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Privacy Statement
for the use of the website of PORTFOLIO SETTLEMENTS
Please read this
Privacy Policy so that you can understand how we seek to enforce our
firm's commitment to privacy. Questions regarding this statement
should be directed to the Officer named below by emailing:
ask@portfoliosettlements.com.au
This topic covers
the following:
Information this
Site Gathers / Tracks
The information
gathered by Portfolio Settlements falls into two categories:
-
information
voluntarily supplied by visitors to our websites when they
register and
-
tracking
information gathered as visitors navigate through our sites.
We hope to make
our sites more responsive to the needs of our visitors by helping
you to navigate between sections and tailor content to your needs.
We measure traffic within our sites and our web servers
automatically collect limited information about your computer's
connection to the Internet, including your IP address, when you
visit our sites.
We also invoke a
standard feature of browser software, called a "cookie," to assign
each visitor a unique, random number, which is a sort of user ID,
This cookie resides on your computer. The cookie helps give us an
idea of which parts of our site users are visiting and doesn't
actually identify the visitor, just the computer that a visitor uses
to access our site.
Unless you
voluntarily identify yourself (through registration, for example),
we won't know who you are, even if we assign a cookie to your
computer. The only personal information a cookie can contain is
information you supply. Our cookies can't read unrelated data from
your computer.
To make use of
certain features on our websites (such as our Free Email Settlement
Advice, newsletters and other interactive forums) visitors need to
register and to provide certain information as part of the
registration process.
The information
you supply may help us to offer you more personalised features, to
tailor our sites to your interests and make them more useful to you.
If you want to
remain completely anonymous, you're still free to take advantage of
the content available on our sites without registration. The vast
majority of our site does NOT require visitors to complete a
registration form or give us contact information (such as a name and
email address) to visit.
The more we know
about our visitors the more value we can potentially offer them.
Supplying such information is entirely voluntary. But if you don't
supply the information we require, we may be unable to provide you
with services we make available to other visitors to our sites.
We also use
customer contact information from the various registration forms and
service features to send the user information about our site, our
company and our affiliates.
Users may opt-out
of receiving routine future mailings. Please see the choice/opt-out
section below. As this privacy policy reaffirms, we strive to
protect confidentiality for our visitors.
We do reserve the
right to use customer contact and other information when we deem it
necessary or appropriate to comply with applicable laws, rules, or
lawful orders of courts and governmental agencies, to enforce
compliance with the terms and conditions for use of our sites, or to
protect third parties from what we regard as threats of serious
harm.
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Portfolio Settlement’s Use of information Obtained from Clients
Portfolio
Settlements
and its agents
hereby agree to protect your personal information according to the
National Privacy Principles. We also agree to abide by the following
additional Privacy Statement.
1. We
agree to retain the personal information that you or your advisors
provide to us. At the conclusion of your matter we will continue to
retain this information unless otherwise agreed.
2. The
information we agree to retain includes your contact and financial
details as well as other information and documentation relation to
your matter.
3. We
are authorised to retain the information and documentation provided
to us in hard copy and by electronic means.
4. We
maintain the electronic information on our computer servers which
are located on site.
5. The
servers are protected by firewalls and anti virus technologies. The
servers are backed up regularly. These backups are held off site at
a secure location.
6. Hard
copies of all file records are maintained at our office, which is
secured against fire and theft.
7.
Documents kept at
our office’s safe custody facility are secured against fire and
theft.
8. Our
employees or agents may access your personal information in order to
maintain your file.
9. To
comply with Settlements Agents Supervisory Board requirements, we
appoint accountants and auditors on a regular basis. These Auditors
may have access to your personal information.
10. You
may access your personal information we hold about you relating to
your file.
11.
We will only
release your documents upon receipt of an acceptable signed Release
Form.
12. You
may request that we amend your personal information in person or in
writing. All documentation is archived 16 months from the date that
we receive your last correspondence or instructions. The archived
material may be maintained on or off-site at a secure location.
13.
We retain your
personal information for a minimum of 7 years. After 7 years the
documents are destroyed without the need to obtain your permission.
14.
Material held in
safe custody such as on computer hard disks is retained
indefinitely.
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Security
This site has
numerous security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and
alteration of the information under our control. The measures
include passwords, linkages to secure servers, encryption, backup
tapes, and conventional locks and alarm systems. However we cannot
guarantee that the measures in place have been, are now, or will
remain adequate.
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Email Questions and Answers
Please let us
know if you consent to the email questions that are sent through our
Free Email Settlement Advice being publicised on our website for
general reading by the public.
We will of course
remove all names prior to printing of the information on our web
site.
We hope to make
our free email legal advice service as comprehensive as possible for
our visitors and readers.
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Links to Other Sites
This site
contains links to other sites. The establishment of a link does not
mean that Portfolio Settlements has approved of a site, is endorsing
a site, has reviewed its content, or is in any manner recommending a
visit. Portfolio Settlements are not responsible for the privacy
practices or the content of linked Web sites.
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Contacting the Web Site
If you have any
questions about this privacy statement, which is effective Dec 2004,
the practices of this site, or your dealings with this Web site, you
can contact:
ask@portfoliosettlements.com.au
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