This policy is broken into sections to make it easier to read:

• Who is Always Check Your Builder - the legal entities
• Our data protection practices
• Dealing with individuals anonymously
• Collection and holding of personal information
• Use and Disclosure
• Information Quality
• Information Security and Retention
• Access, Correction and Complaints
• Updates to Always Check Your Builder data protection practices for the internet
• Financial Transactions
• Additional Information

Who is Always Check Your Builder - the legal entities

AlwaysCheckYourBuilder.com.au is the website, campaign and trading name for the promotion and distribution of information to help minimise risk for Australian residential building customers & suppliers.

AlwaysCheckYourBuilder.com.au is wholly owned and operated by Building Quality Australia pty ltd.

ACN: 600 060 802

You are reminded that some of the information provided by Always Check Your Builder is provided by or held by third parties including government agencies.

Always Check Your Builder collects the information from its customers, some third party commercial suppliers including Dun and Bradstreet, and publicly available information sources such as Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) registers, State licensing authorities and registers, Industry associations, Universities and other skills certifiers, local government registers as well as individuals.

Our data protection practices

Always Check Your Builder understands what while the free flow or information is important, it must be balanced against the privacy interests of individuals and businesses.

Regardless of how we collect or disseminate information, stringent privacy principles are applied to ensure that the privacy interests of individuals and business are respected.

Where information relates to individuals, those principles embody the privacy principles and the other applicable provisions of the Privacy Act. This includes using security initiatives such as system monitoring to ensure that personal information is protected from misuse, interference and loss.

When you use an Always Check Your Builder system, that use will be monitored. Always Check Your Builder believes that treating information in this manner is good business.

Dealing with individuals anonymously

Given the nature of Always Check Your Builder‘s activities, it is not practical for us to deal with individuals anonymously in connection with paid services that we provide. To ensure that we comply with privacy and other laws, we need to verify a person's identity before disclosing information to them. When disclosing information about an individual, it is very important that the recipient maintains data accuracy by making sure that the information relates to the correct person or business, so identification information will be released by Always Check Your Builder where permitted by law, after Always Check Your Builder is satisfied about the identity of a recipient that requests that information.

We collect and hold some information about website visitors indirectly through standard web logs, including: IP address; what browser is being used; and the domain name from which a visitor entered the site. We normally use this information in the aggregate to administer and improve our web site, and monitor proper website usage.

Collection and holding of personal information

Always Check Your Builder collects but does not hold the personal information it needs to provide the products and services it offers. Always Check Your Builder collects the information from its customers, some third party commercial suppliers including Dun and Bradstreet, and publicly available information sources such as Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) registers, State licensing authorities and registers, Industry associations, Universities and other skills certifiers, local government registers as well as individuals.

The reasons that personal information is collected, held, used and disclosed include: Determining general business information, including the persons who are responsible for decision making in connection with the business; Assessing the likelihood of business success; and Assisting in credit management. Always Check Your Builder collects information directly from individuals and businesses. Always Check Your Builder also collects information indirectly from third parties where Always Check Your Builder would have been entitled to collect it directly from the individual or business.

Business Information

Always Check Your Builder's business products and services include: Commercial credit reporting; other information services including business marketing databases for direct mail, business telemarketing, other sales activities and market research. The information Always Check Your Builder collects to provide its commercial credit reporting and information services are business-related. The personal information collected, held, used and disclosed relates to the owners or principals of the business and to directors, officers and senior management.

Use and Disclosure

Always Check Your Builder will use and disclose information it holds about an individual for the purpose for which it was collected and for other related purposes for which the individual would reasonably expect us to use the information or to which the individual has agreed (either expressly or impliedly). Always Check Your Builder only keeps or collects information about an individual in relation to any businesses or business they operate or are associated with.

Our customers include major corporations, small and medium sized businesses and government bodies and agencies. When Always Check Your Builder discloses information to customers, our customers must comply with Australian privacy laws (including, where relevant, the Credit Reporting Code of Conduct) when dealing with that personal information. We ask registered users of our website to choose whether to receive email updates about Always Check Your Builder‘s products and services. We honour the choices made. However, we reserve the right to email customers on rare occasions when we think it is important. If Always Check Your Builder engages anyone to do something on its behalf (for example, suppliers of internet support services, auditors, process servers or lawyers) then Always Check Your Builder and the service provider may exchange information for the purposes for which the service provider has been engaged. We also use personal information for planning, product development and research purposes. For example, from time to time Always Check Your Builder compiles online transaction and registration information for internal analysis such as researching and identifying market segments and needs. These analysis produce only aggregate data about users. Always Check Your Builder shares personal information with its related companies in Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand and with members of the Always Check Your Builder‘s group of companies world-wide only where permitted by law. Always Check Your Builder may also use or disclose information where it is required or permitted by law to do so.

Information Quality

Information quality is at the heart of any successful information company.

Working to ensure that information is up-to-date and accurate benefits the information subject and Always Check Your Builder. To help ensure quality information, Always Check Your Builder employs extensive measures, including contacts with businesses, quality review at both the point of collection and at the end of the information collection process and prompt error correction.

Information Security and Retention

Always Check Your Builder is serious about the security of the information it collects. Accordingly, it employs technical, contractual and administrative steps to ensure that the information is protected against unauthorised access and disclosure. Always Check Your Builder employees undertake training in handling information, with particular emphasis on preserving the privacy interests of individuals and businesses. Always Check Your Builder will destroy or remove identifying features from information held about an individual or business within a reasonable time after it is no longer needed, where permitted by law.

Access, Corrections and Complaints

Always Check Your Builder has different types of personal and business information held by different businesses. Your identity will have to be verified before any personal information is accessed. Generally Always Check Your Builder allows individuals and businesses to view information it holds about them within a reasonable time after they have made a request to do so. In some instances Always Check Your Builder will refuse to give an individual or business access to information. If it does so it will provide that individual or business with the reason it has refused them access. Always Check Your Builder will correct information it has about an individual or business if it discovers, or the individual or business is able to show, the information is incorrect. If an individual or business seeks a correction it must provide evidence of that correction. If Always Check Your Builder disagrees that the information is incorrect, Always Check Your Builder will provide the individual or business with its reasons for taking that view. We will generally aim to respond to your request for correction within 30 days of receiving all of the information necessary to determine the request. Where Always Check Your Builder cannot determine the correctness of the information and the law permits Always Check Your Builder to consult with other parties who are the source of that information Always Check Your Builder will do so. Always Check Your Builder will always deal with your access, correction or complaint within a reasonable period. Our Complaints Handling Procedure directs our staff on how Always Check Your Builder manages privacy complaints, including escalations, and includes contact details for our external dispute resolution body for consumer credit access, correction and complaints matters. Always Check Your Builder aims to resolve each request related to personal information quickly and efficiently, and Always Check Your Builder’s preference is to have the person taking your request solve it wherever possible. Requests will not be escalated where you have not given the person taking your request enough information to know what your request is specifically about.

Business Information

Always Check Your Builder may charge a fee for informing an individual or business what information it has about them or for providing a copy of a report. This fee will only be charged where permitted by law, and cover Always Check Your Builder’s reasonable costs in locating and supplying the information or report.

Updates to Always Check Your Builder data protection practices for the internet

To keep up with the rapidly evolving Internet environment, Always Check Your Builder will from time to time review and revise its Internet practices and communicate any updates on its website. Minor changes may be made at any time without notice. If we make a major change in the way that we use, disclose or protect Internet registration information, we will highlight the change. If possible, we will provide advance notice of any major change through a notice on the web site.

Financial Transactions

Always Check Your Builder works with partners to support financial transactions on our website. These partners on our behalf collect information, deliver products and services, administer individual accounts, provide customer support, and meet government regulatory requirements, such as GST collection. They operate consistently with the Always Check Your Builder data protection policies and do not sell or voluntarily share information externally.

Additional Information

Our businesses operate across Australia and New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand privacy laws are substantially similar. Where we disclose information to New Zealand related companies as part of our internal operations, we will always comply with Australian law in respect of Australian information and New Zealand law in respect of New Zealand information.