The Adelaide Bank Group of Companies recognises the importance of protecting your privacy. We are committed to ensuring the continued integrity and security of the personal information you entrust to us.

We appreciate that the success of our business is largely dependent upon a relationship of trust being established and maintained with past, current and prospective customers, shareholders and other individuals with whom we conduct business. We will therefore continue to collect and manage your personal information with a high degree of diligence and care.

Our aim is to comply at all times with the privacy laws (incorporating the National Privacy Principles) that apply to us. If you have a comment, query or complaint regarding a privacy matter, we encourage you to discuss it with us.

HOW WE HANDLE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

This statement explains the types of personal information we collect and how we handle that information.

Types of Information Collected and Held by Us

We need to collect some of your personal details to enable us to establish and maintain a financial services relationship with you. The types of information we request will vary according to the product or service that we are providing to you. We will usually ask for your name, age, address and other contact details (such as phone, fax and email) so we can communicate with you. In some cases we may also need your financial details.

We do not collect certain types of information (such as ethnicity, trade or professional association membership or health) without your consent. As part of our business operations we also collect personal information from other individuals such as shareholders and non-corporate suppliers.

How we Collect Your Information

In most cases we collect personal information directly from you. Sometimes we may obtain your information from a credit reporting agency (in the case of loan products), a third party acting on your behalf (such as a loan introducer, financial adviser or broker) or public records such as those relating to land titles and companies.

When you visit our website, our Internet Service Provider records information (such as your server address and top level domain name, the type of browser you are using, the date, time and pages accessed) in relation to your visit for statistical purposes. This information is collected as aggregated data and the user remains anonymous. Except in the case of online banking and online services provided to our business partners, we do not attempt to identify users of our website.

How we Protect Your Information

We take all reasonable steps to ensure your information remains secure, and to prevent unauthorised access to your information. Although we endeavour to ensure that all personal information kept by us remains accurate, we also depend on you to tell us of any changes to your details.

We use our best efforts to ensure that information received via this website remains secure within our systems. We are regularly reviewing developments in online security, however users should be aware that there are inherent risks in transmitting information across the Internet. All of the information you provide via our on-line banking service is protected by a secure encrypted (128 bit) connection. This mechanism provides a high level of protection against unauthorised access to information transmitted to us over the Internet. You can find further details of the security measures used on this site at our Security page.

Use of Cookies

A "cookie" is a text file placed on your computer by our server that allows us to interact with you more effectively. Cookies can be either "permanent" or "session" based. Permanent cookies are stored on your computer and may be used to track your browsing behaviour upon return to the issuing website. Session cookies are short-lived and expire at the end of each browsing session. This website only uses session cookies that are associated with search functions on this site. When you close your browser the session cookie is destroyed and no personal information is maintained. You can configure your browser so that it does not receive any cookies although if you do, some functionality of this and other sites may be lost.

Our Use of Your Information

Generally we only use or disclose your information where necessary and in order to provide you with the product or service you have requested. We may also use it for the Group's internal business purposes such as research and product development, and for assessing your future applications for products or services provided by us. We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information.

When you send us an email, the contents and your email address are used only for the purpose for which they were provided. We do not retain this information unless you consent or we believe we have a legal requirement to do so.

We may use your information to tell you about other financial products and services we think you may be interested in. If you do not wish to receive offers unrelated to your Adelaide Bank products and services please let us know.

Our Disclosure of Your Information

Like many financial service organisations we outsource some of our functions to specialised service providers (for example, we use mailing and printing houses). We may also disclose your information to IT providers, professional advisers, account holders and operators, and (in the case of loan products) credit reporting agencies, valuers, introducers, insurers, guarantors, debt collection agencies and government authorities. When your information is disclosed to those organisations it remains the property of the Adelaide Bank Group and is protected under our agreements with them. We will also disclose your information when required to by law.

In the case of shareholders, personal information is disclosed to our share registry service provider.

Specific requirements apply to the collection, use and disclosure of your information for credit reporting purposes.

We provide services to a number of business partners and their customers. In order to provide these services, personal information may be used and exchanged. The information of these customers is given the same level of protection and treated in the same way as for Adelaide Bank customers.

Access to Your Information, Queries and Complaints

If you have a query, comment or complaint about privacy, or wish to access your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer in the Customer Relations Department by phone 132220 (within South Australia) or 1300 652 220 (outside South Australia), fax (08) 8300 6666, email ablsite@adelaidebank.com.au or post GPO Box 1048, Adelaide, SA 5001, or contact one of our branches.

An access request form is available from our Privacy Officer or from any of our branches. Please note that a charge may apply when we give you access to your information.

This document is correct as at December 2001. We are regularly reviewing our compliance with our privacy obligations. This document will be updated from time to time to reflect any changes in our approach to privacy or information handling practices.