Privacy Policy.
1. What this Privacy Policy covers
- This is the Privacy Policy of Mortgages.co.nz Limited (referred to in this policy as “we”, “us” or “our”) for our website and the tools on our Site (the “Site”).
- Where we’re collecting, storing and otherwise processing (“processing”) your personal information in relation to our content and/or Site, we are the New Zealand “agency” in respect of your personal information for the purposes of New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020.
- If you’re providing us with another person’s personal information you should first ask them to read this Privacy Policy and our Ts & Cs. By giving us personal information about another person you are confirming that they have given you permission to provide the personal information to us and that they understand how their personal information will be used.
- The main purposes we collect and process your personal information are:
(a) to show you relevant content and to improve your experience on the Site;
(b) provide the services you sign up for;
(c) communicate with you directly when you have agreed to it; or
(d) when the law allows us to do this. - To operate the tools on our Site, we may sometimes need to share your personal information with other businesses. They’ll be responsible for how they process your personal information. How that might happen is discussed in section 6.1 of this Privacy Policy.
- Our Site may contain external links to other websites that aren’t subject to this Privacy Policy. Please do read our Ts & Cs for further information on external links, as well as the terms and conditions and privacy policy of any website you give your personal information to, as you’ll be bound by them. We’re not liable for anything that happens if you use those other websites.
2. Personal information we collect
- The information we collect will depend on how you’re using our Site and should usually be clear to you at the time we collect it, eg, if you subscribe to our regular emails, we’ll ask for an email address. If you’re using one of our tools we may, depending on the tool, need to get a range of information, such as your name, marital status, benefit entitlements, income and bank account details. We may also use cookies and other tracking technology to collect information about your online browsing behaviour and any devices you have used to access our Site.
3. How we collect and use your personal information
We collect and use your personal information to allow you to interact with the Site. For example:
- Our emails – When you register to receive our emails, we’ll use your email address to send those to.
- Our Tools – Please remember, the tools are used to indicate potential amounts relevant to borrowing and repaying. The amounts suggested are approximations only and should not be relied on, You should speak to your lender for specific information related to any borrowing you may take out.
- Internal reporting, insight and analysis
We may use your personal information to generate aggregated, anonymised data for the purposes of internal reporting, insight and analysis, enabling us to improve and personalise our Site, the services we offer and search results for our Site. As part of this we also use Google Analytics. See section 9 below regarding Cookies for further information. Where necessary, this exercise may be carried out on our behalf by someone else – please see section 6 below in respect of that. - Contacting you
We may use your personal information to:
(a) Respond to any communications that you have directed at us;
(b) Invite you to take part in polls and other market research activities carried out by us and on our behalf. Any feedback you provide will only be used to improve our Site and will not be published. It is up to you whether you want to take part in these activities; or
(c) Award you a prize if you have won a competition we’re running.
4. Why do we process your personal information?
- We’ll only collect and use your personal information (as described in sections 2 and 3) in accordance with privacy laws. Our grounds for processing your personal information are:
(a) Performance of a contract – To provide you with the services you sign up to.
(b) Consent – We’ll only collect and process your personal information where necessary and if you have consented for us to do so. For example, when you register to receive our emails.
(c) Lawful purpose – Under the Privacy Act 2020, we may use and process your personal information where:
(i) the information is collected for a lawful purpose connected with a function or an activity of ours; and
(ii) the collection of the information is necessary for that purpose.
Our purposes for collecting your personal information are:
(iii) To enable you to use our Tools; and
(iv) To improve our Site. We may use your personal information to undertake demographic segmentation and generate profiling information to help us understand what you might be interested in and for market research. We are always working to make a better Site for you and using your personal information in this way helps us to do this
(d) Promotional activities – to promote and/or contact you about our products and services, and the products and services of carefully selected third parties, such as insurances.co.nz, which we think may be of interest to you. By providing your personal information, you consent to us using your information to send you promotional messages about other websites, products or services. If you do not wish to receive these messages, you can opt-out at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link provided in our emails or by contacting us directly.
You have a right to object to our use of your personal information for these reasons, including a right to object to profiling by us (see section 8 below).
5. Use of children’s personal information
- We don’t knowingly collect or store any personal information about children under the age of 18. If you are aged under 18 please get your parent or guardian’s permission before you provide any personal information to us.
6. Sharing your personal information with others
- We may share your personal information with 3rd parties: (a) Our technical partners – For the purposes of providing certain services and enabling your interaction with the Site; (b) If required or permitted to do so by law; (c) If required to do so by any court, any applicable regulatory, compliance, governmental or law enforcement agency; (d) If necessary in connection with legal proceedings or potential legal proceedings; (e) If ownership of all or part of our Site is transferred, in which case any purchaser would only be entitled to use that information in a way consistent with this Privacy Policy; and (f) with third parties, such as [Mortgages.co.nz Limited OR Insurances.co.nz Limited], for the purposes listed above (including for promotional purposes) (g) In line with our own Ts & Cs.
7. How you can change permissions
- All emails or other forms of communication directly from us to you will include clear instructions on how to unsubscribe.. Section 8 below also sets out your other information rights.
8. Your information rights and responsibilities
- You have certain rights in relation to the personal information we hold on you:
(a) The right to a copy of the personal information we hold about you. We’ll ask you to describe the information you require, as well as letting us know about any other email addresses you have used on our Site, to enable us to trace your personal information. Depending on the nature of your request, we may also ask you for your full name, your date of birth and your full address and documents to allow us to verify your identity. Requests for copies of your personal information will be dealt with within one month, unless your request is complicated or if you have made a large number of requests. In these circumstances it may take us longer to deal with your request, in which case we’ll let you know;
(b) The right to have your personal information corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete. Requests for us to correct your personal information will be dealt with within one month, unless your request is complicated or if you have made a large number of requests. In these circumstances it may take us longer to deal with your request, in which case we’ll let you know. If we believe that your personal information is accurate, we’ll let you know that we won’t be amending your personal information and why; - Additionally, if you make a request by email, you can:
(a) withdraw your consent to our use of your personal information at any time. We’ll use reasonable efforts consistent with our legal duty to provide you with your rights in accordance with privacy laws.
(b) object to our use of your personal information including where we use it for our legitimate interests, or where we use your personal information to carry out profiling to inform our market research and user demographics. If you raise an objection, we’ll stop processing your personal information unless very exceptional circumstances apply, in which case we’ll let you know why we’re continuing to process your personal information. Some of our Tools give you the option to hear from us by email about tips, news, and relevant Mortgages.co.nz products and exclusives. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal information in this way; and
(c) ask us to delete or remove your personal information from our system. We will do so and will then provide you with confirmation when this has been done.. However, it may persist on back-up or archival media for legal, tax or regulatory purposes. - To make enquiries, exercise any of your rights set out in this Privacy Policy and/or make a complaint please contact hello@mortgages.co.nz
- If you’re not satisfied with the way any complaint you make in relation to your personal information is handled by us then you may be able to refer your complaint to the privacy regulator, the Privacy Commissioner.
9. Cookies
- When you use our Site, we may send a “cookie” to your computer. A cookie is a small information file which is downloaded to your device’s hard drive. We use cookies to help improve your experience when using our Site because, among other things, they may help us to improve our Site and our service offering by:
(a) understanding your browsing habits;
(b) responding to you as an individual by tailoring our operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences;
(c) monitoring which pages you find useful and which you do not; and
(d) understanding the number of visitors so that we can analyse data about web traffic which helps us improve our Site. - Further information
(a) If you require any further information on cookies including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage, delete and turn them off, please visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.
(b) Please note these are external websites and Mortgages.co.nz is not responsible for the accuracy of the information on these sites.
10. Where we store your personal information
- Keeping information about you secure is very important to us so we store and process your personal information in accordance with the high standards required under privacy laws. From time to time and for operational reasons the personal information we collect from you may be transferred to and stored in a country outside of New Zealand. Your information may also be processed by some of our service providers which operate outside New Zealand. However, when we appoint our service providers, we take care to ensure that we’ve put in place contractual protections, and that our service providers have appropriate security measures in place to enable them to comply with New Zealand’s privacy laws.
11. How long we keep your personal information
- We keep personal information on our systems for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy or until you request it is deleted. Generally, you can expect us to keep your personal information while you use our Tools, or regularly open our Tools and emails. If, having registered for any of our services, you don’t use them for a reasonable time (which may vary depending on the service(s) you have registered for) we may contact you to ensure you’re still happy to receive communications from us. Even if you delete, or ask us to delete your personal information it may persist on back-up or archival media for legal, tax or regulatory purposes.
12. How to contact us
- If you have any queries relating to our use of your personal information, please contact us at hello@mortgages.co.nz
13. Changes
- This policy applies from 22.03.21. We may, from time to time, make changes to this Privacy Policy to reflect any changes to our privacy practices in accordance with changes to laws, best practice or Site enhancements. We’ll let you know what these changes are by posting them to this page. Where the changes are significant, we may also choose to email you with the new details and get your permission to make these changes where required by law. It’s your responsibility as a user to make sure that you are aware of these changes posted on this page, by checking for any changes on a regular basis. Changes posted on this page will apply as soon as they are posted.
