Privacy Policy
Claimsplus Lawyers Pty Ltd (ABN 15 672 645 368) (we, us or our), understands that protecting your personal information is important. This Privacy Policy sets out our commitment to protecting the privacy of personal information provided to us, or collected by us, when interacting with you.
1 The information we collect
Personal information is information or an opinion, whether true or not and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual who is identified or reasonably identifiable.
The types of personal information we may collect about you include:
- Basic identifying and contact information, such as your name, email or phone number
- Your date of birth and tax file number (TFNs) collected under the authority of section 202(ia) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 for the sole purpose of facilitating the administration of the Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Act 1999, including conducting superannuation searches with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on your behalf
- Information you provide to us when you participate in any interactive features, including the super search function, surveys, feedback forms, contests, promotions, activities or events
- Information you provide to us regarding any inability to work, illness, injury and/or financial hardship
- Information about your use of our website, including pages visited and time spent on site
- Information submitted through website forms and enquiry submissions
- Your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences
- If we need to verify your identity (for example, because we have a legal obligation to do so), your government-issued identification and proof of address documents
- If you access any software or websites we make available to you, details about your use of such platforms, which may include username and password details, your internet protocol (IP) address, your search queries or browsing behaviour (including through the use of cookies, tracking pixels, and other analytics tools)
- Where you are a worker of ours or applying for a role with us, your professional history such as your previous positions and professional experience, or whether you hold required authorisations or licences (if applicable)
2 Tax File Number collection notice
When we collect your TFN, we must inform you that:
- Providing your TFN is not compulsory — you are not required by law to provide your TFN to us
- Purpose of collection: we collect your TFN to facilitate superannuation searches and administration under the Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Act 1999
- Consequences of not providing TFN: if you do not provide your TFN, we may not be able to conduct comprehensive superannuation searches on your behalf, which may limit our ability to identify all your superannuation entitlements
3 Sensitive information
Sensitive information is a sub-set of personal information that is given a higher level of protection. Sensitive information means information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional associations or memberships, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or practices, criminal records, health information or biometric information. In the course of working with you, we may collect, or come across such sensitive information in different situations, including during the course of conducting a background verification check on you, when reviewing the information you submit to us etc.
4 How we collect personal information
We collect personal information in a variety of ways, including:
- When you provide it directly to us, including face-to-face, over the phone, over email, or online
- When you complete a form, such as registering for any events or newsletters, or responding to surveys
- When you use any software or website we operate and make available to you (including from any analytics and cookie providers or marketing providers — see the "Cookies" section below for more detail)
- From publicly available sources
5 Why we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information
Personal information
We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:
- To work with you as a customer or supplier of our business
- To conduct ATO superannuation searches and facilitate administration under the Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Act 1999 for clients who are unable to work due to illness or injury, or experiencing financial hardship; to automatically generate and send correspondence to superannuation funds on behalf of clients
- To contact and communicate with you about our business, including in response to any support requests you lodge with us or other enquiries you make with us
- To contact and communicate with you about any enquiries you make with us via any website we operate
- To contact clients about potential superannuation entitlements and offer free claim checks
- To promote our related services (Claims Plus Group) to eligible clients who meet injury/illness criteria
- For internal record keeping, administrative, invoicing and billing purposes
- For analytics, market research and business development, including to operate and improve our business, associated applications and associated social media platforms
- For advertising and marketing, including to send you promotional information about our events and experiences and information that we consider may be of interest to you
- To run promotions, competitions and/or offer additional benefits to you
- If you have applied for employment with us, to consider your employment application
- To comply with our legal obligations or if otherwise required or authorised by law
We retain personal information for different periods depending on the type of information:
- Tax File Numbers and dates of birth are stored in redacted and encrypted format for up to 12 months, then transferred to secure archive storage for 7 years to comply with legal record-keeping obligations
- Other personal information is retained for the period necessary to fulfill the collection purposes
- We securely dispose of or anonymise all User information after the retention period expires, unless required to retain it longer under Australian law
Sensitive information
We only collect, hold, use and disclose sensitive information for the following purposes:
- Any purposes you consent to
- The primary purpose for which it is collected
- Secondary purposes that are directly related to the primary purpose for which it was collected, including disclosure to the below listed third parties as reasonably necessary to work with you as a customer or supplier of our business
- To contact emergency services, or to speak with your family, partner or support person where we reasonably believe there is a serious risk to the life, health or safety of you or another person and it is impracticable for us to obtain your consent
- If otherwise required or authorised by law
6 Disclosure of personal information
Personal information
We will only disclose personal information (excluding sensitive information) to third parties where it is necessary as part of our business, where we have your consent, or where permitted by law. This means that we may disclose personal information (excluding sensitive information) to:
- Our employees, contractors and/or related entities
- The ATO — specifically, we may disclose TFN information to the ATO under the authority of section 202CC of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 for purposes connected with superannuation administration
- IT service providers, data storage, web-hosting and server providers
- Marketing or advertising providers
- Professional advisors, bankers, auditors, our insurers and insurance brokers
- Payment systems operators or processors
- Our existing or potential agents or business partners
- If we merge with, or are acquired by, another company, or sell all or a portion of our assets, your personal information may be disclosed to our advisers and any prospective purchaser's advisers and may be among the assets transferred
- Courts, tribunals and regulatory authorities, in the event you fail to pay for goods or services we have provided to you
- Courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities and law enforcement officers, as required or authorised by law, in connection with any actual or prospective legal proceedings, or in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights
- Third parties to collect and process data, such as analytics providers and cookies
- Any other third parties as required or permitted by law, such as where we receive a subpoena
Sensitive information
We will only disclose sensitive information with your consent or where permitted by law. This means that we may disclose sensitive information to:
- Our employees, contractors and/or related entities
- IT service providers, data storage, web-hosting and server providers
- Professional advisors
- If we merge with, or are acquired by, another company, or sell all or a portion of our assets, your personal information may be disclosed to our advisers and any prospective purchaser's advisers and may be among the assets transferred
- Courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities and law enforcement officers, as required or authorised by law, in connection with any actual or prospective legal proceedings, or in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights
- Third parties to collect and process data, such as analytics providers and cookies
- Any other third parties as required or permitted by law, such as where we receive a subpoena
7 Overseas disclosure
We store your personal information in Australia. Where we disclose your personal information to third parties, those third parties may store, transfer or access personal information outside of Australia. We will only disclose your personal information overseas in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.
8 Your rights and controlling your personal information
Your choice: Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. If you provide personal information to us, you understand we will collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You do not have to provide personal information to us, however, if you do not, it may affect our ability to work with you as a customer or supplier of our business.
Information from third parties: If we receive personal information about you from a third party, we will protect it as set out in this Privacy Policy. If you are a third party providing personal information about somebody else, you represent and warrant that you have such person's consent to provide the personal information to us.
Restrict and unsubscribe: To object to processing for direct marketing/unsubscribe from our email database or opt-out of communications (including marketing communications), please contact us using the details below or opt-out using the opt-out facilities provided in the communication.
Access: You may request access to the personal information that we hold about you. An administrative fee may be payable for the provision of such information. Please note, in some situations, we may be legally permitted to withhold access to your personal information. If we cannot provide access to your information, we will advise you as soon as reasonably possible and provide you with the reasons for our refusal and any mechanism available to complain about the refusal. If we can provide access to your information in another form that still meets your needs, then we will take reasonable steps to give you such access.
Correction: If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please contact us using the details below. We will take reasonable steps to promptly correct any information found to be inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. Please note, in some situations, we may be legally permitted to not correct your personal information. If we cannot correct your information, we will advise you as soon as reasonably possible and provide you with the reasons for our refusal and any mechanism available to complain about the refusal.
Complaints: If you wish to make a complaint, please contact us using the details below and provide us with full details of the complaint. We will promptly investigate your complaint and respond to you, in writing, setting out the outcome of our investigation and the steps we will take in response to your complaint. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
9 Storage and security
We are committed to ensuring that the personal information we collect is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures, to safeguard and secure personal information and protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.
While we are committed to security, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that is transmitted to or by us over the Internet. The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk.
10 User-generated content
We may enable you to post reviews, comments, photos and other user-generated content. Any content you choose to submit will be accessible by anyone, including third parties not associated with us. We have no control over how others may use or misuse information you make publicly available. We are not responsible for the privacy, security or accuracy of any user-generated content you choose to post or for the use or misuse of that information by any third parties.
11 Cookies and analytics
We may use cookies, tracking pixels and similar technologies on our website and in our emails from time to time. Cookies are text files placed in your computer's browser to store your preferences. Tracking pixels are tiny, invisible images (typically the size of one pixel) embedded in web pages or emails. Cookies and tracking pixels, by themselves, do not tell us your email address or other personally identifiable information. However, they do recognise you when you return to our online website and allow third parties to cause our advertisements to appear on your social media and online media feeds as part of our retargeting campaigns. If and when you choose to provide our online website with personal information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie or collected by tracking pixels. Unlike cookies, tracking pixels do not store any information on your device, but instead send information to our servers when the pixel is loaded.
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies.
You can block tracking pixels by using ad-blocking or privacy-focused browser extensions. Some email providers allow you to block images by default, which can prevent tracking pixels in emails from loading.
However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) and tracking pixels you may not be able to access all or parts of our website and you may not receive personalised content.
Google Analytics
We may use Google Analytics Advertising Features. We and third-party vendors may use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) or other first-party identifiers, and third-party cookies (such as Google advertising cookies) or other third-party identifiers together. These cookies and identifiers may collect Technical and Usage Data about you. You can opt-out of Google Analytics Advertising Features including using a Google Analytics Opt-out Browser add-on. To opt-out of personalised ad delivery on the Google content network, please visit Google's Ads Preferences Manager. To find out how Google uses data when you use third party websites or applications, please see here.
Facebook/Meta Analytics
We may use tools provided by Meta, such as the Meta Pixel, advanced matching, and Conversions API. These allow us to measure ad performance and deliver ads that may be relevant to you on Meta platforms based on your activity on our website/app. You can control whether we can join data from third party partners with your Meta account for ads by adjusting your preferences within Meta's settings. You can disconnect this data from your Meta account by changing your settings for Off-Facebook activity. For more information, please see Meta's Privacy Policy.
12 Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other party's websites. We do not have any control over those websites and we are not responsible for the protection and privacy of any personal information which you provide whilst visiting those websites. Those websites are not governed by this Privacy Policy.
13 Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Overview: We may use artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, including AI Technologies provided by third parties (AI Technologies) in our business operations and the provision of our Services. We will only use AI Technologies when legally permitted and necessary for our business operations. Before any personal information is processed using AI Technologies, we automatically redact Tax File Numbers, dates of birth, and names to ensure only anonymised data is used.
How we use AI Technologies: We may use AI Technologies for the following purposes:
- To conduct analysis and processing
- To generate and modify content and coding
- To improve and optimise our services and operations
- To automate certain processes and communications, such as routine tasks
- To personalise your experience with our services
- For quality assurance purposes
- To assist with customer support and queries
Data Protection and Security: Where we use service providers who provide AI Technologies to us, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that such service providers handle your personal information according to privacy law, including by ensuring that we have contracts in place requiring the service provider to protect personal information. We will not input your personal information into any platform provided by an AI Technology service provider which then trains its model based on that information.
Your Rights and our Commitments: We will treat information generated or inferred by the AI Technologies about individuals as personal information and you maintain all rights over your personal information as outlined in this Privacy Policy, regardless of whether AI Technologies are used in processing. When using AI Technologies with your personal information:
- Transparency and control: we will inform you when AI Technologies are being used to make decisions that may significantly affect you. We will implement processes to verify the accuracy of AI-generated outputs and we will take reasonable steps to maintain human oversight and review of significant AI-generated decisions. Our staff are trained to understand the limitations of AI systems and verify outputs before they are relied upon
- Security: we implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure that our use of AI Technologies maintains the security and integrity of your personal information. This includes regular testing and monitoring of AI outputs for accuracy and reliability
- Risk mitigation: we regularly assess and document the risks associated with our use of AI Technologies in processing personal information and implement appropriate mitigation measures. This includes ongoing monitoring of AI Technologies and regular reviews of their performance and impact
14 Amendments
We may, at any time and at our discretion, vary this Privacy Policy by publishing the amended Privacy Policy on our website. We recommend you check our website regularly to ensure you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.
15 Contact
For any questions or notices, please contact us using the details in the card below.
Questions about this policy?
Claimsplus Lawyers Pty Ltd
ABN 15 672 645 368
Email: privacy@claimsplus.com.au