How do I make a privacy complaint?

If you believe that Highview has not dealt with your personal information in accordance with an Australian Privacy Principle, you can make a privacy complaint to us.

A privacy complaint can be made to Highview in one of three ways:

  • By email to the following address: admin@highview.com.au
  • By telephone – (03) 5990 1000
  • By post to the following address:

Privacy Officer
Highview Accounting & Financial
2 Codrington Street
CRANBOURNE VIC 3977

In order to ensure that we fully understand the nature of your privacy complaint and the outcome you are seeking, we prefer that you make your privacy complaint in writing. To assist you do this we have included a Privacy Complaint Form that you can use simply click here to download and print the form.

What information should I include in my privacy complaint?

In order to properly and efficiently respond to your privacy complaint you should ensure that your complaint contains sufficient information to enable us to understand the nature of your complaint and the outcome you are seeking. To assist you in this regard, things you may wish to think about include:

  1. What occurred?
  2. When did it occur?
  3. Where did it occur?
  4. Who was involved?
  5. What APPs do you believe have been breached?
  6. How do you believe your personal information has been mishandled?
  7. What outcome are you seeking?

How long will it take?

Highview will acknowledge your privacy complaint within 7 days of it being received by our Privacy Officer.
The length of time it takes for Highview to investigate your privacy complaint and respond to you will depend upon the nature and complexity of the issues involved. However, we will provide you with written notification of the outcome of our investigation into your privacy complaint within 30 days.

If your complaint is in relation to credit-related information, then we may need to consult with other organisations, including credit reporting bodies. In relation to credit-related information, we will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within seven days and if we cannot resolve the matter within 30 days, we will contact you and explain any reason for delay, the expected timeframe to resolve the complaint and seek your agreement to extend the period.

What happens if I am not satisfied with Highview’s response?

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your matter, you can refer your complaint to external dispute resolution. The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) offers a free and independent dispute resolution service for the Australian banking, insurance and investment industries. FOS will consider privacy disputes if they pertain to the provision of credit, the collection of a debt or credit reporting.

You can contact FOS on 1300 780 808, online at www.fos.org.au or write to Financial Ombudsman Service Limited, GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001.

If your complaint relates to the way we handle your personal information, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) by calling them on 1300 363 992, online at www.oaic.gov.au or writing to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001.

Privacy complaint handling procedure

If a privacy complaint is received by Highview, the following procedures will apply:

  • If a verbal complaint is received by telephone, the person that speaks to the complainant should encourage the complainant to submit their complaint in writing using Highview’s Privacy Complaint Form. If the complainant is unwilling to submit a written complaint, then the person receiving the complaint should:
    • document the verbal complaint in writing;
    • obtain the complainant’s contact details;
    • advise the complainant that details of the privacy complaint and their contact details will be forwarded to the Privacy Officer for the purposes of assessing, investigating, conciliating and reporting on the privacy complaint.
  • Refer the privacy complaint promptly to the Privacy Contact Officer
  • If a written privacy complaint is received, the person that receives the complaint should promptly forward the complaint to the Privacy Officer.
  • The Privacy Officer will do the following:
    • acknowledge the individual’s privacy complaint within 7 days of the
    • complaint having been received by them;
    • liaise with the complainant as appropriate to seek any relevant information
    • necessary to investigate the privacy complaint;
    • impartially assess and investigate the privacy complaint;
    • advise the complainant of the outcome of the investigation and the propose action, if any, Highview intends to take;
    • provide the complainant with information on how to make a complaint to the OAIC if they are unhappy with the outcome of the investigation.
  • If the outcome of the investigation concludes that Highview appears to have mishandled an individual’s personal information, liaise with the relevant person to ensure a similar incident does not occur again.

Privacy statement

The personal information collected from you on this form is collected by Highview to assess, investigate and report in respect to your privacy complaint.

We may collect information about you from other individuals or organisations involved in the complaint for the above purposes.

We may disclose the information you give us to the individuals or organisations named in the privacy complaint and to others who have information that is relevant to your complaint.

In case of a challenge our conduct connected with your complaint, we may need to disclose some of your personal information to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or a court or tribunal.

If your personal information is credit-related information or credit-eligibility information, then we may disclose such information to credit-reporting bodies such as Equifax. For more information on our collection and provision of your credit-related and credit-eligibility information, please read our Privacy Policy which is contained on our website.

You are not required to provide us with your contact details and may make a privacy complaint anonymously. However, if you do not provide your contact details, we may not be able to properly investigate your complaint or inform you of the action, if any, taken in response to your complaint.

Highview’s Privacy Policy has information in respect to how you may access your personal information held by us.

Highview Accounting & Financial Privacy (Including Credit Reporting) Policy

Summary

This document contains the policy of Highview Accounting & Financial (Highview) and all associated entities with respect to the protection of the privacy of personal information.

A printed version of this document can be obtained free of charge by contacting us.

Personal information

The types of personal information that we collect include the following:

  • Names, contact details and addresses;
  • Date of birth and gender details;
  • Passport or driver’s licence details;
  • Job details;
  • Tax file numbers;
  • Bank account details;
  • Private health membership details
  • Details pertaining to investments;
  • Superannuation and pension details;
  • Educational qualifications, employment details and salary information;
  • Information about your spouse and dependants.

Sensitive information

Sensitive information is a class of information that is generally better protected than other types of information. This type of information includes health information and information relating to memberships of professional associations or affiliations.

Highview will collect sensitive information only where it is reasonably necessary and either:

  • you have consented to the collection; or
  • we are required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court order to do so.

We may for example collect information about your membership of professional associations or information about your dietary requirements or transportation in the context of events or seminars that we may organise.

Anonymity

In some circumstances you may not wish to identify yourself and make an anonymous enquiry. Highview will allow individuals to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym when dealing with us where it is lawful and practicable for us to do so.

In many cases it will not be practicable for us to allow individuals to be anonymous, for example if you have a specific query or if you wish to obtain advice from us. You must identify yourself if you require us to provide you with any advice.

How does Highview use your information

Highview uses your information so that we are able to:

  • administer our services to you;
  • manage our relationship with you;
  • conduct and improve our business;
  • comply with our legal obligations;
  • identify and tell you about other services or products that we believe may be of interest to you.

Collection and holding of personal information

Highview collects information from individuals in a number of ways, which includes:

  • by email;
  • by telephone;
  • in person;
  • through correspondence (letters or emails);
  • through soft and hard copy forms (such as event registration forms or survey forms);
  • through Highview’s website;
  • at seminars and functions organised by Highview.

Highview currently holds personal information in hard copy paper files in drawers and cabinets, electronic databases and email contact lists, though we anticipate that a large amount of this information will also be held in cloud storage. It is Highview’s policy to ensure that we protect the personal information that we hold from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Unsolicited person information

This type of information is information that we have received without taking any active steps to collect such information. We may keep records of such information if the Privacy Act allows. If the Privacy Act does not allow the retention of such information, it is our policy to destroy such information as soon as practicable after receipt, provided it is lawful and reasonable to do so.

Direct marketing

We may use your personal information, specifically your name and address details and information about your preferences for direct marketing, to let you know about our services and benefits and those of third parties, where we have your consent.

Australian law prohibits us from providing such information for purposes of direct marketing unless we have your consent. Where we have permission to do so, we may contact you for direct marketing purposes in a variety of ways, including by telephone, email, mail, online forms or online advertising.

You may communicate your consent to our use of your personal information for direct marketing:

  • upon signing the Highview Accounting & Financial Terms of Engagement Letter;
  • when providing personal information through a form, letter or other written correspondence, signing on the correspondence indicating your consent.

In circumstances where you have consented to receiving direct marketing communications from us, your consent will remain current until you advise us otherwise. Please note that you are able, at no cost, to opt out at any time by:

  • sending a letter to Highview Accounting & Financial, PO Box 753 Cranbourne, Victoria 3977;
  • sending an email to admin@highview.com.au;
  • if you receive a marketing call from us, inform us that you no longer wish to receive these calls.

Credit checks and reporting

If we decide to give you credit in relation to our fees, one of our checks may involve obtaining a credit report about you. A credit report contains information about your credit history. Credit reporting bodies collect and exchange this type of information with credit providers such as Highview.

The Privacy Act imposes limits on the information that credit providers such as Highview can disclose to credit reporting bodies.

The type of information that Highview can and does collect from credit reporting bodies includes your identification details, the type of credit arrangement we have provided to you, how much credit we have advanced to you, whether you have met your credit repayment obligations and if you have committed a serious credit infringement (for example, credit fraud). We may also request that the credit reporting body provide us with an assessment of your creditworthiness.

The credit reporting body we use is Equifax Information Services. Their telephone number is 138 332.

Once we obtain credit related information from credit reporting agencies, we hold, use and/or provide such information for the purposes of assessing any application for credit, managing our relationship with you and collecting overdue payments that may be owed by you.

Highview stores credit-related information with your other information. You can access credit-related information which we hold in respect to you and request that we correct the information or make a complaint about your credit-related information to us (see section headed “Complaints”) below.

Security

We take a number of steps to keep your personal information secure, including use of firewalls, multifactor authentication including Practice Protect, anti-virus software and login and password protection, secure office access and training policies.

While Highview will strive to protect personal information and privacy of website users, we are unable to guarantee the security of information that you may disclose online and you disclose any such information at your own risk.

If practice, we keep information only for as long as required (i.e. to meet legal requirements or our internal requirements).

Access and correction of your personal information

You have a right to request access to personal information as well as credit-related information that we hold about you by contacting us by telephone, emailing us or visiting our offices.

You can readily access and correct your own personal information by contacting our office on 5990 1000 or by emailing admin@highview.com.au This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

It is our policy to provide you with access to your personal information subject to exceptions permitted by law. We may provide access in the manner you have requested provided it is reasonable and practicable for us to do so, however we may charge a fee to cover our reasonable costs of locating any information for you.

If you request that we correct your personal information, it is our policy to take reasonable steps to correct such information to ensure that it is accurate, complete, relevant and up to date.

If we refuse your access or correction request, or if we refuse to provide you access in the manner that you have requested, we will provide you with a written letter setting out the reasons for our refusal (except to the extent it would be unreasonable to do so) and the mechanism available to complain about the refusal.

We will endeavour to respond to access and correction requests within 30 days of a request being made, unless the request is complicated and/or time consuming.

Complaints

If you have a concern about your privacy (including credit-related matters), you have a right to make a complaint and we will do what we can to rectify matters.

Within 7 days after receiving a complaint, Highview’s Privacy Officer will provide you with a written notice acknowledging your complaint and setting out how we will deal with the complaint. We will also commence an investigation of the complaint.

Please contact our Privacy Officer who will endeavour in the first instance to deal with your complaint and take any steps necessary to resolve the matter within a period of 30 days.

If your complaint is in relation to credit-related information, then we may need to consult with other organisations, including credit reporting bodies. In relation to credit-related information, we will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within seven days and if we cannot resolve the matter within 30 days, we will contact you and explain any reason for delay, the expected timeframe to resolve the complaint and seek your agreement to extend the period.

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your matter, you can refer your complaint to external dispute resolution. The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) offers a free and independent dispute resolution service for the Australian banking, insurance, accounting and investment industries. FOS will consider privacy disputes if they pertain to the provision of credit, the collection of a debt or credit reporting.

You can contact FOS on 1300 780 808, online at www.fos.org.au or write to Financial Ombudsman Service Limited, GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001.

If your complaint relates to the way we handle your personal information, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by calling them on 1300 363 992, online at www.oaic.gov.au or writing to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001.

For further information in relation to handling of privacy complaints, please read Highview’s Privacy Complaint Handling Policy.

Changes to this policy

Highview may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version will be posted on our website and a copy may be obtained free of charge by contacting us.

Access to this Website

In accessing and using this website, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions.

About this Website

On this website we provide an interactive environment in which users who are interested in learning about our services or registering interest in our services may find such information and, if they choose to do so, register their interest.

If you register with us, we will issue you with a confidential user name and password to access the information and services contained on this website. You should ensure that you do not divulge your user name and password to any other person.

Your obligations

If you are not over the age of 18 years, you must obtain the consent of your parent or guardian before using this website.

You must not:

  • Use any other persons name, user identification or password when accessing or using this website, unless it is with our consent;
  • Post or transmit any material which in any way defames, harasses or offends any person, is obscene or which in any way may interfere with any other users of this website.
  • Provide any information to us which is the confidential information or proprietary information of any other person;
  • Use this website in any way which may be in breach of any laws, rules or regulations or may infringe any third party rights; or
  • Knowingly transmit any virus or take any action which may interfere with the operation of this website.

Third Party Content, Products and Services

Products and services offered for sale or advertised, and other information found on this website, may be the products, services and information of third parties.

Third party products and services are not provided by us. If you purchase third party products and services, your legal relationship will be with the third party supplier and not us. You must check with any third party supplier as to the terms of provision of such products and services and the costs and charges involved. We may receive fees or commissions from third parties for such products and services.

We make no representations about the accuracy or suitability of the information provided on this website. The information is provided ‘as is’ without express or implied warranty. You use the information at your own risk.

Links

This website may contain links to other websites which are not under our control or which are not maintained by us. The links to any such third party websites are provided for your convenience and information only. If you access these websites you do so at your own risk. We are not responsible for the content of those websites and will not be liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use or your reliance on any such content. The fact that a website is linked to this website does not imply any endorsement or sponsorship by us of that website or that we are affiliated in any way with the third party operating that third party website.

Change of Information, Products and Services

Information, products and services published on this website are subject to change without notice.

Copyright

All contents of this website, including the software, design, text and graphics are owned by or licensed to us and are protected by copyright under the laws of Australia and other countries. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of personal use, private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under copyright legislation, you may not reproduce, transmit, adapt, distribute, sell, modify or publish or otherwise use any of the material on this website without our prior written consent.

Trademarks

This website includes trademarks which are registered, are the subject of pending applications or which are otherwise protected by law. You may not use these trademarks with out our consent.

Disclaimer and limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all warranties, conditions and representations whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, relating in any way to this web site, your use of this web site and the information, products and services supplied, offered to be supplied or advertised or accessed through this web site; and liability (including for negligence) to you or anyone else in respect of any loss or damage (including special, indirect or consequential loss or damage), costs and expenses suffered by you or claims made against you arising from or in connection with any use of the information, products or services supplied, offered to be supplied or advertised or accessed through this web site for any reason whatsoever (including negligence).

In the event that terms, conditions or warranties are implied by law and cannot be excluded, then those terms conditions or warranties are included however our liability is limited at our option to one or more of the following.

In the case of the supply of goods:

  • The replacement of the goods or the supply of equivalent goods;
  • The payment of the cost of replacement of the goods or the supply of equivalent goods; or
  • The repair of the goods or payment of the cost of repair of goods; and in the case of the services, supplying the services again or paying the cost of supplying the services again.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify us and our partners, agents, officers, employees and other authorised representatives against all claims, suits, demands, damages, liabilities, costs or expenses arising in any way out of or in any way connected to your use of this website.

Termination

If in our reasonable opinion you fail to comply with any of these terms and conditions of use of this website, we may terminate or limit your access to this website.

Governing Law

Any legal issues arising out of the use of this website will be governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia and by using this website you submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of that state.

Further information

Please contact Highview if you have any queries about the personal information that Highview holds about you or the way we handle that personal information. Our contact details for privacy queries are set out below:

Privacy Officer
Highview Accounting & Financial
2 Codrington Street
Cranbourne VIC 3977

Email: admin@highview.com.au This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Telephone: (03) 5990 1000

Thank you for taking the time to read our Privacy Policy.