Home » Privacy Statement
Shield Mercantile Pty Ltd (“Shield”, “we” or “us”) understands the importance of protecting the personal information of our clients and customers. We are committed to the protection of personal information in accordance with our procedures and as required by Australian legislation.
Shield is bound by the requirements of the National Privacy Principles and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).
This privacy policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose and handle the personal information of our clients and customers including information about how you can access and/or correct your personal information.
We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy at any time. A Revised version of our Privacy Policy will be published on our website.
Personal information, as defined by the Privacy Act, is information or opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.
Shield will only collect information reasonable to the services we provide. The types of personal information collected by Shield Mercantile include:
Shield Mercantile does not collect personal information such as your tax file number, pension number, Medicare number or any other government agency identifier.
We do not generally collect sensitive information for individuals, but in some cases this information may be held. Sensitive information may include:
Sensitive information may be collected when assessing certain claims including hardship. In the event sensitive information is collected, we only do so with the consent of the individual, as provided by you or otherwise where we are entitled to do so.
Where reasonable and applicable, personal information will be obtained and confirmed from you during our interaction with you, be it over the telephone, by e-mail, SMS, post, fax or over the internet. Shield will collect personal information by lawful and fair means and only collect personal information for purposes which relate directly to our functions or activities. Other sources Shield may use to collect your personal information include:
Shield only uses the personal information which has been collected for the purposes of debt recovery or for secondary use provided consent has been obtained from the individual.
Your personal information may be used for the following functions:
Shield discloses personal information to the following sources:
Shield is dedicated to ensuring that your personal information which is held is accurate, up to date and complete. We maintain and update personal information should we be advised by you that the personal information which is held is out of date or inaccurate. Where personal information which has been collected is no longer required, we remove the information or permanently de-identify it.
Shield takes reasonable steps to prevent loss, unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure or other misuse of your personal information. This includes the implementation of information security policies and procedures, software encryption, password protection, virus protection and internal quality procedures. All employees are required to sign a Declaration of Secrecy.
Individuals have a right to access and correct their personal information which is held. When we receive a request for personal information to be updated or amended, Shield takes reasonable steps to ensure that the information held is updated, subject to some exceptions outlined in the Australian Privacy Principles.
If you believe that the information held by us about you is incomplete, inaccurate or outdated, please contact us immediately to amend this information. Our contact details are available below or on our website (www.shieldmerc.com.au) via the “Contact us” link. Individuals may obtain further information regarding how to correct/update or request access to their personal information by contacting our office.
Shield requires compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles by all of our external agents. We are not likely to disclose the personal information of individuals to overseas recipients although in some cases our clients may disclose personal information to their external agencies. To find out more in relation to our client’s disclosure of personal information to overseas entities, please refer to each client’s Privacy Policy which is available on their websites.
If you have any concerns regarding our Privacy Policy and procedures, or believe a privacy breach has occurred and would like to make a complaint, a complaint can be made to our internal dispute resolution scheme by the contact methods listed under how to contact Shield Mercantile.
If your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can lodge an external complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers.
Website: www.afca.org.au
Email: info@afca.org.au
Telephone: 1800 931 678(Free call)
In writing: Australian Financial Complaints Authority, GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001
If you have any enquiries regarding our Privacy Policy and procedures or would like to request access to an individual’s personal information held by us, all enquiries can be directed to:
Contact: Compliance
Address: Shield Mercantile Pty Ltd
PO BOX 3118
Parramatta NSW 2124
Email: compliance@shieldmerc.com.au
Other contact methods are available on our website (www.shieldmerc.com.au) via the “contact us” link.
Download the Privacy Policy here
© 2021 Shield Mercantile Pty Ltd.