Our privacy policy

It’s one of the main reasons Tic:Toc came about in the first place: no more personal information and loan documents floating around someone’s office. And the privacy to apply for a home loan in your pyjamas, on the couch. If that’s what you want.

This policy explains how we manage your personal and credit information, including:

• what information we collect;
• why we collect that information;
• how we use that information;
• how we protect your information;
• what we won’t do with your information; and the choices and options you have to control your information.

• What is personal information?

  Personal information includes any information, or an opinion, that could identify an individual or from which an individual be reasonably identified. This includes things like your name, address, date of birth, email address or driver’s licence number.

• What is credit-related information?

  In this policy, credit-related information is personal information that can influence credit that has been provided to you or that you have applied for. This includes credit information and credit reporting information such as the information we receive from credit reporting bodies in your credit report, information about your past experiences with us or other lenders, the kinds of credit products you have applied for (such as credit cards) and how you have managed your commitments.
  

• What information do we collect and hold?

  When you apply for one of our products (including a product marketed under a different brand where we provide services as an Australian Credit Licensee on behalf of our funder) we need your personal information so that we can assess your eligibility for the product you have applied for, and to comply with legal obligations to verify your identity.

  The information we collect directly from you includes:

  • full name, date of birth and contact details;
  • identification information such as your driver’s licence number, passport details and residency status. With your consent, we may also collect biometric information about you (in the form of a selfie you provide) to enable us to verify your identity using the automated digital identity verification provider GBG.
  • financial information including your income and expense details;
  • marital status and number of dependents;
  • details of contracts of sale and property insurance.

  There are other cases where we might collect personal information about you, such as:

  • From our website when you fill in any of our forms.
  • From social media forms.
  • When you call, webchat or email us directly.
  • From other people or organisations, such as our funder, service providers or your employer.

  Tic:Toc may also receive information about you from other parties as part of the credit application process. This includes credit information (refer point 10).
  

• How do we use your information?

  Generally, we only use your personal information to help us assess your credit application. Some specific things we use and share your personal information for include:

  • verifying your identity;
  • assessing your application for our home loan products;
  • assisting with your questions or complaints;
  • internal operations, such as record keeping, auditing or training;
  • reporting and data analytics, including for regulatory, management and research purposes;
  • complying with our legal and regulatory requirements;
  • informing you of ways the products and services provided to you could be improved or additional products or services that you may benefit from; and
  • marketing products or services.

• When do we share your personal information?

  Sometimes we need to share your information outside of Tic:Toc. You can be confident we only share information with third parties that we believe have the appropriate systems in place to look after your personal information.

  Some of the third parties we might share your personal information with include:

  • our funding partners and our commercial partners who market loans under their own brands, as required by our legal obligations to those partners;
  • insurers providing Lenders’ Mortgage Insurance or title insurance;
  • identity verification service providers;
  • information technology companies maintaining our systems and services, including cloud and data warehousing service providers;
  • external advisers such as valuers, lawyers or auditors;
  • government and regulatory bodies, as required by law;
  • external complaint resolution bodies;
  • credit reporting bodies;
  • other financial institutions or credit providers;
  • law enforcement agencies;
  • your authorised representatives or advisers or people acting on your behalf.

• Do we send information overseas?

  There are seven instances where we store or disclose personal information overseas.

  • Okta is our authentication partner. Their technology allows you to have a single sign-in to your Tic:Toc application, and they store your data securely in Germany.
  • Our webchat provider Livechat; they store information provided during your webchat enquiry at their secure hosting facilities in Texas, US.
  • ActiveCampaign; they enable us to communicate with you via email once you’ve made contact with us, and the data may be transferred to ActiveCampaign locations are in the US, Australia, and Ireland.
  • We use a solution called Twilio, it allows our technology to send you SMS notifications as you progress through your application, their solution is hosted in the US.
  • Trustpilot allows Tic:Toc to gain valuable insight and feedback from you, our customers, with data stored in Ireland, the US and Australia.
  • ThreatMetrix, which provides fraud protection to our customers and to Tic:Toc, this information is all encrypted and stored within the US and the Netherlands.
  • We also use Dovetail for customer product research and would request your consent to do that research with you prior to storing any data with them. They are an Australian Company that stores their data in the US.

  Tic:Toc also uses various social media platforms to provide targeted marketing content to new and current customers. We use small subsets of hashed information to tailor content to our users. To understand how these platforms use your information or to find out how to opt-out of target marketing on these platforms, please refer to each their privacy policies Tic:Toc uses the following social media platforms:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Google Analytics
  • Google Ads

• What online data do we collect?

  Whenever you use a website, app, or other Internet service, there is certain information that gets collected about your visit. While we do everything we can to keep your information safe when you’re browsing our website, it’s also important that you follow good online security – like keeping your operating system, browser and anti- virus software up-to-date.

  Whenever you use a website, app, or other Internet service, there’s certain information that gets created and recorded automatically by the IT systems necessary to operate that site, app or service. The same is true when you use our website.

  For example, when accessing Tic:Toc, we use “cookies” (a small text file sent by your computer each time you visit our website, unique to your Tic:Toc account or your browser) to make it easier for you to use Tic:Toc, or so we can record data relating to the pages you viewed and activities you carried out during your visit. This is solely aimed to improve your experience with us.

• Tell me more about Cookies (I'm hungry)

  The type of device you’re using to access Tic:Toc and the settings on that device may provide us with relevant information to optimise your online experience, including what type of device it is, what specific device you have, what operating system you’re using, what your device settings are, and why a crash has happened. What information we can be provided with depends on what type of device you’re using and its settings. For example, different types of information are available depending on whether you’re using a Mac or a PC, an iPhone or an Android phone.

  You can find more about how we use cookies, in our cookie policy.

• Unfinished applications

  If you start but don’t finish an online application, we might use the details you’ve provided so far to get in touch with you, or to offer help finishing the application. We don’t do this to annoy you, but to ensure you get what you need from us. And unlike your mother, you can tell us to go away at any time. Be nice to your mother.

• What credit information do we collect and hold?

  When you apply for or have a Tic:Toc product, we’ll collect and store credit-related information, and that information could be shared or used in the future.

  The types of credit-related information we collect and hold includes:

  • name, date of birth, gender, address (including prior addresses);
  • the kinds of credit products you have or have applied for;
  • information on credit previously given to you by us or other credit providers, including financial institutions, energy or telecommunications companies;
  • how you’ve managed your obligations (which could include details of defaults and repayment history);
  • information in a credit report from a credit reporting body;
  • information about your credit worthiness that has been derived from a report about you (such as a credit score);
  • details of credit-related court proceedings or insolvency;
  • serious credit infringements.

• How do we use and share your credit information?

  Your credit-related information could be used for a few different things, including:

  • assessing credit applications;
  • our internal operations, including risk management and portfolio analysis.

  Your credit-related information could be shared with organisations including the following:

  • our funding partners;
  • Lenders’ Mortgage Insurers
  • credit reporting bodies;
  • other credit providers.

• Credit reporting bodies

  When you apply for credit with us we collect credit-related information about you from credit reports provided by credit reporting bodies. That’s your credit history.

  Our dealings with the credit reporting bodies are reciprocal, so we might also share credit-related information with them about your credit accounts, including how well you may manage your repayments.

  We use the two main credit reporting bodies in Australia: Equifax Australia and Illion Australia. If you’re interested in their own privacy policies or want to contact them for any reason, here’s how you can get in touch with them:

  Equifax Australia.

  PO Box 964
  North Sydney NSW 2059
  1300 762 207

  www.mycreditfile.com.au

  Illion Australia.

  PO Box 7405
  St Kilda Melbourne VIC 3004
  1300 734 806

  www.illion.com.au

  If you’ve been a victim of fraud (including identity fraud), or think you might be targeted, you can ask a credit reporting body not to use or share the information they hold about you by getting in touch with them directly.

  Sometimes your credit-related information will be used by credit reporting bodies for the purposes of “pre-screening” credit offers on the request of other credit providers. You can contact the credit reporting body at any time to request that your credit-related information is not used in this way.

• How can you access, update, or correct your information?

  We’re committed to keeping your personal and credit-related information safe, accurate and up-to-date. Whenever we store your personal information or credit-related information – whether on paper or electronically – we always take appropriate steps to protect it, and when we don’t need your information any more we’ll delete or deidentify it, unless we have a legal obligation to retain it.

  In most cases you will be able to gain access to personal and credit-related information about you held by us. Just ask us using the contact details below. We might need you to confirm your identity and there might be some occasions where we refuse to provide you with access (for example, because granting you access would unreasonably impact on someone else’s privacy). If we can’t provide you with access, we will let you know why in writing.

  We assume that any information you give us is correct, but we’ll also take reasonable steps to amend or correct information about you to keep it accurate and up to date. If you would like to access your information, update us on any changes, or want to request a correction, let's talk.

• Can you deal with us anonymously?

  You have the option of not identifying yourself (or using a pseudonym) when dealing with us, unless we are legally required to identify you in order to deal with you, or it would be impractical for us to deal with you if you have not identified yourself. We can’t process or accept your home loan application unless you identify yourself.

• Do we use your information for direct marketing?

  From time to time we may use your personal information to provide you with marketing materials in relation to offers, specials, products and services that we have available or think you might be interested in. You can opt out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time by following the opt-out instructions provided in the communications to you.

• Our funding partners and insurers

  To provide you with a Tic:Toc home loan we need to share your personal and credit-related information with our funding partners and insurer who provides lenders mortgage insurance. We also provide personal information to our title insurer for loans where the Fast Refi process applies:

  Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited ABN 11 068 049 178.

  If you want more information about their privacy policy, go forth and read more at https://www.bendigobank.com.au/privacy-policy. This outlines how they will manage any personal and credit-related information that we share with them.
  

  Helia Group Limited ABN 60 106 974 305, trading as Smarter MI.

  If you want more information about their privacy policy and how they will manage any personal and credit-related information that we share with them, read more at https://helia.com.au/privacy-policy

  First American Title Insurance Company of Australia Pty Limited ABN 64 075 279 908 trading as First Title

  If you want more information about their privacy policy and they will manage personal information we share with them, read more at https://www.firsttitle.com.au/contents/privacy-policy/

• Concerns or complaints

  If you ever have an issue or complaint regarding your privacy or the way we’re using your information, let's talk.

  If you do raise an issue with us, we’ll address it as quickly as possible, and aim to have everything resolved within 30 calendar days.

  If you are dissatisfied with our response, you can contact an external body:

  Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

  If your complaint is about how we handle your personal information or credit-related information, you can contact the OAIC

  1300 363 992

  oaic.gov.au.

  Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).

  If you have a complaint about the products or services we provide you or the way we handle your credit-related information, get in touch with AFCA.

  Website: afca.org.au

  Phone: 1800 931 678

  Email: info@afca.org.au

  Post:
  GPO BOX 3
  MELBOURNE
  VICTORIA 3000

• Let’s talk

  If you have any concerns or questions in relation to how we handle your privacy, or if you would like a printed version of this policy sent to you, Let’s talk.

  Tic:Toc

  hello@tictochomeloans.com
  Privacy Officer
  Tic:Toc Online Pty Ltd
  GPO Box 1371 Adelaide SA 5001
  

• Meaning of words

  We, us, our or Tic:Toc means TicToc Online Pty Ltd (ABN 41 605 696 544)

  You can find out about the business here.

• Changes to the policy

  This policy is effective as at 30 May 2023 We may review and update this policy from time to time if we change the way we handle credit-related information and personal information. If we do so, the latest version of our policy will always be made available on our website tictoc.com.au