At HOSTPLUS we understand that protecting your privacy is important.
The Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) as amended regulations, through a set of principles known as the National Privacy Principles, describe the how we use, disclose and store information collected from you1.
This webpage explains our policies and practices with respect to our management of your personal information.
What information do we collect?
We ask you (or in the case of employer sponsored members, your employer) to provide personal information such as your name and address, date of birth, Tax File Number (TFN), contact details, occupation and employer.
There are also specific circumstances where we will ask for additional information such as:
- personal health and income information (if you are applying for additional insurance protection or salary continuance), or
- your bank account details (if you are requesting a direct debit to your superannuation account, or payment of pension into your nominated account), or
- your dependants (for the purposes of paying benefits in the event of your death),
- we and/or our insurer may also need to collect additional information from medical practitioners or from your employer for the purposes of assessing your eligibility for the insurance cover you have applied for or the assessment of a claim.
We will always seek your express consent before collecting this kind of sensitive information. We are also required to ask for certain information as by law. Wherever there is a legal requirement for us to ask for information about you, we will inform you of the obligation and the consequences of not giving us the requested information.
For example, we are required to ask for your TFN when you become a member of HOSTPLUS. If you choose not to give us your TFN you may be subjected to additional tax on your contributions, not being able to make personal contribution and will not qualify for the government co-contributions if eligible.
Where you provide your TFN to us upon our request, please note that from 1 July 2012, we are able to utilise your TFN as a primary identifier. Your TFN will be used to identify any multiple accounts you may have within the superannuation fund and consolidating these into just one account. It may also be utilised to assist in locating “lost” superannuation money that may have been collected by the ATO see note below.
How do we use the information that we collect from you?
We collect personal information from you so that we are able to:
- establish and manage your superannuation account,
- implement your investment choices,
- establish and maintain your additional insurance protection,
- process contributions, transfer monies or pay benefits,
- report the investment performance of your account to you,
- keep you up to date on other products and services available to you as a HOSTPLUS member, and
- in the case of your TFN, access the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) SuperMatch system to inform you about your superannuation interests, assist you to manage your superannuation interests as reported to the ATO and reunite you with lost super or monies held on your behalf by the ATO.
Your personal information will not be used or disclosed for any other purpose, without your consent, except where permitted or required by law.
What if you don't give us the information we request?
You are not required to give us the information that we request. However, if you do not give us the information that we ask for, or the information you give is not complete or accurate, this may:
- prevent or delay the processing of your application or any claim,
- affect your eligibility for specified insurance cover, or
- prevent us from contacting you.
Your access to the information we collect
You may request access to the personal information we hold about you. We reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee to cover any costs incurred.
There may be circumstances where we are unable to give you access to the information that you have requested. If this is the case we will let you know and explain the reasons. You have a right to ask us to correct any information we hold about you if you believe it is not accurate, complete or up to date. If we do not agree with the corrections you have supplied, we are not required to alter the information.
If you have a concern about this, or anything else about the privacy of your information, you may lodge a complaint with us: In writing to - Privacy Officer, HOSTPLUS, Locked Bag3, Carlton South Vic 3053. If our Privacy Officer is unable to resolve your complaint, you may lodge a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner by contacting the Hotline on 1300 363 992, or visit their website on www.oaic.gov.au/index.html
More information about providing us with feedback
Do we give information about you to third parties?
Yes, there are instances where we need to do so, however, there are strict controls on how they can use this information.
The types of organisations to which we usually disclose your personal information include:
- our fund administrator (who may in turn engage and disclose your personal information to third party service providers such as information technology, credit control, printing and mailing),
- insurers or re-insurers (who may in turn disclose your personal information to other insurers or re-insurers) who we deal with in order to provide you with benefits,
- external agencies who provide services for the purposes of data matching, cleansing and/or enrichment,
- any fund to which your benefit is to be transferred or rolled over (including the administrator of that fund),
- medical practitioners and other relevant professionals, where you apply for additional insurance cover or make a claim for a disablement benefit,
- in the event of your death, your personal representative, or any other person who may be entitled to receive the death benefit, or any person contacted to assist us to process that benefit,
- regulatory authorities such as the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), AUSTRAC and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), to the extent required by law,
- your spouse or former spouse, to the extent required by law, and
- our professional advisers.
How secure is your information?
We have stringent security systems, practices and procedures in place to safeguard your privacy. The people who handle your personal information for us have the training, knowledge, skills and commitment to protect it from unauthorised access or misuse.
Visiting our website and internet access
When you visit this website, details may be recorded about your visit, such as the time and date, your server address, type of browser, domain name, pages visited, documents downloaded and length of visit. This information is used for statistical purposes. We use this information to determine the effectiveness of our site and to assess ideas that could make the site more useful to you.
If you send us an email, or log in to your account, we will collect personal information from you including your name, address, telephone numbers and e-mail address. We can only collect personal information via our website with your consent, as you must log in or click on a 'submit' button provided on each web page before any information is recorded.
Cookies
We may use “cookies” to help us tailor our website. A cookie is a small data file that contains information about your visit to our website. This information is provided by your computer during your first visit to our website. Our server records this information in a text file and stores this file on your hard drive. When you visit our website again, our server looks for the cookie and may structure itself based on the information contained in the cookie. A cookie only identifies your computer when you visit our web site; it does not identify you.
We use cookies for a variety of purposes, including security and personalisation of services such as tailored advertising you see from HOSTPLUS on third party websites. This last use of cookies is known in the industry as 3rd party ad trackers. If you wish to opt-out from 3rd party ad-tracking you can register special cookies on your computer that our ad server will acknowledge and bypass. For further information please visit www.networkadvertising.org/choices.
Logging on to your account
When you log in to your account, we will verify your identity by your Membership number or Employer number and a PIN. Once verified, you will have access to a secure site where all information entered is protected by 128-bit Premium Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption (the highest available level of encryption). You can check that the encryption capability is working when a "padlock" icon appears in the bottom of the screen of your Internet browser.
All secure applications hold current VeriSign Secure Server Certificates. Risks of using the Internet You should note that there are inherent security risks in transmitting information via the Internet. You should assess these potential risks when deciding whether to use our online services.
If you do not wish to transmit information via our website, there are other ways in which you can provide this information to us. Contact us for more information.
More information about us
HOSTPLUS is a regulated superannuation fund. It complies with the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS) and meets the requirements of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).
More about HOSTPLUS
For more information on our privacy or to obtain a copy of our Privacy Policy, contact us on 1300 HOSTPLUS (1300 467 875).
1 It is important to know that the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 (Reform Act) passed through the Australian Parliament on 29 November 2012 and received royal assent on 12 December 2012. While these changes will not commence until March 2014, you can expect the HOSTPLUS Privacy Policy to change over the next few months leading up to implementation.