Privacy Policy

Who are we?

‘We’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ refer to Growing Lab Pty Ltd T/A North Shore Home Loan ABN 21 623 479 194 

Our commitment to protect your privacy

At North Shore Home Loan, we understand that the details you provide us are private and personal. 

We want you to feel secure when dealing with us and ensure you understand how we protect your privacy and use your details.

Our privacy policies are designed to comply with Australian privacy laws, including the Australian Privacy Principles outlined in the Privacy Act, ensuring your information is fully protected.

Personal information

Personal information refers to information or opinions that can reasonably identify you. This may include:

• General  personal details: Name, date of birth, address, account details,      occupation, and other identifiers.
• Credit information: Details used to assess your eligibility for finance, including outstanding loans, repayment history, and defaults.
• Additional information: If applying for finance, we may collect information about dependents, cohabitants, employment details, and proof of earnings and expenses. For insurance products, health information may also be collected with your consent.

Why we collect your personal information

We collect personal information to:

• Assess and manage your applications for finance;
• Provide you with products or services;
• Directly market relevant products or services;
• Maintain our relationship with you.

We may disclose your personal information to organizations that provide or market related products and services or that have an interest in your finance or our business.

How do we collect your personal information?

Where practical, we collect information directly from you. In some cases, we may collect information from:

• Finance brokers, accountants, or lawyers;
• Publicly available sources;
• Other entities, with your consent.

Do we disclose your personal information

We may disclose your information to:

• Prospective funders or intermediaries for finance requirements;
• Service providers managing or administering your finance (e.g., third-party      suppliers, postal services, or IT systems);
• Associated businesses offering relevant products;
• Your representatives (e.g., brokers, accountants, or lawyers);
• Entities as required by law (e.g., under the AML/CTF Act);
• Cloud storage or IT servers, which may be located overseas.

Before disclosing information, we take steps to ensure the recipient:

• Has privacy protections equal to ours; or
• Has your consent to receive the information.

We may disclose your personal information to overseas entities that provide support functions to us.

You may obtain more information about these entities by contacting us.

Direct marketing

We may use your information to provide updates about finance, promotional offers, or new products. If you prefer not to receive marketing communications, you can opt out at any time by:

• Calling us at 0449989986;
• Writing to raymond@northshorehomeloan.com.au; or
• Using the “unsubscribe” link in emails.

Updating your personal information

It is important to keep your personal information accurate and up to date. You can notify us of changes or request updates to your information at any time.

Access and correction to your personal information

You can request access to or correction of your personal information:

• Access: We will respond to access requests within seven days. A fee may apply for retrieval and supply.
• Corrections: If information is inaccurate, we’ll correct it or explain why corrections are not possible.

Using government identifiers

If we collect government identifiers, such as your tax file number, we do not use or disclose this information other than required by law. We will never use a government identifier in order to identify you.

Business without identifying you

In most circumstances it will be necessary for us to identify you in order to successfully do business with you, however, where it is lawful and practicable to do so, we will offer you the opportunity of doing business with us without providing us with personal information, for example, if you make general inquiries about interest rates or current promotional offers.

Sensitive information

We will only collect sensitive information about you with your consent. Sensitive information is personal information that includes information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, political persuasion, memberships in trade or professional associations or trade unions, sexual preferences, criminal record, or health.

How safe and secure is your personal information that we hold?

We will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information by storing it in a secure environment. We may store your personal information in paper and electronic form. We will also take reasonable steps to protect any personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with how we have dealt with your personal information, or you have a complaint about our compliance with the Privacy Act, you may contact reach out to us on 0449989986 or raymond@northshorehomeloan.com.au

We will acknowledge your complaint within seven days. We will provide you with a decision on your complaint within 30 days.

If an issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can lodge a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, or AFCA. AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers.

Website:www.afca.org.au
Email:info@afca.org.au
Telephone: 1800 931 678 (free call)

In writing to: Australian Financial Complaints Authority, GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001

Further information

You may request further information about the way we manage your personal information by contacting us.

Change in our privacy policy

We are constantly reviewing all of our policies and attempt to align with market expectations. Technology is constantly changing, as is the law and market place practices.

As a consequence we may change this privacy policy from time to time or as the need arises.

You may request this privacy policy in an alternative form.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 10 Jan 2025.