Privacy Policy

The Benedict Group of Companies, being all related companies and subsidiaries of the businesses listed above, in their own right and collectively (the Benedict Group) recognises the importance of the privacy of individuals who have dealings with the Benedict Group of companies, such as customers and suppliers. Benedict is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles, to the extent required by the Privacy Act 1988 (“Privacy Act”). This policy outlines how the Benedict Group and its entities collect, use, and manage personal information.

Third-party links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

1.1. The data the Benedict Group collects about you

The Benedict Group collects personal information where reasonably necessary for its functions and activities. Personal information that the Benedict Group may hold includes the following:

  • name, address and contact details;
  • bank account details;
  • details of the products and services provided to an individual by the Benedict Group;
  • details of an individual’s dealings with the Benedict Group, including records of telephone, email and online interactions;
  • credit-related personal information (see section 1.5 below).
1.2 How the Benedict Group collects personal information

The Benedict Group collects personal information directly from an individual where reasonable and practical. The Benedict Group may also collect such information from other sources, including:

  • Interact with us over the phone;
  • Interact with us in person;
  • Interact with us online;
  • Subscribe to our mailing list;
  • Other entities who provide services to the Benedict Group related to the products and services provided to an individual by the Benedict Group;
  • Publicly available sources of information;
  • An individual’s representatives (e.g. professional adviser).
1.3 How the Benedict Group uses personal information and to whom it is disclosed

The Benedict Group collects, uses, and discloses personal information generally to provide an individual with products and services requested, and to respond to queries. The Benedict Group may also use personal information to make an individual aware of the Benedict Group’s other products and services or offerings provided by Benedict in conjunction with its business partners or associates. The Benedict Group may not be able to do these things without the individual’s personal information. The Benedict Group may also collect, use, and disclose personal information in connection with potential or actual unlawful activity, misconduct or transfers of the Benedict Group’s business or assets.

The Benedict Group understands the importance of keeping personal information private and only discloses such information to third parties in limited circumstances. Third parties with whom the Benedict Group usually exchanges information include:

  • credit providers and credit reporting agencies;
  • an individual’s representatives;
  • The Benedict Group’s professional advisers including legal, accounting, auditing and business consulting advisers, debtors insurers
  • government and regulatory authorities;
  • subsidiaries and related parties of the Benedict Group;
  • for any particular commercial credit-related purpose in relation to you or any Guarantor;
  • a credit guarantee purpose of ours in relation to you or any Guarantor;
  • for the purpose of a prospective guarantor of your liability considering whether to offer to act as a guarantor in relation to the credit or to offer property as security for the credit;
  • for a purpose related to the enforcement, or proposed enforcement, of any Guarantor’s guarantee; or
  • for the purpose of collecting payments that are overdue in relation to consumer or commercial credit provided by us to you or a guarantor;

The Benedict Group also exchanges personal information with contractors who manage services provided to an individual on the Benedict Group’s behalf, or who provide services to the Benedict Group, including:

  • guarantors
  • mailing services;
  • billing and debt recovery functions;
  • haulage subcontractors;
  • marketing functions;
  • credit reporting bodies and credit providers;
  • government and law enforcement agencies or regulators;
  • website, data management and technology services.

Parties to which the Benedict Group discloses personal information may be located in Australia and other countries. As outlined below, web traffic information is disclosed to Google Analytics when you visit our websites and Google stores information across multiple countries.

1.4 Website usage information and cookies

When you use our website, Benedict collects certain standard information that is sent by your browser to our website. This includes technical information, such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, language, time zone setting, access times and any referring website addresses. We also use Google Analytics to collect this information about your interaction with our websites. For more about how Google collects and processes data, and your privacy choices with Google, please see Google’s privacy policy and their information at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/  

The Benedict Group uses this information to administer our website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes. The Benedict Group also collects certain information to provide users with a personalised experience when visiting our websites. Through the use of a ‘cookie’, the Benedict Group can record information about your visit to our website including the clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time), the pages visited, page interaction information and methods used to browse away from the page. This information is used anonymously and in aggregate, and is collected and logged for statistical purposes. Through analysis of these records, the Benedict Group is able to provide an improved service when users revisit our websites.

A cookie is a small data file that a website may write to your hard drive when you visit. A cookie file can contain information (such as a user ID) that the website can use to track the pages you have visited and your preferences. The only personal information a cookie can contain is information you personally supply. A cookie cannot read data from your hard disk or read cookie files created by other websites.

The Benedict Group uses cookies to track user traffic patterns and to provide a better service for users when they visit the website. Users can set their browsers to provide notification when a cookie is received, and the opportunity to accept or reject the cookie. Users can also refuse all cookies by turning the function off in their browsers, although this may affect your browsing experience.

1.5 Credit-related personal information

The Benedict Group sometimes provides products and services to customers on credit. In connection with this credit, Benedict does in some cases handle certain consumer credit-related personal information described below, including information from credit reporting bodies (CRBs). For example, the Benedict Group may handle this information in providing credit to sole traders, or where individuals such as directors provide personal guarantees for credit the Benedict Group provides to their companies.

The Benedict Group may collect and hold any types of credit-related personal information about an individual permitted under the Privacy Act, including:

  • name, date of birth, driver’s licence number,
  • confirmation of previous information requests to CRBs made by other credit providers and credit insurers about the individual;
  • details of current and previous credit arrangements/applications, including type and amount, credit providers, start/end dates and certain terms and conditions;
  • permitted payment default information, including information about related payment arrangements and subsequent repayment;
  • information about serious credit infringements (e.g. fraud);
  • information about adverse court judgments and insolvency;
  • publicly available information about the individual’s credit-worthiness;
  • any credit score or credit risk assessment indicating a CRBs or credit provider’s analysis of the individual’s eligibility for consumer credit.

This information may include information about an individual’s arrangements with other credit providers as well as with the Benedict Group.

The Benedict Group may disclose credit-related personal information to CRBs to assist the CRBs to maintain information about individuals to provide to other credit providers for credit assessments. The Benedict Group may collect credit-related personal information from CRBs for purposes including, to the extent permitted by law, to assess relevant credit or guarantee applications, managing and reviewing the credit or guarantee, assign debts, collecting overdue payments and produce assessments and ratings in respect of the individual’s credit worthiness. The Benedict Group may also exchange credit-related personal information with guarantors, debt buyers and other credit providers.

The CRBs the Benedict Group may use include:

  • Creditor Watch, GPO Box 276, Sydney, NSW, 2001 1300 501 312
    creditorwatch.com.au.
  • Equifax – Equifax.com.au.
  • Under the Privacy Act, individuals may request CRBs not to:
  • use their credit-related personal information to determine their eligibility to receive direct marketing from credit providers; and
  • use or disclose their credit information, if they have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud.

Please see other sections of this Privacy Policy for further information regarding access, correction, complaints, disclosures (including to other countries) of personal information and how we collect and hold personal information. This Privacy Policy is not intended to limit or exclude the Benedict Group’s obligations under the Privacy Act in relation to credit-related personal information. Additional privacy consents and notifications may also apply to credit customers and guarantors.

1.6 How the Benedict Group sends Direct Marketing Communications

The Benedict Group may send you direct marketing communications and information about our services, opportunities or events that we consider may be of interest to you if you have requested or consented to receive such communications. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Australian Spam Act 2003 (Cth). You consent to us sending you those direct marketing communications by any of those methods. If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so.

You may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time by following the instructions to “unsubscribe” set out in the relevant communication / contacting us using the details set out in the “the Benedict Group contact details” section below.

In addition, we may also use your personal information or disclose your personal information to third parties for the purposes of advertising, including online behavioural advertising, website personalisation, and to provide targeted or retargeted advertising content to you.

1.7 How the Benedict Group stores personal information

The Benedict Group stores personal information at its own premises and with the assistance of its service providers. The Benedict Group maintains strict procedures and standards and takes a range of steps to prevent unauthorised access to, or disclosure of, personal information and protect an individual’s information from misuse or loss. Once an individual’s information is no longer needed by the Benedict Group, reasonable steps are taken to destroy or de-identify it.

1.8 Accessing and updating personal information

In most cases, an individual can gain access to or update personal information held by the Benedict Group. To make a request to access or update personal information held by the Benedict Group, contact the Benedict Group in writing. The Benedict Group may need to verify your identity.

1.9 Complaints and further information

Further information may be obtained about how the Benedict Group manages personal information from the Privacy Officer (see contact details below). If an individual believes that Benedict has breached its privacy obligations or that individual’s privacy rights in any way, a complaint can be made to the Privacy Officer (see contact details below). The Benedict Group will endeavour to act promptly in response to a complaint.

2.0 The Benedict Group contact details

Please contact the Benedict Group about privacy-related issues by post or email:

The Privacy Officer
The Benedict Group
PO Box 10 Moorebank NSW 1875
Email: privacyofficer@benedict.com.au

2.1 Updates to this Policy

This Privacy Policy may vary from time to time and changes will be published on this page.