Privacy Policy
Worth Real Estate Pty Ltd, trading as Worth Real Estate, is committed to respecting your right to privacy and protecting your personal information.
We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Act.
We will ensure that all officers, employees, and subcontractors know and understand Worth Real Estate’s obligations and their obligations under the Act. We will achieve this through the provision of training and through maintaining and implementing internal policies and procedures to prevent personal information from being collected, used, disclosed, retained, accessed, or disposed of improperly.
This Policy applies to all your dealings with us, whether in person or via telephone, email, correspondence, or our website.
The purpose of this Policy is to:
- Give you a better and more complete understanding of the kinds of personal information we collect and hold;
- Clearly and concisely communicate how and when we collect, disclose, use, store, and otherwise handle personal information;
- Inform you about the purposes for which we collect, hold, use, and disclose personal information;
- Provide you with information about how you may access your personal information and seek correction of your personal data;
- Provide you with information about how you may make a complaint and how we will deal with any such complaint;
- Advise you of the circumstances in which we are likely to disclose personal information to overseas recipients and
- Enhance the transparency of our operations.
For this Policy, the following terms will have the following meanings, as attributed to them by section 6 of the Act:
Health information means:
- Information or an opinion about:
- The health or disability (at any time) of an individual or
- An individual’s expressed wishes about the future provision of health services to them or
- A health service provided, or to be provided, to an individual;
that is also personal information or
- Other personal information collected to provide, or in providing a health service or
- Other personal information about an individual collected in connection with the donation, or intended donation, by the individual of their body parts, organs, or body substances or
- Genetic information about an individual in a form that is, or could be, predictive of the health of the individual or a genetic relative of the individual.
Personal information means information or an opinion about an identified or reasonably identifiable individual, whether the information or opinion is accurate or not, and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form.
Sensitive information means:
- Information or an opinion about an individual’s:
- Racial or ethnic origin; or
- Political opinions; or
- Membership in a political association; or
- Religious beliefs or affiliations; or
- Philosophical beliefs; or
- Membership of a professional or trade association; or
- Membership of a trade union; or
- Sexual orientation or practices; or
- Criminal record
that is also personal information or
- Health information about an individual; or
- Genetic information about an individual that is not otherwise health information or
- Biometric information that is to be used for automated biometric verification, biometric identification, or
- Biometric templates.
Collection of Personal Information
Whenever you deal with Worth Real Estate, whether as a current or prospective seller, buyer, lessor, or lessee, we will collect personal information to provide services to you.
We do not collect personal information unless it is reasonably necessary for or directly related to one or more of our services or functions.
The types of personal information we generally collect include but are not limited to:
- Name.
- Date of birth.
- Residential address.
- Postal address.
- Email address.
- Home telephone number.
- Work telephone number.
- Mobile telephone number.
- Your occupation and business address.
- Financial information includes details of your employer, income, and name of bank or financial institution.
- Details of your spouse, de facto, dependent children, and roommates.
- Details of properties owned by you.
- Previous addresses that you have occupied.
We will not ordinarily ask you to provide sensitive information. However, there may be circumstances where your information reveals sensitive information. For example:
- You may require a property with particular features, such as wheelchair ramps. This may reveal health information.
- Providing details of your spouse or de facto partner may reveal sensitive information regarding your sexual orientation.
We will only collect sensitive information in circumstances where:
- It is reasonably necessary for one or more of the services we provide or functions we carry out, and
- You consent to the collection of the information; or
- We are required or authorized by law to collect sensitive information.
We will collect your personal information directly from you if it is reasonable or practicable to do so. This may happen when you fill out a form, give us personal information in person, or contact us via telephone, email, correspondence, or our website.
Sometimes, we collect personal information from a third party or a publicly available source. For example, we may need to collect personal information from a credit reporting agency, your legal adviser, your past or current employers, your previous lessors or property managers, and tenancy information services or databases.
If we receive personal information we did not solicit, we will determine as soon as reasonably practicable whether we could have lawfully collected that information as part of our functions or activities. If we are not satisfied that we could have lawfully collected the information, then we will (if it is lawful and reasonable) destroy it or ensure it is de-identified.
You may choose to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym where lawful and practical. However, where anonymity or the use of a pseudonym will render us unable to provide the relevant service or do business, we may request that you identify yourself.
For example, we must record your name accurately when documents are submitted to government agencies or financial institutions.
Use and Disclosure of Personal Information
Personal information collected by Worth Real Estate will ordinarily be used for the following purposes:
- Assisting you to sell your property.
- Assisting you to purchase a property.
- Assisting you in leasing a property (either as lessor or lessee).
- Assisting you to obtain a loan.
- Assisting you with payment or refund of a bond.
- Assisting you with tenancy disputes.
- Coordinating repairs or maintenance to a property owned or leased by you.
- Recording or accessing information at the Titles Registry Office or other governmental agency.
- Recording or accessing information at the Residential Tenancies Authority.
- Recording or accessing information on tenancy information services or databases.
- Client and business relationship management.
- Marketing of products and services to you.
To achieve the purposes described above, we may disclose your personal information to the persons/organizations described below:
- If you are a seller or a lessee, we may disclose your personal information to prospective buyers of the property you own or lease.
- If you are a buyer or a lessee, we may disclose your personal information to the sellers of the property you are purchasing or leasing.
- Your legal advisor(s) and the legal advisor(s) representing the other party(s) involved in your transaction.
- Your financial institution and financial advisor.
- Insurance providers and brokers;
- Utility providers and utility connection service providers;
- Persons or organizations involved in providing, managing, or administering your product or service, including independent contractors engaged by us as real estate agents;
- Tradespeople engaged by us to repair or maintain a property owned or leased by you;
- Organizations are involved in maintaining, reviewing, and developing our business systems, procedures, and infrastructure, including maintaining or upgrading our computer systems.
- Persons or organizations involved in purchasing part or all of our business.
- Organizations involved in the payment systems include financial institutions, merchants, and payment organizations.
- The Titles Registry Office or other government agency.
- The Residential Tenancies Authority.
- Tenancy information services or databases.
- Real estate peak bodies.
- Real estate websites.
- Police.
We will only use and disclose personal information for the primary purpose for which it was initially collected or for purposes directly related to one of our functions or activities.
We will not disclose your personal information to government agencies, private sector organizations, or any third parties unless one of the following applies:
- You have consented.
- You would reasonably expect, or have been told, that information of that kind is usually passed to those individuals, bodies, or agencies.
- It is otherwise required or authorized by law.
- It is reasonably necessary for enforcement-related activities conducted by or on behalf of an enforcement body (e.g., police, ASIC, Immigration Department).
Personal information provided to Worth Real Estate may be shared with its related companies. We will take all reasonable and practical measures to keep such information confidential.
In the course of providing services to you, we may need to enter your personal information into forms generation software and real estate websites. Depending on the terms of such software and websites, a third party may acquire rights to use or disclose information entered into the relevant forms or websites.
Third parties’ collection and use of personal information may be subject to separate privacy policies or the laws of other jurisdictions.
Worth Real Estate may transfer your personal information to overseas countries to perform one or more of our functions or activities. In these circumstances, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles about the information.
Like many other businesses in Australia, Worth Real Estate may rely on third-party suppliers or contractors to provide specialized services such as web hosting, cloud computing technology, and data storage services. Suppose personal information is provided to these suppliers and contractors to enable them to perform the agreed tasks. In that case, we will make every effort to ensure that the supplier or contractor handles the personal information by the Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. We will also require all suppliers and contractors to provide privacy undertakings and enter confidentiality agreements.
There may be limited circumstances in which it is necessary for us to collect a government-related identifier, such as your tax file number or Centrelink reference number. We will not use or disclose your government-related identifiers unless we are required or authorized to do so by law, by a court or tribunal order, or to fulfill our obligations to a State or Territory authority.
Marketing our products and services
Worth Real Estate may use or disclose your personal information to inform you about products and services you may be interested in. You can contact us anytime if you no longer wish us to market our products and services to you (see the Contact Us section for more information).
Accuracy of Personal Information
Worth Real Estate will take reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information it collects, uses, or discloses is accurate, complete, and up-to-date.
If you believe your personal information is not accurate, complete, or up-to-date, please contact us (see the Contacting Us section for more details).
Security
Your personal information may be stored in hard-copy documents or electronically. Worth Real Estate is committed to keeping your personal information secure and safe. Some of the ways we do this are:
- We are requiring employees and contractors to enter into confidentiality agreements.
- Secure hard copy document storage (i.e., storing hard copy documents in locked filing cabinets).
- Security measures for access to our computer systems.
- We are providing a discreet environment for confidential discussions.
- Access control for our buildings.
- Security measures for our websites (see the Your Privacy on the Internet section for more information).
We will review and update our security measures from time to time.
In addition, we will review the personal and sensitive information we hold from time to time, ensuring that information that is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was initially collected is destroyed or de-identified.
Access to Personal Information
You may request access to personal information that Worth Real Estate holds about you (see the Contacting Us section for more details).
We will acknowledge your request within 14 business days of receiving it. Access will usually be granted within 14 business days of our acknowledgment. If the request involves complex considerations or voluminous photocopying or scanning, we will contact you to provide an alternative timeframe based on the circumstances and anticipated work involved.
You must verify your identity before access to your personal information is granted.
While we cannot and do not charge an “application fee” for you to access your personal information, we may charge a fee for actually giving you access to your personal information in your preferred format (where reasonable and possible). This fee will cover our costs involved in locating and collating information as well as reproduction costs.
Once Worth Real Estate has processed your request, you may be forwarded the information by mail or email or personally inspect it at the location where the information is held or another appropriate place. Whenever possible, we will endeavour to make the information available to you in the manner requested by you unless it is unreasonable for us to do so (e.g. if you have asked for the information to be emailed to you, we will endeavour to email the information to you. If the file size is too large, we may send you the information by hard copy instead of email).
If you know that we hold personal information about you that is no longer accurate, complete, or up-to-date, please contact us (see the Contacting Us section for more details).
If you request access to your personal information or if you request that we correct it, we will allow access or make the correction unless we consider that there is a sound reason to withhold the information or not make the correction.
Under the Act, we may refuse to grant access to personal information if:
- We believe that granting access would severely threaten the life, health, or safety of any individual or public health or public safety.
- Granting access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals.
- Denial of access is required or authorized by law or a Court or Tribunal order.
- Giving access would be unlawful.
- The access request is frivolous or vexatious.
- Legal proceedings are underway or anticipated, and the information would not be accessible through the discovery process in those proceedings.
- Giving access would reveal our intentions about negotiations between you and us in such a way as to prejudice those negotiations.
- Giving access is likely to prejudice enforcement-related activities conducted by or on behalf of an enforcement body.
- Giving access is likely to prejudice action taken or to be taken regarding suspected unlawful activity or serious misconduct relating to our functions or activities.
- Giving access would reveal information in connection with a commercially sensitive decision-making process.
Suppose we do not agree to correct your personal information. In that case, you may provide a statement about the requested corrections, and we will ensure that the statement is apparent to any users of the relevant personal information.
If we do not agree to provide access to or correct your personal information, we will provide written reasons for the refusal and the mechanisms available to complain about the refusal (see the Complaints section for more information).
Contacting us
You may contact us by mail, email, or telephone as follows:
PO BOX 37 KEDRON, QLD 4031
T: (07) 3260 5505
Complaints
If you consider that the Australian Privacy Principles have been breached, you are entitled to complain to Worth Real Estate (see the Contacting Us section for more information).
We will acknowledge receipt of a complaint within five business days.
We will investigate the complaint and attempt to resolve it within 20 business days after the complaint is received. Where it is anticipated that this timeframe is not achievable, we will contact you to estimate how long it will take to investigate and respond to the complaint.
If you consider that we have not adequately dealt with a complaint, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on the below details:
Officer of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
T: 1300 363 992
Review
This Policy is to be reviewed as follows:
- Annually as a minimum.
- Following an information security incident.
- Following significant changes to our systems.
- Following changes to the relevant State and Commonwealth legislation
Reviews have examined the appropriateness of the policy, considering corporate, system, and compliance requirement changes since the last review.