PRIVACY POLICY

AUS Finance Group Pty Ltd (ABN 48 168 482 433) operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL 470573). AUSFIN Broker Pty Ltd (ABN 35 936 331 406) (trading as AUS Finance Group) is an authorised representative of Astute Financial Management Pty Ltd (ABN 59 093 587 010) Australian Credit Licence number 364253.

AUS Finance Group Pty Ltd and its related entities and affiliates (collectively referred to as AUS Finance Group, we, us or our) are committed to the protection of personal information that relates to you in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) as set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).

This Privacy Policy describes the manner in which we collect, hold and use information that is covered by the Privacy Act. It is not intended to cover categories of information that are not covered by the Privacy Act.

References in this Privacy Policy to “you” are references to you as an individual and/or as a representative of a company, trust or other body corporate, as applicable.

We may, from time to time, review and update this Privacy Policy including to take into account new laws, regulations and technology. All personal information held by us will be governed by our most recent Privacy Policy, as posted on our website (www.ausfinancegroup.com.au) (Website). Our most recent Privacy Policy will apply to our collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information.

You accept this Privacy Policy and expressly consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy by using our Website, or any of our products and services or by other communications with us.

1. What kind of information do we collect and hold?

We may collect and hold Personal Information about you such as your name, date of birth, contact details (including your address, phone numbers and emails, whether personal or for work), financial information, bank account details, or tax file number, and your preferences for certain products and services information. We may also collect Personal Information that you submit to us via the Website, email, any other written communication including investor and loan application forms and the investor portal, although we do not require you to give us Personal Information to access certain public areas of our Website. “Personal Information” may comprise any information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information is true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not.

2. Why do we collect Personal Information?

We collect Personal Information directly or indirectly from clients, investors, borrowers, loan brokers, employees, contractors and other individuals that is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities, including: in order to allow us to conduct our business functions, to meet any regulatory requirements which apply to our business, to promote and sell our products and services, including the promotion, distribution and investor relations support of third party investment product and service providers; to improve our products, services and our marketing; and to conduct employee related activities.

In some circumstances we are also required to collect information in accordance with laws that apply to our business. In particular, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) requires us to collect personal information about investment or mortgage applicants when verifying their identities.

If you cannot or choose not to provide your Personal Information to us, we may not be able to undertake certain activities for you, such as providing you with requested information, products or services.

3. Collecting Personal Information

3.1 When and how do we collect your information?

We collect Personal Information directly from you when you: visit our Website, supply products or services to us or acquire products or services from us, request information about us or our products or services, provide feedback, respond to a survey, change your content or email preferences, enter into an agreement or contract with us, fill in a form on our Website or in any other way, or make a request for products or services (including an application for an account with us or an application to participate in a promotion), when you apply to or become an employee of AUS Finance Group, or otherwise contact us by telephone, facsimile, email, post or in person.

If you provide Personal Information about other individuals to us, you acknowledge that, in doing so, you have complied with your obligations under the Privacy Act and relevant State and Territory legislation relating to the collection and disclosure of that Personal Information.

3.2 Do we collect information about you in other ways?

We may also collect Personal Information about you via third parties including from our network of investment product and service providers. In some circumstances we may receive Personal Information that we have not requested. If this occurs, we will comply with our obligations under the Privacy Act. You acknowledge that we may de-identify and/or destroy this information unless we are required to keep it by law.

4. Information collected via our Website

4.1 Website terms of use

This Privacy Policy, together with our Website usage terms and conditions (Website Terms of Use), govern how we use, collect or disclose Personal Information provided on our Website. By using the Website you agree to the terms and conditions contained in this Privacy Policy and the Website Terms of Use, located on our Website.

We will not collect any Personal Information about users of our Website except when they knowingly provide it. For example, we may collect Personal Information from users of the Website when they complete an online form, including registering to receive investment updates, promotional material or other information; and/or otherwise correspond with us.

4.2 Website Host Click Stream Data

When you visit and browse our Website, our Website host may collect Personal Information for statistical, reporting and maintenance purposes. Generally, the Personal Information collected by our Website host will not be used to identify you. The information may include: the number of users visiting our Website and the number of pages viewed; the date, time and duration of a visit; the IP address of your computer; or the path taken through our Website.

Our Website host may use this information to administer and improve the performance of our Website, including to assist with the diagnosis of and to provide support for any issues with our Website or services.

4.3 Advertising

If we decide to use Google and/or other third-party service providers to serve ads on our behalf across the Internet and sometimes on our Website, then they may collect anonymous information about your visits to our Website (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number), and your interaction with our products and services. They may also use information about your visits to the Website and other websites to target advertisements for goods and services in order to provide more relevant advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.

4.4 Links to external websites

If you follow any links to third party external websites from our Website, the Privacy Policy and the Website Terms of Use will not apply to those websites which may have their own policies relating to privacy and data collection and website usage. If you choose to access any linked website or to provide any Personal Information on such websites you should review their policies and terms of use to learn more about how they may use your Personal Information. We are not responsible for and will not be liable for the operations or policies of any third party external website.

5. Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are transferred to a user’s computer hard drive by a website for the purpose of storing information about a user’s identity, browser type or website visiting patterns.

If we do use cookies, then the use of cookies will be to: provide products and services that you request; provide a secure online environment; improve and manage our customer relationships; provide you a personalised online browsing experience; and to track our Website performance.

When cookies are enabled by us, a cookie is downloaded onto your computer’s hard drive when you access our Website. A cookie cannot read data off your hard disk or read other cookie files created by other sites.

You may elect to delete cookies relating to the Website, in which event the Website will not remember things about you and therefore you will be treated as a first-time visitor next time you access the Website. Similarly, if you elect to not receive cookies while browsing the Website, you can set your browser to warn you about accepting cookies and then refuse the cookie when your browser alerts you to its presence.

You can adjust your internet browser to disable cookies, however we may not be able to provide you with all the service or functionality you require on our Website if you choose to do so.

6. How we use Personal Information we collect about you?

We use the Personal Information we collect about you for the primary purpose of our business functions and activities, which may include the following:

• to provide you with information, products or services you have requested, including about investment products or services provided by third parties or about loans that we provide to borrowers;
• to provide you with an investor account and any services to manage and set up your account;
• to promote and market our products and services to you, including to communicate with you via SMS or email;
• to personalise and customise your experiences on our Website;
• to help us research the needs of our clients and investors and for the purposes of improving existing products or services or creating new products;
• to conduct research for the purposes of improving existing products or services or creating new products or services;
• to provide you with ongoing information about us and our activities;
• to allow us to provide third party information and offers in which we believe you may be interested;
• to comply with regulatory or other legal requirements;
• for purposes related to the recruitment and employment of our personnel and providing internal services to our staff; and
• for any other use required or permitted by law or any other purpose communicated to you at the time that the Personal Information was collected or for which you provided your consent.

We may use your Personal Information for a secondary purpose if that secondary purpose is related to the purposes listed above, if we have your consent or if otherwise provided for under the Privacy Act.

Generally, we will only collect and use your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. In the event that we collect or use Personal Information in ways other than as stated in this Privacy Policy, we will ensure that we do so in accordance with the Privacy Act.

We may use your Personal Information to provide you with direct marketing materials if you would reasonably expect us to or if you consent to receive direct marketing materials. We will seek your consent to provide you with direct marketing materials if we have obtained your Personal Information from a third party. Direct marketing material may include promotional material about us or the products or services we offer. You may opt out of receiving direct marketing material by contacting us in any of the ways specified in the direct marketing materials or as set out in clause 13.

7. When and to whom do we disclose your Personal Information?

7.1 Who do we disclose your Personal Information to?

Depending on the nature of your relationship with us, we may disclose your Personal Information to our shareholders, officers and employees, other businesses within our group of companies, service providers who assist us in our business operations and recruitment activities (including third party service providers based overseas), government agencies, parties involved in the purchase or sale of any of our businesses, other third parties, (including parties that we engage to process orders for our products, provide you with services on our behalf or who are connected with or involved in our relationship with you), or otherwise as required by law.

7.2 Service providers

We may also disclose your Personal Information to our Website host or service providers in certain limited circumstances, for example when our Website experiences a technical problem or to ensure that it operates in an effective and secure manner. To the extent that we do share your Personal Information with a service provider, we would only do so if that party has agreed to comply with our privacy standards as described in this Privacy Policy.

We may also share non-personal, de-identified and aggregated information for research or promotional purposes in connection with providing requested information or services to you, or for the purpose of improving our services. We will not sell your Personal Information to third parties for marketing purposes.

Unless otherwise specified in this Privacy Policy, we or our Website host will not disclose any of your Personal Information to any other organisation unless the disclosure is required by law, is otherwise permitted by the Privacy Act, or is with your consent.

7.3 Disclosure of your Personal Information overseas

Your Personal Information may be disclosed outside of Australia to an entity, or third party provider, in a foreign country (Overseas Entities). It is possible that the Overseas Entities may be subject to foreign laws that do not provide the same level of protection of information as in Australia. We take reasonable steps to ensure that these Overseas Entities do not breach the APPs and that they are obliged to protect the privacy and security of your Personal Information and use it only for the purpose for which it is disclosed.

8. Employee Records

Employee records are generally not subject to the Privacy Act. As such this Privacy Policy may not apply to the handling of employee related information. Please contact us directly for information about our employee information handling practices.

9. Storage and security of Personal Information held by us

We will take reasonable steps to protect your Personal Information from misuse, interference and loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We aim to keep your Personal Information secure and up to date. We will comply with our obligations under the Privacy Act in relation to any Personal Information that we handle, including information which is held on our computer systems. Personal Information that is held by us is stored securely and is only disclosed or used for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

The Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme (NDB Scheme) in Part IIIC of the Privacy Act sets out obligations for notifying affected individuals, and the Australian Information Commissioner (Commissioner), about a data breach which is likely to result in serious harm. Where serious harm to affected individuals is likely, we will notify those individuals and the Commissioner in accordance with our legal obligations. You may contact our Privacy Officer via the contact details below should you require additional information.

10. Updating and correcting your Personal Information

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the Personal Information that we hold is accurate, up-to-date and complete. You can update your Personal Information at any time by contacting us in any of the ways specified in clause 13. We welcome any changes to your Personal Information so as to keep our records up to date.

11. How long will we keep your Personal Information?

We will keep your Personal Information only for as long as required for our business purposes and otherwise as required by Australian law. Where we no longer need to keep your Personal Information, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your Personal Information. If you wish to have your Personal Information destroyed or de-identified, please let us know and we will take reasonable steps to do so (unless we need to keep it for legal, auditing or internal risk management reasons, or as otherwise required by law). Generally, any Personal Information in our client files are kept for a maximum of seven (7) years.

12. Finding out what Personal Information we hold about you

You are entitled to access Personal Information that we hold about you. If you request access to your Personal Information, we will grant your request unless providing you with access would unreasonably impact upon the privacy of others or is not otherwise permitted under the Australian Privacy Principles or at law. If we refuse your request to access your Personal Information, we will provide you with written reasons for the refusal. A request for access can be made by contacting us in any of the ways specified in clause 13.

13. How to contact us, find out more information or make a complaint?

If you feel that your privacy has not been respected or that we have conducted ourselves inconsistently with this Privacy Policy, the Australian Privacy Principles, a registered APP Code and/or the Privacy Act in respect of your Personal Information, or for any other queries, problems, complaints or communication in relation to this Privacy Policy, please contact us in any of the following ways:

Email
info@ausfinancegroup.com.au

Post
The Privacy Officer
AUS Finance Group Pty Ltd
Level 7, 256 Queen Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

You can also find out more information about the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. The Commissioner may be contacted at www.oaic.gov.au or by email at enquiries@oaic.gov.au.

Version 5; last updated: November 2024