PRIVACY | Collins & Co

Privacy Policy and Management of Personal Information

We may engage other providers and also associated entities controlled and owned by the partners of Collins & Co to assist us in providing various aspects of our services to you. These services may include, but are not limited to, accounting file preparation and/or data entry into our accounting systems, auditing of accounts, expert legal advice, financial planning, dealing with financial institutions, investment and insurance services, wealth management and corporate secretarial.

By accepting these services or providing us with instructions after the receipt of this letter, you accept the use of the services as described, and acknowledge and agree that your personal information may be transferred or stored offsite or overseas if we engage with or are required to send personal information overseas to fulfil the purpose for which the personal information was collected (or a related ancillary purpose).

If we do disclose personal information to an overseas recipient without your consent, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that this recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles or a similar applicable law in relation to that information.

We may communicate with you via electronic means. While we have a very high level of commercially reasonable electronic and digital security measures in place, we cannot guarantee the security of such communications. We do not accept any liability in respect of any error or omission or security breach arising from or in connection with the electronic communication of information from you or to you, or from/to a third party on your behalf. You agree to accept the risks involved in those forms of communications, including the risk of viruses, defects, corruption or access by any unauthorised person.

The internet is inherently an insecure medium. Collins & Co uses commercially reasonable measures to protect the security of electronic and digital information held by us, but does not warrant the secure operation of any electronic portal maintained by or on behalf of Collins & Co, or that any security technologies can prevent any misuse or unauthorised access by any third party or loss of any information stored electronically by Collins & Co.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Collins & Co does not accept liability for any loss or damage (whether direct, indirect, consequential or economic), including breach of confidentiality, privacy or security, that may result from any communication (including any attachments). Our liability is limited to the cost of re-supplying the communication.

At Collins &Co, we recognise the importance of your privacy and understand your concerns about the security of the personal information you provide to us.

As an accounting firm, we place high priority on the security of information held by our firm. We comply with the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”) as contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). The APPs detail how personal information may be collected, used, disclosed, stored and destroyed, and how an individual may gain access to or make complaints about the personal information held about them. We also have in place an internal procedure that complies with the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme that came into effect form 22 February 2018.

“Personal information” is information or an opinion about an identified individual, or about an individual who is reasonably identifiable.

“Sensitive Information”, a sub-set of personal information, is information or an opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, political association membership, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, professional or trade association membership, trade union membership, sexual orientation or practices or criminal record, and includes health information and genetic information.

“Health Information” includes information or an opinion about an individual’s health or disability, the health services provided or to be provided to them, and their expressed wishes for the provision of future health services.

This policy details how C&C manages personal information about you (including sensitive information and health information), to maintain its integrity and security. In this policy C&C includes Collins & Co and all other entities owned and controlled by the Partners of Collins & Co.

In the course of doing business, we predominantly collect business and commercial information. However, the ancillary collection of personal information is often necessary or unavoidable. Also, when we provide services that relate to your personal affairs we will also collect personal information (e.g. personal tax returns and advice, financial planning, self-managed superannuation returns or advice).

To assist us to keep our records up-to-date, please notify us of any changes to your personal information.

The kinds of personal information we collect from you or about you depend on the transaction you have entered into with us, the services you or your organisation have contracted us to provide, and the services you or your organisation are interested in.

The kinds of personal information that we commonly collect and hold from you or about you include: your name, address, phone, fax and mobile numbers and email address.

In the course of our advisory, financial planning, audit, accounting and taxation functions, we also commonly collect and hold personal information regarding: your family composition, you and your family members’ date/s of birth, gender/s, occupation/s and employment details, income details, expenses details, asset listings, tax file number/s, taxation records, bank account details, insurance policies, medical history, financial risk appetite and wealth goals etc.

When you browse our website or contact us electronically, we may record: geographical tagging, cookies and statistical data.

We aim to collect personal information only directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable for us to do so. For example, we collect personal information from you or about you from correspondence that you submit to us, meetings and interviews with us, telephone calls with us, and from your activity on our website and client portal.

However, in some instances we may receive personal information about you from third parties, such as associated businesses and referrers (including financial planners and insurers). We may also receive personal information about you from your bank and from your family members.

You can be anonymous or use a pseudonym when dealing with us, unless:

the use of your true identity is a legal requirement; or
it is impracticable for us to deal with you on such basis.

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information from you or about you where it is reasonably necessary for us to carry out our firm’s functions and activities. For example, we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information as necessary to provide our advisory, audit, financial planning, accounting and taxation services to you or your organisation.

Our firm works closely with related entities within our corporate group. We routinely disclose your personal information to these related entities to enable them to provide related service offerings that you have requested.

Our firm also works closely with other, external businesses, such as lawyers, banks, investment advisers and brokers, other financial planners, insurers, auditors and bookkeepers. We routinely disclose your personal information to these third parties for them to assist us in carrying out our primary business functions and activities, or to enable them to provide related service offerings that you have requested.

We may collect sensitive information from you orabout you where there is a legal requirement to do so, or where we are otherwise permitted by law. In all other situations, we will specifically seek your consent.

If we do not collect, hold, use or disclose your personal information, or if you do not consent, then we may not be able to answer your enquiry, complete the transaction you have entered into, or perform the services that you or your organisation have engaged us to provide.

We also collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for related purposes that you would reasonably expect, such as our administrative and accounting functions, fraud checks, our professional quality assurance and accreditation audits, client audits and trust account audits, data back-ups and statistical collation.

We will also use your personal information to provide you with ongoing newsletter communications, details about educational briefings and seminars, and other events that we conduct or host. Some of our marketing and communications programs are conducted by organisations external to Collins & Co.

Your personal information included in our marketing database is shared with our external marketing agencies for this purpose. Where we use your personal information for marketing, promotional, newsletter and briefing communications, you can opt out at any time by notifying us. Opt out procedures are also included in our communications.

Where we wish to use or disclose your personal information for other purposes, we will obtain your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information to third parties (including government departments and enforcement bodies) where required or permitted by law. Commonly, we will disclose your personal information as required under taxation, superannuation and personal assistance laws, to third parties including the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and Centrelink.

Your personal information is held and stored on paper, by electronic means or both. We have physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in place for personal information and take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is protected from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

Data held and stored electronically (including “in the Cloud”) is protected by designated password access to systems and internal and external firewalls. We also require our IT contractors and other third parties to implement privacy safeguards.
Data stored or archived off-site is contained within secure facilities. We also require our storage contractors to implement privacy safeguards.
Where we disclose personal information to third parties (including contractors and affiliated businesses located locally and overseas), our contractual arrangements with them include specific privacy requirements.
Our staff receive regular training on privacy procedures.

Destruction and De-identification:

We will retain your personal information whilst it is required for any of our firm’s functions, or for any other lawful purpose.

We will also retain your personal information for the time periods required by law.

We use secure methods to destroy or to permanently de-identify your personal information when it is no longer needed:

Paper records are commonly sent for secure destruction. In some instances, paper records will be returned to you and/or relevant third parties.
Electronic records are deleted from all locations, to the best of our ability, or encrypted and/or placed beyond use.

We have procedures in place for dealing with and responding to requests for access to, and correction of, the personal information held about you. In most cases, we expect that we will be able to comply with your request. However, if we do not agree to provide you access or to correct the information as requested, we will give you written reasons why.

In many cases, you are entitled to access the personal information that we hold about you. To request access, please contact our Privacy Officer.

If we agree to give you access, we will do so in the manner requested by you, provided it is reasonable and practicable for us to do so.
If we cannot give you access in the manner requested, we will endeavour instead to grant access in a way that meets both of our needs.
If we cannot give you access at all, we will give you written reasons why, and advise you of the further actions you can take. For example, the Privacy Act allows us to refuse access where it would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others.

We will respond to your request for access within a reasonable period of time.

We will not charge you any fees for making a request for access to personal information. However, some fees may be incurred in providing you with access (e.g. photocopying costs).

You may request us from time to time to update and/or correct the personal information that we hold about you. Where your personal information has been disclosed to third parties, you may also request us to notify those third parties of the changes. To make these requests, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacyofficer@collinsco.com.au

We will take reasonable steps to comply with your requests, unless it is impracticable or

unlawful for us to do so.

If we refuse to correct personal information as requested, we will give you written reasons why, and advise you of the further actions that you can take.

We will respond to your correction request within a reasonable period of time.

We will not charge you any fees for making a request for correction of personal information.

We have procedures in place for dealing complaints and concerns about our practices in relation to the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. We will respond to your complaint in accordance with the relevant provisions of the APPs.

In the first instance, please contact our Privacy Officer to submit your complaint. We would like to be the first to know if you are not happy with our privacy practices. You can contact us verbally or in writing. The Privacy Officer may request you to provide certain documents and other information to fully understand your complaint and the remedy you are seeking.

Our response:

We will:

(a) confirm receipt of your complaint within 7 days; and

(b) endeavour to resolve your complaint within 30 days.

We will give you written notice of our decision in relation to your complaint.

We will also notify other interested parties of the existence and resolution of your complaint unless it is impracticable or unlawful for us to do so.

Contact details are:

Privacy Officer

Collins & Co

127 Paisley Street

Footscray VIC 3011

T: 03 9680 1000

F: 03 9689 6605

privacyofficer@collinsco.com.au

Website Policy

This privacy policy sets out how Collins & Co uses and protects any information that you give Collins & Co when you use this website.

Collins & Co is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Collins & Co may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

What we collect:

We may collect the following information:

name
contact information including email address
demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests
other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers

What we do with the information we gather:

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

Internal record keeping.
We may use the information to improve our products and services.
We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.
From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail. We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

How we use cookies:

A cookie is a small file that asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.
We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites:

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information
You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes
if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or using the contact page on this website

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.