Internet privacy
- Introduction
- Information we collect
- How we capture information
- How we use your information
- Securing your information
- Permission to contact you
- Contact us
Introduction
We understand that when accessing our website or interacting with us online, the privacy and confidentiality of personal information is important to our customers. That's why we are committed to safeguarding the personal and financial details you provide us.
Information we collect
Each time someone visits our site, our web server collects the following information:
- The number of users who visit
- The date and time of visits
- The number of pages viewed
- How users navigate through the site.
The data is captured so that we can accurately evaluate the quality of our content and make improvements for you. We may at times use technology to capture data about you to help us to better understand you and your needs. Personal information, if collected through our general site will used at an aggregated level to improve our service to you unless otherwise notified.
How we capture information
We use technology called cookies when you visit our site. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your hard drive (persistent cookies) or in memory (session cookies). They can record information about your visit to the site, allowing it to remember you next time you visit and provide a more meaningful experience.
We use cookies to offer you increased security. Despite common myths, the cookies we send to your PC cannot read your hard drive, obtain any information from your browser or command your computer to perform any action. They are designed so that they cannot be sent to another site or be retrieved by any site other than Westpac.
We use 2 types of cookies:
- Persistent cookies identify pages accessed and provide personalised features, for example choosing which page you would like to make your start page. They are used to help us develop the design and layout of the web site, improve applications, and measure their effectiveness.
- Session cookies are used for security reasons as part of the customer identification process, for example with Internet Banking as well as statistical purposes. These cookies allow you to be recognised once you have signed in and provide you with your confidential account information. They also keep track of time spent on a page, so that if a session in Internet Banking remains inactive or once you have logged out of Internet Banking for seven minutes or longer it will automatically be terminated for your protection. We also use these types of cookies in multi page forms, to help the site remember what you do from one page to the next.
We may also allow third parties to collect statistical data from our site using their persistent cookies. However these cookies do not capture information that can personally identify you. They are simply used to evaluate and measure the effectiveness of our marketing (e.g. banner ads).
In addition, we may transmit web site usage information about our site visitors to third party ad servers (including DoubleClick™, MediaMind™, Facilitate Digital and Efficient Frontier ) for the purpose of targeting our Internet banner advertisements on other sites. To do this, we use Web beacons and cookies provided by our third-party ad servers on our site. The information that is collected and logged on our behalf through this technology is not personally identifiable to our third-party ad servers and we do not capture or transmit any web site usage information that can personally identify you.
To learn more about our third-party ad servers, or to learn your choices about not having this information used to target advertisements to you, please visit:
- DoubleClick (http://www.google.com/doubleclick)
- MediaMind (http://www.mediamind.com/privacy-policy)
- Facilitate Digital (http://www.facilitatedigital.com/privacy)
- Efficient Frontier (http://www.omniture.com/en/privacy/efficient-frontier)
Please note that these links will take you out of the Westpac site.
How we use your information
The type of information we collect from you will depend on what online services you use. Where relevant, further details can be found in the terms and conditions of our products and services.
We may request personal information such as your name and address, bank account details, email address and contact phone numbers. We also tell you how we use the personal information we collect, who we give access to that information and how you can access it, if we have retained it.
Sometimes we use third parties to run online competitions or promotions. They may require your name and email address to meet Lottery and Gaming regulations and make you eligible for entry. However, we retain ownership of this information and require that all records be deleted from the third party's database.
If you are registered for Internet Banking or Online Investing, we may use your email address to advise you of any upgrades or changes to these services.
We may also use your email address to send regular communications about financial information which you have told us you are interested in.
Securing your information
When we capture your personal information it is passed through our secure server using encryption technology, which scrambles the information to ensure it is protected over the Internet.
Stored information about you is further protected from unauthorised access through the use of multiple firewalls*, secure passwords and sign in processes.
Permission to contact you
You can choose not to receive further emails from us by withdrawing your consent. To do this, sign in to Internet Banking (so that we can identify you), then go to the Administration option in the main menu and de-select the box that asks for your permission to contact you. Under Administration you can also update your email address or choose the type of information we send you from the list of topics.
Contact us
If you feel that we have not lived up to our online privacy commitments or you have any queries relating to our policies, please email acctstats@westpac.com.au. Our objective is to respond within our service standard of 5 working days.
As we plan to keep our statement on privacy current, this information can be subject to change. Please return periodically to review the latest Internet privacy policy.
For more information about our commitment to securing your personal information read Westpac's Privacy policy.
* Any of a number of security schemes that prevent unauthorised users from gaining access to a computer network or that monitor transfers of information to and from the network.
This information does not take your circumstances into account. Read the relevant Product Disclosure Statements or other disclosure documents before making a decision. Unless otherwise specified, the products and services described on this website are available only in Australia from Westpac Banking Corporation ABN 33 007 457 141 AFSL and Australian credit licence 233714. Conditions and fees apply.
DOUBLECLICK®, is a registered trademark of Google Inc. MEDIAMIND™ is a registered trademark of MediaMind Technologies Inc. Efficient Frontier is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States, Japan, & European Community. Facilitate Digital is a trademark of Facilitate Digital Holdings Limited.
