Privacy policy

What is personal information?

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. It includes (but is not limited to) name, address, contact details, date of birth, occupations, payment details, employment history and/or details, education and qualifications, financial information, testimonials and feedback, evidence of source of funds or source of wealth (in some cases) and other information.

We will use your personal information:

• to verify your identity
• to provide services and products to you
• to market our services and products to you, including contacting you electronically (e.g. by call, text, or email for this purpose)
• to improve the services and products that we provide to you
• to respond to communications from you, including a complaint
• to protect and/or enforce our legal rights and interests, including defending any claim
• for any other purpose authorised by you or the Act.

Disclosing your personal information

We may disclose your personal information to:

• Other companies or individuals who assist us in providing services or who perform functions on our behalf (such as mailing houses, hosting and data storage providers, specialist consultants, and legal advisers)
• Product providers (such as but not limited to lenders and insurance companies);
• Financial advisers and financial advice providers who may use our services;
• Other companies or individuals who perform checks (such as but not limited to compliance reviews and audits) that are necessary or desirable under the law on our behalf;
• Other companies, agencies, or individuals that maintain databases against which your identity may be verified, which may include (but are not limited to) the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, and New Zealand Transport Agency;
• Social media sites on which we may have a presence;
• Courts, tribunals, and regulatory authorities (such as the Financial Markets Authority, and the Ministry of Justice in New Zealand);
• Office of the Ombudsman, where a complaint relates to official information;
• Any person or agency we believe could assist in responding to a serious privacy breach.
• Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, where a complaint relates to breach of the Privacy Act 2020;
• Human Rights Commission, where a complaint relates to discrimination;
• CERT NZ, where appropriate to assist with the management of a voluntarily notified privacy breach
• Overseas privacy regulator, where a complaint relates to the actions of an overseas agency; and
• Anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it.

Except as described above, we will not disclose your personal information without your written or oral consent, unless we are required to do so by applicable law.

Protecting your personal information?

We will take reasonable steps to keep your personal information safe from loss, unauthorised activity, or other misuse. Our software is subject to audits to ensure it is continuing to meet security requirements. All data handled in our software is encrypted in transit and during storage and can only be accessed over secure network connections.

Personal information

We will take reasonable steps to keep your personal information safe from loss, unauthorised activity, or other misuse. Our software is subject to audits to ensure it is continuing to meet security requirements. All data handled in our software is encrypted in transit and during storage and can only be accessed over secure network connections.

Data will sometimes be held on-premise at 781A High Street, Boulcott, Lower Hutt, Wellington if it is provided to us outside of our software.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

Subject to certain grounds for refusal set out in the Act, you have the right to access your readily retrievable personal information that we hold and to request a correction to your personal information. Before you exercise this right, we will need evidence to confirm that you are the individual to whom the personal information relates.

In respect of a request for correction, if we think the correction is reasonable and we are reasonably able to change the personal information, we will make the correction. If we do not make the correction, we will take reasonable steps to note the personal information that you requested the correction.

If you want to exercise either of the above rights, email us at hello@smsloans.co.nz. Your email should provide evidence of who you are and set out the details of your request (e.g. the personal information, or the correction, that you are requesting).