The fresh approach to Rural Insurance - Rural Affinity

Rural Affinity Insurance Agency Pty Ltd

Privacy Policy

We understand how important it is to protect and secure your personal information. It is important to us that you are confident that any personal information we hold about you will be treated by us in a way which seeks to ensure the protection and security of your personal information.

In this Privacy Policy we outline our commitment in respect of personal information we hold about you and what we do with your personal information.

In this Privacy Policy references to “we”, “us” and “our” refer to Rural Affinity Insurance Agency Pty Ltd ABN 72 119 838 854 AFS Licence No 302182 (Rural Affinity).

Our commitment in respect of personal information is to abide by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles and any other relevant law for the protection of your personal information.

1.        What is personal information and what kind of personal information do we collect?

Personal information means information or an opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained from the information or opinion. This includes information or an opinion forming part of a database.

We only collect personal information that we need for the primary purpose(s) set out in section 3 or if required and/or permitted by law.

The kind of personal information we collect about you may include your name, date of birth, address, occupation and any other personal information we made need to identify you or provide you with our products and/or services.

2.        What is sensitive information and what kind of sensitive information do we collect?

Sensitive information is information or opinion about a person that includes information about:

  • racial or ethnic origin;
  • political opinions;
  • membership of a political association;
  • religious beliefs or affiliations;
  • philosophical beliefs;
  • membership of a professional or trade association;
  • membership of a trade union;
  • sexual preferences or practices;
  • criminal record or health information about an individual;
  • genetic information that is not health information.

Sensitive information is a subset of personal information. Special rules apply to the handling of sensitive information.

The kind of sensitive information we may collect about you may include your claims, insurance, financial, criminal offence and driving histories.

By providing us and/or our third parties with your sensitive information you consent to the use, storage and disclosure of your sensitive information as set out in this Privacy Policy.

3.        Why do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information for the purposes of:

  • providing quotes for insurance cover (including obtaining risk carrier confirmation where necessary);
  • assessing, administering and managing insurance policies;
  • responding to claims under insurance policies;
  • providing information about insurance matters;
  • dealing with brokers, risk carriers, insurer and reinsurers;
  • managing our relationship with you.

We recognise that any personal information we collect about you will only be used for these purposes, unless otherwise required or authorised by law or otherwise permitted by applicable laws.

4.        How do we collect personal information?

We collect information in a number of ways.  Where possible we will collect your personal information directly from you. However, we may also collect personal information from insurance brokers and other third parties (who may include investigators, medical advisers, and lawyers) to enable us to provide you with our services and/or products.

We may ask you to complete a proposal form to quote on a risk or a claim form to make a claim on your insurance policy. If there is insufficient information provided on the form, we may request the additional personal information from the broker by telephone or by email.

We may also collect your personal information from

We collect personal information only by lawful and fair means.

5.        To whom do we disclose personal information?

We may disclose personal information to service providers we have appointed to assist us to provide you with our products and/or services, such as loss adjusters and risk assessors and our underwriter.  They may be located in overseas countries, such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

By providing us or third parties with your personal information, you consent to the disclosure of your personal information to our underwriters and service providers in overseas countries to enable us to assess your application, to administer and manage your insurance policy including claims management and to respond to any claim that you make.

If you consent to the disclosure of your personal information to overseas recipients, and the overseas recipient handles your personal information in a way other than in accordance with the Australian privacy laws, we may not be responsible for the handling of your personal information by the overseas recipient. Our contractual arrangements with our insurers and service providers generally include an obligation for them to comply with the Australian privacy laws.

If you choose not to provide your personal information and/or choose not to consent and/or withdraw your consent to the disclosure of your personal information to overseas recipients at any stage, we may not be able to assess your application or administer and manage your insurance policy including claims management and respond to any claim that you make.

Other than as set out above, we will not disclose personal information about you to an entity which is not our underwriter or service provider or third party unless the disclosure is required or authorised by law or you have consented to us disclosing the personal information about you or we are otherwise permitted to do so under applicable laws.

6.        How do we use personal information?

We use your personal information for the purpose(s) set out in section 3 and to provide you with our products and/or services.

We do not:

  • trade, rent or sell personal information; or
  • provide personal information to anyone else without consent (unless required or authorised by law or are otherwise permitted do to so under applicable laws) other than as stated in this Privacy Policy.

We do not collect, use or disclose sensitive information without your consent unless the collection, use and disclosure are required or permitted by law or we are otherwise permitted to do so under applicable laws.

7.        How do we hold your personal information?

Personal information is stored securely in a password protected database. Encrypted back-ups of personal information are performed daily and kept securely offsite. All data is backed-up over the internet to a secure storage server and this data will be encrypted.

We keep personal information safe by limiting access to personal information to our staff who are trained in the handling of that personal information.

8.    How can you access your personal information?

You may have access to your personal information.  If you wish to request access to your personal information, you may contact our Privacy Officer on the contact details set out in section 12 of this Privacy Policy.

Please contact our Privacy Officer to arrange access to your personal information. We may charge a fee for our costs of retrieving and supplying the personal information to you.

Depending on the type of request that you make we may respond to your request immediately; otherwise we usually respond to you within a reasonable time of receiving your request.

An explanation will be provided to you if we deny you access to the personal information we hold about you.

9.        How can you update your personal information?

It is important to us that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up to date.  During the course of our relationship with you we may ask you to inform us if any of your personal information has changed.

If you wish to make any changes to your personal information, you may contact our Privacy Officer on the contact details set out in section 12 of this Privacy Policy.

If any of the personal information we hold about you is incorrect, inaccurate or out of date you may request that we correct the personal information.  If appropriate we will correct the personal information at the time of the request; otherwise, we will provide an initial response to you within a reasonable time of receiving your request. Where reasonable, and after our investigation, we will provide you with details about whether we have corrected the personal information.

An explanation will be provided to you if we do not correct your personal information we hold about you unless it would be unreasonable in the circumstances to do so. We will also tell you how to complain about our refusal to correct your personal information.

10.         How can you make a complaint?

 If you are dissatisfied with how we have dealt with your personal information, or you have a complaint about our compliance with the Privacy Act, you may contact our Privacy Officer on the contact details set out in section 12 of this Privacy Policy.

We will acknowledge your complaint within 2 business days, investigate your complaint and respond to you within 15 business days.

If for any reason you are not satisfied with our Privacy Officer’s response, you may make a complaint to the Office of the Information Commissioner on the following contacts details:

By phone – 1300 363 992

By using the Privacy Complaint Form of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

By the internet website – http://www.privacy.gov.au/

By mail – See the Office of the Information Commissioner website for postal details and warnings regarding mail and email usage.

Should you wish to read more information about the privacy legislation or the Australian Privacy Principles, we recommend that you visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s website at http://www.privacy.gov.au/.

11.  Openness

Rural Affinity will provide a hard copy of our Privacy Policy to anyone who asks for it free of charge. You may request our Privacy Policy in an alternative form by contacting our Privacy Officer on the contacts details at the end of this Privacy Policy. Our Privacy Policy is also available on Rural Affinity’s website at https://www.ruralaffinity.com.au.

12.  Further information

Please contact our Privacy Officer on the details below if you would like to update your personal information, make a complaint, obtain a copy of our Privacy Policy or have any further questions regarding the management of your personal information.

In person:
Level 7, 657 Pacific Hwy
St Leonards NSW 2065 Australia

In writing:
Privacy Officer
Rural Affinity Insurance Agency Pty Ltd
PO Box 160
St Leonards NSW 1590 Australia

By phone:       +61 (2) 9496 9300

By email:         privacy@ruralaffinity.com.au

By fax:            +61 (2) 9496 9308

13.  Changes to our Privacy Policy

We are constantly reviewing all of our policies and attempt to keep up to date with market expectations.  Technology is constantly changing, as are the law and market place practices.

As a consequence we may change this Privacy Policy from time to time or as the need arises.

This Privacy Policy came into existence on 8 October 2017 and is current at the present time.