Privacy Policy

Introduction

This Privacy Policy applies to Hamilton Asset Management Limited ACN 139 473 699 and its related bodies corporate (the Hamilton Group, we or us).

We recognise the importance of the personal information we hold about individuals and the trust they place in us.

By explaining our Privacy Policy to you, we hope that you will better understand how we keep personal information private and secure while using it to provide services and products. “Personal information” for the purposes of this Privacy Policy is information about and which identifies individuals, whether that information is obtained from the relevant individual or from a third party.

This Privacy Policy applies to the operations of the Hamilton Group unless specifically stated otherwise.

We are committed to safeguarding your personal information in accordance with the requirements of the National Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988.

We will not use or disclose such information collected about you otherwise than for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, for a purpose you would reasonably expect which is related to our primary purpose of collection of your information, for a purpose required or permitted by law, for a purpose otherwise disclosed to you, or authorised by you.

We may, in connection with particular services we offer or provide to you, request you to make other privacy disclosures or seek your authority to use your personal information in ways which are different from or more specific than those stated in this Privacy Policy. In the event of any inconsistency between the provisions of this Privacy Policy and those additional materials, the provisions of the additional materials will prevail.

Personal information collected prior to 21 December 2001

The National Privacy Principles (the “Principles”) came into force on 21 December 2001 but some of the Principles have application to personal information collected prior to that date. This means that for personal information we hold, which was collected prior to that date, we will, in accordance with those particular Principles:

  • take reasonable steps to ensure that such information, if used, is accurate, complete and up to date;
  • take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, loss or unauthorised access or disclosure;
  • provide you with access to the information if we still use it;
  • not use any government identifier to identify you; and
  • only transfer such information overseas with your consent or as authorised by the Principles.

Except in so far as this Privacy Policy further addresses the particular Principles reflected in those five matters, the remainder of this document is concerned with personal information which is collected on or after 21 December 2001.

Collection of personal information

We collect personal information that we believe is necessary to deliver our services or products or otherwise for our primary business functions and/or activities. If you do not provide us with requested personal information, we may not be able to provide you with our complete range of goods and/or services.

Ordinarily we only collect information about you when you provide it to us or it is provided to us with your authority.

We only collect personal information by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive way. The types of personal information we collect generally includes your name, address, telephone number, email address, financial information, other contact or identification details and in some cases, information necessary to make or receive payments to or from you or necessary to effect security transactions on your behalf. We do not generally collect sensitive information about you unless required by applicable laws or rules.

We will collect personal information directly from you when you apply for a product or a service, deal with us as a key contact or employee of an institutional client, deal with us over the telephone or in person, send us a letter or visit our website at www.hamiltonam.oxwebdevelopment.com.au. On occasion, we may collect personal information about you from third parties, for example, share registries, your financial adviser, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) or credit reporting agencies.

Apart from the necessity to collect your information in order to provide a service to you, issue financial products to you, or maintain our relationship with you, the purposes for which we collect and use your personal information include:

  • complying with legislative and regulatory requirements;
  • performing our administrative operations, including accounting, risk management, record keeping, archiving, systems development and testing and staff training;
  • conducting market or customer satisfaction research;
  • inviting you to other events that may interest you;
  • developing and identifying products and services that may interest you; and
  • (unless you ask us not to) telling you about other products and services we offer.

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that all information we hold is as accurate as possible. You will be able to contact us at any time to ask us to correct information which you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.

Personal information about third parties

If at any time you supply us with personal information about another person, you should ensure that you are authorised to do so and you must agree to inform that person who we are, that we will use and disclose that personal information and that they may gain access to it should we hold that information.

Use and disclosure of personal information

You authorise us to disclose necessary information to related companies, affiliates, and any agents or contractors who provide services to us in connection with the provision of products or services you have sought from us. These parties are prohibited from using your personal information except for the specific purpose for which we supply it to them.

Subject to what is permitted by law, the types of third parties we may disclose your personal information to include:

  • our agents, contractors, insurers and external advisers we engage from time to time to carry out, or advise on, our functions and activities;
  • any person or organisation who introduces you to us;
  • regulatory bodies, government agencies, law enforcement bodies and courts;
  • debt collection agencies;
  • other financial institutions; and
  • any person to the extent necessary, in our view, in order to carry out the instructions you give to us.

We will not use or disclose any personal information about you without your consent, unless:

  • required by law;
  • it is permitted by this Privacy Policy;
  • we believe it necessary to provide you with goods or services you have requested;
  • it is necessary to implement our terms of service;
  • it is necessary to protect the rights, property or personal safety of our employees, another of our customers, or any member of the public; or
  • some or all of the assets and operations of our business are or may be transferred to another party by way of sale or some or all of our business.

In some cases, we may need to transfer your personal information outside Australia. If we believe that the overseas third party is not subject to, or has not agreed to comply with, privacy obligations equivalent to those which apply to us, we will seek your consent to transfer the information, except where the Principles do not require us to do so.

Using our internet websites

Our compliance with the Principles also extends to when you transact business via our websites. Our websites’ terms and conditions and any privacy notices are clearly posted on our websites.

When you use a link from any of our websites to the websites of third parties, those third party websites are not subject to this Privacy Policy. Those third parties are responsible for informing you of their own privacy policies. We are not responsible for the content or conduct of any website linked to or from our websites, nor does any such linkage imply our endorsement. You access those websites at your own risk.

User names and passwords are required to access those areas of our websites that are restricted to clients and are used to protect your account information. You are reminded that these user names and passwords are strictly for your personal use only. You are responsible for all acts that result from any use of your user name and password, whether authorised or not, or that result from your failure to maintain security. You must notify us immediately if you consider that the security of your user name and password has been breached. For statistical purposes we collect information on website activity (such as the number of users who visit the websites, their country, the date and time of visits, the number of pages viewed, navigation patterns and the operating systems and browsers used to access the websites). This information on its own does not identify an individual but it does improve our websites.

When you use our websites, we send you a cookie. A ‘cookie’ is a packet of information that allows the server to identify and interact more effectively with your computer, by providing you with a unique identification number. This identification number is either sent or confirmed each time you use our websites. Cookies are used to identify individual users and to identify a user’s browser type and your Internet Service Provider. You can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to make full use of our websites.

Access to your personal information

If at any time you wish to know what personal information we are holding about you, you are welcome to ask us for your details by writing to us in a form or manner which identifies the nature of the personal information requested. The appropriate contact is:

Privacy Officer
Hamilton Asset Management Limited
PO Box 402
HAMILTON NSW 2303
Email: client_services@hamiltonam.oxwebdevelopment.com.au

Under certain circumstances we may not be able to tell you what personal information we hold about you. These include situations where:

  • it would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of another individual;
  • information relates to legal proceedings with you and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings;
  • the information would reveal our intentions in relation to negotiations with you in a way that would prejudice those negotiations; or
  • we are prevented by law from disclosing the information, or providing access which would prejudice certain investigations.

If access is denied, we will provide you with the reason why.

We may charge a fee for accessing your personal information.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date.

If at any time, you find that current personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date please contact your financial adviser or our Privacy Officer at the details set out above in this Privacy Policy immediately and we will correct it.

Security of your personal information

We will take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. In line with our internal authorisation and access policies, employees only have access to information on a need to know basis.

Except to the extent that we are required by law to keep records of or containing your personal information, we take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information if it is no longer needed for any purpose for which the information may be used and disclosed under this Privacy Policy.

We also protect the security of your personal information when transmitted over the internet. We use 128-bit encryption to protect all client data. When you browse or logon to the encrypted section of the site, a secure session is established via the HTTPS protocol which uses the Secure Socket Layer (SSL). This ensures that the information sent between your browser and the web server cannot be tampered with or read by others during transmission. It is recommended that you use a web browser that supports SSL such as Internet Explorer or Navigator versions 4 or higher.

However, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed as fully secure and we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you send to us over the internet. You submit information over the internet at your own risk.

Direct marketing

We may use your personal details, including your address and email address, to provide you with newsletters and information about products, services or other events that may be of interest to you.

If at any time you do not wish to receive such marketing information, you have the option to ask us not to send you any further such material and you may do so by writing to your financial adviser or our Privacy Officer at the details set out above in this Privacy Policy. Alternatively, if we send you such information by email, you can use the unsubscribe function in the email to inform us that you do not wish to receive such information from us by email.

Identifiers

We will not adopt as our own identifier an identifier that has been previously assigned by a government agency (or by an agent of, or contractor to, a government agency or contracted service provider for a Commonwealth contract). We will only use and disclose such identifiers for purposes required by law.

Complaints

If you believe that the privacy of your personal information is not being adequately protected, you should contact our Privacy Officer at the details set out above in this Privacy Policy. We will make every effort to resolve your complaint internally.

If we do not resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you may apply to the Federal Privacy Commissioner to have your complaint investigated. For more information about how you may lodge a complaint with the Federal Privacy Commissioner, please contact the Commissioner’s hot line service on 1300 363 992.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. You may at any time request a current copy from our Privacy Officer or access it from our website at www.hamiltonam.oxwebdevelopment.com.au. We encourage you to review our Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.

Need more information?

If you have a query concerning how your personal information is collected and used or in relation to this Privacy Policy, please contact our Privacy Officer at the details set out above in this Privacy Policy. Additional information, including the National Privacy Principles, may be found of the Federal Privacy Commissioner’s website at www.privacy.gov.au