INTRODUCTION
Universal Realty Limited (we, us, our) recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy and the rights of individuals in relation to their personal information and complies with the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993 (the Act) when dealing with personal information. Personal information is information about an identifiable individual (a natural person).
This policy sets out how we will collect, use, disclose and protect your personal information. This policy does not limit or exclude any of your rights under the Act. If you wish to seek further information on the Act, see www.privacy.org.nz.
CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
We may change this policy by uploading a revised policy onto our website. The change will apply from the date that we upload the revised policy.
WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION
When used in this privacy policy, the term “personal information” has the meaning given to it in the Act. In general terms, it is any information that can be used to personally identify you. This may include your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation. If the information we collect personally identifies you, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.
HOW DO WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. When collecting personal information from you, we may collect in ways including:
● through your access and use of our website.
● by telephone, letter, fax or email.
● during conversations between you and our representatives.
● by contracting with us.
● by entering competitions, promotions or requesting information or material from us.
● completing surveys, providing feedback or complaining to us.
We may also collect personal information from third parties including:
● from third party companies such as credit reporting agencies, law enforcement agencies and government entities.
● your representatives (lawyers, accountants and financial advisers).
● your employer.
● publicly available sources of information (such as companies register) or any other organisations where you have given your consent.
HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will use your personal information:
● to verify your identity.
● to provide services and products to you.
● to market our services and products to you, including contacting you electronically
(e.g. by text or email for this purpose).
● to improve the services and products that we provide to you.
● to undertake credit checks of you (if necessary).
● to respond to communications from you, including a complaint.
● to conduct research and statistical analysis (on an anonymised basis).
● to protect and/or enforce our legal rights and interests, including defending any claim.
● for any other purpose authorised by you or the Act.
DISCLOSING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We may disclose your personal information to:
● our employees, contractors, real estate agents and service providers for the purposes of operation of our website or our business, fulfilling requests by you, and to otherwise provide products and services to you including, without limitation, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses, couriers, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, debt collectors, utilities providers, and professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants;
● suppliers and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships, for business, marketing, and related purposes; and
● a credit reference agency for the purpose of credit checking you.
● other third parties (for anonymised statistical information).
● a person who can require us to supply your personal information (e.g. a regulatory authority).
● any other person authorised by the Act or another law (e.g. a law enforcement agency).
● any other person authorised by you.
PROTECTING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will take reasonable steps to keep your personal information safe from loss, unauthorised activity, or other misuse.
ACCESSING AND CORRECTING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Subject to certain grounds for refusal set out in the Act, you have the right to access your readily retrievable personal information that we hold and to request a correction to your personal information. Before you exercise this right, we will need evidence to confirm that you are the individual to whom the personal information relates.
In respect of a request for amendment, if we think the amendment is reasonable and we are reasonably able to change the personal information, we will make the amendment. If we do not make the amendment, we will take reasonable steps to note on the personal information that you requested the amendment.
If you want to exercise either of the above rights, email us at [email protected]. Your email should provide evidence of who you are and set out the details of your request
(e.g. the personal information, or the correction, that you are requesting).
We may charge you our reasonable costs of providing to you copies of your personal information or correcting that information.
There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality. If that happens, we will give you reasons for any refusal.
SECURITY
As our website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any assurance regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online. We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk.
DIRECT MARKETING MATERIALS
We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our products and services that we consider may be of interest to you. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, fax and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so. In addition, at any time you may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by contacting us (see the details below) or by using opt-out facilities provided in the marketing communications and we will then ensure that your name is removed from our mailing list.
INTERNET USE
While we take reasonable steps to maintain secure internet connections, if you provide us with personal information over the internet, the provision of that information is at your own risk.
Our website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party website. Third-party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.
We use cookies (an alphanumeric identifier that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive so that we can recognise your browser) to monitor your use of the website. You may disable cookies by changing the settings on your browser, although this may mean that you cannot use all of the features of the website.
COOKIES
When you access our website, we may send a “cookie” (which is a small summary file containing a unique ID number) to your computer. This enables us to recognise your computer. It also enables us to keep track of your activity on our website for a period of time.
We also use cookies to measure traffic patterns, to determine which areas of our website have been visited and to measure transaction patterns in the aggregate. We use this to research our users’ habits so that we can improve our online products and services. Our cookies do not collect personal information. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set your browser so that your computer does not accept them.
We may log IP addresses (that is, the electronic addresses of computers connected to the internet) to analyse trends, administer the website and track users movements.
CONTACT US
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, any concerns or feedback regarding the treatment of your privacy, please use the contact link on our website or contact our Privacy
Officer using the details set out below.
We will treat your requests or complaints confidentially. Our representative will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your complaint to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how they may be resolved. We will aim to ensure that your complaint is resolved in a timely and appropriate manner.
Contact details of our Privacy Officer:
Contact no: 09 869 9000
Email: [email protected]