Privacy and Security

All members of the Northway Group take privacy seriously and are committed to observing applicable national and international privacy policies and information handling practices.

Who we are

The “Northway Group” comprises of Northway Broker Limited (a loan broking company trading under the name of “PaydayMate.com.au”), Northway Financial Corporation Limited (a credit provider of payday loans) and their holding companies, subsidiaries, affiliates and other related companies. We are known collectively in this privacy policy as “Northway Group” or “we/us”. Northway Group entities may share personal information with other Northway Group entities, making it easier for customers to apply for accounts or services from the Northway Group.

Privacy law and how it applies to Northway Group

Northway Group's privacy policy meets the requirements of the National Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) even though we are not legally bound by the National Privacy Principles.

Why we collect your personal information and from whom

Payday loan account holders or those individual persons applying to open a payday loan account with us are referred to in this Privacy Policy as “you”.

We collect the personal information we need to provide products and services we offer, including loan broking services and payday loans. We collect personal information about our customers so that we can complete loan broking services and payday loan transactions,  administer accounts, provide customer support, to meet regulatory requirements and to further develop and research our products and services.

Where practicable, we will collect personal information directly from the individual concerned. Sometimes we will collect it from a third party, such as a credit-reporting agency, a data matching organization or from a publicly available source such as a company or a government body/authority. The type of information we collect, and where we get it from, will depend on the product or service you has applied for.

If you deal with us by telephone it is possible your call may be monitored or recorded. The purpose of doing this will depend on which part of our business you are dealing with. We may record or monitor your call for training, quality, verification and authentication purposes.

If we perform an identification check on, or obtain an identification reference for, an individual who is to become a signatory on an account with us, we are doing so to comply with the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws of Australia.

If any personal information we need is not available, or not provided, we may not be able to provide the relevant product or service.

Website collection

When using the public area of our website at www.paydaymate.com.au, you are not required to provide us with any personal information if you do not wish to do so and we do not monitor or collect personally identifiable information from you on your use of the public sections of the website. We may track the number of users who visit areas of the website, but this tracking will not identify you, unless you use cookies. For more information about why we use cookies, please go to the section ‘Our use of cookies’. We may also record the location of your computer on the Internet for systems administration and trouble shooting purposes and to report aggregate information.

However, we will collect personal information if you commence or submit an application on-line, or otherwise knowingly provide us with personal information. We also collect personal information once you are in the secure section of our site (for example when you use it to make transactions, update your information or make enquiries).

Our use of cookies

Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to your computer’s hard disk for record keeping purposes and which allow us to provide you with customized services. Cookies can make the web more useful by storing information about your preferences on particular sites, thus enabling website owners to provide more useful features for their users. They can also help us provide information which is targeted to your interests. Cookies contain no name or address information or any information that will enable anyone to contact you via telephone, e-mail or any other means. Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies. If you would prefer, you can set your browser to refuse cookies. However, given that we may sometimes use cookies, you may not be able to take full advantage of our website, if you do so.  

Web Beacons

Our web pages may contain electronic images, known as web beacons or spotlight tags. These electronic images enable us to count users who have visited certain pages on our website. Web beacons and spotlight tags are not used by us to access your personal information, they are simply a toll we use to analyze which web pages customers view, in an aggregate number.

Other terms

There may also be specific and additional privacy provisions, which apply to certain sections of our Website, or accounts you hold with us or services provided to you, which will operate in addition to the provisions of this Privacy Policy. If there is any inconsistency between the provisions of this Privacy Policy and those other specific and additional provisions, the specific and additional provisions will prevail.

Use and Disclosure

We will use and disclose personal information we hold about you for the main purpose for which we have collected the information. We will also use and disclose the personal information for a secondary purpose related to that main purpose where the individual would reasonably expect us to do so. Otherwise, we will keep personal information confidential unless:

• you agree - this can be express agreement (for example, where you sign a form or click on a button electronically); or
• implied agreement (where your conduct suggests you agree or you do not inform us that you do not agree when we offer you that opportunity); or
• we are required or allowed by law to make the disclosure (for example, to comply with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws or where we receive a court order, are served with a subpoena, or receive government agency requests including but not limited to taxation or Centrelink requests).

We also use personal information for planning, product development, to research purposes and to seek feedback on our products and services, to build peer/group profiling to enable Northway Group to compare your account behavior with peer groups such as age group, account type, and to detect fraud or money laundering or terrorist finance activities.

Personal information may be used and disclosed for prudential, risk management and corporate governance purposes.

Outsourcing and your personal information

Where we outsource our functions to Northway Group members, service providers, contractors or agents, it may be necessary for members of the entities to which we outsource to access your personal information to continue to provide products and services to you. Northway Group members, service providers, contractors and agents will be bound to adhere to the relevant privacy handling legislation, policies and practices in relation to the use or disclosure of your personal information.

The sorts of organizations outside the Northway Group to which we typically disclose personal information include the following:

• credit reporting agencies for the purpose of obtaining a credit report;
• debt collection agencies - if you do not meet your payment obligations;
• service providers - these organizations are required to keep the personal information we give them confidential and use it only for our purposes;
• financial institutions of direct debit payment arrangements; and
• where we decide to sell or merge aspects of our business or where we acquire new businesses

Direct marketing

From time to time we or other members of the Northway Group may use your personal information to inform you about Northway Group products and services including special offers.

If you do not wish to receive this information, simply let us know by contacting our customer service centre on 1300 XXXX or by email to XXX. You can change your mind about receiving information about our products and services at any time. Simply let us know by phoning the above number or email to the above email address.

Northway Group does not disclose your information to organizations outside the Northway Group for the purposes of allowing them to direct market their products to you.

If the law requires us to provide you with information about our products or services, we will provide that information to you even if you have elected not to receive information about our products and services generally.

Ensuring your personal information is up-to-date

We rely on the personal information we hold about you in conducting our business. Therefore, it is important that the information we hold about you is accurate, complete and up-to-date. This means that from time-to-time we may ask you to tell us if there are any changes to your personal information. If you find that information we hold about you is incorrect, please contact us immediately.

Security of your personal information

The security of your information is important to Northway Group and we take all reasonable precautions to protect your information from misuse, loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.

Some of the ways we protect your information include but are not limited to:

• restricting access to personal information to employees who need it to perform their day-to-day functions;
• providing employee training in relation to privacy and confidentiality;
• data encryption technology and firewalls;
• maintaining technology to prevent unauthorized computer access including identifiers and passwords.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We may make changes to our privacy policy from time to time and for any reason. If we do, we will publish an updated Privacy Policy on our website.

Access and correction

Generally, Northway Group allows individuals access to the information it holds about them within a reasonable time after they have made a written request for access. In some instances, Northway Group will refuse to give an individual access to requested information. If it does so it will provide that individual with the reason it has refused them access.

We may also decide to provide you with limited information. If we do so we will let you know why your request has been limited. This may be because the process you are asking about is commercially sensitive or the request is vexatious or frivolous.

Northway Group will correct information it has about you if it discovers, or you are able to show, the information is incorrect. If you seek a correction and Northway Group disagrees that the information is incorrect, Northway Group will provide you with its reasons for taking that view.

Northway Group may charge a fee for informing an individual what information it has about them. This fee will be charged to cover Northway Group's reasonable costs in locating and supplying the information.

How to gain access to your Personal Information

You may request access to a limited amount of your personal information such as checking your current address by telephone or via our secured website.

For more substantial requests such as details recorded on your loan we will ask you to contact us on our secured website at www.payday.mate.com.au.

Following the receipt of your requests, we will be in contact and provide you with an estimate of the charge and confirm whether you wish to proceed with accessing your information.

Responding to your request

We will attempt to resolve your concerns within 14 days. However, where the matter is complex, we will write to you and advise you that we will attempt to resolve the matter within 30 days.

Additional Information

Individuals who would like more information about our approach to privacy, or would like to find out what information we hold about them, are encouraged to contact us at www.paydaymate.com.au

If you would like more information about privacy laws generally please contact:

The Privacy Commissioner
Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 1042

Phone: 1300 363 992
Internet: http://privacy.gov.au
Email: privacy@privacy.gov.au

If you have privacy concerns

If you have concerns about the way in which we have handled your personal information or believe your privacy has been compromised you should contact us on 1 800 803 543, Fax: 1 800 803 641 or by email at customercare@paydaymate.com.au. You should advise us that your concern is in relation to a privacy matter and provide full details of your concern. We may ask you to place your concerns in writing in order for us to fully understand and investigate the issues you have raised.

© Copyright 2007. Northway Broker Limited. All rights reserved.