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HCF has always upheld the standard for privacy protection and continues to be dedicated to protecting your personal information. HCF is committed to observing its obligations under the amended Privacy Act 1988 which regulates how the company should manage and use personal information collected and held about the people covered under its insurance polices and services. We only collect personal information which is necessary to provide you with the insurance cover or services you request. This includes name, address, marital status, date of birth and email address [if supplied]. Where life insurance is provided we may collect additional information including your type of employment, medical history, financial reports and previous insurance history. HCF holds information about you when you:- Complete an online application or other type of form
- Provide us with your email address
- Access and use our services through our website
We collect data on our website to help determine information which helps us improve the content, make navigation easier and more efficient for you to use. When you visit our website it sends a "cookie" to your computer. This is a small piece of information stored on your hard drive which tells us your computer has accessed the website but does not identify you unless you have provided us with your personal information. If you do not want to use cookies you can set your browser to reject them. Any information you give us, whether via our website, during phone calls, visits to branches, dental and Eye care centres, or from written correspondence, will be retained and used solely for health/life insurance and related services for the purpose of conducting our business. This includes: - Establishing your membership (including all dependants covered)
- Arranging payment of contributions
- Explaining your benefit entitlements
- Assessing and paying claims
- Recording dental or optical treatment given
- Advising you of special offers
- Conducting member satisfaction surveys
- Analysis of de-identified data (members remain anonymous)
- Ongoing improvements to the products and services available through HCF
At HCF we recognise the trust you place in us when you provide personal information. We will not use, sell, rent, share or disclose any information about you to any third parties, other than those who are contracted to HCF to keep the information confidential, such as medical professionals, reinsurers, research companies, mail-houses and government agencies. HCF may need to collect sensitive information from third parties such as doctors or hospitals in order to assess risks or process claims, or other health funds to arrange membership transfers. Under some circumstances we are also required to disclose necessary, relevant and appropriate information to satisfy legal obligations. If there are persons covered under the policy in addition to the contributor [the person who initiated the membership by signing the application form] they should have consented to having their personal details disclosed. We might also provide benefit information to the contributor unless we have been requested not to do so by those other persons covered. We do not normally disclose personal information to anyone who is not on your membership. Should you wish to authorise someone not covered by your membership to transact with HCF on your behalf [such as another family member, friend or carer] your written authorisation is required. We take reasonable steps to ensure that the information we hold about you is accurate when we use it or disclose it. You should contact us if you think your personal information may be incorrect. The members section of our website allows you to update your personal information such as your address, phone number and email address details. We have put in place safeguards to protect personal information held from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Where practicable we destroy or permanently de-identify personal information no longer needed. We do not transfer personal information outside Australia unless: - It is needed to prove your membership of foreign health funds and to confirm waiting periods have been served
- It is necessary to investigate HCF travel insurance claims
- To administer life insurance or
- We have received your consent
We provide links to third party sites. Since we do not control these websites, we encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on these third party sites. HCF is not responsible for any practices on linked websites that might breach your privacy. You can request access to personal information we hold about you by calling HCF Member Information on
13 13 34, by contacting the support team at service@hcf.com.au or by visiting your nearest HCF branch. There is no fee for requesting access to your information, however we may charge you the reasonable cost of processing your request including photocopying, administration and postage. The Privacy Act provides for circumstances where HCF cannot meet requests for information held including those which: - Pose a serious threat to the life or health of any individual; or
- Are unlawful; or
- Are likely to prejudice an investigation of possible unlawful activity.
We will send you necessary membership updates automatically. Occasionally, we may also send you information about products and services that may be of benefit to you. If you do not wish to be kept informed of these you can let us know by completing the "opt-out" instructions on each communication. If you are currently subscribed to our monthly email newsletter, each newsletter has instructions on how to unsubscribe. To protect your privacy and security of information when viewing those areas of the site which are protected by password, please do not reveal your password to others and do not record the password on your membership card, membership panel or other papers indicating your HCF membership. HCF gives you the option to identify yourself. However if you do not want to be identified it may limit our ability to insure you, pay your claims and provide the services you ask for. If you have any queries or complaints in regard to our collection, use or management of your personal information, please contact HCF Member Information on 13 13 34, or in writing to the HCF Privacy Officer, 403 George Street Sydney NSW 2000. If we cannot satisfactorily resolve your concerns you may contact the Privacy Commissioner in writing: Director of Compliance Office of Federal Privacy Commissioner GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 1042 For more information about privacy in general, you can refer to the Privacy Commissioner's website at www.privacy.gov.au. All updates to this policy will be posted here. Last update: 08 July 2008. |
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