RACQI Privacy Statement

Background and purpose of this statement
RACQ Insurance has always respected the confidentiality of its customers’ personal information. Protecting the privacy of customers and others for whom RACQ Insurance holds personal information will always be a critical part of RACQ Insurance’s information management strategy.
RACQ Insurance is bound by the National Privacy Principles (NPP) and other requirements, under The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 (The Private Sector Act).
A further measure of RACQ Insurance commitment is our adoption and compliance to the General Insurance Code of Practice.
There are no specific exemptions under the Private Sector Act that apply to the personal information held by RACQ Insurance or to its acts or practices.
The following statement expresses the policies adopted by RACQ Insurance for the management of personal information and the implementation of, and ongoing compliance with, the NPP and The Private Sector Act.
What is Personal Information?
Personal information that RACQ Insurance handles can be classified into two categories
“Personal Information”“Sensitive Information”
Personal information is information however captured or stored that is of a private and confidential nature that is not public knowledge and relates to an individual or individuals and includes personal details relating to insurance contracts.
Generally personal information is comprised of your name, address, date of birth, telephone, fax and e-mail contact details.
Sensitive information is a subset of personal information. It includes information or an opinion about an individual’s:
Racial or ethnic origin or
Political opinions or
Membership of a political association or
Religious beliefs or affiliations or
Philosophical beliefs or
Membership of a professional or trade association or
Membership of a trade union or
Sexual preferences or practices or
Criminal record or
Health information about an individual or
Our Statement
Why RACQ Insurance needs to collect personal information
The broad purpose of collecting personal information is to set up and administer a product or service, determine a customer’s requirements and provide the appropriate product or service, assess a claim made by a customer under one or more of our products, assess our customers needs and improve our products and services.
In the case of taking out insurance, the primary purpose for which RACQ Insurance needs that information is to, assess if RACQ Insurance will provide the insurance and if so at what price and under what terms.
In the case of a claim being made, the primary purpose for which RACQ Insurance needs the information is to determine your entitlement.
What happens if you do not provide the information requested?
If you do not provide the information that RACQ Insurance requests then this can either delay or prevent RACQ Insurance from:
Providing the insurance you want, or
Allowing your claim
Disclosure of personal information to other third parties
An owner of RACQ Insurance is The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ).
RACQ Insurance’s present commercial day to day activities are to a great extent performed by RACQ acting as our agent. As you might expect, given this extremely close commercial relationship, there will be occasions when personal information is exchanged between RACQ and RACQ Insurance.
This information exchange adds value to your relationship with us and is used to determine benefits and entitlements. You will however be given the opportunity to insist that such an exchange does not take place.
As a normal part of our business activities, claims related information is provided to, and occasions obtained from Insurance Reference Services Limited. This is a company independent of RACQ Insurance, which collates and distributes claims data to and from other general insurers. Also limited information is at times provided to other general insurers when confirming or seeking to confirm insurance related details involving claims or policy entitlements. In addition, information is provided to our mail distribution contractor and on some occasions reinsurers.
Also, on occasions there may be instances where RACQ Insurance finds it necessary to disclose personal information to external service providers for example solicitors, claims loss assessors/adjusters and investigators who are contracted to RACQ Insurance to provide specialised services. In all such instances RACQ Insurance will take all reasonable steps to ensure that such third parties undertake to comply with the NPP and RACQ Insurance protocols and policies concerning privacy so as to protect the personal information disclosed to such external service providers.
RACQ Insurance is mindful that now more than ever, the general public is concerned about personal information being sold, rented or purchased for secondary commercial purposes. You have the assurance of RACQ Insurance that we have not and will not engage in such activities.
Direct marketing campaigns conducted by RACQ Insurance and/or RACQ Insurance Agents
There may be occasions when RACQ Insurance contacts you direct to advise you of a particular insurance product or related special offer/benefit that RACQ Insurance believe may be of interest to you. Specifically, the RACQ may in its capacity as an RACQ Insurance sales agent contact you concerning direct marketing offers.
Alternatively the RACQ may in its own capacity contact you concerning direct marketing offers.
Any offers that you receive will be obligation free and you will be given the opportunity of declining to receive future direct marketing material from RACQ Insurance or the RACQ.
Compliance through staff and agency training
RACQ Insurance will provide all its employees and agents with the RACQ Insurance “Privacy” training manual, which encompasses a formal testing procedure, as part of its commitment to providing training in all relevant topics to the RACQ Insurance staff and agency force.
Data Quality
RACQ Insurance will take reasonable steps to make sure that the personal information RACQ Insurance collects, uses or discloses is accurate, complete and up to date.
Data Security
RACQ Insurance will take reasonable steps to protect the personal information RACQ Insurance holds from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
RACQ Insurance also will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information that is no longer needed for any purpose for which that information may be used or disclosed by RACQ Insurance.
Openness
A copy of this Privacy Statement is available to anyone who asks for it.
On request by a person, RACQ Insurance will take reasonable steps to let that person know, generally, what sort of information it holds, for what purposes and how RACQ Insurance collects, holds and uses or discloses that information.
That may mean that the person is simply provided with a copy of the latest RACQ Insurance Privacy Statement – as many of these issues (as they have been in this Statement) will be addressed in that Statement.
Access to information
The Private Sector Act and the NPP require that RACQ Insurance allow persons to access all their personal information and the right to correct it, or at least to attach a personal statement of correction.
If you wish to access your personal information RACQ Insurance has collected, you may:
Call any RACQ branch or RACQ Insurance agency, or
Telephone RACQ Insurance on 13 1905, or
Write to either: (a)The Privacy Officer (Claims) RACQ Insurance – for claims related information, or (b) The Privacy Officer (Underwriting) RACQ Insurance – for information other than about a claim
Our address for correspondence is:PO Box 4SpringwoodQld 4127
Your request should set out specifically the details of the personal information and/or correction of personal information you require. Our “Privacy Officers” referred to above have the appropriate powers to deal with your enquiry. There is no fee for lodging a request for personal information, and/or for correction of personal information [but RACQ Insurance is entitled to ask you for a reasonable fee to cover the cost of actually providing the information requested and/or for correcting your personal information].
The NPP provide that in certain circumstances RACQ Insurance may deny you access to information and/or refuse to correct information held.
If RACQ Insurance denies access to information and/or refuses to correct information held RACQ Insurance will immediately explain why it has taken that course of action by reference to the NPP and The Private Sector Act.
Depending on the nature, complexity and extent of your request, there may be occasions when RACQ Insurance will need to reply to your request for access or correction in writing.
Use of Identifiers
RACQ Insurance will not adopt (or use) as its own identifier of you, an identifier of you assigned by a third party agency.
Therefore RACQ Insurance will not, for example, set up its personal information records in such a way that by simply using your tax file number, your identity and/or other personal information about you can be ascertained.
Neither your name, nor an Australian Business Number is an identifier.
Anonymity
RACQ Insurance will wherever practicable and lawful, not require you to identify yourself when entering into transactions with RACQ Insurance.
However in reality RACQ Insurance is unable to provide insurance to you on an anonymous basis.
This is because RACQ Insurance cannot practicably enter into a contract of insurance with you without your having provided your identity and other personal information.
Transborder data flow
RACQ Insurance undertakes not to transfer personal information about you to someone else who is in a foreign country, except in those instances permitted by the NPP.
Complaints Procedure
RACQ Insurance has established a free dispute resolution scheme (details of which are set out below) to meet the statutory requirements of The Private Sector Act, and best practice procedures recommended by the Privacy Commissioner.
Should you not be satisfied:
You may request the matter be considered by the RACQ Insurance Internal Disputes Resolution Committee. This Committee consists of senior managers of the company. A request for referral of your complaint to this Committee must be made in writing to either:
The Privacy Officer (Claims) RACQ Insurance for claims related information, or
The Privacy Officer (Underwriting) RACQ Insurance for information other than about a claim
Our address for correspondence is:PO Box 4SpringwoodQld 4127
Except in the most unusual cases, the Committee will consider your complaint and advise you of its decision within 15 working days of receiving your written request for referral.
If you remain dissatisfied with our decision after you have received a written response from the RACQ Insurance Internal Disputes Resolution Committee you may progress the matter to the National Privacy Commissioner.
You can contact the National Privacy Commissioner by writing to: The Director of ComplaintsOffice of the Federal Privacy CommissionerGPO Box 5218Sydney NSW 1042
Or by telephoning 1300 363 992.
Nothing of course denies your statutory rights to make a direct complaint about interference with your privacy to the Privacy Commissioner in accordance with The Private Sector Act.
Web site Privacy
RACQ Insurance is dedicated to ensuring the privacy of our users whilst using the RACQ Insurance web site.
The RACQ Insurance web site will be governed by the same privacy statement as the rest of the RACQ Insurance business.
The RACQ Insurance web site contains a link to the RACQ site. Please note at the RACQ web site, you will find additional information about how RACQ deals with privacy and personal information. Please visit the RACQ’s web site at http://www.racq.com.au/.
Special mention needs to be made in relation to specific web-related issues...
Cookies – Cookies are small packets of information that allow our web server (computer) to identify and interact more effectively with your computer.
Our web site does use cookies to help our server identify and interact more effectively with your computer. When you use our web site, we send you a cookie with a unique identification number. A different number is sent to you each time you use our site.
We do collect certain information to help us improve the performance of our site. The information we collect tells us your browser type and your Internet service provider. The cookies do not identify you as an individual user.
You can control the use of cookies on your computer by configuring your browser according to your personal preferences:
Accept all cookies
Reject all cookies
Notify you when a cookie is sent
You will find instructions in your browser or help screens to learn about these functions.
To evaluate the effectiveness of our site, its presentation and content we may use third parties to collect and analyse statistical data. No personal information will be collected in these exercises and the third party service supplier will not have access to any of your personal information.
Changes to RACQ Insurance Privacy Statement
RACQ Insurance may at any time vary its Privacy Statement. Should this occur RACQ Insurance will take reasonable steps to ensure that any changes are communicated effectively, including publishing changes on the RACQ Insurance web site.
How to obtain more Information
For more information about privacy issues in Australia and protecting your privacy, visit the Australian Privacy Commissioner’s web site, http://www.privacy.gov.au/, or contact the Privacy Commissioner’s officers by telephone on 1300 363 992.
Insurance products are issued by RACQ Insurance Limited - ABN 50 009 704 152. Contact our branches, agencies or phone 13 1905 to obtain a copy of the relevant Product Disclosure Statement. Please read the Product Disclosure Statement before you make any decision regarding this product.