Privacy Policy | Mk3 Group

Privacy Policy - Mk3 Group

Introduction

Mk3 Group (‘We’, ‘Our’ or ‘Us’) is committed to providing quality services to you and this policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you with respect to how we manage your Personal Information. The information in this document details how we, Mk3 Group (“Mk3”), comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”) and the Australian Privacy Principles in protecting the personal information we hold about you.

By agreeing to work with us, you will be deemed to have consented to the collection and use of your information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent to the processing of your information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy, you must contact us at the number below.

A copy of the Australian Privacy Principles may be obtained from the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au. The Australian Privacy Principles may be amended from time to time.

What is Personal Information and why do we collect it?

Personal Information is any information or opinion about you that is capable, or reasonably capable, of Identifying you, whether the information or opinion is true or not and is recorded in a material form or not. This Personal Information is obtained in many ways including interviews, correspondence, by telephone, email, via our website www.mk3.com.au, from our clients and from third parties. We don’t guarantee website links or the policy of authorised third parties.

The personal and sensitive information we collect generally consists of the following:

Name, address, and contact details (Including telephone, facsimile and e-mail)

We collect your Personal Information for the primary purpose of providing our services to you and providing information to our clients. We may also use your Personal Information for secondary purposes closely related to the primary purpose, in circumstances where you would reasonably expect such use or disclosure. When we collect Personal Information, we will, where appropriate and where possible, explain to you why we are collecting the information and how we plan to use it.

Sensitive Information

Sensitive Information is defined in the Privacy Act to include information or opinion about such things as:

An individual’s racial or ethical origin
Political opinions
Membership in a political association
Religious or philosophical beliefs
Membership of a trade union or other professional body
Criminal record or health information

Sensitive information will be used by us only for the primary purpose for which it was obtained, for a secondary purpose that is directly related to the primary purpose and with your consent; or where required by authorised law.

Why we collect Information

We collect personal information when it is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities. These include:

Providing customers with the products and services they request and unless they tell us otherwise, provide information on products and services offered by us and external product and service providers for whom we act as agents. (If you have provided us with your email or mobile phone details, we may provide information to you electronically with respect to those products and services);
Complying with our legal obligations;
Monitoring and evaluating products and services;
Gathering and aggregating information for statistical, prudential, actuarial and research purposes;
Assisting customers with queries; and
Taking measures to detect and prevent fraud.

Third Parties

If it is impracticable or unreasonable for us to collect the personal information directly from you, we may collect such information from agents, or from your family members or friends. If you are not aware that we have collected the personal information, we will notify you of the collection and the circumstances of collection, if we consider it reasonable to do so.

Disclosure of Personal Information

We may from time to time need to disclose your personal information to:

Third parties and Partners acting on behalf of Mk3 Group, for the purpose of conducting services required under our Clients' Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) or otherwise instructed or agreed.
Depending on the product or service you have, the entities we exchange your information with include but are not limited to:
- brokers and agents who refer your business to us;
- affiliated product and service providers and external product and service providers for whom we act as agents (so that they may provide you with the product or service you seek or in which you have expressed an interest);
- auditors we appoint to ensure the integrity of our operations;
- any person acting on your behalf, including your solicitor, settlement agent, accountant, executor, administrator, trustee, guardian, or attorney;
- your referee (to confirm details about you);
- if required or authorised to do so, regulatory bodies and government agencies;

How we secure and store Personal Information

We are committed to ensuring that we protect any personal information we hold from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, and disclosure. For this purpose, we have a range of practices and policies in place to provide a robust security environment. We ensure the ongoing adequacy of these measures by regularly reviewing them. Our security measures include, but are not limited to:

educating our staff as to their obligations with regard to your personal information;
requiring our staff to use passwords when accessing our systems;
encrypting data sent from your computer to our systems during internet transactions and customer access codes transmitted across networks;
employing firewalls, intrusion detection systems and virus scanning tools to protect against unauthorised persons and viruses from entering our systems;
using dedicated secure networks or encryption when we transmit electronic data for purposes of outsourcing;
providing secure storage for physical records; and
employing physical and electronic means such as alarms, cameras, and guards (as required) to protect against unauthorised access to buildings.

Where information we hold is identified as no longer needed for any purpose, we ensure it is effectively and securely destroyed, for example, by shredding or pulping in the case of paper records or by degaussing (de-magnetism of the medium using alternating electric currents) and other means in the case of electronic records and equipment.

Access to your Personal Information

You may access the Personal Information we hold about you and update and/or correct it, subject to certain exceptions. Requests for access to limited amounts of personal information, such as checking to see what address or telephone number we have recorded, can generally be handled over the telephone.

If you would like to request access to more substantial amounts of personal information such as details of what is recorded in your account file, we will require you to complete and sign a “Request for Access to Personal Information” form. We will respond to your request as soon as possible and in the manner requested by you. We endeavour to comply with your request within 14 days of its receipt but, if that deadline cannot be met owing to exceptional circumstances, your request will be dealt with within 30 days. It helps us provide access if you can tell us what you are looking for.

In order to protect your Personal Information, we will require identification from you before releasing the requested information.

Maintaining the Quality of your Personal Information

We ensure that the personal information we collect and use or disclose is accurate, up-to-date, complete and relevant. Please contact us if any of the details you have provided to us change or if you believe that the information we have about you is not accurate or up to date.

We may also take steps to update the Personal Information we hold, for example, an address, by collecting personal information from publicly available sources such as telephone directories or electoral rolls.

Outsourcing

In all circumstances where personal information may become known to our contractors, agents and outsourced service providers, there are confidentiality arrangements in place. Contractors, agents and outsourced service providers are not able to use or disclose personal information for any purposes other than our own.

We take our obligations to protect customer information very seriously we make every effort to deal only with parties who share and demonstrate the same attitude.

Direct Marketing

We only use or disclose the personal information we hold about you for the purpose of direct marketing if we have received the information from you and you have not requested not to receive such information. Direct marketing means that we use your personal information to provide you with information on our products and services that may interest you.

If you wish to opt out of receiving marketing information altogether, you can:

call us on (02) 9839 3820; or
write to us at mk3@mk3.com.au

Website Analytics

To improve your experience on our site, we may use “cookies”. Cookies are an industry standard and most major websites use them. A cookie is a small text file that our site may place on your computer as a tool to remember your preferences. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. Our website may contain links to other websites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. When you go to other websites from here, we advise you to be aware and read their Privacy Policy.

Our website uses Google Analytics, a service that transmits website traffic data to Google Services. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. We use reports provided by Google Analytics to help us understand website traffic and webpage usage.

By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner described in Google's Privacy Policy and for the purposes set out above. You can opt out of Google Analytics if you disable or refuse the cookie or use the opt-out service provided by Google.

If you believe that we have not met our privacy obligations in how we have handled your personal information, then you can lodge a complaint. We offer a free internal complaint resolution scheme to all of our customers. If you have a privacy complaint, please contact us to discuss your concerns. You also have free access to an external dispute resolution scheme in which we are a member.

To assist us in helping you, we ask you to follow a simple three-step process:

Gather all supporting documents relating to the complaint.
Contact us and we will review your situation and if possible, resolve your complaint immediately.
If the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction, please contact our Complaints Officer at (02) 9839 3820 or put your complaint in writing and send it to:

Mk3 Group
P.O. Box 844
Baulkham Hills NSW 1755

(02) 9839 3820, or

privacy@mk3.com.au

If you are still not satisfied, you have the right to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (“OAIC”). You can contact the OAIC to make a query concerning your privacy rights, or to lodge a complaint with the OAIC about how we have handled your personal information. You can contact the OAIC’s hotline on 1300 363 992 or visit their website at www.oaic.gov.au. The OAIC has the power to investigate a complaint and make a determination.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may make changes, alter or update from time to time, to our Privacy Policy by ensuring we are always aligned to the Australian Privacy Principles.