Privacy policy

1. Introduction

We recognise the importance of ensuring the confidentiality and security of your personal information.

We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles ('APPs') and the Privacy Act 1988 ('Privacy Act'). This Privacy Policy and Collection Statement ('Policy') outlines our practices, procedures and systems to manage and protect your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act and the APPs.

This Policy applies to the following entities:

• ThinkPrivate Pty Ltd (ACN 679 799 234)
• ThinkPrivate Operations Pty Ltd (ACN 694 635 240)
• ThinkPrivate Holdings Pty Ltd (ACN 697 634 781)

These entities are collectively referred to in this Policy as 'ThinkPrivate', 'we', 'our' or 'us'.

All third parties (including clients, suppliers, sub-contractors, or agents) that have access to or use personal information collected and held by ThinkPrivate must abide by this Privacy Policy and Collection Statement (Privacy Policy). ThinkPrivate makes this Privacy Policy available free of charge at https://www.thinkprivate.com.au/assets/hero/thinkprivate-private-policy.pdf.

In this Privacy Policy:

• Credit information means personal information about you that relates to your credit history, including (but not limited to) information which relates to your repayment history, consumer credit liabilities, default information, court proceedings and insolvency information.
• Credit reporting information means credit information or information derived by a credit reporting body (CRB) from credit information about you held by the CRB that has a bearing on your credit worthiness and can be used to establish your eligibility for consumer credit.
• Disclosure of information means providing information to persons outside of ThinkPrivate.
• Personal information means information or an opinion relating to an individual, which can be used to identify that individual.
• Privacy Officer means the contact person within ThinkPrivate for questions or complaints regarding ThinkPrivate's handling of personal information.
• Sensitive information is personal information that includes information relating to a person's racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional or trade association membership, sexual preferences and criminal record, and also includes health information.
• Use of information means use of information within ThinkPrivate.

2. What kind of personal information do we collect and hold?

We may collect and hold a range of personal information about you to provide you with our services, including:

• name;
• date of birth;
• residential, business and postal addresses;
• phone numbers;
• email addresses;
• residency status;
• dependents;
• employment, occupation and/or company officeholder information;
• details about your professional licences, memberships, accreditations or qualifications;
• marital status;
• banking or credit card details required for processing payment;
• property title, ownership and transfer details;
• property information about a security property or a property you own or are financing, including lot and plan identifiers, land size, zoning, planning controls and overlays, hazard and environmental indicators, planning permit records, and street-level, satellite and map imagery;
• details about your driver's licence and other identification documents;
• financial information, including details of: credit information; credit reporting information; shareholdings; financial history; your investments; your other assets; your loans and other liabilities; your cashflows, income and expenses; insurance information; taxation information; and superannuation information.

3. How do we collect personal information?

We generally collect personal information directly from you. This may take place in a number of ways, such as when you:

• set up a profile or accreditation on our website;
• submit a loan enquiry or application;
• subscribe to our newsletters or other updates;
• complete a contact form on our website;
• comment or interact with our social media accounts;
• provide us with completed agreements or loan documents;
• provide us with payment details;
• apply to join our lender or broker panel or otherwise do business with us;
• provide us with feedback or submit a complaint;
• apply for a job with us; or
• call us or send us correspondence.

If the personal information we request is not provided by you, we may not be able to provide you with the benefit of our services or meet your needs appropriately. For example, we will be unable to arrange commercial finance for your business if you do not fully and accurately complete the relevant loan application form.

Third party suppliers

We may also collect personal information about you or properties you own from a third party, such as lenders, brokers, business advisers, electronic verification services, referrers, your colleagues or employer, and marketing agencies. Your clients might also provide us with your personal information. For example, brokers may provide us with the contact details of their client’s accountant or solicitor when completing our online forms. We may also source publicly available information from third parties including CRBs, real estate listing portals, real estate agents, government departments or agencies, local councils and authorities. If we collect personal information about you from third parties, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of this Privacy Policy.

When a property address is entered on the ThinkPrivate Platform, we also collect property information about that address from third party property data providers, including Landchecker Pty Ltd, which in turn sources data from Australian State, Territory and Commonwealth government bodies and other licensors. We separately collect street-level imagery, satellite imagery and map content from Google. To do so, the property address is sent to those providers. We retain that property information in connection with the relevant loan scenario, and it may be included in loan scenario summaries we provide to lenders by email and through lender dashboards.

Sensitive information

We will not collect sensitive information about you without your consent, unless an exemption in the APPs applies. These exceptions include if the collection is required or authorised by law, or necessary to take appropriate action in relation to suspected unlawful activity or serious misconduct.

Use of pseudonyms

We do not give you the option of dealing with us anonymously, or under a pseudonym. This is because it is impractical, and, in some circumstances, illegal for ThinkPrivate to deal with individuals who are not identified.

4. Unsolicited personal information

We may receive unsolicited personal information about you. We destroy or de-identify all unsolicited personal information we receive, unless it is relevant to our purposes for collecting personal information. We may retain additional information we receive about you if it is combined with other information we are required or entitled to collect. If we do this, we will retain the information in the same way we hold your other personal information.

5. Who do we collect personal information about?

The personal information we may collect and hold includes (but is not limited to) personal information about:

• individuals with a connection to a lender, borrower or broker that uses our service (for example, an officeholder of a corporate borrower or guarantor);
• individuals with a connection to a security property (for example, the contact person for a valuation inspection);
• lenders, brokers, accountants, solicitors or other individuals who provide services to borrowers (or individuals connected to the relevant borrower);
• visitors to our website;
• service providers or suppliers;
• prospective employees, employees and contractors; and
• other third parties with whom we come into contact.

6. Website collection

We collect personal information when we receive completed online generated forms via our website www.thinkprivate.com.au. We may also use third parties to analyse traffic at that website, which may involve the use of cookies. Information collected through such analysis is anonymous.

Use of cookies

We use cookies on our website to store user preferences, improve website performance, understand how users interact with our website, to compile aggregate data about our website traffic, including where our website visitors are located, and improve functionality of our website, so that we can offer better user experiences. We will delete all data obtained through cookies every 24 hours.

Cookies do not contain personal information but can be used to identify a person when combined with other information. Cookies are small text files which are transferred to your computer's hard drive through your web browser that enables our website to recognise your browser and capture and remember certain information.

You can withdraw or modify your consent to our use of cookies at any time. If you no longer wish to accept cookies, you can use your web browser settings to accept, refuse, adjust and delete cookies. To do this, follow the instructions provided by your browser. Please note that if you set your browser to refuse cookies, you may not be able to use all of the features of our website.

Use of analytics

We do not currently use third party analytics on the site. If we use other third party analytics services in the future, we will not pass any personally identifiable information through this function. However, the data collected may be combined with other information which may be identifiable to you.

7. Why do we collect and hold personal information?

We may use and disclose the information we collect about you for the following purposes:

• provide our services, including: displaying or updating information on our website; assessing commercial credit eligibility, credit risk and different commercial finance options that may be available; providing advice about commercial finance options; introducing lenders, brokers and borrowers; facilitating applications for and arranging commercial finance; arranging loan and legal documentation; assisting with loan settlement processes; information sharing with your broker or advisers
• set up and update your user profile on our website
• train or refine our algorithms, calculators or artificial intelligence tools
• verify your identity
• obtain your credit report from a CRB on your behalf
• complete document verification and other due diligence checks
• review and meet your ongoing needs
• provide you with information we believe may be relevant or of interest to you
• let you know about other products or services offered by us or our commercial partners, send you information about special offers or invite you to events
• enable our commercial partners to contact you about their products or services
• consider any concerns or complaints you may have
• comply with relevant laws, regulations and other legal obligations
• help us improve the products and services offered to our customers and enhance our overall business.

We may use and disclose your personal information for any of these purposes. We may also use and disclose your personal information for secondary purposes which are related to the primary purposes set out above, or in other circumstances authorised by the Privacy Act.

Sensitive information will be used and disclosed only for the purpose for which it was provided (or a directly related secondary purpose), unless you agree otherwise, or an exemption in the Privacy Act applies.

If a lender requires us to verify your identity for the purposes of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), you may ask us to provide an alternative means of identify verification by contacting ThinkPrivate's Privacy Officer – see section 20 of this Privacy Policy for contact details.

8. Automated decision making

We use a computer program that analyses various data sources to determine the loans that are displayed for a particular borrowing scenario on the platform. Most of this data does not relate to individuals. For example, users will input information about the loan amount, secured property and borrower's ACN.

However, personal information about officeholders of corporate borrowers or guarantors may be used in the operation of the computer program at times. In particular, credit information about guarantors is used by the computer program, in conjunction with other data sources, to determine the loans that will be displayed for the particular borrowing scenario on the website.

The loans that the computer program decides to display on the platform may substantially and directly impact the loan that is applied for by the borrower, which in turn could affect the rights or interests of the guarantor of that loan.

9. Who might we disclose personal information to?

We may disclose personal information (including credit reporting information and credit information) to:

• other members of the ThinkPrivate corporate group;
• other guarantors, directors or borrowers;
• anybody who represents you, such as financial consultants, accountants, lawyers, finance brokers and advisers;
• referrers who introduce you to us;
• lenders, including (where necessary) related bodies corporate and service providers of lenders;
• brokers, solicitors, accountants, valuers or other service providers that are (or may be) involved in arranging and securing finance;
• a CRB to obtain your credit report;
• an associate, agent, contractor or service provider we engage to carry out our functions and activities, such as our lawyers, accountants, debt collectors or other advisers;
• our customer relationship management (CRM) software provider Salesforce, and add-on applications that are used with this software;
• organisations involved in a transfer or sale of all or part of our assets or business;
• organisations involved in managing payments, including payment merchants and other financial institutions such as banks;
• regulatory bodies, government agencies, law enforcement bodies and courts; or
• third party property data providers and imagery and mapping providers, when we search a property address in order to retrieve property information for a loan scenario;
• other persons or bodies as required by law.

If we disclose your personal information to service providers that perform business activities for us, they may only use your personal information for the specific purpose for which we supply it. We will ensure that all contractual arrangements with third parties adequately address privacy issues, and we will make third parties aware of this Privacy Policy.

We may also disclose personal information where you have expressly authorised the disclosure. For example, if you consent to us disclosing your personal information to our commercial partners so they can let you know about their products and services.

10. Sending information overseas

We may disclose personal information to lenders (including lenders' related bodies corporate or service providers), software providers and cloud storage providers that are located outside Australia in some circumstances. This includes property data providers and imagery and mapping providers (such as Google) to whom we send a property address in order to retrieve property information, and providers of information technology infrastructure used to host that information.

It is not practical to list all of the countries in which personal information is likely to be disclosed, however, they are likely to include:

• Malaysia
• United States of America
• United Kingdom
• Singapore
• certain countries in the European Union.

We will not send personal information to recipients outside of Australia unless:

• we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient does not breach the Act and the APPs;
• the recipient is subject to an information privacy scheme similar to the Privacy Act; or
• the individual has consented to the disclosure.

If you consent to your personal information being disclosed to an overseas recipient, and the recipient breaches the APPs, we will not be accountable for that breach under the Privacy Act, and you will not be able to seek redress under the Privacy Act.

11. Management of personal information

We recognise the importance of securing the personal information of our customers. We will take steps to ensure your personal information is protected from misuse, interference or loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including technical and organisational measures.

Your personal information is generally stored in our computer database, including our cloud storage databases. Any paper files are stored in secure areas. In relation to information that is held on our computer database, we apply the following guidelines:

• passwords are required to access the system, and passwords are routinely checked;
• data ownership is clearly defined;
• we change employees’ access capabilities when they are assigned to a new position;
• employees have restricted access to certain sections of the system;
• unauthorised employees are barred from updating and editing personal information;
• all computers which contain personal information are secured both physically and electronically; and
• printing of documents containing personal information is limited.

Where our employees work remotely or from home, we implement the following additional security measures:

• password complexity is enforced, and employees are required to change their password at regular intervals;
• we ensure that employees only have access to personal information which is directly relevant to their duties;
• we monitor access to personal information, and will investigate and take appropriate action if any instances of unauthorised access by employees are detected;
• employees must ensure that no other member of their household uses their work device;
• employees must store devices in a safe location when not in use;
• employees may not make hard copies of documents containing personal information, nor may they email documents containing personal information to their personal email accounts; and
• employees may not disclose an individual's personal information to colleagues or third parties via personal chat groups.

12. Direct marketing

We may only use personal information we collect from you for the purposes of direct marketing without your consent if:

• the personal information does not include sensitive information;
• you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose the information for the purpose of direct marketing;
• we provide a simple way of opting out of direct marketing; and
• you have not requested to opt out of receiving direct marketing from us.

If we collect personal information about you from a third party, we will only use that information for the purposes of direct marketing if you have consented (or it is impracticable to obtain your consent), and we will provide a simple means by which you can easily request not to receive direct marketing communications from us. We will draw your attention to the fact you may make such a request in our direct marketing communications.

We may disclose your personal information for the purposes of facilitating direct marketing by other organisations if you consent for us to do so.

You have the right to request us not to use or disclose your personal information for the purposes of direct marketing, or for the purposes of facilitating direct marketing by other organisations. We must give effect to the request within a reasonable period of time. You may also request that we provide you with the source of their information. If such a request is made, we must notify you of the source of the information free of charge within a reasonable period of time.

13. Contractual arrangements with third parties

We ensure that all contractual arrangements with third parties adequately address privacy issues, and we make third parties aware of this Privacy Policy.

Third parties will be required to implement policies in relation to the management of your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act. These policies include:

• regulating the collection, use and disclosure of personal and sensitive information;
• de-identifying personal and sensitive information wherever possible;
• ensuring that personal and sensitive information is kept securely, with access to it only by authorised employees or agents of the third parties; and
• ensuring that the personal and sensitive information is only disclosed to organisations which are approved by us.

14. Identifiers

We do not adopt identifiers assigned by the Government (such as drivers' licence numbers) for our own file recording purposes, unless one of the exemptions in the Privacy Act applies.

15. How do we keep personal information accurate and up-to-date?

We are committed to ensuring that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is relevant, accurate, complete and up-to-date. Please note that if we have collected your personal information as part of the loan application process (for example, in a loan application form), we rely on you or your broker to ensure that this information is accurate.

We encourage you to contact us to update any personal information we hold about you, including by updating your account information on our website or contacting us directly if any information provided during the loan application process has changed. If we correct information that has previously been disclosed to another entity, we will notify the other entity within a reasonable period of the correction. Where we are satisfied information is inaccurate, we will take reasonable steps to correct the information within 30 days, unless you agree otherwise. We do not charge you for correcting the information.

16. Accessing your personal information

Subject to the exceptions set out in the Privacy Act, you may gain access to the personal information that we hold about you by contacting the ThinkPrivate Privacy Officer. We will provide access within 30 days of the individual’s request. If we refuse to provide the information, we will provide reasons for the refusal.

We will require identity verification and specification of what information is required. An administrative fee for search and photocopying costs may be charged for providing access.

17. Updates to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, and changes to our operations and the business environment. When we update this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by email or posting an update on our website.

18. Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of management to inform employees and other relevant third parties about this Privacy Policy. Management must ensure that employees and other relevant third parties are advised of any changes to this Privacy Policy. All new employees are to be provided with timely and appropriate access to this Privacy Policy, and all employees are provided with training in relation to appropriate handling of personal information. Employees or other relevant third parties that do not comply with this Privacy Policy may be subject to disciplinary action.

19. Non-compliance and disciplinary actions

Privacy breaches must be reported to management by employees and relevant third parties. Ignorance of this Privacy Policy will not be an acceptable excuse for non-compliance. Employees or other relevant third parties that do not comply with this Privacy Policy may be subject to disciplinary action.

20. Making a complaint

We have an effective complaint handling process in place to manage privacy risks and issues.

The complaints handling process involves:

• identifying (and addressing) any systemic/ongoing compliance problems;
• increasing consumer confidence in our privacy procedures; and
• helping to build and preserve our reputation and business.

You can make a complaint to us about the treatment or handling of your personal information by lodging a complaint with the Privacy Officer.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or wish to make a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, you can lodge a complaint with us by:

• writing – Privacy Officer, Suite 1.07, 341 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000
• phone – +61 2 9466 5391
• emailing – info@thinkprivate.com.au

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you can also refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by:

• telephoning – 1300 363 992
• writing – Director of Complaints, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, GPO Box 5218, SYDNEY NSW 2001
• online submission – https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/landing.htm?formCode=APC_PC

21. Your rights

This Privacy Policy contains information about how:

• you may access the personal information we hold about you;
• you may seek the correction of your personal information;
• you may ask us to provide an alternative means of identity verification for the purposes of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth);
• you may complain about a breach of the Privacy Act, including the APPs; and
• we will deal with a privacy complaint.