This Privacy Policy covers the business activities of Australian Secure Capital Fund Ltd ABN 38 613 497 635 (ASCF) and covers any other entity forming part of the ASCF group of related bodies corporate.

In this Privacy Policy, any reference to ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ is a reference to ASCF and such related body corporate including but not limited to Mortgage Capital Australia Pty Ltd ABN 48 606 382 192.

The purpose of this policy is to tell you what personal information ASCF and its related entities may collect in their business activities, how they information collected may be used or stored, and is intended to provide you with details of actions taken by us to safeguard your information.

We recognise that your privacy is important to you. We are committed to treating the personal information we collect in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) including the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code.

Any references to our products or services includes our financial services, credit activities investments and our secured loans.

Generally, we only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one of more of the functions and activities of our business. For example, we may request that you provide your personal information when you instruct us to provide services, acquire products, invest with us or otherwise interact with us, e.g., via our websites.

There may be other occasions when we collect personal information about you, search results obtained when verifying a customer’s identity or from other sources, such as from our related entities, a publicly maintained record or from an information services provider. We may also share personal information about you with our related entities.

The types of personal information we collect may include:

• Names, gender, date of birth;
• Contact information such as address, email address, phone numbers and IP address;
• Information in identification documents (e.g., passport or driver’s licence);
• Bank account details;
• Information about shareholders, beneficiaries and beneficial owners;
• Tax file numbers, tax residency status and other government-issued identification numbers;
• Personal questions to form and answer security questions;
• Information about which of our websites and webpages you visit and which forms and documents are downloaded;
• Details about your spouse, children and other family members, if required based on a specific engagement to provide services or products, such as estate planning, family continuity or wealth transition services;
• Financial, asset and investment related information; and/or
• Publicly available sources, including social networks. We may derive or form an opinion by analysing data collected from these sources.

We do not collect or hold sensitive information, such as racial or ethnic origins, religious affiliation, political opinions, or criminal record. We may hold information about your health, only when it concerns your investment (for example if a Power of Attorney is relied on). Personal information held by us is not organised by government related identifiers.

If you are making a hardship application, we may also ask you about and seek to collect information about any medical conditions you may have that we believe may be relevant to that application.

Generally, we will collect your personal information directly from you, for example when we deal with you in person or over the phone, when you send us correspondence (including via email), when you complete a form, questionnaire or survey or when you use our website or our social media.

Sometimes it may be necessary for us to collect your personal information from a third party. For example, we may collect your personal information from a publicly available record or from your personal representative. We may also collect personal information about you from your use of our website and information you provide to us through the registration process on our website.

If you provide us with someone else’s personal information, you should only do so if you have their authority or consent to provide us with their personal information. You should also take reasonable steps to inform them of the matters set out in this Privacy Policy.

We may hold personal information in both hard copy and electronic formats. We also engage third parties to host electronic data (including in relation to the services we provide on our behalf).

We may also have legal requirements which govern how long we retain documents and information and data breach incidents. We will endeavour to ensure that personal information is kept as current as possible and that irrelevant data is deleted or made anonymous as soon as reasonably practicable. However, personal information may be retained for varying periods of time to comply with legal and regulatory obligations or any other legitimate business reason.

In the event you cease to be a client of ours, personal information we hold about you will be maintained for at least as long as we are required to comply with legislative record retention requirements. After that time, we may destroy your personal information or put it beyond use, e.g., de-identify the personal information so it cannot be used to identify you.

We collect, hold and use personal information for a number of purposes including:

• To provide you with requested investment or credit-related services;
• To respond to your other requests or queries;
• To provide you with information about our products or services;
• To operate our business and any company, managed investment scheme, trust or syndicate, including entering details on a register of members and performing compliance reviews or audits;
• To maintain contact and keep you informed of our services, updates, industry developments and events;
• To verify your identity, including under Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing laws and regulations, which involve disclosure of your personal information to service providers, government or regulatory bodies, credit agencies or other information holders and repositories;
• For administrative purposes, including processing applications, distributions and payment transactions;
• For recruitment purposes and matters relating to the employment of our personnel, providing internal services or benefits to our staff;
• When engaging service providers, contractors or suppliers relating to the operation of our business;
• To manage any conflict of interest;
• For seeking your feedback or to conduct surveys;
• To meet any legal or regulatory obligations, e.g., providing the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) with tax file numbers, or reporting to the ATO relating to CRS or FATCA;
• As part of an actual (or proposed) acquisition, disposition, merger or de-merger of a business or entering into an alliance, joint venture or referral arrangement;
• To perform internal statistical analysis, including of our databases and website; and/or
• For any other business-related purposes.

If you do not provide us with the personal information we have requested, we may not be able to complete or fulfil the purpose for which such information was collected, including providing you with the services or products we were engaged to perform.

Depending on the product or service you have requested from us, we may disclose your personal information to third parties but only to the extent reasonably necessary to provide services to you, or reasonably related to functions that those third parties need to perform. These parties could include:

• External professional service providers engaged by us such as:
  • Portfolio management services (i.e. FinPower);
  • Custodianship of investment assets (i.e. Certane CT Pty Ltd);
  • Legal services (i.e. Kingston and Partners, Summer Lawyers, Hall & Wilcox etc.);
  • Accounting services (Gold Group Consulting);
  • Auditing services: (Grant Thornton Audit).
• Organisations and document issuing authorities able to provide verification of your identity for example, Equifax, RapidID, Olivia123;
• Organisations who offer or manage mortgage or finance brokers (aggregators) for the purpose of monitoring and supervising our compliance with relevant credit laws and standards;
• Mailing, printing or other service providers;
• an external dispute resolution agency (i.e. AFCA), tribunal or court in connection with any dispute;
• governmental agencies or other person where we are required by law to make disclosure (for example responding to a valid statutory notice or court subpoena);
• a person or business in relation to an actual or proposed acquisition, disposition, merger or our entry into an alliance, joint venture or referral arrangement;
• When you have provided consent for the disclosure.

We do not disclose personal information to third parties for the purpose of allowing them to send marketing material to you.

Prior to disclosing any of your personal information to another person or organisation, we will take all reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that:

• the person or organisation receiving your information has a commitment to protecting your personal information at least equivalent to ours; or
• you have otherwise consented to us making the disclosure.

You can keep your personal information secure by ensuring any password you use to access our systems is kept strictly confidential and by logging off when you have finished using a shared computer. We will not be responsible for any access or change made to your personal information occurring as a result of you disclosing your password to a third party or through unauthorised access.

We take security measures to ensure that any personal information we hold (including credit information) is protected from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including physical security measures (e.g., security passes and keys to enter our offices and storage of files in lockable cabinets) and technology security measures (e.g., restriction of access, firewalls, encryption, passwords and anti-virus technology).

We store personal information in our computer databases and on paper. We may also utilise third party storage providers (such as internet or ’cloud’ based storage), which store data in an overseas country, e.g., United States, North America, Asia, European Union or any other country in which the provider or its affiliates, subsidiaries or service providers maintain facilities. In the event that your personal information is held in an overseas country the information will not be protected by the Australian Privacy Principles. By providing your details, you consent to your information being disclosed and held in this manner.

Cookies and other technologies are used by us on our websites and through email to automatically collect certain types of information. The collection of this information allows us to customise your online experience, market products and services to you, improve the performance, usability and effectiveness of our online presence and to measure the effectiveness of our marketing activities.

If you register or log into our website and provide information about your preferences, we may use your information to personalise your user experience. If you register or log into our website using a third-party account, we may collect any information you have permitted the third-party service to share, such as your name and email address, depending on the privacy settings you have set with the third-party service and their privacy policy.

An IP address is a number assigned to your computer whenever you access the internet. It is not linked to personally identifiable information. We may use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer the website, track user’s movement, and gather broad demographic information.

A ‘cookie’ is a small text file that is placed on your computer or internet-enabled device whenever you visit our website. This allows the website to remember your computer or device and serves a number of purposes.

For example, online retailers use cookies to track items in a user’s shopping cart while they explore the different pages on the website. Without cookies, each time you click on another link, the cart would reset to zero. This could make buying anything online very difficult.

The use of cookies is an industry standard and many major browsers are initially set up to accept them. You can reset your browser settings to either refuse to accept all cookies or to notify you when you have received a cookie. You may also delete cookies from your device at any time. However, if you refuse to accept cookies, you may not be able to access or use all of the features available on our website.

Cookies by themselves do not tell us your email address or otherwise identify you personally. In our analytical reports, we may obtain other identifiers including IP addresses, but this is for the purpose of identifying the number of unique visitors to our website and geographic origin of visitor trends, and not to identify individual visitors.

We may collect and use the geographical location of your computer or mobile device. This location data is collected for the purpose of providing you with information regarding services which we believe may be of interest to you based on your geographic location, and to improve our location-based products and services.

Our website may host blogs, forums, crowd-sourcing and other applications or services (collectively “social media features”). The purpose of social media features is to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and content. Any personal information that you provide on any ASCF social media feature may be shared with other users of that social media feature (unless otherwise stated at the point of collection), over whom we may have limited or no control.

Our websites may contain links to third parties’ websites. Those other websites are not subject to our privacy policy and procedures. You will need to review those websites to view a copy of their privacy policy. We do not endorse, approve or recommend the company, product or service provided on or associated with the external link.

You have several choices regarding your use of our websites. In general, you are not required to provide personal information when you visit our websites. However, if you apply to receive information about our services, events and updates, wish to acquire products or services or apply for a job, provision of certain personal information will generally be required.

You can get started by contacting us today! One of our Mortgage Brokers will be in contact with you to arrange a suitable time to discuss your loan inquiry and find a solution for you. This is an opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have.

We understand the importance of protecting children’s privacy, especially in an online environment. In particular, our website is not intentionally designed for or directed at children under the age of 18. It is our policy to never knowingly collect or maintain information about anyone under the age of 18, except as part of a specific engagement to provide services or products that necessitates such personal information being collected.

Australian privacy law gives you a general right to request access to your personal information, including credit information, subject to some limited exceptions permitted or required by law. Such requests must be made in writing to our Privacy Officer. If we decline your request for access, we will provide a written explanation to you for the refusal.

Upon confirmation of your identity, we may provide you with access to information by either providing you with copies of the information requested or allowing you to inspect the information. We may charge reasonable costs for providing you access to your personal information.

We will not provide you with access to personal information which would reveal any confidential formulae or the detail of any in-house evaluative decision-making process but may instead provide you with the result of the formulae or process or an explanation of that result. See below at 9.3 for details on how to lodge a request for access to your personal information.

We may have the right to refuse your request for access to your personal information if we have a valid reason. Some valid reasons include:

• Our reasonably formed belief that giving you access may have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals;
• Your request is frivolous or vexatious;
• Where otherwise required or permitted by Australian federal or state or territory law to refuse or limit access.

It’s important that you make sure that the personal information we hold about you is accurate, up-to-date and compete. If you believe that any personal information we have collected about you is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, you have the right under Australian Privacy Law to request a correction or amendment. To do so, please contact our Privacy Officer and we will take reasonable steps to correct it in accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act.

As noted above under heading “Holding Personal Information”, we may be required to comply with legislative document retention requirements, in which case we may be able to correct but not always legally amend or delete particular information during this period.

We at ASCF Ltd strive to provide our customers with the highest standard of service. If you have are dissatisfied about how your personal information is being handled by ASCF, please first contact our Complaints Officer using the contact details below.

To notify us of your complaint, please refer to the ASCF Ltd website Complaints Notification Form at: ascf.com.au/complaints or alternatively you can notify our Complaints Officer via:

Post:
ASCF Complaints Officer
Level 1, 50 Park Road, Milton, Qld. 4064

Phone:
07 3506 3690

ASCF Ltd will endeavour to resolve the dispute within 10 business days.  If ASCF Ltd cannot resolve the dispute within 30 days, we will notify you in writing.

If an issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction within 30 days, you can lodge a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers.

Alternatively, you can also lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) if you are not satisfied with our response to, or the handling of your privacy related complaint.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
Web address: https://oaic.gov.au/
Mail: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001
Phone: 1300 363 992 (11 am to 5 pm Tuesday to Thursday)

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
Web address: https://afca.org.au/
Mail: GPO Box 3 Melbourne VIC 3001
Phone: 1800 931 678 (9 am to 5 pm AEST/AEDT weekdays)
Fax: 03 9613 6399
Email: info@afca.org.au

We are required to comply with the Privacy Act 1988, which contains the Australian Privacy Principles. A summary of the Australia Privacy Principles, a copy of the Privacy Act and additional information about privacy is available on the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time, to reflect our current privacy practices or changes in the law. Our websites will always have the current version of our Privacy Policy.

Before providing us with personal information, please review the Privacy Policy on our website.

If you:

• Have an inquiry in relation to this Privacy Policy
• Would like to notify us that you no longer wish to receive marketing material from us;
• Would like to access or correct your personal information; and/or
• Would like to make a complaint about our handling of your personal information, please refer to the Complaints section above for more details.

You are required to submit your request in writing and we ask that you include:

• Your name and contact details
• Detail the personal information you would like access to;
• How you’d like to access the personal information (i.e. receive a copy by email, or post, or you want to view the information in person); and
• Authority for another person or organisation to access the personal information of your behalf.

Please submit any requests to:

ASCF Group Privacy Officer
Australian Secure Capital Fund Ltd
Level 1, 50 Park Road
Milton QLD 4064
Phone: 1300 269 419

Version 5 – 19 July 2024