Privacy Policy - Homecard Pty Limited

We respect your privacy and take your privacy concerns seriously. We are committed to the National Privacy Principles and to compliance with the Privacy Act. Obviously, Homecard cannot function without you providing us with information. Our Privacy Policy describes the information which we will collect and how we may use that information.

What information we may collect from you:

We only collect personal information that is necessary for us to provide you with the services which we offer and will, except as disclosed below, only use the information for that purpose.

Information you will provide us when you join. First, we collect details about when you join Homecard. This information will include your name, address, phone number/s and e-mail address/es. It may include credit card details and the subscription number of your Homecard You may (but do not need to) provide us with other information.

Secondly, when you shop, you may be required to provide information to the retailer. This will include your name and subscription number.

Thirdly, after you have shopped with a retailer, the retailer may provide us with details as to what you have bought. This will include the nature of the item, the manufacturer and model number and the price you paid for it.

Fourthly, when and individual visits our web-page, we will collect information about the individual by acquiring your IP (internet protocol) address – that is, the unique number which identifies the computer through which you connect to the internet. We do this by using cookies. Cookies allow a web-site to store and reference specific types of information during a visit to the web-site. The cookies we use does not collect personal information or information of a financial nature. You can prevent your computer from accepting cookies if you wish by changing your browser preferences. However, you may not then be able to use all of the facilities on our web-site. For more details about cookies, see www.cookiecentral.com.

Lastly, we may survey subscribers to obtain information about their use of Homecard and their level of satisfaction with the services which we provide as well as way which we could improve the service.

The use by us of the information we obtain from you

We use the information which you provide us in the preceding ways in a number of ways. We will only use it in accordance with your consent (which you will be taken to have given to disclosures which are made in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

First, we use it to provide you with the service you require. For instance, we will send your Homecard to the address which you give and will bill your credit card for the cost of your Homecard. We will also provide information to any retailer querying the validity or currency of your Homecard subscription.

Second, we will use the information to send you information about your subscription and of up-dates to the service we provide as well as notifying you special offers from retailers. This is part of the service to which you are entitled when you subscribe to Homecard but you are at liberty to tell us at any time that you no longer wish to have access to this service. However, we will not make your contact details available to any third party whatsoever without your specific consent.

Thirdly, we may use the information you provide us with to improve our service and the usability of our web-site and service.

Fourthly, we may use information we obtain to provide anonymised statistical data to retailers (whether already offering discounts to Homecard subscribers or not) to enable them to better assess the effectiveness of the Homecard™ system.

Who will see or have access to this information?

We may provide the anonymised statistical data derived from information you provide us to third parties.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties who will provide services to you (for example, retailers) and for billing purposes (for example credit card providers)

We may provide the information to a contractor who we have engaged to contact our subscribers on our behalf with offers for additional services or to see if you wish to renew your subscription. Such contractors sign a confidentiality agreement with us and are, by that agreement, not be permitted to use the information we provide to them in any way, or for any purpose, other than the purpose for which we engaged them. We do not authorise such contractors to use the information otherwise than in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Law enforcement agencies and courts may require that we give them access to the personal information which we hold about you.

Security

We have in place security measures by which all information you send to us via the internet is encrypted before it is sent to us. Access to the server on which information is stored is restricted by password. Information on our host server is also restricted by password. Information in hard copy is kept securely at our premises. We destroy all documents which contain personally identifiable information every 18 months.

Links to third party sites

We limit the degree to which retailers offering our subscribers offers may create links to their own web-sites or to other third-party sites. However, if you use a link that appears on our site, we are not responsible for the way personal information is handled by that other site nor for the Privacy Policy, if any, adopted by that site. In addition we are not responsible for the content of an advertisement on our site or on any other site linked to our site. After you have been referred to another site linked to our site, and before you disclose personal information to them, you should check the privacy policies adopted by that site.

Correcting information

Please telephone us if you need to know what personal information we are holding. We will generally consider requests to provide you with the personal information which we hold about you favourably. However, we may refuse to give you access to such information where giving you the information

Would have an unreasonable impact on another person’s privacy

Would prejudice an investigation authorised by the law; or

Would prejudice the activities of a law enforcement agency

Otherwise, the information will only be used by us for the purposes outlined in this Policy.
We will correct any errors you ask us to correct. You can also up-date your personal information upon request by telephone or e-mail.

What do you think?

If you have any comments about our privacy policy, please telephone us or send us an e-mail. If you feel that we may have used your personal information in an inappropriate way or contract to these guidelines, we will endeavour to correct the situation. If a dispute arises about how we have used this information, we will refer the dispute at first instance to LEADR, the dispute resolution organisation, for mediation in accordance with the rules of that organisation.

We may make changes to this Policy

We can make alterations to this Policy at any time. A change to this policy becomes effective from the date the change is notified on our web-site.