PRIVACY POLICY

 

1.       Your privacy is important to us so we've made a commitment to protect it.

We recognise the importance of securing your personal information. This document outlines our privacy commitment in terms of the personal information we collect about you and how we use it. In relation to personal information we are committed to following the Privacy Principles outlined in the Privacy Act 2020 (the Privacy Act), or any successor legislation, as well as all other applicable laws.

 

2. Your agreement

You consent to the collection, use, storage, and disclosure of personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy if you supply us with personal information or engage our services.

 

3. Who are we in this document?

Whiting Financial Services is referred to as "us", "we," and "our" in this Privacy Policy.

 

4.  What kind of personal data do we gather?

This may contain information such as your name, date of birth, contact information, address, occupation, and account information. When we talk about personal information we're referring to information that can be used to identify you. We may also collect personal information about your financial condition or ambitions so that we can recommend finance and mortgage products on which we are authorised to advise ( “Products” ).

 

5. What happens if the Privacy Policy changes?

 

Provided that the changes are not detrimental to you we may change our Privacy Policy and an updated version will be published to reflect current changes in our business needs as well as changes in the law. You will be deemed to have understood and accepted these new policies if you continue to engage with our services.

 

6. What is the purpose of collecting your personal information?

We collect your personal information for the purposes of providing services to you and liaising with relevant third parties in relation to those services. (See section 7 below: “Who else will have access to my personal information?’ for further information on who we share your personal information with).

 

Information collection assists us to:

  •           help with any relevant requests and queries;
  •           offer services to you (for example, to allow us to make Product recommendations that we think will benefit you);
  •          send you information and direct marketing about products and services we feel you could benefit from or that could be of interest to you (either by mail, phone, or electronic methods, such as email and SMS);
  • Lenders, insurers, and other providers of Products that you choose to apply for may require additional personal information (for example, credit information and address information) and we may collect this information on their behalf. These third parties will have their own Privacy Policies in place which will apply to the information we collect on their behalf.

 

7. Who else will have access to my personal information?

  •  If we believe it is essential for the purposes outlined in Section 6 above we may share your personal information with the following organisations
  •             NZ Financial Services Group (“NZFSG”) and its affiliated corporations;
  •           our referral partners who may be able to assist you with further services;
  •           Product Providers and other prospective lenders, third parties or other intermediaries, in relation to your finance or insurance requirements (including a prospective lender’s mortgage insurer (if any), any person with whom a lender or insurer proposes to enter into contractual arrangements, any person who provides a guarantee or security, and any trustee and any assignee or potential assignee of a lender’s or insurer’s rights);
  •          contractors or service providers;
  •           investors, or any entity that has an interest in our business or any entity to whom we consider assigning or transferring any of our rights or obligations or selling all or part of our business;
  •           anyone who we are legally required or authorised to share your information with, including regulators and government agencies;
  •          auditors (such as NZFSG) to ensure we are providing services to you that are in your best interests and in accordance with current regulations;
  •          your employer and referees as well as credit reporting and identity verification agencies; and
  •          any other person or entity authorised by you or the Privacy Act.

 

8.  How do we collect your personal information?

 

Generally we will collect your personal information directly from you.  For example we collect your personal information directly from your use of our website and the information that you submit to the website or you provide the personal information during conversations with us. We may also collect your personal information from:

 

  •           NZFSG and its related bodies corporate;
  •           credit reporting agencies;
  •           with your authorisation, banks (e.g. through the use of Illion Bank Statements) and employers;
  •           Product Providers (e.g. during the term of any loan or insurance we have arranged on your behalf, in order to answer your queries or assist you with your financial arrangements as your circumstances change). If applicable the Product Providers may also periodically disclose your loan balance or premium to us in connection with the payment of ongoing commission to us over the term of your loan or insurance; and
  •           any other person authorised by you or the Privacy Act. If you provide any personal information about anyone else to us you confirm that you have collected that personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act and that the individual concerned has:
    - authorised the disclosure to us and the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy; and
    - authorised the disclosure to us and the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy; and
    - has been informed of their right to access and request correction of their personal information.

 

9. Updating your personal information

If any of your details change please let us know as soon as possible by contacting us as we will generally rely on you to ensure the information we hold about you is accurate.

 

10. Do we disclose your personal information to anyone outside New Zealand?

We may use cloud storage to store the personal information we hold about you. The cloud storage and the IT servers may be located outside New Zealand. We may also disclose personal information to NZFSG and its related bodies corporate, and third party suppliers and service providers located overseas for some of the purposes listed above.

 

11. Our Website

 

Cookies and IP addresses

When you access our website, we may send a “cookie” (which is a small summary file containing a unique ID number) to your computer. This enables us to recognise your computer each time you visit our website. We also use cookies to measure traffic patterns, to determine which areas of our website have been visited, to measure transaction patterns, to analyse trends, administer the website, track users’ movements and gather broad demographic information. We use this to research our users’ habits so that we can improve our website and our service offering. Our cookies may record information such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address (that is, the electronic addresses of computers connected to the internet), your device and browser type, operating system, the pages or features of our site to which you have browsed and the time spent on those pages or features, the frequency with which the site is used by you, the search terms that you have used, the links on our site that a you have clicked on or used, and other usage statistics. While our cookies do not collect personal information, if you submit your name and email address as part of your usage, then we will link that personal information with the cookies information that we have previously collected from you. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set your browser so that your computer does not accept them.

 

Security

As our website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any assurance regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online. We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk. Links and third party advertisements Our website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. Our website may also display advertisements, which are hosted by third parties.

 

We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party website or advertisement providers and we are not responsible for other privacy policies or the content of any third party website or advertisements. Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices. Our online advertising network partner may use cookies, web beacons or other web tracking techniques to collect non-personally identifiable information about your activities on the website and other websites that you may visit to provide you targeted advertising based upon your interests.

 

12. Is it necessary for you to provide us with personal information?

You are not obligated to provide us with any personal information, but failing to do so may limit our ability to provide services to you and your ability to acquire finance and other products from Product providers. In most cases we'll need to be able to identify you in order to do business with you successfully. However, where it is lawful and practicable to do so, we will offer you the opportunity of doing business with us without providing Whiting Financial Services Limited with personal information. For example, if you make general inquiries about interest rates or current promotional offers, you may choose to interact with our website anonymously. However we will not be able to contact you unless you provide your personal information.

 

13. Access and correction to your personal information

You may contact us at any time to seek access to and request correction of any personal information we hold on you. We may charge a fee to cover our reasonable costs of acquiring and providing you with the information.

 

14. Additional information

Please contact us if you have any queries about our Privacy Policy or your personal information.

 

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 30 September 2021.