About this policy
PPM Finance seeks to provide the best possible service to its customers by providing the best possible range of financial products and services. We understand how important it is to protect your personal information. This document sets out our commitment in respect of the information we hold about you and what we do with that information. In this document, ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ refer to PPM Finance and our related businesses (ABN 42 607 695 634, Australian Credit Representative Number 481728 full member of Connective).

Our commitment to your privacy
PPM Finance is serious about the privacy of your information. Any personal information collected about you will only be used for the purposes for which it has been collected, or as permitted under the law, and any personal information that we hold about you will be managed to ensure its protection. We abide by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), Part IIA of the Privacy Act and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014.

Definitions
Certain words have particular meanings when used in our privacy policy. Personal information means information from which you can reasonably be identified. This can include an opinion. Personal information includes your name, date of birth, address, account details, occupation, and any other information we made need to identify you. Credit-related information includes:

• Credit information. Credit information means information from which you can be identified and includes:
• The type, terms and maximum amount of credit provided to you, including when that credit was provided and when it was repaid
• Payment information and information relating to repayments, defaults and overdue payments
• Information relating to new arrangements, serious credit infringements, personal insolvency and court proceedings
• Publicly available information
• Credit eligibility information. Credit eligibility information means credit reporting information provided by a credit reporting agency, and any information that we derive from it.

Collection and use of information
We will only collect personal information, which is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, our functions or activities. We collect and exchange personal and credit-related information for the purposes of assessing your application for finance and managing that finance. If you are applying for finance, we may also collect information about:

• The numbers and ages of any dependants that you may have, as well as information about any other cohabitants.
• The length of time at your current address, your employment details and proof of earnings and expenses.

If you are applying for an insurance product, we may collect your health information. We will only collect health information from you with your consent. We may also collect your personal information for the purposes of direct marketing and managing our relationship with you. For more information, see “Direct marketing”.

Sensitive information
Sensitive information includes information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, political persuasion, memberships in trade or professional associations or trade unions, sexual preferences, criminal record and health. We will only collect sensitive information about you with your consent.

How we collect your information
Wherever possible, we will collect your personal information directly from you. This information will normally come from the information you provide in your application for one of our products or services and supporting documentation. We may also collect information from credit reporting bodies and from financial brokers and other people, such as accountants and lawyers. This information may include repayment history information. When we obtain credit eligibility information from a credit reporting body, we may also seek publicly-available information and information about any serious credit infringement that you may have committed.

Storage
Personal and credit-related information may be stored by us in electronic form on our secure servers and may also be held in paper form.

Disclosure
In general, we will not disclose your personal information for purposes other than:

• As set out in this privacy policy.
• Those that you would reasonably expect.
• As permitted or required by law.
• As otherwise disclosed to you to which you have consented.

We may disclose your personal information to other organisations, including:

• Prospective funders or other intermediaries regarding your finance requirements.
• Organisations that are involved in managing or administering your finance such as third party suppliers, call centres, lenders, mortgage insurers, trade insurers and credit reporting bodies.
• Companies that provide information and infrastructure systems to us.
• Investors, agents or advisers, or any entity that has an interest in your finance or our business.

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by sufficient confidentiality and privacy obligations with respect to the protection of your personal information. In addition, we may disclose your personal information where we are authorised to do so by law, such as under the Anti-Money or Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth). Where you have provided your express consent, we may also disclose your personal information to any other person, organisation or body. This may include:

• Your employer, referees or identity verification services.
• Your representatives, such as finance brokers, lawyers, and accountants.
• Organisations that provide products or services used or marketed by us.
• Associated businesses that may want to market products to you.

Notifiable matters
This section provides information about the credit reporting bodies to whom we may disclose your credit information, as well as information about certain rights you have in relation to your credit information. Under the Privacy Act and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code, credit reporting bodies are allowed to manage personal information relating to your credit. We exchange your credit-related information with credit reporting bodies. We use the credit-related information that we exchange with the credit reporting body to assess your creditworthiness, assess your application for finance and for managing your finance. The credit reporting bodies that we deal with are:

• Veda (veda.com.au)
• Dun & Bradstreet (dnb.com.au)
• Experian (experian.com.au)

If you do not to meet your payment obligations in relation to any finance that we have provided or arranged, or you have committed a serious credit infringement, then we may disclose this information to a credit reporting body. You have the right to request access to the credit-related information that we hold about you and may request that we correct that information if required. For more information, see “Accessing and updating your personal and credit information” on page 4. Sometimes your credit information will be used by credit reporting bodies for the purposes of ‘pre‑screening’ credit offers on the request of other credit providers. You can ask credit reporting bodies not to use your credit information in this way. Also, you can ask credit reporting bodies not to use or disclose your personal information if you have reasonable grounds to believe that you have been (or are likely to be) the victim of fraud, including identity fraud. Credit reporting bodies must not use or disclose your credit information for a period of 21 days after they have received your notification.

Direct marketing
We may use your personal information to provide you with:

• Information about finance
• Offers that may be of interest
• New products or services being offered by us or companies with whom we are associated
• Changes to our products and services
• Changes to our organisation

If you do not want to receive these communications from us, or want to know the source of the information being used, you can contact us. See “Contact us” on page 6 for our contact details. We will endeavour to carry out your request as soon as possible. Note: we will not use or disclose sensitive information about you for direct marketing purposes unless you have expressly consented to its use or disclosure.

Using our website
Information from third parties
Our website contains links to third party providers of goods and services (third party websites). If you access these websites through our website, your information may be collected by those websites and shared with us. It may also be collected and stored by us. Also, we may share information, such as information about your Internet preferences, with those sites.

Cookies
A ‘cookie’ is a small file stored on your computer that can be accessed by our web server. Cookies store information such the date, time and duration of your visit and the pages that you accessed. We use cookies to allocate a unique number to your internet browsers; to customise our website for you; for statistical purposes; to identify if you have accessed a third party website; and for security purposes. Cookies are frequently used on websites and you can choose if and how a cookie will be accepted by configuring your preferences and options on your Internet browser.

IP addresses
Your IP address is the identifier for your computer when you are using the internet. It may be necessary for us to collect your IP address for your interaction with various parts of our website.

Online applications
When you send a completed online application to us, we retain the information contained in that application. We are able to then use that information to provide any financial services that you require. You can also suspend and save online applications, so that you can complete and send the application at a later time. If you suspend or save your application, the information that you have entered will be retained in our systems so that you can recover the information when you resume your application. We may view online applications that have been suspended or saved.

Accessing and updating your personal and credit-related information
It is important to us that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up to date and generally, we will rely on you to ensure that this is the case.

Access
You may request access to any of the personal and credit-related information we hold about you at any time. See “Contact us” on page 6 for our contact details. Depending on your request, we will endeavour to respond within seven days of receiving your request, but we may need to contact other entities to properly investigate your request. Note that depending on the request, we may charge a fee for the costs of retrieving and supplying the information to you. There may be situations in which we are not required to provide you with the information requested, for example if the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings. If this occurs, you will be provided with the reasons why we have denied access to you.

Correction
If the personal or credit-related information that we hold about you is incorrect or out of date, you can ask us to correct that information. See “Contact us” on page 6 for our contact details. If appropriate, we will correct your personal or credit information at the time of the request. Alternatively, we will provide you with an initial response within seven days of receiving your request and will investigate the matter further. As part of our investigation, we may need to consult other financial providers or credit reporting bodies and entities. We will endeavour to provide you with information about whether we have corrected your details within 30 days. If we decide not to correct your information, you will be provided with the reasons why this decision has been made.

Identification
We will not request your personal information unless it is lawful and practicable to do so. However, in most circumstances it will be necessary for us to identify you in order to successfully do business with you.

Government identifiers
A ‘government identifier’ is information that the government uses to identify you, such as your tax file number. We will not use government identifiers to identify you and if this information is collected, it will not be used or disclosed, except as authorised by law.

Security
We will take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information. Your personal information will be stored in a secure environment, in paper and/or electronic form. We will also take reasonable steps to protect any personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Transmissions over the Internet
The security of data transmissions over the Internet cannot be guaranteed completely. However, we will take all reasonable steps to protect the information in our systems from misuse, interference, loss, and any unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. If your browser is suitably configured, it will advise you whether the information you are sending us will be secure (encrypted) or not secure (unencrypted).

Complaints
Contact us if you are dissatisfied with how we manage your personal information, or you have a complaint about our compliance with the Privacy Act and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code. See “Contact us” below for our contact details. In the event our internal resolution process does not provide a satisfactory outcome, you may have recourse to an external dispute resolution scheme. You can contact the Privacy Commissioner http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/making-a-privacy-complaint, or phone: 1300 363 992, or, alternatively the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) www.afca.org.au. AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers. For more information about our dispute resolution process, see Our Dispute Resolution Process.

Change in our privacy and credit reporting policy
We may change this policy from time to time. We will post any changes to this policy on our website. You may request this policy in an alternative form by contacting us. See “Contact us” below for our contact details.

Further information
Contact us for more information about the way we manage your personal and credit‑related information. See “Contact us” below for our contact details.

Contact us
You can contact PPM Finance at email ashley@ppmfinance.com.au phone 0422 337 328.