Commercial Debt Recovery Solutions (CDRS) – Privacy Policy
CDRS (ABN: 9400-5979-224) are dedicated to providing you with a quality service which includes protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the data that we collect from our clients and managing it in an open and transparent way.
The Federal Government’s Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act) governs privacy matters in Australia. The rules around how we at Commercial Debt Recovery Solutions maintain your personal information and how we handle any requests to access and correct this information are based on this Act as well as the Australian Privacy Principles.
What information do we collect and how is it collected?
We collect and hold personal information so that we can provide debt recovery services to our clients which means acting on our clients’ instructions to perform debt recovery, and therefore collecting personal information about our clients’ debtors. The Privacy Act defines personal information as information or an opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.
We will only collect personal information that is actually needed for us to provide our clients with debt recovery services. We will generally explain to you why we are collecting your personal information and how we plan to use it. This will otherwise be clear to you when we collect the personal information.
The types of personal information that we may collect and hold include:
- Contact Name
- Mailing Address (Residential and/or Business);
- Email Address
- Contact Number
- Financial Information
Our ability to provide our clients with debt collection services may be impacted if the personal information requested is not provided to us.
We collect information in the following ways:
- via “Lodge a Debt Recovery Job” forms on our website;
- in the course of meeting with you or talking to you directly on the telephone;
- in correspondence from you or third parties;
- from publicly available databases and websites
Any personal information submitted via one of our online forms will be processed by one of our employees working from our office located in Melbourne. Our clients provide us with personal information about their debtors in order for us to commence our debt recovery services.
Generally, we will collect personal information about you only from you. Given the nature of the services that we provide, we may have to collect personal information about an individual from a third party. If we do have to collect information about you from a third party we will, where necessary, take reasonable action to notify you or make sure that you are aware that we are holding personal information about you, as well as how we will use and disclose this information, and that you may contact us to gain access to, correct and update it. Please note, that it may not be necessary for us to notify you, where doing so would constitute a breach of our obligations of confidence or legal professional privilege.
The purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information
Normally, we will collect, hold, use and disclose personal information to perform debt recovery services, to improve our relationship with you and to comply with relevant laws and regulations. In most cases, we do not disclose personal information outside of Australia, however there may be circumstances where we disclose personal information to recipients overseas, for example, where we have requested the services of an overseas recipient like Google for their data storage centres, or where a client related to one of our files is located overseas.
We aim to keep all personal information strictly confidential. However, in the course of providing debt recovery services, we may need to disclose personal information to other third parties, such as other law firms, tracing agencies, process servers and Courts. The required personal information to be provided will depend on the circumstances requiring disclosure of that personal information and will vary because of this.
How do we maintain the information and its security?
We will generally maintain personal information in physical records at our office, and as electronic records on our local servers.
We take reasonable action to hold all hard copy and electronic records of your personal information in a secure way to ensure that it is protected from misuse, loss and interference, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Where your personal information is no longer required by us for a valid purpose or needed to be kept by law, we will destroy or de-identify your personal information.
Access & correction of your personal information
At any point in time, you may request to access or to correct your personal information if you think that it is, erroneous, incomplete, out-of-date, unrelated or misleading.
A reason is not needed when you make a request, and there is no fee charged by our firm for a request to update or correct your personal information.
Please note that the Privacy Act allows us to deny you access in some situations.
Unsolicited Information
If we receive unsolicited personal information and it has been determined that we could not have acquired the information by lawful means, reasonable action in accordance with the law will be taken to de-identify or destroy the personal information.
Complaints
You may make a complaint about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles. We take complaints seriously, and we will aim to investigate and resolve your complaint in a timely manner.
All inquiries and complaints should be addressed to:
Privacy Officer (Manager CDRS)
Commercial Debt Recovery Solutions
Level 10, 313 La Trobe Street
MELBOURNE VIC 3000
Telephone: +61 3 9670 4109
Facsimile: +61 3 9670 2226
Email: info@debtrecovery.com.au
If you are unhappy with our response, you can contact the Office of Australian Information Commissioner via its enquiries line 1300 363 992 or visit their website http://www.oaic.gov.au/ where you can lodge a complaint.
This document reflects our Privacy Policy as at 23 March 2017.Our Privacy Policy may be amended at any time and if amended, the updated version will be made available on our website.