Privacy Policy

This policy explains how and when Business Link Pacific (BLP) collects personal information, what we do with it and your right to see or change it.

Purpose:

The purpose of this privacy policy is to let users of www.businesslinkpacific.com (the ‘site’) know when we collect personal information and what we do with it.

We don’t use, share or transfer personal information in connection with the site except as set out in this policy, or as otherwise set out somewhere on the site (including in terms linking to the site).

Collection, storage and use of personal information:

Your disclosure of personal information

You may choose to disclose personal information to us when you publish business information, publish your profile, list individuals, give feedback or in submission forms. This information can be viewed by site administrators, certain BLP staff and sometimes third-party contractors who administer or work on the site, or who work on special projects with us. Using online tools, such as the Health Check (BHC), the Business Continuity Planner (BCP) and Finance Finder requires disclosing contact information, as well as general business information. Personal information collected by BLP is not shared publicly.

Holding of information

If you provide personal information, it is held by BLP. It may be shared with third-party contractors to the extent necessary for them to administer or work on the site, or to work on special projects with us. Email addresses are made public as part of your profile at your choosing. Unless required by law, we won’t publicise the names or email addresses of individuals who provide feedback to us or who provide us with submission forms, including “subsidy applications” and “BLP Advisor Applications” without their consent. Email addresses provided when using BHC, BCP or Finance Finder are not made public.

To request a change to your personal information or deletion of your data email: [email protected]

Use of personal information

We’ll only use personal information provided to us for the purpose of:

• administering, publishing profiles, evaluating and improving the site, and
• improving our services, and
• conducting referrals for you based on your responses to Business Health Check or Business Continuity Planner questions, and
• Providing a tailored list of finance products based on your responses to the Finance Finder questions, and
• Data collection and reporting purposes in aggregate (anonymised), and
• Communicating with you, including responding to your feedback and information provided in submission forms.
• Share your information with one or more service providers or financial institutions when using the online tools such as the BHC, BCP of Finance Finder. This information will be shared only if you choose to share it and only with those service providers or financial institutions you choose to share it with. This information will be shared with the chosen third party so that they can best meet your business needs.

Use of information or content provided by users of the BLP Finance Finder

1. Status of content submitted to our website and for provision of services

By submitting content (including personal and business information) to our website, you agree to grant Business Link Pacific a perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use of such content. Use may include but is not limited to – reproduction, adaptation, editing, modification, translation, publication, transfer, and/or distribution of the content. This shall specifically include license for us to make the content available to other companies/organisations with whom we have business relationships. Such provision of your information may require changes to your content.

2. Inquiry with a specific lender

By submitting your information to the BLP Finance Finder to retrieve your loan options, you may consent to us providing matched lenders with the following information:

• Your personal details as provided by you to us (including business owner name, business name)
• Contact details (email address, phone number)
• Trading, operational, and financial data as provided to help us match you with that lender (including but not limited to time in business, industry, turnover and other financial data as entered into online forms)
• Any other information entered into our platform by you, or made available by you through integrations with your systems

3. Discuss application with lenders

By submitting your information to retrieve your loan options, you consent to us requesting information from matched lenders about whether you have progressed with an application, and the circumstances of your application. Provision of such information by matched lenders will be governed by the privacy and terms of use of the particular lender you have matched with.

4. Ongoing communication

You agree that we may use the contact details you have provided to us in order to contact you from time to time to update you on the services that we provide. You may opt-out of these communications, at which point we will cease to contact you.

5. Disclosure as required by law

You acknowledge and agree that we may disclose information provided by you if required by law.

By using the website and any Business Link Pacific services, you are agreeing to the terms of the Privacy Policy.

Using email functionality on the site

The Business Link Pacific site provides an emailing functionality to contact service providers and finance providers.

To prevent abuse of this email system, Business Link Pacific uses Anti-Spam technology. This includes the use of a third-party anti-spam system Akismet (https://akismet.com/). Content you send through any email functionality on the site may be sent to the Akismet API to determine whether the message is spam.

You can view the Akismet Privacy policy here: https://automattic.com/privacy/

Feedback

Feedback is important and is used to evaluate and improve the site. If you provide feedback by email or by using the feedback form, that feedback is sent to appropriate BLP staff. We may pass on relevant comments to other people within BLP who administer or contribute content to the site. This could include your email address and other identifying information that you’ve provided.

Submissions

If you provide us with a submission form, that submission form is sent to appropriate BLP staff. We may pass on relevant content from that submission form to other people within BLP, other agencies or third parties who administer or are participating in the particular project or consultation that the submission form relates to as a function of the site. This could include your email address and other identifying information.

Security of information

Security of your information is critical to us here at Business Link Pacific. We maintain strong security measures to prevent unauthorised access to our systems and the information that you provide in the course of using our website and services. This includes encryption of our website and services using SSL technology, and review of our systems to ensure ongoing security standards are maintained. We also restrict access to personal user information to Business Link Pacific employees, agents, and contractors who need to know that information to facilitate our service to you. We maintain strict confidentiality standards with such employees, agents, and contractors.

General Advice Warning

The services provided by Business Link Pacific are to be used as a guide only. We explicitly provide no guarantee as to the price/rate offered by a particular lender or advisor to a particular applicant, nor provide any guarantee as to approval by an end lender or advisor. Time to funding and product features are also general guides and not guarantees. Loans may take longer to fund than the minimum time specified for that product/lender, depending on the specific loan and supporting documentation required. Individual product features (for example, requirement for security, guarantees, supporting documentation) may change or no longer become available depending on the circumstances of the applicant – this is at the sole discretion of the lender or advisor when processing your application.

Use of site and Business Link Pacific services

1. Use is for business purposes only

Business Link Pacific operates to serve Pacific-based small businesses. You agree to use our site and services only for business purposes. You agree not to use this website for any personal purposes.

2. Exclusive use

The registered account provided by Business Link Pacific to you is to be used only by you or an agent/employee of your business. You acknowledge that Business Link Pacific will not be held responsible for third party access to your account that results from theft or misappropriation of your login details (username or email and password).

3. Information submitted by you

You are solely and fully responsible, and accept liability flowing from your provision of information on our website. This includes information provided for matching purposes, and information that we pass on to lenders. You undertake to only submit accurate information to this website, and accept responsibility for harm or damage resulting directly or indirectly from the provision of inaccurate information, whether submitted in good faith, negligently, or willfully.

4. Risk assumption

You assume all risks when using our website and services. This includes, but is not limited to risks associated with interactions, product applications, and receiving funding from third parties through our website.

5. Disclaimer of guarantees on matching and funding approvals

Business Link Pacific does not guarantee that every user will be matched to lenders. Business Link Pacific also explicitly disclaims that matching with a lender, or being connected to a lender, constitutes any guarantee or representation that funding will be approved or provided by the matched or connected lender.

6. Use is for legal purposes only

You agree to only use this website and services in accordance with all applicable laws (national, state and local)

Statistical information and cookies

Statistical information collected

We may collect statistical information about your visit to our website to help us improve it. This information does not identify individuals, and makes use of cookies. A cookie is a piece of code that creates a file on your computer to track the pages that you view on our website.

Google Analytics

We use Google Universal Analytics to collect and analyse details about the use of our website. You may turn off cookies at any time. Most browsers have a feature that allows the user to refuse cookies, or issues a warning when cookies are being sent. Turning off cookies will not affect your ability to use this site.

The information Google Analytics collects includes:

• the first three parts of the IP address of the device
• the pages accessed on our site and the links clicked on
• the date and time the site was visited
• the referring site (if any) through which you clicked through to this site
• the operating system (for example, Windows 7 or Mac OSX) on the device used
• the type of web browser used (for example, Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox)
• other incidental information such as screen resolution and the language setting used.

Use of statistical information

The data is collected and stored on the Google server and is viewable by authorised staff as detailed in their privacy policy. We may share this information with the government of New Zealand, in aggregate, as a condition of our programme.

How Google uses data when you use their partners’ sites or apps

Cookies

This site generates persistent session cookies (that is, they have an expiry date and are removed on that date) for the purpose of monitoring site usage. The cookies don’t collect personal information. You can disable them or clear them out of your web browser without affecting your ability to use the site.

Records and disclosure statement

Public records, official information and parliament

Your emails and contributions to the site may constitute public records and be retained to the extent required by the Public Records Act 2005. BLP may also need to disclose those materials under the Official Information Act 1982 or to a Parliamentary Select Committee or parliament in response to a parliamentary question.

Correcting your personal information

Your rights

Under the Privacy Act 1993, you have the right to access and ask us to correct any of your personal information provided to BLP in connection with your use of this site.

Contact us if:

• you would like to see or change your personal information BLP has stored, or
• you have any concerns regarding your privacy.

BLP may require proof of your identity before being able to provide you with any personal information.

The Privacy Officer

Business Link Pacific

12 Madden Street

Auckland 1010

Phone: +64 (09) 601 8900

Email: [email protected]

If you have a privacy complaint

If you’re not satisfied with our response to any privacy-related concern you may have, you can contact the Privacy Commissioner.

Office of the Privacy Commissioner

PO Box 10094

Wellington 6143

Freephone: 0800 803 909 (NZ only)

Phone: +64 4 474 7590

Fax: +64 4 474 7595

Email: [email protected]