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Privacy policy

REI Superannuation Fund Pty Limited acts as trustee (in this policy referred to as ‘the Trustee’ or simply ‘we’) of REI Super (in this policy referred to as ‘the Fund’ or simply ‘us’). Where we refer in this document to the word ‘our’, we may be referring to either or both the Trustee and the Fund.  All references for these entities required by law can be found by going to www.reisuper.com.au.

Your Rights to Privacy

We respect your personal information, and this Privacy Policy explains how we handle it. This Policy covers REI Superannuation Fund Pty Limited (ABN 76 641 658 449), as trustee of REI Super (68 056 044 770) (Fund). We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles which are thirteen privacy standards created by the Privacy (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 (Cth), as amending legislation to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act).

We note for you that personal information may pass between the Trustee and the Fund’s administrator which at present is Mercer Outsourcing (Australia) Pty Ltd ABN 83 068 908 912 AFS Licence 411980 (“Mercer”) and professional advisers, insurers, government bodies, and other third parties as required.

What personal information do we collect and hold?

The types of information that we collect and hold about you to administer your accounts and to offer and provide products, benefits and options could include but not limited to:

  • ID information such as your name, postal or email address, telephone numbers, and date of birth;
  • ·other contact details such as social media handles;
  • financial details such as your tax file number;
  • health information;
  • your nominated beneficiary details; and
  • ·other information we think is reasonably necessary or that you provide to us directly or indirectly through a website or via a REI Super representative

In general, we do not use or disclose your personal information for a purpose other than:

  • a purpose set out in this Policy; or
  • a purpose you would reasonably expect; or
  • a purpose required or permitted by law; or
  • a purpose otherwise disclosed to you to which you have consented.
  • "Sensitive information" is information or opinion about an individual which is:
    • personal information which is also information or an opinion about the individual's racial or ethnic origins;
    • political opinions;
    • political association membership;
    • religious beliefs or affiliations;
    • philosophical beliefs;
    • professional or trade association membership;
    • trade union membership;
    • sexual orientation or practices,
    • criminal record; or
    • health, genetic or biometric information about the individual.

We will only collect sensitive information (including health information) about you with your consent, except where we are required or permitted by law to collect your sensitive information without your consent.

Collection required by Law

We may collect information about you because we are required or authorised by law to collect it. Your personal information will not be used or disclosed for any other purpose without your consent, except where required by superannuation, taxation or other relevant law. For example, Mercer, as REI Super’s fund administrator is required to report certain information to the Australian Taxation Office for tax related purposes and other information to the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing reasons.

How do we collect and hold your personal information?

There are many ways we seek information from you. We might collect your information when members and employers use the Fund website to enquire, make an appointment or lodge forms such as Member join, Subscribe and online rollover forms or if members and employers send documents containing personal information.  There may be circumstances when your employer sends personal details about you to the Fund for superannuation purposes or the Fund collects additional personal information to assess a member’s eligibility for insurance cover or to consider a benefit claim.

Please refer below to “How we handle email”.

REI Super has appointed Mercer as fund administrator, along with a life insurer and other outsourced organisations to provide services for you on the Trustee’s behalf. These organisations are only authorised to use your personal information to administer your fund membership and benefit claims made by or in respect of you. They must do so only in accordance with their contractual requirements and their own privacy policies and statements as publicly available.

From time to time, REI Super may also commission independent consultants to undertake research, which involves contacting members as part of random research methodology.

How we handle email

We will preserve the content of any email that you send us, if we believe we have a legal requirement to do so. Your email message content may be monitored for security issues, including where email abuse is suspected. Our response to you may be monitored for quality assurance purposes.

If you provide us with your email address, we may use it to send our regular communications such as updates on new and existing products and services that will enhance our relationship with you. If you do not wish to receive such information, or previously indicated that you would like to and have now changed your mind, call REI Super on 1300 13 44 33. You can also use the ‘unsubscribe’ feature included in the emails.

To help us make emails more interesting, we often receive a confirmation when you open an email from REI Super (where your device supports this capability).

On-line Activity

What do we collect via your online activity?

The main way the Fund would collect personal information from you is if you used the REI Super website to lodge forms, such as membership application and change of personal details form etc., or completed hard copy paperwork sent to you. Also, there are circumstances where your employer may transfer your personal details to Mercer to establish a membership account on your behalf. In these cases, Mercer, on behalf of the Fund, will advise you how your personal information will be used.

We also know that some members like to engage with us through social media channels. We may collect information about you when you interact with us through these channels. However for all confidential matters, we’ll ensure we interact with you via a secure forum.

To improve our services and products, we sometimes collect de-identified information from web users. That information could include IP addresses or geographical information to ensure your use of our mobile application is secure.

We also collect de-identified information if you use one of our calculators. Although the information collected does not identify an individual, it does provide the Fund with useful statistics so that we can analyse and improve our web services.

For information on how we use cookies

 A cookie is a small text file sent to the user’s browser that allows the web page server to retrieve information from the computer. Cookies can either be temporary session cookies, or stored permanently on a computer. They are used for a range of purposes, including security and personalising services.

The Member Online component of the REI Super website uses temporary session cookies to provide secure, personalised services. These cookies are removed from your computer when you log out of Member Online.  You can configure your preferences and options in your browser to reject all cookies, however this means you will be unable to use Member Online.

REI Super uses cookies to obtain information regarding the use of the website. By using the website you agree to REI Super’s use of technology of this type. You can configure your preferences and options in your browser to reject all cookies, however this means you are unable to use the full functionality of the REI Super website.

Google Analytics collects data for advertising purposes, including the collection of data via advertising cookies and identifiers.

Our website uses remarketing with Google Analytics, Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting (Google Analytics) to help us understand website traffic and webpage usage. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

We will not identify users or facilitate the merging of personally identifiable information with non-personally identifiable information collected through any Google advertising product or feature sponsored by the Trustee, unless we have robust prior notice of, and your consent on an opt in basis to, that identification or merger. Irrespective of your consent, we will not attempt to disaggregate data that Google reports in aggregate.

In addition, we also use web analytics services providers to collect information on how you use the REI Super website, using cookies to collect information similar to that collected by advertising companies.

The advertising companies and REI Super use this information to perform statistical analyses of aggregate user behaviour, but these analyses are completed in aggregate, de-identified and hence not based on your specific personal information.

REI Super uses these analyses to measure advertising effectiveness and relative consumer interest in the various areas of the REI Super website.  As a general rule, no personal information is collected in this process.

This information is also used to present content on reisuper.com.au and Third Party websites that REI Super believes may be relevant to you.

You consent to, the storing and accessing of cookies or other information on your device where such activity occurs in connection with the service.

We adhere to the Google Analytics Advertising Features Policy.

By using the Fund website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner described in Google’s How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps’ webpage. You can opt-out of Google Analytics if you disable or refuse the cookie, disable JavaScript, or use the opt-out service provided by Google.

Programmatic Display Advertising

 Programmatic Display Advertising such as the “Double Click advertising cookie” may use cookies to collect data from certain websites.  While no personal details are used or collected, browsing patterns may be used to target advertising by Google.

Remarketing

 We may use remarketing services such as Google AdWords Remarketing, Facebook, YouTube and other social media Remarketing to advertise our products and services across the internet. In case of Google AdWords Remarketing, it will display relevant advertising to you based on what pages of the REI Super website you have viewed, by placing a cookie on your device. This cookie does not in any way identify you or give access to your computer.

If you do not wish to participate in our Google Adwords Remarketing, you can opt out by visiting this page.

 Location services

 When you access the website, we may receive information about your location and your mobile device, including a unique identifier for your device. We may use this information to provide you with location-based services such as advertising, search results and other personalised content. Most mobile devices allow you to turn off location services with these controls likely located in the device's settings menu. If you have questions about how to disable your device's location services, you should contact your mobile service carrier or device manufacturer.

Third party links

 Our website may contain links to other websites. Please note we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. When you go to other websites from here, we advise you to read their privacy policy.

Consequences of not providing your Personal Information

 The personal information that we collect about you is used to:

  • provide you with the superannuation service you want;
  • manage or administer your superannuation;
  • ·verify your identity or protect against fraud; or
  • let you know about other Superannuation products that might better meet your financial and lifestyle needs.
  • Conduct research about how to improve our services and products.

If you choose not to provide your personal information, or provide us with incomplete or inaccurate personal information, it may mean that we are unable to provide certain superannuation services to you.

Unless required or authorised by law, if we need to use your personal information for another reason, or ‘secondary’ purpose, REI Super will ask your permission to do so.  If REI Super send you marketing material using your personal information (other than sensitive information), REI Super will give you the opportunity to opt out of any future direct marketing campaigns at the time of contacting you.  REI Super will always seek your consent before using or disclosing any sensitive information for marketing purposes.

 Unsolicited Personal Information

What do we do when we get information we didn’t ask for?

Where REI Super will receive unsolicited personal information about you, we will check whether that information is reasonably necessary for our functions or activities. If it is, REI Super will handle this information the same way we do with other information we seek from you. If not, we’ll ensure we do the right thing and destroy or de-identify it.

Notifying you

When will we notify you that we have received your information?

When we receive personal information from you directly, we’ll take reasonable steps to notify you how and why we collected your information, who we may disclose it to and outline how you can access it, seek correction of it or make a complaint.

Sometimes we collect your personal information from third parties. You may not be aware that we have done so. If we collect information that can be used to identify you, we will take reasonable steps to notify you of that collection.

How we collect your information from other sources

Sometimes we collect information about you from other sources. REI Super will do this only if it’s necessary to do so. Instances of when we may need to include where:

  • we can’t get hold of you and we rely on publicly available information to update your contact details;
  • we need information from an insurer about an insurance application you make through us;
  • we are checking the security you are offering through public registers and our service providers; and
  • at your request, we exchange information with your legal or financial advisers or other representatives.

The personal information collected by Mercer, on behalf of the Trustee, is used to establish a superannuation membership account, to which you and/or your employer contributes, to correspond with you and to provide you with the superannuation benefits and options offered by the Fund.

The consequences of not providing requested personal information may mean that Mercer, on behalf of the Trustee, will not be able to provide superannuation administration services to you, including offering you some benefits and options ordinarily available in the Fund.

Other organisations which will have access to your personal information may include;

  • Auditors and Regulators & Government Agencies – organisations that assess whether REI Super and other service providers are complying with legislation and can also comment on contractual obligations;
  • A mailing house – an organisation contracted to undertake all mailing for REI Super;
  • Archiving companies – Mercer contracted organisations to ensure that all hard copy     documents are stored off site in a secure environment;
  • Underwriters – insurance organisations which provide underwriting services for insured benefits;
  • Solicitors, barristers and medical specialists engaged by the Trustee and/or Mercer in respect of the REI Super. Your name and address will be de-identified as far as is possible in respect of these disclosures;
  • Computing or information technology professionals engaged to assist Mercer with the provision of administration services for REI Super; and
  • Should the Trustee enter into a strategic alliance with an organisation offering financial planning services to the public, disclosure of members' personal information to that organisation for provision of those services may become necessary.
  • Service provider to crossmatch your personal details with other superannuation funds to help locate any other superannuation accounts in your name. With your consent, REI Super may use your tax file number (TFN) to consolidate any superannuation accounts you have with us or other super funds. 

Where appropriate REI Super will enter into confidentiality agreements with, or require confidentiality undertakings from other organisations and persons who may have access to your personal information.

Taking care of your personal information

 You should note there are security risks in transmitting personal information via the internet.  You should assess these potential risks when deciding whether to use our online services.  If you do not wish to transmit information via the REI Super website, there are other ways in which you can provide this information such as by mail and/or telephone.  

How do we take care of your personal information?

We store information in different ways, including in paper and electronic form. The security of your personal information is important to us and we take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Some of the ways we do this are:

  • confidentiality requirements of our employees;
  • document storage security policies;
  • security measures for access to our systems;
  • ·only giving access to personal information to a person who is verified to be able to receive that information;
  • control of access to our buildings; and
  • electronic security systems, such as firewalls and data encryption on our websites.

We can store personal information physically or electronically with third party data storage providers. Where we do this, we use contractual arrangements to ensure those providers take appropriate measures to protect that information and restrict the uses to which they can put that information.

If your personal information held by the Fund or the Trustee’s service provider is lost or subjected to unauthorised access or misuse, we will follow the Trustee’s Data Breach Response Plan for the Fund to:

  • assess the incident;
  • ·notify you as required in the Act; and
  • implement the necessary procedures to prevent a similar incident occurring in the future.

What happens when we no longer need your information?

We’ll only keep your information for as long as we require it for our purposes. We’re also required to keep some of your information for certain periods of time under law, such as for the Corporations Act and the Anti-Money Laundering & Counter-Terrorism Financing Act. When we no longer require your information, we’ll ensure that your information is destroyed or de-identified.

Using your personal information

What are the main reasons we collect, hold and use your information?

The Information will be used primarily for the purpose of managing your superannuation under the terms of the Trust Deed (as amended from time to time) which governs the Fund.

This includes but is not limited to:

  • calculation and payment of benefits;
  • managing the insured component of the death and disability benefits offered from the Fund;
  • transferring moneys to other superannuation funds, rollover funds and approved arrangements; and
  • allocations to and from the allocated pension area of the Fund.

Marketing

Can we use your information for marketing our products and services?

We may use or disclose your personal information to let you know about products and services that might better serve your financial and lifestyle needs, or running competitions or promotions and other opportunities in which you may be interested.

We may conduct these marketing activities via email, telephone, SMS, mail, or any other electronic means. We may also market our products to you through third party channels (such as social networking sites). 

Where we market to prospective members, we are happy to let them know how we obtained their information and will provide easy to follow opt-outs.

We won’t sell your personal information to any organisation outside of REI Super. 

Yes, You Can Opt-Out

You can let us know at any time if you no longer wish to receive direct marketing offers from REI Super. We will process your request as soon as practicable. Details required of simple methods to opt-out.

What are the other ways we use your information?

We’ve just told you some of the main reasons why we collect your information, so here’s some more insight into the ways we use your personal information including:

  • identifying you or verifying your authority to act on behalf of a member;
  • telling you about other products or services that may be of interest to you, or running competitions and other promotions (this can be via email, telephone, SMS, mail, or any other electronic means including via social networking forums), unless you tell us not to;
  • allowing us to run our business and perform administrative and operational tasks, such as:
  • training staff;
  • developing and marketing products and services;
  • risk management;
  • systems development and testing, including our websites and other online channels;
  • undertaking planning, research and statistical analysis;
  • determining whether a beneficiary will be paid a benefit;
  • preventing or investigating any fraud or crime, or any suspected fraud or crime;
  • as required by law, regulation or codes binding us; and
  • for any purpose for which you have given your consent.

Overseas Disclosures

Sharing outside of Australia

We offer REI Super in Australia. No specific attempt is made to market the Fund overseas. In managing your superannuation, your personal information may be disclosed to service providers in another country than Australia, most likely being to Mercer’s administration processing centre in India. Mercer’s Indian administration processing strictly adheres to Australia’s privacy laws and Mercer is responsible for this under our administration agreement.

You can view a list of the countries in which those overseas service providers are located at https://secure.superfacts.com/web/IWfiles/attachments/Form/MercerAustraliaPrivacyPolicy.pdf. Disclosure may also occur to the trustees of other Australian superannuation funds or approved off-shore arrangements which your superannuation may be transferred to with or in certain circumstances available at law, without your consent.

We may store your information in cloud or other types of networked or electronic storage. As electronic or networked storage can be accessed from various countries via an internet connection, it’s not always practicable to know in which country your information may be held. If your information is stored in this way, disclosures may occur in countries other than those listed.

Overseas organisations may be required to disclose information we share with them under a foreign law. In those instances, we will not be responsible for that disclosure.

Accessing your personal information

We‘ll always give you access to your personal information unless there are certain legal reasons why we can’t. You can ask us to access your personal information that we hold by contacting us on 1300 13 44 33.

We will give you access to your information in the form you want it where it’s reasonable and practical (such as a copy of a phone call you may have had with us). We may charge you a small fee to cover our costs when giving you access, but we’ll always check with you first.

We’re not always required to give you access to your personal information. Some of the situations where we don’t have to give you access include when:

  • we believe there is a threat to life or public safety;
  • there is an unreasonable impact on other individuals;
  • the request is frivolous;
  • the information wouldn’t be ordinarily accessible because of legal proceedings;
  • it would prejudice negotiations with you;
  • it would be unlawful;
  • it would jeopardise taking action against serious misconduct by you;
  • it would be likely to harm the activities of an enforcement body (e.g. the police); or
  • it would harm the confidentiality of our commercial information.
  • If we can’t provide your information in the way you’ve requested, we will tell you why in writing. If you have concerns, you can complain. See our Complaints section.

Correcting your personal information

Contact us if you think there is something wrong with the information we hold about you and we’ll try to correct it if it’s:

  • inaccurate;
  • ·out of date;
  • incomplete;
  • irrelevant; or
  • misleading.

If you are worried that we have given incorrect information to others, you can ask us to tell them about the correction. We’ll try and help where we can - if we can’t, then we’ll let you know in writing.

Helping you manage corrections

Whether we made the mistake or someone else made it, we are required to help you ask for the information to be corrected. So we can do this, we might need to talk to others. However, the most efficient way for you to make a correction request is to send it to the organisation which made the mistake.

If we’re able to correct the information, we’ll let you know within five business days of deciding to do this. We’ll also let the relevant third parties know as well as any others you tell us about.

Where we can’t correct information

If we’re unable to correct your information, we’ll explain why in writing within five business days of making this decision. If you have any concerns, you should refer to the information in this Policy under the heading ‘Resolving your privacy issues’).

Time frame for correcting information

If we agree to correct your information, we’ll do so within 30 days from when you asked us, or a longer period that’s been agreed by you.

If we can’t make corrections within a 30-day time frame or the agreed time frame, we must:

let you know about the delay, the reasons for it and when we expect to resolve the matter;

ask you to agree in writing to give us more time; and let you know you can complain to us or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Access Charges

In some cases, it may be necessary to charge a fee to access or compile certain information e.g. archived materials. Persons requesting access will be informed about any fee before it is charged. Any fee will not be excessive and no fee will apply to the making of the request to access.

How do you make a complaint?

To find out more about the personal information we hold about you and how it is handled, please call REI Super on 1300 13 44 33.

If you believe your privacy has been breached, you should write to:

REI Super Privacy Officer
GPO Box 4303
Melbourne VIC 3001

If the Trustee has not responded to your issue within 90 days, or you are not satisfied with the Trustee’s decision, as must be conveyed to you within 30 days or any longer agreed timeframe, you can raise your concerns with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

Online: https://www.oaic.gov.au/about-us/contact-us/

Phone: 1300 363 992

Fax: +61 2 9284 9666

Mail: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 or GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601

Contact us

We care about your privacy. Please contact us if you have any questions or comments about our privacy policies and procedures. We welcome your feedback.

You can contact us in writing by letter addressed to:

REI Super Privacy Officer
GPO Box 4303
Melbourne VIC 3001

or telephone

Telephone: 1300 13 44 33

Government related identifiers

What do we do with government-related identifiers?

In certain circumstances we may be required to collect government-related identifiers such as your tax file number. We will not use or disclose this information unless we are authorised by law.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Policy may change. We will let you know of any changes to this Policy by posting a notification on our website. Any information collected after an amended privacy statement has been posted on the site, will be subject to that amended privacy statement.   

Privacy Collection Statement

Click here to see the Privacy Collection Statement.