Togethr Trustees Pty Ltd ("Togethr"), the trustee of Equipsuper ("Equip Super" , “Catholic Super” or "the Fund"), is required to comply with the Privacy Act (Cth) 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to the protection of your personal information. In this document Togethr Trustees Pty Ltd is referred to as “we”, “our” and “us”.
We respect your privacy and are committed to complying with privacy law obligations and protecting and maintaining the privacy of your personal information. This Privacy Policy sets out the main reasons why we collect your personal information, how we work to keep it secure, and how we comply with the Australian Privacy Principles.
In providing services to members, we collect and hold personal, and sometimes health, information about you. This information can be held in both hard copy and electronic format. Personal information including health information is held and stored by us and/or our administrator, as well as any third parties to whom we disclose personal information under section 4 of this Privacy Policy. Our insurers will also hold and store personal and health information in accordance with their own privacy policy.
We collect this personal information directly from you when your member profile is created, when you meet or talk with us about your superannuation and retirement needs and when you use our website. If you join the Fund when you start a new job, the personal information we require to establish your account and receive contributions will be obtained from your employer. In limited cases we will also collect your information indirectly, for example, from your attorney or adviser.
In some instances, you will provide us with the personal information of other individuals (such as your nominated beneficiaries) and you should notify them that you have provided their details to us.
Personal information about you is collected to:
- Establish and verify your identity;
- Assist your employer to meet its superannuation obligations;
- Establish your membership in the Fund;
- Manage, administer, invest, calculate and pay or transfer your superannuation benefits;
- Assess your eligibility for insurance benefits and arrange insurance cover;
- Enable the provision of information to you about your superannuation and other related services;
- Enable us to report to government agencies as required by law;
- Enable us to comply with disclosure obligations required under law;
- Manage and resolve complaints made by you;
- Conduct research on our services and products;
- Market or advertise services or products to you; and
- Provide advice and other services to you.
You may also choose to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym when interacting with us, unless it is impracticable to deal with you without you identifying yourself. In certain circumstances, if we do not collect this personal information about you, we may not be able to provide products or services to you, such as assessing your eligibility for a superannuation benefit.
Personal information is any information or opinion that identifies you or enables you to be reasonably identified. Personal information also includes sensitive information, which includes information about your health.
The kinds of information that we hold and collect about you includes:
- Personal particulars (name, date of birth, gender);
- Tax File Number;
- Proof of identity (for example, certified copies of a valid driver's licence, birth certificate or passport);
- Contact details (including addresses, email and phone numbers);
- Nominated beneficiaries;
- Bank account details;
- Superannuation membership, balance and contribution history;
- Occupation and salary details; and
- Level of insurance cover.
Your Tax File Number is required for taxation and superannuation purposes and is authorised to be collected under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993.
We may also hold sensitive health information about you if you have applied for insurance cover through us, personally through an insurance company, or lodged a claim for an insurance benefit with us or an insurer.
There are some instances when we will need to provide your personal information to third parties. These third parties include:
- Our administrator for the purpose of administering the Fund and providing you with superannuation services;
- Insurers, underwriters, medical consultants and practitioners for the purpose of the assessment of claims for insurance benefits or requests for insurance cover;
- Auditors, actuaries, lawyers, professional advisers and other experts;
- Participating employers;
- Mailing houses, data warehouses and election agencies for the purpose of providing reporting to us and communications to you;
- Providers of marketing and advertising services;
- Another superannuation fund which you have nominated as your rollover institution;
- Dispute resolution bodies such as the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) for the purpose of dispute resolution;
- External research houses to assist us in the provision of services and product research;
- Related bodies corporate of Togethr who may provide services to members;
- International government agencies where expressly required by law; and
- Government agencies such as the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the Australian Transaction Reports Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and other bodies where expressly authorised by law.
When we disclose information to your employer, this disclosure is limited to the information that would have been previously advised by your employer to us in the first instance.
Outside of these disclosures, your information is kept confidential and is only disclosed to you or to your authorised representative. An authorised representative is a person to whom you have given consent to access your personal information and may include a financial adviser, lawyer, spouse or legal personal representative.
Whenever we disclose your personal information to a third party, we seek to ensure that your privacy is protected to the same standards as required by us.
Some of the suppliers we use or services we procure may have operations in or be based overseas. This may mean that your personal information may be stored or disclosed overseas. When this occurs, we seek to ensure that the suppliers operate in accordance with privacy laws and standards which meet the Australian Privacy Principles. The list of overseas countries where information may be disclosed includes USA, UK, India, Philippines, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, European Economic Area, Canada, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Our death and disability insurer MetLife Insurance Limited (“MetLife”) may disclose your personal information to overseas recipients. The list of countries where information may be disclosed by MetLife includes countries United States, and Hong Kong. The full list is available by reviewing MetLife’s privacy policy at metlife.com.au/privacy.html.
Our administrator, Mercer Outsourcing (Australia) Pty Ltd (“Mercer”) has operations in other countries and, as a result, your information may be located in countries outside of Australia. The administrator's privacy statement can be found at mercer.com.au/privacy.html. The countries where our administrator may disclose personal information currently includes United Kingdom, United States, India, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, European Economic Area, and Canada.
Complete list of countries
- Canada
- European Economic Area
- India
- New Zealand
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Singapore
- Switzerland
- UK
- USA
We have security measures in place and take all reasonable steps to ensure that your information in both hard copy and electronic format is stored in a secure environment and protected from misuse, interference or loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
We have a dedicated Data Governance and Security team that is responsible for our Data Governance Policy, associated systems and processes, and 24/7 monitoring of our networks. This team works with external security specialists to implement multiple measures, including strict data handling protocols.
We also conduct regular audits and tests to ensure these systems and processes are working.
We assess all our external vendors against our extensive set of Security Standards, as required under APRA CPS/CPG 234. Vendors are required to report annually on how they have meet or exceed our standards.
Our administrator, Mercer, arranges for independent audits of their systems and processes to be conducted and provides details of these audits to us. The audit reports are then reviewed by our IT Security Manager or our external expert security consultancy to seek to ensure they align with our standards.
Your personal information is also protected through the use of secure passwords, usernames and different levels of access. At all times, access to your information is restricted to staff who require the information to administer your account and provide information and services to you. It is also restricted through the use of security identification checks performed by staff before any disclosure of personal information over the phone. We train our staff who handle personal information on the importance of protecting the personal information and the privacy of individuals.
In certain circumstances we are required to collect government identifiers such as a tax file number, Medicare number or pension card number. We do not use or disclose this information other than when required or authorised by law or unless you have consented to disclose this information to a third party.
As required under the Privacy Act, when we no longer need the information for any purpose and it is not required under Australian law to retain the information, it is destroyed in a secure manner or deidentified. This includes the secure disposal and erasure of hard copy and electronically stored personal information.
You will, with limited exceptions, be able to access the personal, sensitive and health information that we hold about you by either making an appointment to come to our office to view it personally, calling the Helpline on 1800 682 626 to request a copy of the information, or by sending us a written request. You will not be charged for accessing your personal information, however, if we incur a cost in giving you access to your personal information, we may need to charge you a reasonable fee for the associated costs.
We will aim to respond to requests for access within 30 days. In certain circumstances, we will not be able to grant you access to the personal information that we hold about you if doing so would unreasonably impact the privacy of other individuals, would undermine legal proceedings or negotiations currently in progress or if another exemption applies. Any information in relation to a disability claim is not generally available until the final stages of a decision on the claim. If your request is refused, we will notify you with reasons for the refusal.
In order to provide services to you, we rely on your personal information being complete, up-to- date and accurate. If you believe that any of the personal information that we hold about you is incorrect, you can update the information in your member portal on our secure website or by contacting the Helpline on 1800 682 626, or by writing to us.
Unless you have asked us not to, we will from time to time send you communications about products or services that relate to your membership and other opportunities available to you as a Fund member.
If you no longer wish to receive such information, click the unsubscribe link within the email you received. You can also call the Helpline on 1800 682 626 or write to us.
If you visit our public website, we collect information in order to provide and continuously improve our products and services. Information we collect is related to your interaction with our website and communications.
Like many websites, we use ‘cookies’ during your visit. Cookies are stored in your browser and collect certain types of information when your web browser or device accesses our website.
By using our website you agree to the use of cookies, tagging and pixels.
We may use data obtained through cookies for a range of advertising and direct marketing activities, including segmentation, targeting, tracking and data analysis. This also helps us to make informed decisions and ensure the best possible experience for visitors to our website. We may utilise the services of third-party service providers for these activities. You can configure your browser preferences to reject all cookies, however doing this means that features on our website may not work.
The online application and member access functions are provided by our Administrator. When using these functions, information about your identity, including identity verification systems, and other personal information is collected, stored and securely transferred between us, our administrator and/or our insurer where appropriate. The administrator's privacy statement can be found at mercer.com.au/privacy.html.
If you wish to make a complaint about a possible breach of your privacy or of the Privacy Act, please contact the Complaints Officer (see contact details below). Please provide sufficient details for your complaint to be investigated.
If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction within 30 days, you can lodge a complaint with our external dispute resolution agency, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), or with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). To make a complaint, please refer to the Complaints Officer
- Mail: Complaints Officer
Equip Super
GPO Box 4303
Melbourne VIC 3001
- Phone: 1800 682 626
- Online: equipsuper.com.au/contact-us
We will amend this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be published on our website.
Updated June 2024
Contact details
For specific enquires about your privacy please contact:
- Mail: Togethr Privacy Officer
Equip Super
GPO Box 4303
Melbourne VIC 3001
- Phone: 1800 682 626
- Online: equipsuper.com.au/contact-us
We acknowledge all First Peoples of the beautiful lands on which we live and work, and their enduring knowledge and connections to Country. We honour the wisdom of and pay respect to Elders past and present.