Privacy Policy

We understand the importance of keeping your personal information private and secure and we are committed to the protection of your personal information.

We may trade under the name ProSpend and from www.prospend.com or under such other name and from any other websites which we may own or operate from time to time (Site), through the platform which we manage and use to provide the hosted services to you (Platform) and from any mobile app on iOS and Android which we may own or operate from time to time (App), but our commitment to you remains the same.

We have developed this policy (Privacy Policy) to explain generally when and how we collect personal information and how we use, process, manage, disclose and secure that personal information.

If you would like more information, please feel free to privacy@prospend.com.

Australian Privacy Principles

Personal Information is information which reasonably allows someone to identify you.

We treat all personal information in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and Privacy Act 1993 (NZ), including the 13 key principles in relation to the collection and treatment of personal information called the “Australian Privacy Principles”.

Consent

You accept and agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy (and any updated or replacement posted on our Site or App) when you:

• Click “Yes” on any privacy policy pop-up on our Site, App or any web form referring to this Privacy Policy;
• Submit your personal information to us when signing up as a customer; or
• Browse our Site or App.

Such consent does not supersede or replace any other consents that you may have previously given to us.

What personal information we collect

We may collect personal information when you use our Site or App, including when:

• you sign-on as a customer;
• you create an account;
• you add information to the users’ profiles;
• you browse our products, or otherwise interact with our Site, Platform or App;
• you add reviews, forum or chat room messages or comments in any elements of our Site, Platform or App that permit user-generated content;
• you register for access to premium content or request certain premium features;
• you use any of our related services, such as subscribing to a newsletter or product notifications;
• you complete an online contact form to contact us;
• you provide information to us by telephone or through marketing or competition application forms;
• you send us an email or other communication;
• you accept our cookies or other tracking technologies on your device/s;
• you interact with us on our social media pages and accounts on third-party platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram (Social Media);
• you sign up to our affiliate marketing partner network;
• you participate in any request for additional personal information such as customer surveys;
• you voluntarily submit your personal information to us for any reason;
• your authorised representative submits your personal information to us for any purpose reasonably authorised by you;
• we consult publicly available sources of information, or receive references or referrals from marketing and business partners, our related entities and third parties (e.g. where they referred you to us to enjoy the benefits of a joint promotion or collaboration or to redeem a voucher you purchased through them);
• our third-party service providers, business or commercial partners provide your personal information to us, which was collected and processed by them and disclosed to us pursuant to their separate privacy policies.

We may also collect information about you on an aggregated and anonymous basis to conduct internal analysis of traffic patterns within our Site and/or metrics regarding the services which we provide on the Platform. This information is used by us to administer and improve our products.

How we may use your personal information

We will never rent, sell, trade or publicly display your personal information.

We may use your personal information to:

• register and update your account and contact details;
• verify your identity and other information for accuracy and completeness;
• assist you to use our Site, the Platform or App;
• process billing and charges for your use of our Platform or App;
• remember information so that you do not have to re-enter it during your visit or during your next visit to our Site, Platform or App;
• respond to any queries that you may have;
• conduct appropriate checks for credit-worthiness and for fraud;
• prevent and detect any misuse of, or fraudulent activities involving the Site, Platform or App;
• conduct research and development in respect of our products;
• monitor metrics;
• gain an understanding of your information and communication needs or obtain your feedback or views about our products and services so we may improve them;
• maintain and develop our business systems and infrastructure, including testing and upgrading of these systems;

and for any other purpose considered reasonably necessary or desirable by us in relation to the operation of our business.

Your personal information may also be collected so that we can promote and market products and services to you.  This is to keep you informed of products, services, news, information and special offers we believe you will find valuable and may continue after you cease being our customer.  If you would prefer not to receive promotional or other material from us, please let us know and we will respect your request.  You can unsubscribe from such communications at any time if you choose.

Third Party Integrated Services

We may share your personal information with a parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under a common control (Affiliates) in which case we will require our Affiliates to honour this Privacy Policy.

We may also disclose your personal information to external organisations for purposes of providing services to you as part of our business.  Your personal information may be disclosed to these organisations only in relation to and for purposes of providing those, and we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by confidentiality, privacy and security obligations in relation to your personal information.

We may also disclose your personal information to:

• your authorised representatives or legal advisers (when you request that we do so);
• credit-reporting and fraud-checking agencies;
• credit providers (for credit-related purposes such as creditworthiness, credit rating, credit provision and financing);
• our professional advisers, including our accountants, auditors and lawyers;
• government and regulatory authorities and other organisations, as required or authorised by law;
• protect or defend our rights or property or that of other users of the Site, Platform or App;
• investigate or assist in preventing any violation or potential violation of the law, or this Privacy Policy;
• protect the safety of any person or to protect the safety, security or integrity of the Site, Platform or App;
• detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues;
• organisations who manage our business strategies, including those involved in a transfer/sale of all or part of our assets or business (including accounts and trade receivables) and those involved in managing our business risk and funding functions; and
• the police or other appropriate persons where your communication suggests possible illegal activity or harm to others.

We may also use or disclose your personal information for secondary purposes in accordance with any applicable laws, or with your further consent.

Transmission of Information

The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk. We cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us or receive from us. Although we take measures to safeguard against unauthorised disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that the personal information that we collect will not be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.

Access to your personal information

We will handle requests for access to your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles and do our best to respond to access requests within 30 days. Requests for a large amount of information, or information that is not currently in use, may require further time before a response can be given.  We may charge you a fee for access if a cost is incurred by us to retrieve your information, and we may charge you a reasonable fee for the handling and processing of your personal information request, if permitted under applicable laws.

In some cases, we may refuse to give you access to personal information that we hold about you.  This includes circumstances where giving you access would:

• be unlawful (e.g. where a record that contains personal information about you is subject to a claim for legal professional privilege by one of our contractual counterparties);
• have an unreasonable impact on another person’s privacy or other legitimate rights; or 
• prejudice an investigation of unlawful activity;
• constitute a burden or expense disproportionate to the risks to your privacy;
• be based on a request that is clearly excessive or unfounded; or
• comprise our proprietary business information.

We may also refuse access where the personal information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings, and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings.

If we refuse to give you access, we will provide you with reasons for our refusal.

Managing your personal information

You should ensure that all personal information you submit to us is complete, accurate, up-to-date and correct. If you do not do so, we may not be able to provide you with the products you have requested and will not be responsible for relying on inaccurate or incomplete personal information if you have not kept us updated.

We will make reasonable efforts to ensure personal information likely to be used by us or disclosed by us to another organisation is accurate, up-to-date and correct.

Storing and securing your personal information

We are committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of the personal information that you provide to us and we will take all reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from unauthorised use, interference, alteration, loss or disclosure. In our business, personal information may be stored both electronically and in hard-copy form. Firewalls, anti-virus software and email filters, as well as passwords, protect all of our electronic information. Likewise, we take all reasonable measures to ensure the security of hard-copy information.

Retaining and destroying personal information

We will only keep your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, subject to satisfying any applicable legal, accounting or reporting requirements. At the end of any retention period, your personal information will either be deleted completely or anonymised (e.g. by aggregation with other data so that it can only be used in a non-identifiable way for statistical analysis and business planning).

Data Breaches

We take data breaches very seriously.

If there is a data breach, we will take all reasonable steps to contain the suspected or known breach where possible and follow the following process set out in this Privacy Policy. If required under Part IIIC of the Privacy Act or any other subsequent sections or legislation, we notify of an eligible data breach.

We will take immediate steps to limit any further access or distribution, where reasonably possible. If we have reasonable grounds to suspect that the data breach is likely to result in serious harm to any individuals involved, then we will take all reasonable steps to ensure an assessment is completed as soon as possible. We will endeavour to follow the guide published by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (if any) in making this assessment.

If we reasonably determine that the data breach is not likely to result in serious harm to any individuals involved or any remedial action is successful in making serious harm no longer likely, then no notification or statement will be made.

Marketing Messages

If you have authorised us to do so, we will send you marketing messages via email to keep you up to date on our latest services and/or products.

You may withdraw your consent by clicking on the ‘Unsubscribe’ link in an email from us or by submitting a request to privacy@prospend.com.

We will process such requests as quickly as reasonably possible, and you may continue to receive marketing communications while these requests are processed.

If you withdraw your consent to receive marketing communications through a specific communication mode (e.g. SMS), we may still contact you via other communication modes you have subscribed to (e.g. email).

IP addresses

Our Site may also collect Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. IP addresses are assigned to computers on the internet to uniquely identify them within the global network. We collect and manage IP addresses as part of the service of providing internet session management and for security purposes. We may also collect and use web log, computer and connection information for security purposes and to help prevent and detect any misuse of, or fraudulent activities involving our Site.

Cookies

To help personalise your online experience, our Site uses Cookies and Tracking Technologies (such as eTags, pixels, web beacons/GIFs, local storage or other identifiers on your device and browser settings). A Cookie is a small text file that is sent to your browser by a web page server to identify and interact more effectively with your computer. Cookies play an important role. Without them, using the web, including the Site, would be a much more frustrating experience. We use them to make your experience on our Site more convenient and personal.

Cookies cannot be used to run programs. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. In some cases, cookies may collect and store personal information about you. We apply the same privacy protection to your personal information, whether gathered via Cookies or from other sources.

You can configure your internet browser to accept all Cookies, reject all Cookies or notify you when a Cookie is sent. Please refer to your internet browser’s instructions to learn more about these functions. Most web browsers automatically accept Cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to decline Cookies if you prefer.

However, if you choose to decline or disable Cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of our Site.

Why we use Cookies

Our Site uses Cookies to:

• remember your preferences for using this Site;
• show relevant notifications to you (e.g. notifications that are relevant only to users who have, or have not, requested a demo or subscribed to newsletters or email or other subscription services); and
• remember details of data that you choose to submit to us (e.g. through online contact forms or by way of comments, forum posts, chat room messages, reviews, ratings, etc).

Many of these cookies are removed or cleared when you log out but some may remain so that your preferences are remembered for future sessions.

Third party Cookies

In some cases, third parties may place Cookies through this Site. For example:

• Google Analytics, one of the most widespread and trusted website analytics solutions, may use cookies de-identified data about how long users spend on our Site and the pages that they visit;
• Google AdSense, one of the most widespread and trusted website advertising solutions, may use cookies to serve more relevant advertisements across the web and limit the number of times that a particular advertisement is shown to you; and
• third party Social Media applications may use Cookies to facilitate various social media buttons and/or plugins in this Site.

Third party websites

If you click-through to third party websites from this Site, you will leave our Site and go to another site and another entity may collect your personal information. This Privacy Policy applies to our Site only. We have no control over, do not review, and are not responsible for these outside sites or their content. We strongly recommend that you refer to the privacy policy statement of any other sites you visi

Re-marketing

We may use remarketing services to advertise on third party websites to previous visitors to our Site based on their activity on our Site. This allows us to tailor our marketing to better suit your needs and to only display advertisements that are relevant to you. Such advertising may be displayed on a Google search results page or a website in the Google Display Network or inside LinkedIn. Google and LinkedIn may use cookies and/or pixel tags to achieve this. Any data so collected by Google and/or LinkedIn will be used in accordance with their own respective privacy policies. None of your personal Google and/or LinkedIn information is reported to us.

You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ads Settings page (https://www.google.com/settings/ads).

Changes to this Privacy Policy 

As part of our efforts to ensure that we properly manage, process and protect your personal information, we will regularly review our policies, procedures and processes and it may be necessary for us to revise or replace this Privacy Policy, from time to time. Any changes will be in accordance with any applicable requirements under the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. You can tell when the Privacy Policy was last updated by checking the date at the top of the Privacy Policy and we encourage you to check our Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure that you are aware of any changes. 

If we make any material changes to our Privacy Policy, we will notify you by adding a statement to our homepage on the Platform and in some cases we may provide additional notice through an email notification to the email address you have provided to us.  Any changes will become effective on the date of posting on the Platform and the amended Privacy Policy will apply with respect to information we collect from that date, but will not be changed with respect to information that we have at that time already collected. Your use of the Platform or our services or your providing consent to the updated Privacy Policy following such changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

Governing Law

This Privacy Policy and your use of our Site shall be governed in all respects by the laws of Australia.

Contacting us about privacy

If you would like more information about the way we manage your personal information or about this Privacy Policy, or if you have a complaint regarding our collection, use or handling of your personal information, or a question about how we are complying with Applicable Laws, you may contact us by privacy@prospend.com .

If you would like any further information about the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles, you can visit the Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner’s website (see https://www.oaic.gov.au/).

Last Updated: 17 October 2023