PRIVACY POLICY STATEMENT
Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company (“BHSIC”) is committed to safeguard your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information. This Policy sets out how we, along with all companies in the Berkshire Hathaway group of insurance companies and all third parties who provide services on our behalf (“we” “us” “our”) collect, use, disclose and handle the personal information of customers, potential customers, claimants, insureds and policyholders (“you” “your”) in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”) and Privacy Act 1998 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”).
“Personal Information” is essentially information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not and whether recorded in a material form or not. Please refer to the Privacy Act for full details.
Why do we collect your personal information?
We, and entities acting on our behalf, only collect your personal information (including sensitive information) for the purposes of assessing your application for insurance and administering your insurance policy, including managing and administering any claim made by you.
What happens if you don’t give us your personal information?
Without your personal information we may not be able to provide you with our services or products, issue insurance cover, administer your insurance or process your claim.
How do we collect and hold your personal information?
We collect personal information directly from you, unless you have consented to the collection from someone other than you, it is unreasonable or impractical for us to so or where required or permitted by law to do so. We may also collect your personal information through other entities for example your agent or broker and our distributors.
Collection can take place through websites (from data you input directly or through cookies and other web analytic tools), email, by telephone or in writing. This may also include from publicly available sources such as public websites.
We hold your personal information electronically in various internal systems and databases including shared drives, email, document management systems and in hard copy. Systems are in place to ensure personal information is secured within our systems, as well as ensuring the information is not disclosed to unauthorized third parties.
We take all reasonable steps to protect the security of personal information from misuse, interference or loss and unauthorized access, modification or disclosure and to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information after it can no longer be used or is no longer required for legal or regulatory purposes.
Who do we disclose your personal information to?
We may disclose your personal information to other companies in the Berkshire Hathaway group and other third party service providers for the purposes outlined above or where disclosure is permitted by law. These entities may be located in Australia or overseas, including but not limited to, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America or countries where overseas medical or assistance services are provided.
Where personal information is disclosed overseas, in addition to any local data privacy laws, we make all reasonable efforts to ensure that the arrangements we have in place impose appropriate privacy and confidentiality obligations on those parties to ensure that imparted personal information is kept secure and that such information is only used for the purposes noted above.
How can you access and correct your personal information?
We take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date. If you wish to access the personal information we may hold about you or if you believe that the personal information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, you have the right to request access to or correction of the information by contacting our Compliance and Privacy Officer. We reserve the right to refuse access to personal information under the grounds permitted by the Privacy Act.
What are your opt out rights?
By provide us with personal information you consent to us using and disclosing your personal data as set out above. This consent remains valid until you alter or revoke it. If you wish to withdraw your consent, including for things such as receiving information regarding our products, services and offers that may be of interest to you, please contact us.
How do you make a complaint about how we handle your personal information?
If you have a complaint about our handling of your personal information or an alleged breach of the privacy principles contained in the Privacy Act, please contact our Compliance and Privacy Officer. Your complaint will be reviewed and you will be provided with a written response.
If your complaint cannot be resolved by our internal dispute resolution process, you can lodge the complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (“OAIC”). You can contact the OAIC at:
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001.
Phone 1300 363 992
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.oaic.gov.au
When is this policy updated?
This Privacy Policy may be modified from time to time. When this occurs the updated Policy will be posted to this webpage.
How do you contact us?
Our Compliance and Privacy Officer can be contacted at:
GPO Box 650
Sydney NSW 2001
Email: [email protected]
October 2016