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Privacy Policy

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KUBOTA AUSTRALIA:  PRIVACY and CREDIT REPORTING POLICY

Kubota Australia Pty Ltd (also trading as Kubota Australia and Kubota Australia Finance), (‘Kubota’, ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’) is part of the global Kubota Group of companies. We supply and finance new and used agriculture, construction and other power equipment ('our products and services').
We value your trust and are committed to protecting your privacy. The privacy laws (including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code) govern how we handle personal information.
This Privacy Policy explains:

  • how we collect, use, store and disclose your personal information. If you apply for finance with us, this includes your credit report and other credit information;
  • how you can access and ask us to correct the personal information we hold about you; and
  • how you can contact us if you need to.

We update this policy by publishing a new version on our website (https://kubota.com.au/) at any time. You can also obtain a copy of the current policy by contacting our privacy officer.

This policy was last updated on 30th November 2024

What this policy applies to
This policy applies to personal information about our prospective and current customers, prospective employees, and our suppliers and contractors, including the directors and staff of our corporate customers, suppliers and contractors.
"Personal Information" is any opinion or information about an identified or reasonably identifiable individual, whether it is true or not. "Sensitive Information" is personal information about health or genetic makeup, criminal record, ethnic origin and religious beliefs.
Kubota collects, uses and discloses personal information for the primary purposes detailed below. We only collect the personal information we need for these purposes. We hold that personal information as required to manage our business and by law.
Except for general enquiries, we cannot deal with you if you do not provide us with your personal information (or allow us to collect it from others).
We do not typically collect sensitive information from customers. Kubota may collect sensitive health information in connection a complaint you raise or your engagement as an employee or contractor.
Kubota Dealerships are not members of the Kubota Group of companies and are responsible for their own privacy policies and practices.

 

1. What information we collect
The types of information we collect and hold may include:

  • general information about you or your business such as your name, signature, and date of birth, your contact address, email address, and phone number, and your driver's licence or passport number;
  • credit and financial information such as your assets, liabilities and income, employment history, personal or trade references, and credit history;
  • health and lifestyle information relevant to decisions we make about providing our products and services, and managing our relationship with you;
  • information collected from you in your interactions with us, including:
  • transaction information collected in the course of our customer relationship with you, or your work with us, including payments you make or receive;
  • equipment purchase and servicing details including service and repair history, warranty claims, repairs and recalls;
  • data about your equipment location;
  • information collected in the course of marketing campaigns and market research; and
  • complaint and other information collected in the course of managing our relationship with you or your company;
  • if you are a past or present director of a company applying for finance we may collect general personal information about you from public sources or a credit reporting body;
  • if you apply for a job or as a contractor with us we may also collect information such as your legal right to work, medical history, criminal record, education and qualifications; and
  • if you are a Kubota dealer, we may collect information about your dealership staff and business.

Whenever you visit our website or social media channels we may collect information about your interaction including:

  • your email address or username, your IP address or other unique identifier for the device used to access our site or platform, your general location and, if you have consented to sharing data tied to your Google account, aggregated age and gender data;
  • browser and device type, and operating system and/or application version;
  • aggregated multi-platform information about Google users who have enabled personalised advertising on their Google accounts; and
  • your online behaviour with details concerning the time and nature of your visit, including clicks on our website, search terms you use to locate our website, your use of features or applications, and clicks on advertising on the website and social media content.

Unless the law allows or requires otherwise, we will obtain your prior express consent if we collect your tax file number or sensitive information about you.
If you do not provide us with the information we request, we may not be able to assist you with your query or provide you with our products and services, employment or engage your services.
Before you provide us with information about another person, you must obtain their consent and tell them that this policy (explaining how their information will be handled) is available from our website.

 

2. How we collect your personal information
The main way we collect your personal information is when you provide it directly such as when you:

  • contact us:
    • to find a dealer, ask about our products and services, apply for credit, provide a reference for someone who is applying for credit, or register a customer warranty after purchasing our products;
    • in the course of your relationship or past relationship with us as a supplier or customer, including to obtain information or assistance, maintain your equipment, make a complaint or otherwise report a concern;
    • to apply for an employment position or contract engagement
  • register on our website, participate in our surveys, competitions, promotions, events, sponsorships or other similar activities; or
  • visit our website.

We may also collect information about you from third parties such as:

  • contractors providing services on our behalf, including IT consultants, recruitment, labour hire, background checking and other employment or Human Resources agencies;
  • public sources and government bodies;
  • the operators of devices, products or systems you use that collect data;
  • dealership staff or other individuals that supply your personal information to us for emergency contact purposes at training and other events;
  • any other parties you refer us to or who refer us to you; and
  • if you or your company has obtained or applied for credit from us we may also collect information about you from:
    • your current or former employees, business partners or company office holders;
    • other members of the Australian Finance Industry Association (AFIA) that participate in AFIA's National Credit Reference Scheme;
    • your Kubota dealer;
    • where you are an officer of a company that has applied for credit, we may collect information about you from public records or from other officers of the company who arranged the credit application
    • your accountant, personal referee, employer, insurer or broker;
    • other credit providers you have a current or past account relationship with;
    • a Credit Reporting Body ("CRB") (see <section 5> and our credit reporting policy below);
    • our external dispute resolution scheme;
    • marketing agencies; and
    • law enforcement agencies.

If we receive unsolicited personal information about you, including Tax File Number information, we will destroy anonymise or de-identify the information as soon as practicable, as far as we reasonably can.

 

3. Website information collection
When you visit our website, our Internet Service Provider (ISP) collects information including your server address, domain name, the date and time of the visit and the pages viewed. This information may be collected by using cookies which is data sent to your web browser. This allows our site to interact more efficiently with your computer. Information collected about your visit to our site is retained for statistical and website development reasons and is not in a form which would enable us to identify you.
Our Website uses plugins from providers including Facebook, Google and Apple Inc. These plugins take and share data including your browsing data, interests, gender, location and device type.
If you disable the use of cookies, your use of our website may be affected.

 

4. What we use your information for

We collect, use and disclose your personal information for the primary purposes of marketing and carrying on our business, and selling our products and services.
This includes to:

  • confirm your identity where this is required by law or necessary for our business purposes;
  • distribute or sell and provide customer service for our products and services;
  • provide our products and services;
  • manage our business and our relationship with you including to:
    • provide you with account information and product updates, newsletters, customer assistance and support;
    • address defaults including to enforce our security arrangements;
    • investigate, report and remediate compliance breaches, misconduct and errors;
    • assess and respond to any hardship application, concerns or complaints; and
    • operate our dealership rewards program;
  • undertake market research and develop new products, policies and procedures;;
  • investigate queries or complaints you raise with or about us or our products, and potential misconduct on our part; and
  • undertake recruitment and ongoing management of employment and/or contract engagements or agency placements:
  • do anything else we tell you about at the time we collect the information.

You also consent to us using your personal information to keep you informed about products and services we offer, special offers, promotions or events that may be of interest. You can withdraw this consent at any time. See <section 7> below.
We disclose your information to third parties only for the purposes for which it was collected or as required by law. We require third parties to which we disclose this information to use your information only for that reason. We may disclose information to:

  • our dealers, employees, auditors and advisers;
  • contractors and service providers (e.g. IT, data management or marketing consultants and contractors, funding providers, document custodians, and mailing houses) including our overseas service providers, to enable them to perform the services they are contracted to provide and for which purpose(s) you supplied the information;
  • other Kubota Group companies;
  • your agents, including your broker;
  • insurers, insurance brokers and insurance assessors;
  • debt collection agencies, legal accounting and audit service providers;
  • referees, with your authority; and
  • government authorities and law enforcement agencies.

 

5. Credit Reporting
If you apply for finance or offer to provide a guarantee, we will exchange information about you with one or more credit reporting bodies to help us assess your credit-worthiness.
The CRB we engage for this purpose is Equifax Australia Information Services & Solutions Ltd (Equifax). See <Section 9> for Equifax contact details.
The information we provide or receive may include, among other things;

  • identification information (your name, address, and date of birth);
  • default information (if you have failed to meet consumer payment obligations to us or any other credit provider) and serious credit infringements (if you fraudulently obtained, or attempted to obtain, finance or have shown intent to avoid repayment obligations), court actions and insolvency events;
  • details of any credit (such as a loan or lease) you have with us and other credit providers;
  • repayment history information (when and how you meet your monthly payment obligations to us and other credit providers, whether you are in a financial hardship arrangement and whether you comply with that arrangement); and
  • credit history information such as court or personal insolvency proceedings you are party to.

The credit information about you we disclose to a CRB may be provided to other credit providers in a credit report used to help them assess your credit worthiness.
You can ask the CRB not to allow your credit information to be used or disclosed if you believe on reasonable grounds that you are or are likely to be a victim of fraud (such as if your identity has been stolen). You can also ask the CRB not to allow your credit information to be used for pre-screening of direct marketing by a credit provider.
We may:

  • notify the CRB of any payments more than 60 days overdue after we have attempted to collect the payment and notified you of our intention to report the default;
  • if we have not been able to contact you over a 6 month period, notify the CRB of a serious credit infringement if we have reasonable grounds to believe you fraudulently obtained, or attempted to obtain, credit from us or that you have shown an intention to evade your obligations under the contract with us;
  • ask the CRB to assess your eligibility to receive direct marketing material from us.

Our Credit Reporting Policy explains how we manage your credit information. You can obtain a copy by contacting us. See <Section 11> for contact details.

 

6. Cross Border Disclosure
Your personal information we hold is likely to be provided to our service providers in Japan, USA, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, France, Italy, Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Korea, China and New Zealand. We require them to comply with our information management policies and procedures and take reasonable steps to ensure your information has the same protections as if managed in Australia.

 

7. Direct marketing
You may be offered the opportunity to sign up for our Newsletter if you visit our website or are contacted by our Customer Experience staff.
If sign up to our Newsletter you agree to us using or disclosing your contact details or other personal information to tell you about our, or our partners, products or services, events, sales or special offers, that be believe you may find of interest. We will not sell your information to any third party for any purpose.

If you no longer want to receive this information, you can opt-out of any, or all, communications. Please email your request to our Privacy Officer at: privacy@kubota.com.au, or write to Privacy Officer, Kubota Australia Pty Ltd, 25-29 Permas Way, Truganina, VIC 3029.
To stop receiving email and SMS messages, you can also use the 'unsubscribe' function found at the end of any of these email or SMS messages.

8. Protection of your personal information
We take steps to protect your information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access. For example, we ensure that:

  • each of our offices has security protocols in place to prevent unauthorised entry;
  • access to your information is restricted to the personnel who need it to perform their duties;
  • the internally and externally hosted secure servers which store your information have industry standard password and encryption protocols; and
  • our employees and business partners follow information security policies which protect the security of your information including physical security over paper records, and industry standard measures to secure electronic data.

The content of unencrypted emails that you send us may be intercepted or accessed without authorisation for reasons beyond our control.
We may retain your personal information for a period of time after our business dealings have finished for risk management or company policy reasons or because we are required to do so by law. We take reasonable steps to ensure it is destroyed or de-identified, when this period is over.

 

9. Accessing and correcting your information
You can access the personal and/or credit information we hold about you by contacting us. See <Section 11> for contact details. We will typically respond to your request within 30 days of you request. We may charge you for the reasonable costs we incur in providing you with the access you seek. In some cases we may refuse access, for example if the information requested relates to anticipated legal proceedings or we find the request to be frivolous or vexatious.
You can access the information the CRB holds about you by contacting Equifax Australia Information Services & Solutions Ltd.

  • Website: www.equifax.com.au/understanding-your-credit-file
  • Mail: PO Box 964, North Sydney NSW 2059

If you believe that information the CRB holds is wrong, you can ask to have it updated or corrected.
If you believe that information we hold is wrong, please contact us to update or correct it. See <section 11> for contact details.

 

10. Complaints and Concerns
If you have a complaint or concern about how we have handled your personal information please contact us. See <Section 11> for contact details.
You can decline to identify yourself or use a pseudonym, unless it is impracticable for us to deal with you anonymously, such as if you wish us to investigate a complaint.
If you lodge a complaint, our Internal Dispute Resolution Team will acknowledge your complaint promptly and explain how we will investigate. We will try to resolve your concerns to your satisfaction, and will keep you informed throughout the investigation process. We will typically provide you with a response within 30 business days although if your complaint is complex, we may take longer. In this case we will let you know how long it will take for us to respond to your complaint.

If you are not satisfied with our response to a complaint involving the provision of finance, you may take the complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) using the contact details at the end of this policy.

  • Online: www.afca.org.au
  • Email: info@afca.org.au
  • Phone: 1800 931 678 (free call)
  • Mail: Australian Financial Complaints Authority | GPO Box 3, Melbourne, VIC 3001

If your complaint is about how we handle your personal information you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) using the contact details below.

  • Online: www.oaic.gov.au
  • Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
  • Phone: 1300 363 992

11. Contacting Us
You can contact us as follows:

  • Email: privacy@kubota.com.au
  • Mail: Privacy Officer, Kubota Australia Pty Ltd 25-29 Permas Way, Truganina, VIC 3029
  • Phone: 1800 225 990
  • Fax: 03 9394 4465

 

Credit Reporting Policy

This credit reporting policy sets out what credit information we obtain, as well as how, to whom and under what circumstances it is disclosed. This policy is to be read in conjunction with our Privacy Policy, which sets out your right to access, correct, and lodge a complaint about how we manage your credit information.

Credit information
In this policy, Credit information means any of the following types of information:

  • Identification details
  • Debts and liabilities
  • Credit-worthiness and eligibility
  • Repayment history
  • Credit Reporting Body enquiries
  • Credit product details such as a loan/lease
  • Defaults
  • Payment information
  • Payment arrangements
  • Court actions
  • Insolvency events
  • Publicly available credit information
  • Serious credit infringements – credit fraud (attempted or actual) and/or avoidance of loan/lease obligations

While we collect as much as we can of this credit information directly from you, some is also obtained from a Credit Reporting Body (CRB), credit providers identified in your credit application and other parties.
We manage your credit reporting information in accordance with the ARCA Credit Reporting Privacy Code, the ARCA Credit Reporting Data Standard and the Data Exchange Administrator’s Principles of Reciprocity & Data Exchange. All information we hold about you is held in electronic and/or hardcopy form and securely stored in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Information we obtain or derive from your credit application and/or from a CRB is used to assist us determine whether to accept or decline your application for credit.

 

Disclosures to Credit Reporting Bodies
We use the credit information we collect in your credit application to to assess your credit worthiness and, if we lend to you, to manage your credit contract. We may:

 

  • Disclose your credit information to the CRB identified in the Privacy Policy
  • In the case of consumer credit arrangements:
    • Notify the CRB of payments which are more than 60 days overdue, if we have attempted to collect the debt and notified you we intend to report the default;
    • Notify the CRB of a serious credit infringement if we have not been able to contact you over a 6 month period and determine we have reasonable grounds to believe you fraudulently obtained, or attempted to obtain, credit from us or that you have shown an intention to evade your obligations under the credit contract with us.
  • Ask the CRB for your updated contact details if we lose contact with you
  • Ask the CRB to assess your eligibility to receive direct marketing material from us

 

Disclosures by Credit Reporting Bodies
We may use credit information we obtain from the CRB to assist us to assess your (or your company's) application for credit or whether to accept you as a guarantor for a loan
The CRB may disclose your credit information to other credit providers to assist them in assessing your credit worthiness.

Direct Marketing, Access & Correction and Complaints
Our privacy policy explains how to ask us or the CRB not to use or disclose credit information it holds about you for the purposes of direct marketing, to gain access to and correct information your CRB holds about you, or to make a complaint about how we or a CRB have handled your credit information.