Privacy Policy (Australia)

1. Our Commitment to Privacy

The Equifax group of companies in Australia (formerly the Veda group of companies) is an information services and aggregation business. This policy applies to Equifax Australia Holdings Pty Ltd and each of its Australian subsidiaries (Equifax, we, our, us). A full list of the Equifax entities that provide services involving collecting, holding and disclosing Personal information is accessible here. This policy will apply to the entire Equifax group except for parts which are expressed to apply only to a specific entity within the group. We may also make available other privacy policies in relation to specific entities within the Equifax group, on the websites for the relevant businesses conducted by those entities. These policies will apply in conjunction with this Policy, which is to be read subject to them in respect of those entities.

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy Personal Information is defined as information or an opinion about an identified individual, or about an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether or not the opinion is true or not and whether or not the information is stored in material form or not.

We recognise that to run our businesses successfully we must maintain high standards when it comes to how we collect, hold, use and disclose Personal information. We recognise each individual's right to privacy and have established a number of protocols to help us keep the information we hold accurate, up-to-date and complete.

We collect, hold, use and disclose Personal Information in Australia in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act or Privacy Act) including but not limited to the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and the Notifiable Data Breach Scheme under Part IIIC (in the event of an eligible data breach). . This policy document sets out how we do this.

For further information on how Equifax Australia Information Services and Solutions Pty Limited (EAISS) handles credit reporting information to which Part IIIA of the Act applies, please refer to our Credit Reporting Policy which may be found at Credit Reporting Policy

2. The Business Units of Equifax

Consumer Risk & Identity
  • EAISS provides a range of Consumer Risk and Identity Products
  • Consumer Credit Risk provides credit risk solutions and ongoing monitoring to help credit providers, mortgage and trade insurers make informed decisions about an individual's credit worthiness. For further information on the use and disclosure of Consumer Credit Information refer to our Credit Reporting Policy.
  • Fraud and Identity Solutions helps validate identities and detect fraud.
  • Decisioning and Scoring assists customers in making credit decisions based on an applicant’s risk profile.
  • Collection Services assists customers to segment and optimise debtors to improve receivables management
  • Identity Verification Services where businesses can access the DVS within IDMatrix. This is a reliable means for organisations to satisfy their identity verification obligations, including anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF).
  • Equifax Affordability Check provides a service to capture, categorise and analyse bank transaction data and provide Account Verification, Income Identification, Affordability Reporting and Commercial Reporting.
Commercial Risk & Information Services
  • Commercial Credit Risk provides credit reports, payment behaviour and ongoing credit monitoring to help businesses make informed decisions about counterparty exposure including lending, finance, insurance, procurement and trade credit.
  • Commercial and Property Solutions provides a portal for business to access third party data and value added products derived from Land Titles and Personal Property Security Register (PPSR) data
  • eTrace is an Australian premier data searching service designed for the investigation, financing and tracing industry.
  • Equifax Australasia Credit Ratings Pty Limited t/as Corporate Scorecard provides services for assessing, commercial, financial and operational risks of suppliers and contractors in procurement.
  • National Tenancy Database (NTD) is a tenancy verification and identification service.
  • iCIRT provided by Equifax Australasia Credit Ratings Pty Limited provides a star rating based on public and private information to determine a building professional’s capability, capacity, and willingness to deliver a safe, compliant, durable building outcome. For further information relating to iCIRT and the what they do, click here
  • Australian Business Research operates a commercial credit reporting business managed by EAISS and has linkages to EAISS’ commercial credit database.
  • MOGOplus and Tenant Affordability Check provides income and expenditure verification services.
  • Creditworks provides online statutory and credit information services credit and risk management technology based solutions. Creditworks also supports business managers from SME’s to large corporations and government departments with a broad suite of information products on clients and suppliers throughout Australia and Internationally. Creditworks’ services include access to government statutory databases, credit assessment reports and extensive risk alert monitoring services. For more information refer to Creditworks and the Creditworks Privacy Policy
Personal Solutions & Marketing Services
  • Equifax Credit and Identity services provide consumers access to their personal credit information and credit score as well as the ability to receive updates to their credit profile when changes are made. Cyber monitoring such as Identity Protection to assist individuals with monitoring identity details across different platforms to help protect against identity theft is also available.
  • CarHistory provides information on cars for consumers and car dealers.
  • Reduce My Bills is a service which helps individuals locate a deal on cheap electricity, gas, phone, Pay TV and internet.
  • Equifax Australia Marketing Services Pty Limited (Data-driven Marketing) offers its customers a range of products to assist them in aspects of campaign management.
  • Equifax Public Phone Directory is an Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) which is a Public Phone Number Directory published in accordance with Schedule 1 of the Telecommunications Amendment (Integrated Public Number Database) Act 2006 (the Act) and the Telecommunications Integrated Public Number Database Scheme 2017 (the IPND Scheme) as well as the associated legislative instruments. For more information refer to the Equifax Public Phone Directory Privacy Policy
  • Get Credit Score is a service that facilitates the obtaining of your credit score at no cost to you, and providing access to a range of financial products and services such as credit cards, personal loans, car loans, home loans, business loans and insurance. For more information refer to GetCreditScore and the Get Credit Score Privacy Policy
Workforce Solutions
  • Equifax HR Solutions provides HR platform systems and other workforce data management services across the employment cycle to businesses and individuals under the following key products
    • Fit2work
    • Equifax Human Resources Platform(EHRP)
    • eCredential
  • Equifax Verification Exchange provides data services when employment and employment income verification is required by a verifier such as a lender, credit provider or other entity seeking to determine whether the employee is entitled to a benefit.
  • For more information refer to Equifax HR Solutions and the Equifax HR Solutions Privacy Policy.
International
  • Whilst not covered by this Privacy Policy, in New Zealand Equifax offers similar products to Consumer Risk & Identity Consumer Risk & Identity and Commercial Risk & Information Services based on New Zealand information.
  • For information about Equifax NZ privacy practices refer to the Equifax NZ Privacy Policy.

3. How Equifax collects your personal information

Generally speaking, Equifax collects Personal Information from third parties. The sources of that Personal Information include those listed below, depending upon the purpose for which it is being collected.

  • Real estate agents and real estate platforms/websites;
  • Utility Providers;
  • Lawyers, Insurers, Loss assessors, Loss adjustors and investigators;
  • Law courts;
  • Credit providers, other financial institutions and access seekers;
  • Australian Securities and Investments Commission;
  • Australian Financial Security Authority;
  • Australian Tax Office;
  • Telstra and other telecommunication providers;
  • Australia Post;
  • Australian Electoral Commission;
  • Australian Communications and Media Authority;
  • Market research organisations;
  • Direct marketing companies;
  • Service Providers to us;
  • Government agencies (such as the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and the Federal Department of Human Services (DHS));
  • External Dispute Resolution schemes such as Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA);
  • Our customers;
  • Our related companies;
  • Your nominated representatives e.g. spouse, accountant, attorney under power of attorney, broker or other professional adviser;
  • Referees whose details you have provided to us; or
  • Universities, health care professionals, law enforcement agencies, and other third parties for Employment Verification purposes, described further below.

In addition, there are a number of other circumstances in which we will collect Personal Information from you:

  • When you register for an Equifax Credit and Identity account or whilst you are a member of an Equifax Credit and Identity paid services;
  • When you request for a Car History report through the Car History website;
  • When you contact our Australian commercial or consumer credit bureau to obtain a copy of your commercial or consumer credit file;
  • When you contact our Australian commercial or consumer credit bureau to request an amendment to your commercial or consumer credit file or dispute information on your commercial or consumer credit file;
  • When you contact Data-driven Marketing, regarding material you have received from a Data-driven Marketing client;
  • When you contact NTD for a copy of your tenancy database file or to request an amendment to that file;
  • When you contact Employment Verification in order to provide information for background checks for employment purposes;
  • When you request or obtain information from us over the internet;
  • When you opt-in to receiving offers and product information from Equifax;
  • When you opt-in or opt-out to receiving offers and product information from Equifax;
  • When you enquire about joining Equifax as an employee or contractor;
  • When you provide us with information, either through our websites or our representatives or otherwise.

4. The kinds of, and purposes for which Equifax collects, holds, uses and discloses Personal Information

Equifax collects Personal Information for a variety of different purposes.

This includes publicly available information for use in our Commercial Risk & Information Services and in some of our services, including NTD and Data-driven Marketing. The publicly available information we collect includes:

  • Court judgements
  • Bankruptcy, debt agreement and personal insolvency information
  • Directorship & Proprietorship information
  • Office holder details, shareholdings and other extracts and documents from ASIC
  • Telephone directory information
  • Pre-2004 Electoral Roll information

In limited circumstances, we may be required by law to collect Personal Information about you.

We may create identifiers in relation to Personal Information collected and held by us, for our identity management purposes.

We collect, hold, use and/or disclose your Personal Information for the purposes of carrying on our various businesses.

Generally, Personal Information is used and disclosed for the purposes for which it was collected, a related secondary purpose, or where you have consented to the use or disclosure. For example, we may use Personal Information collected for the secondary purposes of our identity management and managing the accuracy of our data sets.

In accordance with the Act, Equifax may disclose your Personal Information to third parties who are customers of one of our businesses. Equifax may also disclose your Personal Information to:

  • service providers, including data storage providers, call centre operations, technology and operations support providers, who assist us with providing products and services and conducting our business activities (and those service providers may in turn provide us with Personal Information collected from you in the course of providing the relevant product or service);
  • professional service providers and advisors who perform functions on our behalf, such as lawyers;
  • external dispute resolution schemes;
  • access seekers as contemplated and permitted by the Privacy Act;
  • our related companies;
  • other third parties where it is necessary to enable us to provide a product or service;
  • referees or employers whose details you have provided to us (for example, information about persons who have applied for a job at Equifax is disclosed with their consent to their employer or referee as part of the employment application process); and
  • where otherwise permitted by law.

There may be other circumstances where we are required or authorised by law to disclose your Personal Information to someone, for example to an Ombudsman, tribunal, court, law enforcement agency or government department.

Service Type of Personal Information we collect Purpose for which we collect, hold, use and disclose
Consumer Risk & Identity For details about our Consumer Credit Risk business, please refer to our Credit Policy.  

For Identity Solutions purposes we collect:

  • Publicly available identity information
  • NTD identity information
  • Electoral Roll information from 2004

We use a range of information for our Identity Solutions. Where identity verification is for AML/CTF for reporting entities, Equifax will use Electoral Roll information in accordance with the Electoral Act 1918 (Cth).

For this and other verification purposes disclosure is limited to indicating whether there is a match between the information provided and the information on Equifax's database.

For fraud detection purposes we collect a range of information including identity information to help detect identity theft and other fraud.

The use and disclosure of Personal Information for fraud detection is subject to controls and is for investigative related purposes.

For Collection Services purposes we collect:

  • Name and address information; and
  • Publicly available information.

The use and disclosure of Personal Information for collection services will vary according to the type of organisation requesting the information.

We also collect commercial credit reporting information, as detailed below, which is used in our collection services for the collection of commercial credit defaults.

Commercial credit providers will be able to access commercial credit information as well as publicly available information for collection purposes.

Other users of our collection services, such as mercantile agents, have access to publicly available information to assist them in collecting debts owed to their clients.

Commercial Risk & Information Services

We collect a range of Personal Information for the purposes of operating a commercial credit bureau including:

  • Full name
  • Latest and previous addresses including postcode
  • Date of birth
  • Contact numbers
  • Driver’s Licence
  • Gender
  • Current and Previous Employment information
  • Enquiries made in relation to commercial credit or for risk assessment purposes
  • Information relating to accounts you have defaulted on including those where you have gone guarantor
  • Information relating to other debts or obligations you have failed to pay
  • Information about your outstanding Commercial tax debts
  • Information about commercial credit providers with whom you have a credit relationship
  • Business phone numbers
  • Business email addresses, and
  • Publicly available information as described above

We collect this information in order to provide Commercial Risk and Information services to our customers.  As such we may provide this information to:

  • Commercial credit providers
  • Trade credit providers
  • Consumer credit providers
  • General insurers
  • Factors
  • Organisations conducting a risk assessment on an organisation of which you are a director, owner, partner, shareholder or employee, and
  • Organisations conducting property checks

For MOGOplus, Equifax Affordability and Tenant Affordability Check purposes we collect:

  • Your name and email address, details of your nominated institution(s), accounts and other application or contact information submitted by you to the provider to whom you wish to provide verification information (including, in the case of Tenant Affordability Check, the platform provider through whom you submit a tenancy application), or to us.
  • Account details and account transaction information from your nominated financial institution(s).
  • In the case of MOGOplus, details of your Centrelink account as they are listed on your Centrelink account statements, including your Customer Reference Number (or “CRN”), name, address, date of birth, marital status and number of dependents, Centrelink payment types, payment amounts, last date paid and the date you received the last payment
  • Technical navigation information, such as device used to complete the verification, required to diagnose data collection issues.

MOGOplus services and Equifax Affordability collect Personal Information for the purposes of providing the MOGOplus income and affordability verification services and Equifax Affordability to you and your provider to whom you wish to provide verification information. Personal Information collected will be disclosed on your behalf to your provider to conduct income and affordability verification.

Tenant Affordability Check services collect Personal Information for the purposes of providing the tenant affordability check services to you and the platform provider through whose platform you have submitted a tenancy application. Personal Information collected will be disclosed on your behalf to the platform provider, for on-disclosure to the property manager to whom you have submitted a tenancy application, to conduct income and affordability verification.

We may also use and disclose de-identified, aggregated account information collected through MOGOplus and Tenant Affordability Check for analytical and research purposes.

In order to provide the National Tenancy Database we collect Personal Information which include:

  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Driver’s Licence
  • Passport Details
  • Medicare Card Number
  • Latest Address including postcode
  • Previous Addresses including postcode
  • Property Details including rental costs
  • Bank account details
  • Email address
  • Home/ Mobile phone number

In the case of NTD we collect information for the purpose of

  • provision of services to property managers and real estate agents and for risk assessment and risk management purposes
  • provision of services to your landlord, your landlord’s lawyer, mortgagee or insurer
  • organisations or trades people required to carry out maintenance to the premises you lease
  • rental bond authorities or rental bond insurance providers
  • residential tenancy tribunals and other relevant bodies as required
  • mercantile agents
  • provision of information to credit providers to assist utilities collection
  • provision of such information to other entities within Equifax
  • in the case of commercial leases, provision to a credit reporting body for risk assessment purposes.
Personal Solutions and Marketing Services

Equifax provides a number of services to consumers, most notably:

  • Equifax Credit and Identity services
  • Car History
  • Reduce My Bills

In order to provide these services to you we need to collect Personal Information from you which, depending upon the service you have chosen could include:

  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Driver’s Licence
  • Passport Details
  • Medicare Card Number
  • Gender
  • Latest Address including postcode
  • Previous Addresses including postcode
  • Occupation
  • Credit Card details
  • Bank account details
  • Email address
  • Home phone number
  • Mobile phone number
  • Fax number
  • Information about your mobile phone(s), financial cards and PayPal and eBay accounts.

In the case of Equifax Credit and Identity services, and Car History collects information for the purpose of

  • Provision of services such as providing information about a car or providing you a copy of your credit report
  • Creating and maintaining your Credit and Identity membership
  • Creating and maintaining Credit Alerts
  • Depending on the service selected, monitoring the dark web for information provided during your membership

Equifax does not disclose your Personal Information to third parties unless you have given us your express or implied consent or where required or authorised by law.

In the case of Data-driven Marketing we collect publicly available information as well as other Personal Information such as email address and mobile phone number.

Information that is not publicly available is collected by Data-driven Marketing from you or from third parties who have your consent to use and disclose your Personal Information or from you directly with your consent to the subsequent use and disclosure of that information.

We primarily collect information directly from you when you register to receive offers from us when you answer our questionnaires, and when you enter our competitions.

Depending on the source, the types of Personal Information we collect could include:

  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Gender
  • Address including postcode
  • Email address
  • Home phone number
  • Mobile phone number.

Data-driven Marketing collect your Personal information for a variety of reasons including:

  • To evaluate and improve our service, and provide you with a more personalised service;
  • To provide you with information about the products and services we offer, including letting you know about competitions and promotions; 
  • To conduct market research;
  • To pass on to selected third parties so they can contact you by mail, telephone, sms, email or otherwise with offers, promotions, marketing or information which may be of interest to you;
  • As part of working with other organisation to offer co-branded promotion. We will share your responses with the Sponsors to assist them in providing you with more targeted communications.

For further information about the other purposes for which Data-driven Marketing uses and discloses Personal Information refer to the Data-driven Marketing Privacy Policy

Reduce My Bills collects:

  • Name;
  • State;
  • Contact Number;
  • Email address; and
  • Service(s) interest

when you contact us or request that we contact you in connection with electricity & gas, phone, internet and pay TV connections.

Reduce My Bills collects, uses and discloses your Personal Information when you contact us or request that we contact you in connection with electricity & gas, phone, internet and pay TV connections.

Equifax HR Solutions

Equifax HR Solutions provides HR platform systems and other workforce data management services across the employment cycle to businesses and individuals under the following key products:

  • fit2work
  • Equifax Human Resources Platform (formerly known as eRecruit and ePerformance)
  • eCredential
  • Equifax Verification Exchange®

The Privacy Policy and relevant Collection Statements governing the Equifax HR Solutions systems and services are accessible at here.

What happens if you don't provide your information?

You can choose not to supply your Personal Information, however, if Equifax does not collect your Personal Information as requested, you may not be able to:

  • use or navigate our websites;
  • access Ourits products or services;
  • Communicate with us regarding your queries or concerns;
  • Or taken advantage of products or services we provide you either directly or through third parties.to or in connection with you.

Disclosures Overseas

In limited circumstances, Equifax may disclose or provide access to your Personal Information to overseas entities. We do this for example where we have engaged overseas entities to provide Equifax support services (including technology, operations and customer support) where they need to access Personal Information held by us in order to provide the services. The countries in which the entities are located include, but are not limited to: the USA, Chile, the Philippines, India, Costa Rica and Ireland. Where those entities process your Personal Information, they do so only for a permitted purpose on behalf of Equifax and in accordance with its instructions. Equifax retains control over and remains fully responsible for your Personal Information and uses appropriate safeguards as required by applicable law to ensure the integrity and security of your Personal Information as part of any such engagement.

Equifax uses cloud service providers for data storage and processing which means that your Personal Information, other than credit information, may be held in overseas locations.

Equifax may disclose your Personal Information to its overseas customers when it provides services to those customers.

Equifax also provides certain support services to its related entities in New Zealand. It may collect, disclose or use your Personal Information supplied by those entities to provide the services.

As part of a global group providing services to customers and in dealing with our customer relationships, Equifax may also disclose or provide access to Personal Information (other than credit information) of an organisation’s employees, contractors or other service providers to overseas entities. This occurs, for example, where we have engaged overseas entities to provide services (including technology, operations, billing, administrative and customer support) to us, and they need to access that Personal Information to provide those services.By dealing with us, an organisation or other business entity acknowledges that these service arrangements may result in Personal Information provided by it or collected about individuals being disclosed to or used by an overseas recipient and that:

  1. the overseas recipient may not be required to protect that Personal Information in a way that provides comparable safeguards to those required under the Privacy Act;
  2. the overseas recipient may be subject to a foreign law that could compel the disclosure of Personal Information to a third party, such as an overseas authority (for example, under legislation to intercept cyber traffic or obstruct terrorism), and the individual may not be able to seek any redress in that overseas jurisdiction; and
  3. that it is satisfied that the disclosure and use of Personal Information is consistent with its own privacy policy and privacy obligations.

5. Your Right of Access

You have the right to access your Personal Information Equifax holds on you and to have incorrect information amended.

If you would like to obtain a copy of your Personal Information Equifax holds please contact us as below:

How to obtain copy of Contact Details

Your Consumer Risk & Identity, Commercial Risk, insurance information and/or Personal Solutions services such as requesting a copy of your Consumer or Commercial Credit Report

Mail:

Equifax – Public Access
Equifax Australia Information Services and Solutions Pty Limited
GPO Box 964
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Online:

https://www.equifax.com.au/understanding-your-credit-file

Your Personal Information held by Reduce My Bills

Phone: 1300 680 603

Your tenancy information held by NTD

Online:

https://www.tenancydatabase.com.au/contact-us

Your Personal Information held by CarHistory

Phone: 1300 921 621

Mail:

CarHistory
PO Box 966
North Sydney, NSW 2059

Online:

https://www.carhistory.com.au/contact-us

Your Personal Information held by Workforce Solutions, under fit2work Equifax HR Solutions

Mail:

Equifax Australasia HR Solutions Pty Limited
Locked Bag 965
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Phone:

1300 525 525

Online:

https://www.equifax.com.au/fit2work/for-you/contact

Email:

support@fit2work.com.au

Your Personal Information held by Workforce Solutions, under Verification Exchange

Mail:

Verification Exchange
Locked Bag 965
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Email:

support.au.ve@equifax.com

Your Personal Information held by Data-driven Marketing

Equifax Australia Marketing Services Pty Limited

GPO Box 13294
BRISBANE QLD 4001

Email:

customercomplaintsAU@equifax.com

Your Personal Information held by Corporate Scorecard

Financial Viability and Ratings
Phone: 02 7259 1103
Email: efvradmin@equifax.com

Residential Builders Agency (Agent of icare HBCF)
Phone: 02 9465 8035
Email: hbcf@corporatescorecard.com.au

Independent Construction Industry Ratings Tool (iCIRT)
Phone: 1300 713 577
Email: info@buildrating.com

Your Personal Information held by eTrace

Phone:

1300 748 215

Online:

https://www.vedaetrace.com.au/about/contact

Your MOGOplus or Tenant Affordability Check Personal Information held by Equifax Australia Commercial Services and Solutions Pty Limited

Equifax – Public Access
Equifax Australia Commercial Services and Solutions Pty Limited

GPO Box 964
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Phone:13 8332


Equifax may charge you a fee for providing you with a copy of your Personal Information that Equifax holds on you.

6. Your right to request a correction of Personal Information or make a complaint

You have the right to correct any Personal Information Equifax holds on you that is incorrect.

We will investigate and deal with your correction request in a fair, efficient and timely manner. 

To correct your Personal Information you can contact us as below:

Type of information Contact Details

Your Consumer Risk & Identity, Commercial Risk, insurance information and/or Personal Solutions such as correcting information contained in your Consumer or Commercial Credit Report

Mail:

Equifax – Public Access
Equifax Australia Information Services and Solutions Pty Limited
GPO Box 964
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Online:

Equifax Corrections Portal

Your Personal Information held by Reduce My Bills

Phone:

1300 680 603

Your tenancy information held by NTD

Online:

Equifax Corrections Portal

Your Personal Information held by CarHistory

Phone:

1300 921 621

Mail:

CarHistory
PO Box 966
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059
Australia

Online:

https://www.carhistory.com.au/contact-us

Your Personal Information held by Workforce Solutions, under fit2work

Mail:

Equifax Australasia Workforce Solutions Pty Limited
Locked Bag 965
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Email:

support@fit2work.com.au

Your Personal Information held by Workforce Solutions, under Verification Exchange

Phone:

1300 575 575

Mail:

Equifax Australasia Workforce Solutions Pty Limited
Locked Bag 965
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Email:

support.au.ve@equifax.com

Your Personal Information held by Data-driven Marketing or information collected in connection with third party online behavioural advertising

Equifax Australia Marketing Services Pty Limited
GPO Box 13294
BRISBANE QLD 4001

Email:

customercomplaintsAU@equifax.com

Your Personal Information held by eTrace

Phone:

1300 748 215

Online:

https://www.vedaetrace.com.au/about/contact

Your Personal Information held by Corporate Scorecard

Financial Viability and Ratings
Phone: 02 7259 1103
Email: efvradmin@equifax.com

Residential Builders Agency (Agent of icare HBCF)
Phone: 02 9465 8035
Email:hbcf@corporatescorecard.com.au

Independent Construction Industry Ratings Tool (iCIRT)
Phone: 1300 713 577
Email:info@buildrating.com

Your MOGOplus or Tenant Affordability Check Personal Information held by Equifax Australia Commercial Services and Solutions Pty Limited

Equifax – Public Access

Equifax Australia Commercial Services and Solutions Pty Limited
GPO Box 964
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Phone:

13 8332

7. Your right to make a complaint

If you have a dispute about Personal Information held by Equifax and covered by this policy, we will investigate and provide you with a formal written response, generally, within 30 days. Where we determine that no amendment to your Personal Information is required you have the right to add a statement to your file.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of Equifax’s correction investigation or would like to make a complaint about how we have handled your Personal Information, please contact our Customer Resolutions Team (CRT)

  • Online by completing the online form
  • Mail: Customer Resolutions Team PO Box 12394 Brisbane QLD 4001

In order for Equfaix to address your request you will need to provide the following information:

  • name;
  • date of birth;
  • current address;
  • previous address;
  • driver licence details; and
  • sufficiently detail your matter including any reference numbers and relevant supporting documentation

Our CRT team will investigate your matter and contact you to attempt to resolve the matter directly.

We want to do everything we can to resolve your matter, so it's important that you first raise it with our CRT team. Raising your matter with us directly will often result in a quicker resolution. Once we have investigated your complaint, we will write to you setting out the outcome of that investigation.

If you are still not satisfied with our response, you may contact the external dispute resolution scheme of which we are a member, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA recommends that you raise your concerns with us before you do so with them.

How to contact AFCA:

Online: http://www.afca.org.au
Email: info@afca.org.au
Phone: 1800 931 678
Mail: Australian Financial Complaints Authority,
GPO Box 3
Melbourne VIC 3001

When contacting AFCA, we suggest you include the following:

  • An overview of your concerns;
  • a detailed timeline/chronology of events
  • copies of any correspondence with our Customer Resolutions Team and the credit provider (if relating to Credit Reporting).

You may also make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

Complaints must be in writing and you can contact the OAIC via the methods below:

Online: http://www.oaic.gov.au/
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Fax: 1300 363 992
Mail: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001

When contacting the OAIC, we suggest you include the following:

  • An overview of your concerns;
  • a detailed timeline/chronology of events
  • copies of any correspondence with our Customer Resolutions Team and , if applicable, the credit provider.

8. Use of Personal Information for Marketing Purposes

For specific information regarding use and disclosure of Personal Information by Data-driven Marketing for marketing purposes, please refer to Data-driven Marketing’s Privacy Policy. The information which follows is of general application to Equifax and is subject to those policies.

Equifax collects information to provide its customers and individuals with a large variety of services.  Sometimes different entities within Equifax will contact individuals to market Equifax services.  Generally, marketing by Equifax of its services to individuals is based on the consent of the individual to that marketing.

This may, depending on the consent provided, include promotional material including but not limited to communications of the following kind:

  • Newsletters;
  • Competitions;
  • Surveys, or
  • Promotions on existing or new products.

Equifax may do so by using a variety of channels including:

  • electronic means such as emails, SMS, MMS or similar devices;
  • hardcopy to your nominated address; and
  • subject to our Do Not Contact Register.

Equifax may, at any time, disclose your information to its clients, where you have provided consent, for marketing purposes so they can send you marketing information similar to the above.

At all times you are free to choose not to receive some or all of the marketing communications sent by Equifax or on Equifax's behalf. To opt out of third party marketing, you can opt out by registering on our Do Not Contact Register. To opt out of marketing specific to an Equifax product or entity, refer below:

Equifax Entity Source of Consent Contact Details

Equifax Credit and Identity services

If you provided consent via Equifax Credit & Identity services.

Online:

via updating your preferences within the Your Credit & Identity portal

Mail:

Equifax Australia Information Services and Solutions Pty Limited
GPO Box 964
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Data-driven Marketing

If you received marketing material from a customer of Data-driven Marketing.

Mail:

Equifax Australia Marketing Services Pty Limited
GPO Box 13294
BRISBANE QLD 4001

Email:

customercomplaintsAU@equifax.com

 

CarHistory

If you were or are a customer of CarHistory and provided your consent.

Phone:

1300 921 621

Mail:

CarHistory
GPO Box 966
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Online:

https://www.carhistory.com.au/contact-us

NTD

If you were or are a customer of National Tenancy Database and provided your consent through a real estate agent.

Online:

https://www.tenancydatabase.com.au/contact-us

Corporate Scorecard

If you have consented to receiving emails from Corporate Scorecard about its products and services.

Financial Viability and Ratings
Phone: 02 7259 1103
Email: efvradmin@equifax.com

Residential Builders Agency (Agent of icare HBCF)
Phone: 02 9465 8035
Email:hbcf@corporatescorecard.com.au

Independent Construction Industry Ratings Tool (iCIRT)
Phone: 1300 713 577
Email:info@buildrating.com

Equifax HR Solutions

If you have consented to receiving emails from Fit2Work or HR Solutions about its products and services.

Online:

via updating your preferences within the Fit2work portal

Mail:

Equifax Australasia Workforce Solutions Pty Limited
Locked Bag 965
NORH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Email:

support@fit2work.com.au

9. Government Identifiers and Sensitive Information

We do not adopt as our own identifier any identifier assigned by a Commonwealth or State Government agency.

However, if you are a member of Equifax Credit and Identity services, we retain details of your passport, including your passport number, as part of the services we provide you. Identity services may also retain your Medicare number, as part of the services we provide to you.  

In certain circumstances we may seek evidence of your identity such as passport details, driver’s licence, Medicare number or similar in order to help verify your identity.

The Act describes ‘sensitive information’ as information relating to a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional or trade association membership, sexual orientation, criminal record, and health information about an individual. Occasionally, it may be necessary for us to collect sensitive information about you. This would only occur when it is necessary for us to collect this information from you in the course of providing our services, or in the limited circumstances permitted under the APPs. For example, Equifax HR Solutions may collect, use, hold and disclose details relating to your criminal record, if applicable, for the purposes of conducting an employment check.

If you or third parties provide us with sensitive information, we will as a matter of policy only use and disclose the information for the purpose for which it was provided or another directly related purpose, unless you agree otherwise, or where required or authorised by law. We will only collect sensitive information with your consent, or where it is required or authorised by law. 

10. Job applicants and employees

The Privacy Act provides an exemption for employee records. That is information about an individual if that information directly relates to the act or practice of a current or former employment relationship between an employer and the individual. That exemption may apply in relation to your Personal Information held by us about you as an employee.

Any Personal Information provided to Equifax in connection with job applications may be used to consider you for current and future employment and may be disclosed to our third party advisors to assist us in the selection and recruitment process. 

11. How we hold and keep your Personal Information Secure

We hold and keep your Personal Information secure in accordance with the Privacy Act and other relevant legislation. We may hold your Personal Information in paper or other physical form, but it is usually held in electronic form on our systems. To ensure your Personal Information is secure, we use industry standard security and encryption to protect it. Service providers may hold the information for us, such as our data centre providers which have been certified as ISO 27001 compliant. Additionally, we seek to ensure that third parties that we partner with to process your Personal Information demonstrate equally comparable controls to further ensure the security of your Personal Information.

Only authorised employees are granted access to your Personal Information. We train the employees who handle your Personal Information to ensure it is handled appropriately and only made available to employees where necessary. We audit and monitor our employees’ access to, and handling of, Personal Information.

12. Do we collect any other data?

We may collect data regarding users' online activities over time on our online network of internet sites, non-affiliated websites, mobile applications or online services including information that you voluntarily provide to us online or offline, for example in response to surveys or competitions.

We will not combine this data with Personal Information about you for sharing with any third party, nor will we provide it to an advertiser or any other third party without your express consent, or as expressly stated in this policy.

For third party online behavioural advertising, we may disclose any data about your activities which is not Personal Information and does not allow you to be reasonably identifiable to a third party - for example, data associated with a cookie, pixel tag, mobile advertising ID or other tracking code – and permit them to use this data for the purpose of associating that tracking code with your use of our websites, and of third party websites where we or our advertising partners have an arrangement in place to serve ads to you on those third party websites. 

We may also collect and use, and permit third parties to collect and use, data from third parties about your online or offline activities, as linked by that third party to that tracking code, to facilitate display of advertisements, goods, services, recommendations or content to you that are selected using inferences as to your preferences or interests.  For example, we may collect information related to demographic, behavioural and usage patterns, referred to as “preference data”.  By targeting ads and content to unidentified individuals (such as you) only if you are within a particular interest or preference segment, targeted advertising and targeted content is intended to be more relevant or useful to you.

For further information about how we use cookies, please see our Cookies Policy. You can also manage cookies on your mobile device or in your web browser privacy settings.

13. Big Data and Machine Learning Activities

For some of our business and analytical activities, Equifax may use big data or machine learning capabilities to gather, acquire or obtain information from various sources by lawful and fair means. In very rare and limited circumstances these activities may lead to the creation of Personal Information. For example, when we bring together a large variety of non-identifying information for analysis, an individual may be identified or reasonably identifiable during the analytical process. Similarly, the creation of insights about an identified individual using analytics may lead to the collection of new categories of Personal Information about that individual.

Generally our analytical activities use de-identified and/or aggregated data, but we take reasonable steps to ensure that, to the extent any data is Personal Information, all relevant privacy laws apply to its use and disclosure.

14. Further information about your Privacy rights

For further information about the APPs and application of the Privacy Act please visit the OAIC’s website at www.oaic.gov.au.

This policy documents how we manage Personal Information and reflects our obligations under the APPs of the Privacy Act. If you would like information about how we manage Personal Information as a credit reporting body go to our Credit Reporting Policy.

This policy is not legal advice and is not intended to replace the rights, duties and obligations a party has under the Privacy Act. Nothing in this policy is intended to create or impose rights, remedies, or obligations additional to those set out in the Privacy Act.

15. Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may from time to time update this Privacy Policy including to take into account new laws, regulations, changes to our business and technology. All the Personal Information we hold will be governed by our most recent Privacy Policy located at https://www.equifax.com.au/privacy. We encourage you to check this page from time to time for any changes. 
 

Last Update

Last updated: 15 February 2024