Privacy policy

FAP Name: Cooper Group Limited (trading as Cooper/Cooper Mortgages/Cooper Insurance/Cooper Kiwisaver)
FSP Number: FSP1003095

Cooper Group Limited (we, us, our) complies with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 (the Act) when dealing with personal information. Personal information is information about an identifiable individual (a natural person). This policy sets out how we will collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information.

This policy does not limit or exclude any of your rights under the Act. If you wish to seek further information on the Act, you can contact our Privacy Officer by email at [email protected]. Or visit www.privacy.org.nz for further information.

Please note, modifications and amendments to this privacy policy may be done by us at any time for any reason and will apply from the date they were uploaded.

Consent to Privacy Policy

By using this website and/or service you are agreeing to this privacy policy. Please do not use the site and/or our services if you do not agree with this privacy policy.

We collect personal information from you, including (but not limited to) information about your:

Name, Contact Information, Location, Financial information & Any other relevant information (depending the interaction with us and our services).

Third party collection of information:

Where we collect your personal information from someone other than you, we will take reasonable steps to notify you that we have collected your personal information, the purpose of the collection, the intended recipients of the information, the name and address of the agency collecting and holding the information, whether the collection is authorised or required by law and, if so, the law that authorises or requires the collection, and your right to access and request correction of that information, unless an exception applies under the Privacy Act 2020.

Referral Programme:

Cooper Group operates a Client Referral Programme through which existing clients and approved partners may refer new clients to us for eligible financial services.

Information collected from referrers

When you submit a Referral Form, we collect your name and email address in order to administer your referral, verify eligibility, and issue any reward you become entitled to under the programme. Your email address will be used to deliver your Prezzie Card reward digitally upon settlement of a qualifying referral.

Information collected about referred individuals

When you refer someone to us, you will be asked to provide that person's name and contact details. By submitting a Referral Form, you confirm that you have obtained that person's consent to share their personal information with Cooper Group for the purposes of this programme. Upon first contact with a referred individual, we will make them aware that their details were shared via a referral.

The personal information of referred individuals will be used to make contact, assess eligibility, and provide our financial advice services. If a referral does not proceed, personal information collected in connection with that referral will be retained for a period consistent with our standard retention practices before being securely destroyed.

All personal information collected through the Referral Programme is handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. Full terms and conditions of the Referral Programme are available at coopergroup.co.nz/referral-program-terms.

We collect your personal information in order to:

Verify your identity

Provide services and products to you

Market our services and products to you, including contacting you electronically (e.g. by call, text, or email for this purpose)

Improve the services and products that we provide to you

Respond to communications from you, including a complaint

Protect and/or enforce our legal rights and interests, including defending any claim

Liaise with professionals including but not limited to solicitors and accountants when a referral is required, at your request

We many also use if for internal administration, marketing, planning, research and development requirements

Follow up with you on a regular basis to provide further financial advice as and when required or any other purpose authorised by you or the Act.

Providing some information is optional

If you choose not to provide some of your personal information, we will be unable to provide full services as intended

Collection and Storage

Personal information is collected directly from you in person, telephone, letter, email, website, website analytics or other suitable communication methods

Your information is kept in a secured digital storage facility and any physical copies are kept secured onsite until transferred to our offsite secure location as and when required

Your information is kept up to seven years at which point it is securely destroyed by erasing the digital and physical copies (unless otherwise required by complementary legislation)

We may use cloud storage to store your personal information held. The cloud storage and IT servers may also be outside of New Zealand

We may access your personal information stored in the cloud storage from New Zealand as well as overseas should we need to for the purposes of providing our services

Data Breaches

Our Privacy Officer has processes and systems in place in the unfortunate event of a data breach. If such an event occurs, we will promptly identify, report and examine a personal data breach.

Statistical Information and Cookies

While we take reasonable steps to maintain secure internet connections, if you provide us with personal information over the internet, the provision of that information is at your own risk.

If you follow a link on our website to another site, the owner of that site will have its own privacy policy relating to your personal information. We suggest you review that site’s privacy policy before you provide personal information.

We use cookies (an alphanumeric identifier that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive so that we can recognise your browser) to monitor your use of the website. You may disable cookies by changing the settings on your browser, although this may mean that you cannot use all of the features of the website.

We may use information about your use of our websites and other IT systems to prevent unauthorised access or attacks on our software. We may utilise services from one or more third-party suppliers to monitor the use of our systems. These third-party suppliers will have access to monitoring and logging information as well as information processed on our websites and other IT systems.

Disclosure of Information

We may disclose your personal information to:

Other companies or individuals who assist us in providing services or who perform functions on our behalf (such as mailing houses, hosting and data storage providers, specialist consultants, and legal advisers);

Product providers (such as but not limited to lenders and insurance companies);

Financial advisers and financial advice providers who may use our services;

Other companies or individuals who perform checks (such as but not limited to compliance reviews and audits) that are necessary or desirable under the law on our behalf;

Other companies, agencies, or individuals that maintain databases against which your identity may be verified, which may include (but are not limited to) the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, and New Zealand Transport Agency;

Social media sites on which we may have a presence;

Courts, tribunals, and regulatory authorities (such as the Financial Markets Authority, and the Ministry of Justice in New Zealand);

Office of the Ombudsman, where a complaint relates to official information;

Any person or agency we believe could assist in responding to a serious privacy breach.

Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, where a complaint relates to breach of the Privacy Act 2020;

Human Rights Commission, where a complaint relates to discrimination;

CERT NZ, where appropriate to assist with the management of a voluntarily notified privacy breach

Overseas privacy regulator, where a complaint relates to the actions of an overseas agency; and

Anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it.

Except as described above, we will not disclose your personal information without your written or oral consent, unless we are required to do so by applicable law.

Protecting your personal information

We will take reasonable steps to keep your personal information safe from loss, unauthorised activity, or other misuse. Our software is subject to audits to ensure it is continuing to meet security requirements. All data handled in our software is encrypted in transit and during storage and can only be accessed over secure network connections.

Access of your information

You have the right to request access to your personal information held

You have the right to request your personal information to be corrected if you believe it is incorrect

We may require some proof of identity before providing any information

Serious Privacy Breaches

In case of any serious breaches of privacy we will…

Contain it by ascertaining the event

Assess the seriousness of the breach

Notify those affected and the Privacy Commissioner

Review our processes to prevent future breaches

Contact

You have the right to ask for a copy of any personal information we hold about you, and to ask for it to be corrected if you think it is wrong. If you’d like to ask for a copy of your information, or to have it corrected, or have any queries about this privacy policy, please contact Michael:

[email protected],

020 414 11008