Privacy Policy

Hug Group (WA) Pty Ltd (ABN 43 649 240 906) trading as HUG Homes (“we”, “us” or the “Company”) is committed to privacy protection. At http://www.hughomes.com.au (“this site”), we understand the importance of keeping personal information private and secure. This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes generally how we manage personal information and safeguard privacy. If you would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

This Privacy Policy sets out the kinds of personal information collected by HUG Homes and explains:

how HUG Homes collects your personal information;
the purposes for which your personal information is collected; and
what controls you have over HUG Homes use of your personal information.

This Privacy Policy forms part of, and is subject to the provisions of, our Website Terms of Use (https://www.hughomes.com.au/terms). Your use of the HUG Homes website includes your acceptance of this Privacy Policy and our Website Terms of Use.

WE CARE ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY:
We will never rent, trade or sell your email address to anyone.
We may only use or disclose personal information held about you for the primary purpose for which it is collected.
We will never publicly display your email address or other personal details that identify you.

THE AUSTRALIAN PRIVACY PRINCIPLES
We will treat all personal information in accordance with any and all obligations that are binding upon us under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”). The Privacy Act lays down 13 key principles in relation to the collection and treatment of personal information, which are called the “Australian Privacy Principles”. We are committed to complying with the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles to protect and safeguard your privacy when you deal with us and ensure the continued integrity and security of the personal information your entrust to HUG Homes.

WHAT IS “PERSONAL INFORMATION”?
Personal information held by the Company may include your:

name and date of birth;
residential and business postal addresses, telephone/mobile/fax numbers and email addresses;
your computer and connection information; and
any information that you otherwise share with us.

HOW WE MAY COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
At this site, we only collect personal information that is necessary for us to conduct our business as a building and construction company, establish and maintain relationships with clients and provide ongoing services.

Information that you provide to us
We may collect personal information that you provide to us about yourself when you:

use this site, including (without limitation) when you:
- add reviews, forum or chat room messages or comments in any elements of this site that may permit user-generated content;
- register for access to premium content or request certain premium features; or
- complete an online contact form to contact us;
provide information to us by telephone or through marketing or competition application forms; or
send us an email or other communication.

We also collect and retain information about our affiliates, employees, contractors and sub-contractors for the purpose of conducting our business, establishing and maintaining relationships with clients and providing ongoing services.

We may also hold information, from time to time, provided by persons and companies who seek employment with, or a contractor relationship with, or are suppliers to, HUG Homes.

At or before the time any personal information is collected by HUG Homes, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of:

who we are;
the fact that you are able to gain access to your personal information held by HUG Homes;
the purpose of the collection;
the type(s) of organisations to which we usually disclose the personal information; and
the main consequences for you if all or part of the personal information is not collected.

IP addresses
This site may also collect Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. IP addresses are assigned to computers on the internet to uniquely identify them within the global network. The Company collects and manages IP addresses as part of the service of providing internet session management and for security purposes. The Company may also collect and use country on access, web log, logon frequency, browsing history, computer and connection information for security purposes and to help prevent and detect any misuse of, or fraudulent activities involving, this site.

COOKIES
This site uses “cookies” or similar technologies to help personalise your online experience. A cookie is a text file or a packet of information that is placed on your hard disk by a web page serv er to identify and interact more effectively with your computer and for record-keeping purposes. There are two types of cookies that may be used at this site: a persistent cookie and a session cookie. A persistent cookie is entered by your web browser into the “Cookies” folder on your computer and remains in that folder after you close your browser, and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to this site. A session cookie is held temporarily in your computer’s memory and disappears after you close your browser or shut down your computer. Cookies cannot be used to run programs. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. As a result of our website’s use of cookies, we may collect information such as your IP address, online activity and your web browser details. Cookies may also collect and store personal information about you. The Company extends the same privacy protection to your personal information, whether gathered via cookies or from other sources. Information that we will not collect or store includes your passwords or other sensitive information.

You can configure your internet browser to accept all cookies, r eject all cookies or notify you when a cookie is sent. Please refer to your internet browser’s instructions to learn more about these functions. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to accept cookies when accessing our website, we will take this as consent to our use of cookies and other technologies mentioned in our Privacy Policy. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of this site.

Why we use cookies
This site uses cookies in order to:

remember your preferences for using this site;
show relevant notifications to you (eg, notifications that are relevant only to users who have, or have not, subscribed to newsletters or email or other subscription services); and
remember details of data that you choose to submit to us (eg, through online contact forms or by way of comments, forum posts, chat room messages, reviews, ratings, etc).

Many of these cookies are removed or cleared when you log out but some may remain so that your preferences are remembered for future sessions.

Third party cookies
In some cases, third parties may place cookies through this site. For example:

Google Analytics, one of the most widespread website analytics solutions, may use cookies de-identified data about how long users spend on this site and the pages that they visit;
Google AdSense, one of the most widespread website advertising solutions, may use cookies to serve more relevant advertisements across the web and limit the number of times that a particular advertisement is shown to you; and
third party social media applications (eg, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, etc) may use cookies in order to facilitate various social media buttons and/or plugins in this site.

HOW WE MAY USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Your personal information may be used in order to:

verify your identity;
contact you;
send direct marketing to you, where you have expressed your interest to receive such information (e.g. to be included on our mailing list);
respond to any queries or feedback that you may have;
conduct appropriate checks for credit-worthiness and for fraud;
prevent and detect any misuse of, or fraudulent activities involving, this site;
conduct research and development in respect of our products and/or services and your future product or service needs;
statistical purposes;
gain an understanding of your information and communication needs or obtain your feedback or views about our products and/or services and/or our website in order for us to improve them;
personalise your online experience and help us to better respond to your individual needs; and/or
conduct our internal business purposes such as maintaining and developing our business systems and infrastructure, including testing and upgrading of these systems, industry and non-industry specific reporting, administration of our services, notification to you about changes to our services, record-keeping following termination of our services to you and technical maintenance.
and for any other purpose reasonably considered necessary or desirable by the Company in relation to the operation of our business and the provision of our services to you.

You can choose to opt out of receiving direct marketing communications by sending an email to HUG Homes’ Privacy Officer at [email protected] or using the opt out link or details provided in the direct marketing communication.

From time to time we may email our customers with news and information relating to our own products/services or those of selected partners. Your personal information may also be collected so that the Company can promote and market products and services to you. This is to keep you informed of products and services we believe you will find valuable and may continue after you cease acquiring products and services from us. If you would prefer not to receive direct marketing, promotional or other material from us, please let us know and we will respect your request.

You can unsubscribe from such communications at any time if you choose and we will include unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email.

WHEN WE MAY DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
For the purposes set out above, the Company may disclose your personal information to organisations outside the Company. Your personal information may be disclosed to these organisations only in relation to this site, and the Company takes reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by confidentiality and privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information. These organisations may carry out or provide:

customer enquiries;
mailing systems;
billing and debt-recovery functions;
information technology services;
marketing, telemarketing and sales services;
statistical services;
market research; and
website usage analysis.

In addition, we may disclose your personal information:

where we reasonably believe that the disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious, immediate threat to someone’s health or safety or the public’s health and/or safety;
to your authorised representatives or legal advisers (when requested by you to do so);
to credit-reporting and fraud-checking agencies;
to credit providers (for credit-related purposes such as creditworthiness, credit rating, credit provision and financing);
to our professional advisers, including our accountants, auditors and lawyers;
to government and regulatory authorities and other organisations, as required or authorised by law;
to organisations who manage our business strategies, including those involved in a transfer/sale of all or part of our assets or business (including accounts and trade receivables) and those involved in managing our business risk and funding functions;
to the police or other appropriate persons where your communication suggests possible illegal activity or harm to others; and
to facilitate the provision of a service to you; or
otherwise, where you have consented to its disclosure.

You have the right to request that we do not disclose your personal information. You can exercise your rights by unchecking any relevant check boxes on our website when you provide us with your personal information, or by writing to us at [email protected].

ANONYMITY AND PSEUDONYMITY
When requesting our services, HUG Homes will require you to disclose your personal information for the purpose of providing you with the requested service. You will only have the option of dealing with HUG Homes anonymously where it is practicable for us to deal with you acting anonymously or under a pseudonym, such as when you are making a general enquiry.

CONTACTING US ABOUT PRIVACY
If you would like more information about the way we manage personal information that we hold about you, or are concerned that we may have breached your privacy or misused your personal information, please contact us by email on [email protected] directed to the General Manager Administration or by post at Unit 1, 14 Pitt Way, Booragoon, Western Australia, 6154 or via our Online Contact Form.

We take all complaints very seriously. It is our policy to handle complaints in a timely, effective, fair and consistent manner. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

If you wish to read more information on privacy legislation or the Australian Privacy Principles we recommend that you visit the website of the office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au.

Access to your personal information
In most cases, you may have access to personal information that we hold about you. We will handle requests for access to your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. All requests for access to your personal information must be directed to the General Manager Administration by email using the email address provided above or by writing to us at our postal address. We will deal with all requests for access to personal information as quickly as possible. Requests for a large amount of information, or information that is not currently in use, may require further time before a response can be given. We may charge you a fee for access if a cost is incurred by us in order to retrieve your information, but in no case will we charge you a fee for your application for access.

In some cases, we may refuse to give you access to personal information that we hold about you. This may include circumstances where giving you access would:

be unlawful (eg, where a record that contains personal information about you is subject to a claim for legal professional privilege by one of our contractual counterparties);
have an unreasonable impact on another person’s privacy; or
prejudice an investigation of unlawful activity.

We may also refuse access where the personal information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings, and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings.

If we refuse to give you access, we will provide you with reasons for our refusal.

Correcting your personal information
We are committed to and take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect from our customers, clients and website users is accurate, complete, appropriate and up-to-date.

We will amend any personal information about you that is held by us and that is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date if you request us to do so. Verification of identity is required with a request to access (or update) personal information so that we can ensure your personal information is disclosed to, and updated only by, you.

If we disagree with your view about the accuracy, completeness or currency of a record of your personal information that is held by us, and you ask us to associate with that record a statement that you have a contrary view, we will take reasonable steps to do so. If we refuse to amend personal information held about you by us, or we fail to do so in the manner requested, then we will provide reasons for such refusal.

STORAGE AND SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We are committed to maintaining the confidentiality of the information that you provide us and we will take all reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from unauthorised use or alteration. In our business we take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information. Personal information may be stored both electronically on a secure server in a controlled facility (on our computer systems and with our website hosting provider) and in hard-copy form. Your personal information will be stored employing strict procedures and security features to protect your personal information from any unauthorised recipients and to prevent unauthorised access to the same. You agree and acknowledge that your personal information may be stored at or transferred within Australia or a destination outside of Australia. This will allow staff operating outside of Australia (whether employed by us or by a third party engaged by us or otherwise authorised under this Privacy Policy to access your personal information) to process your information for the purposes of providing you with our services/product, verify transactions and customer details and to retain adequate records for legal and accounting purposes. We will take all reasonable steps and precautions to ensure that any transmission of your personal information via the internet is secure. However, we cannot guarantee the security of any data transmitted to our site and you agree and acknowledge that any such transmissions are at your own risk.

Firewalls, anti-virus software and email filters, as well as passwords, protect all of our electronic information. Likewise, we take all reasonable measures to ensure the security of hard-copy information.

HUG Homes encourages you to be careful and responsible whenever accessing and navigating any online websites. You are responsible for keeping your passwords and/or account information secret.

We will only keep your information for as long as is reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes for which your personal information was originally collected.

We will delete, destroy and/or de-identify your personal information after a reasonable time. You may be required to re-enter your personal information if it has been deleted.

All of our employees with access to your personal information will be held to the confidentiality obligations as set out in this Privacy Policy. Information stored within our computer systems can only be accessed by those entrusted with the appropriate authority

THIRD PARTY WEBSITES
You may click-through to third party websites from this site, in which case we recommend that you refer to the privacy statement of the websites you visit. This Privacy Policy applies to this site only and the Company assumes no responsibility for the content of any third party websites.

Re-marketing
We may use the Google AdWords and/or Facebook re-marketing services to advertise on third party websites to previous visitors to this site based upon their activity on this site. This allows us to tailor our marketing to better suit your needs and to only display advertisements that are relevant to you. Such advertising may be displayed on a Google search results page or a website in the Google Display Network or inside Facebook. Google and Facebook may use cookies and/or pixel tags to achieve this. Any data so collected by Google and/or Facebook will be used in accordance with their own respective privacy policies. None of your personal Google and/or Facebook information is reported to us.

You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ads Settings page (https://www.google.com/settings/ads). Facebook has enabled an AdChoices link that enables you to opt out of targeted advertising.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
From time to time, it may be necessary for us to revise this Privacy Policy. Any changes will be in accordance with any applicable requirements under the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. We may notify you about changes to this Privacy Policy by posting an updated version on this site. This Privacy Policy was last modified in November 2021.

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If you require any further information about the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles, you can visit the Federal Privacy Commissioner’s website (see www.privacy.gov.au).