Privacy Policy
Vero Warranty Limited
September 2005
This is Vero Warranty Limited's ("Vero Warranty") policy on the management of personal information ("Privacy Policy"). In this Privacy Policy "we", "our" and "us" refer to Vero Warranty.
Our Privacy Policy applies to personal information held about individuals. It does not apply to information we hold about companies and other organisations.
Please read our Privacy Policy carefully before using this Site. It should be read in conjunction with our Terms of Use.
1. Our Commitment to Privacy
Vero Warranty considers the protection of an individual's privacy of great importance in our business activities. We are committed to acting in accordance with the Privacy Act 1993 ("the Act") by providing you with a personalised service that meets your requirements in a way that doesn't affect your privacy.
We appreciate the trust you place in us when you provide us with your personal information. Our Privacy Policy explains our general practices in handling personal information and in particular how we may collect and use it in order to satisfy your particular requirements. It also outlines some of the security measures that we take in order to protect your privacy and gives certain assurances on things that we will not do.
2. Collection of Information
We collect personal information for the purposes of conducting our business and providing quality insurance products and services.
We collect a broad range of personal information, which may differ depending on our relationship with you. The type of personal information we generally collect includes but is not limited to an individual's name, address, date of birth, gender and contact details including phone, fax and email.
Collection occurs at various times during our relationship with you including when you first apply or request a product or service from us. We collect personal information in various ways, such as over the phone, over the Internet, meetings in person, or through the completion of our forms.
If we request personal information from you and you do not supply it, we may not be able to provide you with the product or service you request, such as offering you insurance or processing a claim under an insurance policy.
While generally we collect your personal information directly from you, there may be occasions when we collect your personal information from someone else ("a third party"). There are certain circumstances in which the Act authorises collection of personal information from a third party such as when collection from you is impractical or where you have consented to us collecting it from someone else. Irrespective of the source of the information, we will respect and endeavour to protect the privacy of personal information.
Examples of where we may receive personal information about you from a third party and why this would happen include, but are not limited to, obtaining personal information from:
- your agent, where you have appointed an agent to act on your behalf in dealings with us (e.g. a lawyer);
- a professional expert, in the course of assessing a claim under a policy of insurance or determining your eligibility for an insurance product (e.g. a medical practitioner or accountant);
- other insurance companies, if we need to confirm your insurance history during the course of reviewing an application for insurance or assessing a claim under a policy of insurance; or
- the Insurance Claims Register, (which holds details of previous claims made by you) when confirmation of your claims history is needed; or
- the Ministry of Justice, where confirmation of your traffic and/or criminal conviction history is required during the course of assessing a claim under a policy of insurance.
3. Use of Information
What we will do
We will endeavour to only use personal information in accordance with the Information Privacy Principles set out in the Act. Our general use for personal information is in providing our insurance products and services. However personal information may be used for other purposes in the operation of our business.
Some general uses for personal information may include but are not limited to:
- Helping to identify a caller over the telephone. For example, we may ask for a date of birth so that we can avoid disclosing information to a person who is not authorised to receive it
- Contacting customers about improved administration of any services and products provided by us previously, now or in the future
- Helping the prevention and/or detection of fraud or loss
- Contacting an individual by any means (including mail, email or telephone) in relation to a particular service or product
- Conducting research/feedback
What we won't do
We will not sell or lend personal information to other companies or persons who are not part of our business group.
4. Disclosure of Information
We will only disclose your personal information to third parties in accordance with the Information Privacy Principles set out in the Act. The ability to disclose personal information is limited under the Act to certain circumstances, such as where disclosure is required by law, where disclosure is authorised by you or where the disclosure was one of the purposes for which the information was collected.
In the course of operating our business we may disclose your personal information to service providers who assist us, for example, by providing administrative services on our behalf. Where we do disclose your personal information to these service providers they are subject to strict privacy rules and they must only use the information for the function that we have asked them to perform.
The types of organisations to whom we disclose your personal information will differ depending on the insurance product or service you choose. Some typical disclosures that may be made in the course of our relationship with you include, but are not limited to:
- Government or statutory bodies
- Other insurance companies and reinsurers
- The Insurance Claims Register
- Loss assessors and investigative service providers
- Mailing houses for the mailing of annual renewal notices and insurance policy documents
- Legal and other professional advisers
5. Security of Information
We maintain strict security measures in order to protect personal information from misuse, loss or unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes following certain procedures, for example checking a caller's identity when we are contacted by telephone, using secure passwords for our computer systems and limiting access to personal information to those who specifically need it to conduct their business responsibilities.
We require our employees and data processors to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us and each staff member is responsible for handling personal information in accordance with the Act.
Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be completely secure. If there are concerns about the security of the contents of an e-mail then consideration should be given to contacting us by other means.
6. Accuracy of your Personal Information
We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information which we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. This includes taking reasonable steps to correct inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date personal information if we are asked to do so.
The Act gives you the right to request correction of any of your personal information you believe is incorrect. If we do not agree to correct your personal information in accordance with your request, we will advise you of this and take reasonable steps to ensure that a statement of the correction sought is attached to the relevant information.
If you believe that any of the personal information that we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, please let us know. You can contact Vero Warranty direct to make your request or alternatively you can contact our Head Office toll free number (New Zealand only) 0800 808 508 and they will forward your call to the appropriate person.
7. Access to Personal Information
The Act gives you the right to request access to any or all of your personal information held by us. To ensure we supply any personal information to the correct individual we require all requests for access to be in writing. To comply with the Act a request made by an agent on your behalf (such as a lawyer) must be accompanied by a written authority from you authorising that particular agent to act on your behalf.
Any requests for access to personal information should be made to:
The Privacy Officer
Vero Warranty Limited
Vero Centre
Private Bag 92120
AUCKLAND
The Act outlines circumstances under which we may refuse to allow you access to some or all of your personal information. In such cases, we will give you a reason for our decision.
8. Cookies
Cookies are pieces of information that a web site transfers to your computer's hard disk for record keeping purposes. We may use 'cookies' to monitor website user traffic patterns and site usage. They help us to understand how our customers and potential customers use our web sites so that we can develop and improve the design, layout and functionality of the sites. Cookies do not personally identify you, although they do identify your browser.
If you do not want us to deploy cookies in your browser, you can set your browser to reject cookies, or to notify you when a website tries to put a cookie on your computer. However, rejecting cookies may affect your ability to use some of the products and/or services at our website.
9. Links
Our web site may contain links to other web sites belonging to organisations or people who are not part of Vero Warranty. We are not responsible for the privacy obligations of those sites. We recommend that you read the privacy and security policies on those particular web sites to understand how they deal with your personal information.
10. Monitoring of Calls
We may monitor and record communications we receive. This may be done to improve the service that we provide, to ensure compliance with our practices and procedures and/or to provide evidence of a transaction such as where a contract is entered into, or a claim is made.
11. Resolving Problems Related to your Privacy
If you want to report a suspected breach of your privacy or you do not agree with a decision regarding access to your personal information, please contact us. We have an internal dispute resolution process to address such issues and will promptly acknowledge and investigate complaints.
Any enquires or complaints can be made direct to the relevant branch/employee or through the Privacy Officer whose contact details are:
The Privacy Officer
Vero Warranty Limited
Vero Centre
Private Bag 92120
AUCKLAND
If you are not satisfied with our final decision you can direct your complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner - phone toll free 0800 80 39 09 or by mail to PO Box 466, Auckland.
12. Future changes
Our business will continue to evolve and we may introduce new services and features to this Site. Accordingly from time to time we may review this Privacy Policy and may amend it to reflect changes in legislation, industry codes or in the business environment. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy on a regular basis to stay informed of changes.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner website has further details of the New Zealand Privacy Act and how it protects personal information in New Zealand.
