Canterbury Earthquake

          Privacy Policy - Vero Insurance New Zealand Limited

          Privacy Policy - Vero Insurance New Zealand Limited

          February 2005

          This is Vero Insurance New Zealand Limited’s (“Vero Insurance”) policy on the management of personal information (“Privacy Policy”). In this Privacy Policy “we”, “our” and “us” refer to Vero Insurance. Our Privacy Policy applies to personal information held about individuals. It does not apply to information we hold about companies and other organisations.

          Please read our Privacy Policy carefully before using this Site. It should be read in conjunction with our Terms of Use.

          1. Our commitment to privacy

          Vero Insurance considers the protection of an individual’s privacy of great importance in our business activities. We are committed to acting in accordance with the Privacy Act 1993 (“the Act”) by providing you with a personalised service that meets your requirements in a way that doesn’t affect your privacy.

          We appreciate the trust you place in us when you provide us with your personal information. Our Privacy Policy explains our general practices in handling personal information and in particular how we may collect and use it in order to satisfy your particular requirements. It also outlines some of the security measures that we take in order to protect your privacy and gives certain assurances on things that we will not do.

          2. Collection of information

          We collect your personal information for the purposes of conducting our business and providing you with quality insurance products and services.

          We collect a broad range of personal information, which may differ depending on which of our products and services you choose. The type of personal information we generally collect and store may include but is not limited to, your name, address, date of birth, gender, contact details including phone, fax and email and your insurance history.

          Whenever possible, we collect personal information directly from you. Collection occurs when you first apply or request a product or service from us, however during the course of our relationship with you we may continue to collect personal information. Collection can occur in various ways, such as over the phone, meeting with you in person, over the internet (if you transact with us online), or when you fill in one of our forms.

          If we request personal information from you and you do not supply it, we may not be able to provide you with the product or service you request, such as offering you insurance or processing a claim under an insurance policy.

          There may be occasions where we collect personal information about you from someone else (“a third party”). While generally we collect your personal information directly from you, there may be some circumstances where collection from a third party is authorised by the Act such as when collection from you is impractical or where you have consented to us collecting it from someone else. Irrespective of the source of the information, we will respect and endeavour to protect the privacy of personal information.

          Examples of where we may receive personal information about you from a third party and why this would happen include, but are not limited to, obtaining personal information from:

        • your agent, where you have appointed an agent to act on your behalf in dealings with us (e.g. a broker or lawyer);
        • a professional expert, in the course of assessing your claim under a policy of insurance or determining your eligibility for an insurance product (e.g. a medical practitioner or accountant);
        • other insurance companies, if we need to confirm your insurance history during the course of reviewing an application for insurance or assessing a claim under a policy of insurance; or
        • the Insurance Claims Register, (which holds details of previous claims made by you) when confirmation of your claims history is needed; or
        • the Ministry of Justice, where confirmation of your traffic and/or criminal conviction history is required during the course of assessing a claim under a policy of insurance.

          We also sometimes collect information about people who are not our customers as part of providing a product or service. For example, where we process a claim on an insurance policy.

          3. Use of information

          What we will do
          We will endeavour to only use your personal information in accordance with the Information Privacy Principles set out in the Act. Our general purpose for obtaining your personal information is to use it to provide you with the insurance products and services you require.

          Other uses of your personal information may include but are not limited to:

        • Helping to identify you when you telephone us to make an enquiry. For example, we may ask for your date of birth so that we can avoid disclosing information to a person who is not authorised by you to receive it
        • Contacting you about improved administration of any services and products provided by us previously, now or in the future
        • Helping prevent or detect fraud or loss
        • Contacting you by any means (including mail, email or telephone) in relation to a particular service or product
        • Contacting you for research/feedback purposes

          What we won’t do
          We will not sell or lend your personal information to other companies or persons who are not part of our business group.

          4. Disclosure of information

          We will only disclose your personal information to third parties in accordance with the Information Privacy Principles set out in the Act. The ability to disclose personal information is limited under the Act to certain circumstances, which include where disclosure is required by law, where disclosure is authorised by you or where the disclosure was one of the purposes for which the information was collected.

          In the course of operating our business we may disclose your personal information to service providers who assist us, for example, by providing administrative services on our behalf. Where we do disclose your personal information to these service providers they are subject to strict privacy rules and they must only use the information for the function that we have asked them to perform.

          The types of organisations to whom we disclose your personal information will differ depending on the insurance product or service you choose. Some typical disclosures that may be made in the course of our relationship with you include, but are not limited to:

        • Your agent or broker
        • Government or statutory bodies
        • Other insurance companies and reinsurers
        • The Insurance Claims Register
        • Loss assessors and investigative service providers
        • Mailing houses for the mailing of annual renewal notices and insurance policy documents
        • Legal and other professional advisers
          5. Security of information

          We maintain strict security measures in order to protect personal information from misuse, loss or unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes following certain procedures, for example checking your identity when you telephone us, using secure passwords for our computer systems and limiting access to personal information to those who specifically need it to conduct their business responsibilities.

          We require our employees and data processors to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us and each staff member is responsible for handling personal information in accordance with the Act.

          Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be completely secure. If you have concerns about the security of the contents of an e-mail then you should consider contacting us by other means.

          6. Accuracy of your personal information

          We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information which we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. This includes taking reasonable steps to correct inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date personal information if you have asked us to do so.

          The Act gives you the right to request correction of any of your personal information you believe is incorrect. If we do not agree to correct your personal information in accordance with your request, we will advise you of this and take reasonable steps to ensure that a statement of the correction sought is attached to the relevant information.

          If you believe that any of the personal information that we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, please let us know. You can contact your local Vero Insurance branch to make your request or alternatively you can contact our Head Office toll free number (New Zealand only) 0800 808 508 and they will forward your call to the appropriate branch.

          7. Access to personal information

          The Act gives you the right to request access to any or all of your personal information held by us. To ensure we supply any personal information to the correct individual we require all requests for access to be in writing. To comply with the Act any requests made by an agent on your behalf (such as a lawyer or broker) must be accompanied by a written authority from you authorising that particular agent to act on your behalf.

          Any requests for access to personal information should be made to:

          The Privacy Officer
          Vero Insurance New Zealand Limited
          Vero Centre
          Private Bag 92120
          AUCKLAND

          The Act outlines circumstances under which we may refuse to allow you access to some or all of your personal information. In such cases, we will give you a reason for our decision.

          Please contact your local branch for more information about requesting access to your personal information.

          8. Cookies

          Cookies are pieces of information that a web site transfers to your computer's hard disk for record keeping purposes. We may use 'cookies' to monitor website user traffic patterns and site usage. They help us to understand how our customers and potential customers use our web sites so that we can develop and improve the design, layout and functionality of the sites. Cookies do not personally identify you, although they do identify your browser.

          If you do not want us to deploy cookies in your browser, you can set your browser to reject cookies, or to notify you when a website tries to put a cookie on your computer. However, rejecting cookies may affect your ability to use some of the products and/or services at our website.

          9. Links

          Our web site may contain links to other web sites belonging to organisations or people who are not part of Vero Insurance. We are not responsible for the privacy obligations of those sites. We recommend that you read the privacy and security policies on those particular web sites to understand how they deal with your personal information.

          10. Monitoring of calls

          We may monitor and record communications we receive. This may be done to improve the service that we provide, to ensure compliance with our practices and procedures and/or to provide evidence of a transaction such as where a contract is entered into, or a claim is made.
          11. Resolving problems related to your privacy

          If you want to report a suspected breach of your privacy or you do not agree with a decision regarding access to your personal information, please contact us. We have an internal dispute resolution process to address such issues and will promptly acknowledge and investigate complaints.

          Any enquires or complaints can be made direct to the relevant Vero Insurance branch/employee or through the Privacy Officer whose contact details are:

          The Privacy Officer
          Vero Insurance New Zealand Limited
          Vero Centre
          Private Bag 92120
          AUCKLAND

          If you are not satisfied with our final decision you can direct your complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner - phone toll free 0800 80 39 09 or by mail to PO Box 466, Auckland.

          12. Future changes

          Our business will continue to evolve as we introduce new services and features to this Site. Due to this, from time to time we may review this Privacy Policy and may amend it to reflect changes in legislation, industry codes or in the business environment. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy on a regular basis to stay informed of changes.

          The Office of the Privacy Commissioner website has further details of the New Zealand Privacy Act and how it protects personal information in New Zealand.