WESTERN’S PRIVACY POLICY
This notice was last updated on 14 June 2021.
This notice explains how we collect and use your personal information. We may need to update it periodically, but we will let you know when we do.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that your personal information is collected and used ethically, lawfully and transparently.
If you have any questions, please contact us at compliance@westnat.com
WHO WE ARE
In this policy, “Western”, “Western Group”, or “we” refers to one or more of the companies in the Western Group that operate in South Africa and Namibia, including:
- Western National Insurance Company Ltd (Incorporated in RSA)
- Western Administration Services Pty Ltd
- Western Engineering Risk Specialists Pty Ltd
- Western Group Holdings Ltd
- Western National Insurance Company Ltd (Incorporated in Namibia)
When you apply for one of our products or services it will be clear which Western company you are contracting with. The Western company providing the products or services to you will be responsible for compliance with data protection laws and regulations.
Western National Insurance Company (Pty) Ltd have contracted various underwriting managers and intermediaries to perform some or all of these functions on our behalf:
- enter into, vary or renew insurance policies
- determine the precise wording for a policy
- determine the premiums for a policy
- determine the value of policy benefits
- settle claims under policies
Sometimes Western clients may contract with our underwriting managers and intermediaries. If this is the case, the underwriting manager or intermediary will be jointly responsible for compliance with data protection laws and regulations with Western.
In terms of applicable privacy laws, this notice may also apply on behalf of other third parties (such as authorised agents and contractors), acting on Western’s behalf when providing our clients with solutions.
KEY PRINCIPLES
These are the key principles that we follow when collecting and using your personal information: :
- We value your trust. We will always use your personal information in a way that is fair, ethical and worthy of your trust.
- We will always be transparent with you about what information we collect, what we do with it, with whom we share it and whom you should contact if you wish to know more or have any concerns.
- We will take all reasonable steps to protect your information from misuse and keep it secure.
- We will comply with all applicable data protection laws and regulations, and we will co-operate with data protection authorities.
WE COLLECT AND USE PERSONAL INFORMATION OF OUR CLIENTS
We collect and process your personal information to give you access to our products and services and to help us improve our offerings.
When you apply for and take out our insurance products, we collect information directly from you:
- necessary to conclude a contract with you
- necessary for underwriting purposes
- to provide our products and services
Sometimes we collect your information from your broker, or through underwriting managers or intermediaries.
We collect personal information from credit bureaus or financial transactions management service providers to conduct credit reference searches and to verify your information.
When you submit a claim, we collect and process information to assess, validate and process your claim.
We use your personal information to ensure the security of all client information, including:
- to confirm and verify your identity
- to verify that you are an authorised user for any online portal to which you may have access
We may also use your personal information for operational purposes and to comply with applicable legislation, including:
- to do credit scoring, assessment and credit management;
- to detect and prevent fraud, crime, money laundering or other malpractice;
- for debt tracing or debt recovery;
- to conduct market or customer satisfaction research and statistical analysis;
- for audit and record-keeping purposes; and
- in connection with legal proceedings.
WE COLLECT INFORMATION USING COOKIES
You may visit the website without providing any personal information. We collect non-identifiable information of website visitors using Google Analytics. For instance, we measure the number of visits, average time spent at our website and page views in order to improve our website.
WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITHIN THE WESTERN GROUP AND WITH OUR TRUSTED SERVICE PROVIDERS
We share your personal information within the Western Group to provide our products and services to you, and to effectively manage our operations. We have agreements in place with the recipients to ensure that they also comply with applicable privacy and confidentiality laws. We also conduct due diligence investigations into all new and existing service providers as and when necessary.
We may share your personal information with our service providers who help us deliver our products and services to you. We have agreements in place with them to ensure that they keep your information safe and only use your information with our permission. For instance, we may share your personal information with assessors, surveyors, towing operators, panel beaters, glass fitment centers, salvage management operators, car rental companies, plumbers and electricians to provide you with the required services. We may transfer your personal information to another country for processing or storage. We will ensure that anyone we share your personal information with agrees to treat your information with the same level of protection as we do.
Sometimes we need to disclose your information to a third party:
- if we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with the law, legal process, or a government request;
- to enforce our contracts and policies;
- to protect the security and integrity of our service;
- to protect ourselves, clients, and the public from illegal activity; or
- to respond to an emergency which we believe in good faith requires that we disclose information.
If there is a change in our company structure or ownership, we may share your information as part of the assets transferred or the due diligence for that transaction.
INFORMATION SECURITY
We protect the personal information we hold and have implemented measures to stop unauthorised access and use of personal information. On an ongoing basis, we will continue to review our security controls and related processes to ensure that your personal information is secure.
Our security policies and procedures include:
- Physical security;
- Computer and network security;
- Access to personal information;
- Secure communications;
- Security in contracting out activities or functions;
- Retention and disposal of information;
- Acceptable usage of personal information;
- Governance and regulatory issues;
- Monitoring access and usage of private information;
- Investigating and reacting to security incidents.
YOUR RIGHTS AND PREFERENCES
You have the right to
- ask what personal information we have about you;
- ask what personal information we sent to our suppliers, service providers, or anyone else;
- ask us to update, correct, or delete any out-of-date or incorrect personal information we have about you;
- unsubscribe from any direct marketing communications we may send you,
- object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances; and
- complain about our practices with the Information Regulator.
Please have a look at our Access to Information Manual available on our website for the process to be followed. Alternatively, you may send an email to compliance@westnat.com or give our Compliance Department a call.
Kindly note that it can take us up to 21 days to respond to your request because there are procedures that we need to follow.
In some instances, we may need proof of your identity, and sometimes we may have additional requirements before we can update your information.
