of confidence about whether a proposed loan application is likely to be successful. The information we may share include any of your personal information (such as your age), but in particular, the information may include matters relating to your income, expenditure, assets, liabilities, and your Credit Reporting Information and any similar information to enable the making of an assessment to provide the rating. Our lender partners with whom we may share your personal information in order to provide you with a rating include Bankwest, Pepper, ANZ Bank, Adelaide Bank, OneTwo. Our lender partners have safeguards in place to protect the information and they are not permitted to use the information for purposes other than to provide a rating.
Online Applications
When you send a completed online application to us, we retain the information contained in that application. We are able to then use that information to provide any services that you require. You may also be able to suspend and save online applications, so you can complete and send the applications at a later time. If you suspend or save your application, the information that you have entered will be retained in our systems so that you may recover the information when you resume your application. Online applications that have been suspended or saved may be viewed by us.
E-consent
By providing your email address and then clicking submit on any online form, application, calculator, tool or query, you consent to receiving notices and other documents from us by email to the email address provided, and you understand that that if you give this consent: we may no longer send you paper copies of notices and other documents; you should regularly check your email address for documents; and you may withdraw your consent to receiving documents by email at any time. You also confirm that you have the facilities to print any notice or document that we send you by email, if required.
Accurate Information
We take all reasonable precautions to ensure that the personal information we collect, hold, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However, the accuracy of that information depends to a large extent on the information you or others provided to us. If you wish to make any changes to correct your personal information, please contact us at info@sweetielending.com.
We will generally rely on you to assist us in informing us if the information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete. You may request access to the personal information we hold about you by contacting us. We will respond to your request within a reasonable period, usually within 30 days. We will give access in the manner you have requested if it is reasonable to do so. We may charge you a fee to access the information. The fee will not be excessive and will not apply to the making of the request. We may deny you access to your personal information in certain circumstances, for example, if required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order, or it would be likely to prejudice enforcement related activities by an enforcement body, if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others, or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality. If we decide not to give you access, we will provide reasons for the refusal and information on how you can complain about the refusal.
Storage and Security
We store information in different ways, including in paper and electronic form.
The security of your personal information is important to us and we take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Some of the ways we do this are: confidentiality requirements of our employees; document storage security policies; security measures for access to our systems; only giving access to personal information to a person who is verified to be able to receive that information; control of access to our buildings; and electronic security systems, such as firewalls and data encryption on our websites.
We take protecting the security of your personal information seriously. We have a response plan that is designed to enable us to contain, assess and respond to suspected data breaches in a timely fashion, and to help mitigate potential harm to affected individuals.
We may store your information in cloud or other types of networked or electronic storage. As electronic or networked storage can be accessed from anywhere via an internet connection, it is not always practicable to know in which country your information may be held. If your information is stored in this way, disclosures may occur in countries other than those listed here or those we referred to from time. In addition to the above, we also regularly review developments in security and encryption technologies. However, it is important to remember that the use of email and the internet may not always be secure, even with these safeguards in place.
When we no longer require your information, and we are legally permitted to, we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify the information. However, sometimes it is impossible or impractical to completely isolate the information then completely remove all traces of the information, and we may store the information for future use, such as to help resolve disputes between us or assess future applications by you. The same security safeguards will be in place to protect the information, as detailed in this Policy.
Doing Business Without Identifying You
In most circumstances, it will be necessary for us to identify you in order to successfully do business with you. However, where it is lawful and practicable to do so, we will provide you with the option to remain anonymous or to use a pseudonym, for example, when you make general inquiries about our business or current promotional offers. We do not adopt a government related identifier (such as your tax file number or your driver’s licence number) as a means of identifying you.
Complaints and Further Information
If you have a complaint about how we handle your personal information, we want to hear from you.
Internal Dispute Resolution
You are always welcome to contact us to let us know about your complaint at:
Privacy Officer, Sweetie Lending
Tel: 1300 388 360
Email: info@sweetielending.com
Post: 10 Century Cct, Baulkham Hills NSW 2153
We have a formal procedure for investigating and dealing with privacy breaches or complaints. Once the Privacy Officer receives a complaint, whether it is in writing or by verbal means, the Privacy Officer will commence an investigation with the relevant business unit from which the complaint (including an alleged breach) stemmed. Through the investigation, we will endeavour to determine the nature of the complaint and how it occurred. We may contact you during the process to seek any further clarification if necessary. If a breach is found, the Privacy Officer will escalate the matter to management so that the process can be rectified to prevent any further breaches from taking place. We will also contact you to inform you of the outcome of the investigation. We will endeavour to resolve all investigations within a reasonable time, generally within 30 days.
By giving us as much information as possible, you will help us resolve things faster. If you have any supporting documentation, please have it handy when you raise your concern(s). We will try to acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and try to respond to your complaint within 30 days. Where we are unable to do so, we will send you an email or letter advising of the reasons for any delay, and your right to complain to our External Dispute Resolution scheme.
External Dispute Resolution
If you are dissatisfied with our Internal Dispute Resolution response, you can make a formal complaint to our External Dispute Resolution provider, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA can consider certain privacy complaints relating to either the provision of credit or Credit Reporting Information in general.
Time limits may apply to complain to AFCA and so you should act promptly or otherwise consult the AFCA website to find out if or when the time limit relevant to your circumstances expires.
Under the Privacy Act, you may make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) about the way we handle your personal information. The OAIC can be contacted at either www.oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992.
Complaints and Further Information
We are constantly reviewing all of our policies and attempt to keep up to date with market expectations, technology, the law and market practices. As a consequence, we may change this Policy from time to time or as the need arises. All personal information held by us will be governed by the most recently updated policy, available on our website (https://www.sweetielending.com/privacy-policy/) or by request.