NEW ZEALAND

PRIVACY POLICY STATEMENT  

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company (“BHSIC”) is committed to safeguard your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information. This Privacy Statement sets out how we, along with all companies in the Berkshire Hathaway group of insurance companies and all third parties who provides services on our behalf (“we” “us” “our”) collect, use, disclose, store and give access to personal information of customers, potential customers, claimants, insureds and policyholders (“you” “your”) in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020.

“Personal Information” is defined in the Privacy Act 2020 as information about an identifiable individual i.e information about a natural person as opposed to information about a company or other legal entity and which is in a form which enables the person to be identified.

Collection and Use

The information we collect, store and use may include, but is not limited to your name, contact details and your insurance history.

We collect personal information directly from you unless you have consented to the collection from someone other than you.  We may also collect your personal information through other entities for example your agent or broker and our distributors.

If you are providing personal information to us regarding other individuals, you agree to:

1. Inform the individual about the content of this Privacy Statement; and
2. Obtain any legally-required consent for the collection, use, disclosure and transfer of personal information about the individual in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

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, and entities acting on our behalf, only collect personal information for the purposes of assessing your application for insurance and administering your insurance policy, including managing and administering any claim made by you. We will only use your personal information for the purpose for which it is obtained, subject to certain exceptions set out in the Privacy Act 2020.

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.

Holding your personal information

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.

Sharing your personal information

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 New Zealand or overseas, including but not limited to, India, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, 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.

Access and correction requests, questions and concerns

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.

If you have a complaint please also contact our Compliance and Privacy Officer.  Your complaint will be reviewed and you will be provided with a written response.  If your complaint can not be resolved by our internal dispute resolution process, you may contact the Privacy Commissioner at:

PO Box 10094
The Terrace  Wellington 6143
Phone: 0800 803 909 (from 10am to 3pm, Monday to Friday)
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.privacy.org.nz

Marketing Preferences and opting out
If you have insurance with BHSIC, we may provide you information on products, services and offers. Subject to certain exceptions, we will not send you marketing-related emails unless we have obtained your consent to do so. If you wish to withdraw your consent for any market related emails or provide us with details of your preferred marketing preferences, please contact us.

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:
Email: [email protected]

October 2021