Privacy Policy
A-Ward Limited (A-Ward or we, our, us or similar) is committed to treating your personal information carefully and in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 (Privacy Act).
A-Ward explains how it collects, uses, shares, and stores your personal information below (Privacy Policy). Our Privacy Policy applies in relation to personal information that we collect, or receive, about you from any channel that we operate across.
You agree to our Privacy Policy when you provide your personal information to A-Ward. If you provide information about any other person, then you must have authorisation from that person to do so.
It is up to you if you provide your personal information, but it may impact our ability to provide products and services to you.
A-Ward may need to change its Privacy Policy from time to time. A-Ward will notify you of any changes by posting a notice on the A-Ward website at https://a-ward.com/ (the A-Ward Website). A-Ward may also notify you directly if it reasonably considers that necessary.
What types of personal information do we collect?
“Personal information” means information about an identifiable individual (Personal Information). A-Ward collects, uses, shares, and stores your personal information in relation to your use of A-Ward’s products, services and offerings. We may ask for a range of Personal Information that is related to what we need to assist us to provide our products and services to you.
Personal Information we request includes:
- Name and other identifying details about you.
- Contact information like your residential address, mailing address, email address and phone number.
- Product and services information including orders, purchase history, payments, and places of purchase.
- Financial background information including your financial and credit history.
- Usage information such as your IP address, device, browser and operating system identifiers and activity.
- Account information like usernames and login credentials.
- Details about your interests and preferences in products and services including for notifications and communications.
- Any information you share when you interact with us including those relating to account enquiries, concerns and claims, competitions, and promotional giveaways.
- Your marketing and advertising interests, feedback, and insights.
- Publicly available information.
- Personal Information that you authorise us to collect, allow someone else to provide to us for you, or that we are allowed to collect under the Privacy Act.
Cookies
We use cookies to assist with the performance of our website and for insights purposes. Cookies may be placed on your computer. We typically use cookies to understand how you use our website, for advertising purposes and to make sure you get to the local version of our website.
It is up to you if you want to accept cookies but not accepting may mean some functionality is not available or works differently.
How do we collect Personal Information?
We usually collect Personal Information directly from you. For example, we may collect Personal Information from you including when you interact with us across any of our channels (including telephone, email, or social media), participate in surveys or competitions or sign up to mailing lists.
We may also collect your information from other sources including anyone you have authorised us to collect from, publicly available sources, third party providers including from their websites and channels where you click on A-Ward information or advertising. Third party providers include insights providers, credit agencies, fraud-prevention agencies, debt collection agencies and business consultancy providers.
We may also use website tools and analytics technologies, software, and cookies to help us collect your information. You have the option to opt out of Google’s use of cookies. Please visit Google’s website.
How do we use your Personal Information?
A-Ward may use your Personal Information for different purposes related to its business including:
- Interacting with you to handle your queries or customer service issues promptly whether by email, telephone, or mail. We may also keep information on your communications with our customer service representatives.
- Facilitating our relationship with you and providing our products, services, offerings, and your accounts to you.
- Understanding more about you and your interests. We may also contact you about products, services, events, or promotions we think would be of particular interest through a variety of channels, or for market research purposes. You will be able to “opt-out” from this activity at any time and for any reason using the contact information below.
- Personalising advertising for you that is displayed on third party platforms.
- Understanding your financial background history (including to run verification, financial or credit checks with third parties).
- Carrying out, monitoring, analysing, managing, and improving our business, products, and services (including where we are considering transferring or disposing of our business or assets), and for planning, product development or research purposes.
- Health, safety, and security purposes including identifying, managing, and preventing health, safety, and security events.
- Complying with legal and regulatory obligations, such as sharing with law enforcement and government agencies where we are legally required or reasonably consider that Personal Information should be disclosed.
- For any other reason you authorise us to use your Personal Information, or where such use is allowed by the Privacy Act.
Who do we share Personal Information with?
From time to time, we may share Personal Information with third parties for purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy. Third parties we may share your personal information with include:
- Parties that are a part of us, or related to us including related body corporate, franchisees, or contractors, suppliers, or agents.
- Parties who provide services to us including IT providers, couriers, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators and professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants.
- Parties who provide financial or credit services including debt-recovery organisations, credit reference, fraud-prevention, and credit scoring agencies.
- Parties who provide insights and advertising services including third parties that we use for marketing, for example, approved media agencies, and third parties that we advertise with, such as Facebook, to serve you advertisements online.
- Parties involved in law enforcement or regulation including regulatory and government bodies, and other investigating agencies.
- Parties who we have agreements with including anyone we have entered a contractual arrangement with related to our products, services, offerings or business.
- Parties that you (or your authorised representatives) authorise us to share with or that we are permitted to share with under applicable privacy laws.
We take steps to ensure that your Personal Information is properly protected whenever we share it. This includes requiring those providers to implement reasonable security safeguards.
Some of the entities that we share Personal Information with may be in, or have operations in, other countries. When we send your Personal Information to overseas recipients, we make sure appropriate data handling and security arrangements are in place too.
Why do you process my Personal Information?
If you live in a country that is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing your Personal Information (or “personal data” under the GDPR) are:
- Your consent – you can remove your consent at any time by contacting us (see ‘How can I contact you about privacy?’ below).
- We have a contractual obligation.
- We have a legal obligation.
- We have a vital interest.
- We need it to perform a public task.
- We have a legitimate interest.
How do I access and correct my Personal Information?
You can request access to the Personal Information we hold about you or ask that we correct it. Our goal is to ensure that your Personal Information is accurate, complete, and up to date. Please use the contact details set out below if you would like to make a request of this nature. We may charge you for the retrieval of Personal Information to cover our reasonable costs of responding to your request.
If you reside outside of New Zealand, there may be other rights that you have in relation to your Personal Information. Please check the applicable privacy laws in your country. The above statement in no way seeks to limit the rights you may have under the privacy laws of the country you reside in.
What security measures do we have in place?
A-Ward is committed to ensuring the security of your Personal Information and we will take all reasonable precautions to protect this information from loss, misuse, or alteration.
How long do you keep my Personal Information?
We will keep your personal data for as long as it is required for the purpose for which it was collected, considering our need to answer queries or resolve problems, provide improved and new services, and comply with legal requirements.
How can I contact you about privacy?
You can contact our Privacy Officer at [email protected], to:
- Seek more information about anything contained in this Privacy Policy.
- Update or correct your Personal Information.
- Opt-out of receiving direct marketing material.
- Ask about accessing or correcting the Personal Information we hold about you.
- Make a privacy related complaint.
We take privacy related complaints very seriously and consider all complaints carefully. You can also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (http://www.privacy.org.nz) if you prefer.
About this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy is effective as of November 2023. As stated previously, A-Ward may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time for any reason, including when our information handling practices change. Any amendments will apply to the information we hold at the time of the update. We will publish the updated Privacy Policy on our Website on this page or let you know if we consider that we need to.
