We’re committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988, the Australian Privacy Principles and the Life Insurance Code of Practice (the Code) on behalf of the insurers we work with.
This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information, and how you can access and update your personal information.
Within this privacy policy, “we”, “our” and “us” means the NEOS Group of companies which are:
- NEOS Life, a registered business name of Australian Life Development ABN 96 617 129 914 AFSL 502759,
- NEOS Direct, a registered business name of NDLI Pty Limited ABN 70 665 747 277 AFSL 547119
- NEOS Services Pty Limited ABN 42 664 211 241 , and
- NEOS Admin Pty Ltd ABN 91 674 372 171.
Collecting your personal information
We collect and hold a range of personal information about our customers (which includes applicants for products that we administer). This Privacy Policy tells you how we collect your personal information, what we use it for and who we share it with. By providing your personal information to us, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
We only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for our functions or activities. These functions and activities are conducted by us and our partners on behalf of the insurers and trustees for the product or service you have applied for or which we have provided to you, including:
- establishing your identity
- underwriting and assessing an application for an insurer’s product
- administering insurance plans including sending of renewal notices, statements and other information
- assisting the insurer or trustees with claims management
- providing information and services to assist financial advisers who work with us, on advised products
- providing assistance and services to you during the quote and application process, when approaching us without an adviser for non-advised products
- responding to enquiries and providing information about all the products we administer and our services
- developing and improving the products we administer and our services
- complying with our legal obligations such as taking measures to identify and prevent fraud
- meeting our legal obligations and co-operating with Government, law enforcement agencies and regulators; and
- for any other permissible purpose identified at the time of collection.
What personal information do we collect?
The kinds of personal information that we may collect and hold can include:
- name, contact details (including address, email, phone number)
- date of birth and gender
- personal information which is required to acquire a product or service through us and as may be needed during the lifecycle of that product or service
- information required to assess or underwrite an application for an insurer’s product or a claim
- information about beneficiaries and nominated representatives, employment and income
- financial details such as your tax file number and bank account details, employment details and income, superannuation fund(s) and other life insurance policy information
- sensitive information (see ‘Sensitive information’ section below)
Where we collect, use or disclose your tax file number, Medicare number or other government related identifiers, we do so where we’re required or authorised by or under the law to do so. We’ll take special measures to protect government related identifiers to ensure they’re not used in order to identify you.
Sensitive information
We recognise that certain information about you is sensitive.
“Sensitive information” is defined in privacy legislation as information about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association or trade union, sexual orientation or practices, criminal record, health, and certain genetic or biometric information.
The sensitive information that we mostly require is health and health-related information, such as genetic and lifestyle information, so that we can accurately assess life and health risks for the insurers of the products we administer, as well as providing the insurers and trustees information related to claims.
How we collect your personal information
We generally collect your personal information from you directly when you provide it to us with your authority to use a product or service.
We may also collect your information from other parties that work with us regarding the product or service that you have applied for or which we have provided to you. These parties include, but are not limited to, a financial adviser, insurers or reinsurers, our service providers and business partners, employers to verify employment details for income protection claims, doctors and health practitioners, government, statutory or regulatory bodies, market research organisations, organisations who provide document verification services, and anyone you have provided your authorisation to deal with us.
We may collect information about you because we’re required or authorised by law to collect it. There are laws that affect financial institutions, including company and tax law, which require us to collect personal information.
You can withdraw your permission at any time by contacting us, but please note that if you don’t permit us to collect, use and/or disclose your personal information we may be unable to provide you with the products we administer or our services.
As we’re a financial services company, we generally need sufficient information to identify you before we can provide you with any of the products we administer and most of our services. However, you can deal with us anonymously or use a pseudonym in limited circumstances, such as to obtain an indicative quote as a potential customer or to obtain general information about the products we administer or our services.
Disclosing your personal information
We may disclose your personal information to other parties, as permitted by law, though only in respect of the life insurance or related product or service you have applied for or which we have provided to you, including:
- insurance companies and reinsurers
- people authorised to act on your behalf, including your financial advisers
- superannuation trustees and administrators
- service providers who assist us with providing the products we administer and our services including:
- medical practitioners, medical occupational experts and other allied health professionals
- underwriters, claims assessors and investigators
- our lawyers, valuers and contractors
- other financial institutions, such as auditors and accountants
- marketing and distribution companies, with whom we work
- dispute resolution bodies
- information technology providers, administration service providers and mailing houses
- government, statutory or regulatory bodies
- law enforcement bodies and tax authorities
- organisations who assist us to review and improve the products we administer, as well as our services and systems.
We will not disclose your personal information to parties not associated with the product or service that you have applied for or which we have provided to you. We will not provide personal information that you provide to us under an application for insurance for one insurer’s product to the insurer of another product administered by us.
Disclosing your personal information outside of Australia
Our core business and our partner companies are primarily located in Australia. However, depending on the product or service you have applied for, or we have provided to you, we may share and store your personal information with parties that are located outside of Australia. Currently, these include companies with operations located in the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
When we share your information with companies with operations overseas, we take reasonable precautions to protect your personal information and we remain ultimately responsible for your privacy security.
Accessing and updating your personal information
We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is accurate, up to date and complete. You have the right to access and update the personal information we hold about you at any time, subject to any legal restrictions or exemptions, by contacting us on the ‘contact us’ details listed below. This includes at application stage, and at the time of any claim or complaint. You can also access any reports we’ve received from independent service providers that we’ve relied upon in assessing your application, claim or complaint.
Before discussing and releasing personal information to you, we need to confirm your identity in order to protect your personal information. To do that, we may ask for appropriate proof of identification or ask you a series of identity questions. We may also charge you a reasonable fee to correct or access your personal information, such as for photocopying fees. If you request any of your plan documentation from us, we’ll provide this to you promptly and (if requested) electronically.
Generally, we’ll provide access to and/or correct the information we hold about you unless:
- we consider there is a good reason under the Privacy Act 1988 or other relevant law to refuse your request;
- we reasonably determine that your information should be provided directly to your doctor, instead of to you;
- the release of the information may be prejudicial to us in relation to a dispute about your insurance cover or your claim, or in relation to a complaint; or
- we reasonably believe the information is commercial-in-confidence.
If we don’t agree with you that the information we hold should be accessed or corrected, and we will not disagree unreasonably, we’ll let you know the type of information withheld and the reasons in writing. We’ll also provide details of our complaints process should you wish to take the matter further.
If there are delays from third parties in obtaining permission to release information to you – which exceed any time frames we’ve given you or under the Code – we’ll let you know before the end of that time frame.
Storing and protecting your personal information
If we don’t agree with you that the information we hold should be accessed or corrected, and we will not disagree unreasonably, we’ll let you know the type of information withheld and the reasons in writing. We’ll also provide details of our complaints process should you wish to take the matter further.
If there are delays from third parties in obtaining permission to release information to you – which exceed any time frames we’ve given you or under the Code – we’ll let you know before the end of that time frame.
Usage of cookies on our websites
Cookies are designed to help personalise your experience of our websites and can also help us learn about how people use our website to improve the products we administer and our services.
Some of the information we collect on our website, such as your location or activity, IP address and device identifiers, is collected using cookies. You can choose to accept or disable cookies using your computer settings; however, this may impact your personalised experience of our website.
Marketing
We analyse the personal information we collect to improve the products and services we administer. We may disclose your personal information, but not your sensitive information, to companies with whom we work to market life insurance and related products and services to you.
If you don’t wish to receive information on such life insurance and related products and services offered by or through us, you may opt out of receiving marketing calls and correspondence by opting out during the call or in response to any correspondence, or by calling us directly.
Changes to our privacy policy
We may change the way we collect, hold, use and disclose your Personal Information at any time, for any permissible reason including changes to our business practices or changes to privacy legislation. If this happens, we’ll update this Privacy Policy and make the updated version available here.
Privacy complaints
If you have a complaint about how we handle personal information we’d like an opportunity to make it right. Please contact us on the details below to share with us your concerns and we’ll work with you to resolve the issue.
If you’re not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint, then you can raise your concern with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au/privacy or by calling 1300 363 992.
Contact us
For general inquiries or to obtain copies of records or make a complaint to our privacy officer.
Call us: 1300 090 188
Email us: compliance@neosgroup.com
Write to us: The Privacy Officer, NEOS Group, GPO Box 239, Sydney, NSW 2000
Last updated: 13 February 2024