Our commitment
At London Australia Underwriting Pty Ltd (LAUW) we are committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. This privacy policy describes our current policies and practices in relation to the collection, handling, use and disclosure of personal information. It also deals with how you can complain about a breach of the privacy laws and how you can access the personal information we hold and how to have that information corrected.
What is personal information?
Personal information is information or opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent or can easily be ascertained from the information or opinion.
What is sensitive information?
Sensitive personal information is information or opinion about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political, trade or professional association or a trade union, religious or philosophical beliefs or affiliations, sexual preferences, criminal record or health, genetic or biometric information.
What information do we collect and how do we use it?
When we arrange insurance on your behalf, we only ask you for the information we need and we only use the information we collect for the primary purpose(s) for which we collect it. These are:
- Providing quotes for insurance cover (including obtaining risk carrier confirmation where necessary)
- Issuing insurance policies
- Handling claims under insurance policies
- Providing information about insurance matters
- Dealing with brokers, risk carriers and reinsurers, and
- Operating our business.
This can include a broad range of information ranging from your name, address, contact details and age to other information about your personal affairs including your financial situation, health and wellbeing.
Insurers may in turn pass on this information to their reinsurers. Some of these companies are located outside Australia. For example, if we seek insurance terms from an overseas insurer (e.g. Lloyd’s), your personal information may be disclosed to the insurer. If this is likely to happen, we inform you of where the insurer is located, if it is possible to do so.
When you make a claim under your policy, we assist you by collecting information about your claim. Sometimes we also need to collect information about you from others. We provide this information to your insurer (or anyone your insurer has appointed to assist it to consider your claim, e.g. loss adjusters, medical brokers, etc) to enable it to consider your claim. Again, this information may be passed on to reinsurers.
What if you don’t provide some information to us?
We can only fully arrange your insurance or assist you with a claim if we have all relevant information. The insurance laws require you to provide us with the information we need to be able to decide whether to insure you and on what terms. You have a duty to disclose information that is relevant to our decision to insure you and take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation
When do we disclose your information overseas?
If you ask us to seek insurance terms, we may place your business with Lloyd’s of London or an overseas insurer located outside Australia. They will require you to disclose information to them to enable them to make a decision about whether to insure you.
We will tell you at the time of arranging your insurance if the insurer is overseas and in which country the insurer is located. If the insurer is not regulated by laws that protect your information in a way that is similar to the Privacy Act, we will seek your consent before disclosing your information to that insurer.
Disclosing personal information on applications for insurance with Lloyd’s of London, or with insurers that operate within the company’s market, will be permissible because the EU data protection laws provide comprehensive protection for the personal information of insureds which is similar to the APPs and you can pursue your rights if there is a failure to comply with those laws.
Australian and overseas insurers acquire reinsurance from reinsurance companies that are located throughout the world so, in some cases, your information may be disclosed to them for assessment of risks and to provide reinsurance to your insurer. We do not make this disclosure, this is made by the insurer (if necessary) for the placement for their reinsurance program.
We may also disclose information we collect to the providers of our policy administration and underwriting systems that help us to provide our products and services to you. These policy administration providers and underwriting systems may be supported and maintained by organisations overseas and your information may be disclosed to those organisations. Please note that the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles may not apply to these organisations.
How do we hold and protect your information?
We strive to maintain the reliability, accuracy, completeness and currency of the personal information we hold and to protect its privacy and security. We keep personal information only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with any applicable legal or ethical reporting or document retention requirements.
We hold the information we collect from you in a working file which, when completed, is securely stored. We use a professional paper destruction company to destroy unwanted paper. In some cases, your file is archived and sent to an external data storage provider for a period of time. We only use storage providers located in Australia who are also regulated by the Privacy Act.
We ensure your information is safe by protecting it from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. We maintain physical security over our paper and electronic data and premises by using locks and security systems. We also maintain computer and network security. For example, we use firewalls (security measures for the internet) and other security systems such as user identifiers and passwords to control access to computer systems where your information is stored.
Will we disclose the information we collect to anyone?
We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others.
We may need to provide your information to contractors who supply services to us, e.g. to handle mailings on our behalf, external data storage providers or to other companies in the event of a corporate sale, merger, re-organisation, dissolution or similar event. We may also disclose information we collect to the providers of our policy administration and broking systems that help us to provide our products and services to you. However, we will take reasonable measures to ensure they protect your information as required under the Privacy Act.
We may provide your information to others if we are required to do so by law, you consent to the disclosure or under some unusual other circumstances that the Privacy Act permits.
How can you check, update or change the information we are holding?
Upon receipt of your written request and enough information to allow us to identify the information, we will disclose to you the personal information we hold about you. We will also correct, amend or delete any personal information that we agree is inaccurate, irrelevant, out of date or incomplete.
If you wish to access or correct your personal information, please write to our Privacy Officer at London Australia Underwriting Pty Ltd, Suite 201, Level 2/272 Pacific Highway, Crows Nest NSW 2065 or phone (02) 8912 6400, as they are responsible for all matters to do with privacy.
We do not charge for receiving a request for access to personal information or for complying with a correction request. Where the information requested is not a straightforward issue and will involve a considerable amount of time, a charge will need to be confirmed for responding to the request for the information.
In some limited cases, we may need to refuse access to your information, or refuse a request for correction. We will advise you as soon as possible after your request if this is the case and the reasons for our refusal.
What happens if you want to complain?
If you have concerns about whether we have complied with the Privacy Act or this privacy policy when collecting or handling your personal information, please write to our Privacy Officer at London Australia Underwriting Pty Ltd, Suite 201, Level 2/272 Pacific Highway, Crows Nest NSW 2065.
Your complaint will be considered by us through our internal complaints resolution process. We will acknowledge your complaint within 24 hours and we will respond with a decision within 30 days of you making the complaint. If we need to investigate your complaint and require further time, we will work with you to agree to an appropriate timeframe to investigate. We will provide you with information concerning referring your complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) if we cannot resolve your complaint.
Your consent
By asking us to assist with your insurance needs, you consent to the collection and use of the information you have provided to us for the purposes described above.
Website information and content
The information provided on this website does not cover all aspects of the law on the relevant subject matter. Professional advice should be sought before any action is taken based on the matters described and discussed on this site.
To the extent permitted by law, we make no representations about the suitability of the content of this site for any purpose. All content is provided without any warranty of any kind. We disclaim all warranties and conditions about the content, including but not limited to all implied warranties and conditions of fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement.
We will not be liable for any damages or injury caused by, including but not limited to, any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, defect, delay in operation of transmission, computer virus, or line failure. To the extent permitted by law we will not be liable for any damages or injury, including, but not limited to, special or consequential damages that result from the use of, or the inability to use, materials in this site.
We believe the content of this site to be accurate, complete and current. However, there are no warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the content. It is your responsibility to verify any information before relying on it. The content of this site may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.
We reserve the right to modify the content of this site from time to time.
Anonymous data – We use technology to collect anonymous information about the use of our website, for example when you browse our website our service provider logs your server address, the date and time of your visit, the pages and links accessed and the type of browser used. It does not identify you personally and we only use this information for statistical purposes, to improve the content and functionality of our website, to better understand our clients and markets, and to improve our services.
Cookies – We may use “cookies” to collect this anonymous data. Cookies are small pieces of information that are sent to your browser and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Sometimes they identify users where the website requires information to be retained from one page to the next. This is purely to increase the functionality of the site. Cookies by themselves cannot be used to discover the identity of the user. Cookies do not damage your computer and you can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie so you can decide if you want to accept it. Once you leave the site, the cookie is destroyed and no personal or other information about you is stored.
Forms – Our website allows visitors to submit information via self-service forms (claim forms, employment and contact requests). Information submitted via the forms is not encrypted – an option is available for claim forms to be downloaded in PDF format for faxing. If you are concerned about confidentiality of claim information, this would be the recommended method.
Information collected via online forms is sent to our offices via email (not encrypted) and is stored on a database that is accessible by LAUW staff only (password protected).
We also use your information to send you requested product information and promotional material and to enable us to manage your ongoing requirements, e.g. renewals, and our relationship with you, e.g. invoicing, client surveys etc.
We may occasionally notify you via direct marketing about new services and special offers, events or articles we think will be of interest to you. We may send you regular updates by email or by post on insurance matters. If you prefer not to receive this information or do not wish to receive it electronically, please email or write to us.
We may use your information internally to help us improve our services and help resolve any problems.
Tell us what you think
We welcome your questions and comments about privacy. If you have any concerns or complaints, please contact our privacy officer by phone on (02) 8912 6400.