LEXUS WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICY

Lexus New Zealand aims to provide its customers with the best possible products and service. To achieve this, we aim to make efficient use of the personal information we collect from our customers.

We also want our customers to have confidence that in handling personal information, we afford that information an appropriate level of privacy, consistent with the National Privacy Principles.

This statement sets out our policy for dealing with your personal information.

Who are we?

Lexus New Zealand is a division of Toyota New Zealand Limited which is owned by Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan, part of the Toyota Motor Corporation group of companies.

What is Personal Information?

Personal Information is any information about you that identifies you, or by which your identity can reasonably be ascertained.

Why personal information is collected by Lexus New Zealand

Lexus New Zealand (including its related bodies corporate) collects personal information from its customers and suppliers, or employees or officers of its customers and suppliers, for purposes relating to the products and services it offers. Those purposes include:

responding to enquiries regarding vehicles and vehicle sales, products and accessories and services we offer
receiving feedback and dealing with complaints
processing orders and administering accounts
providing customer and dealer support
applications for employment
vehicle warranties and product recalls
marketing and promotional activities
product development and market research
meeting our regulatory and legal obligations.

If we are unable to collect personal information we require, we may not be able to do business with you or the organisation with which you are connected.

How does Lexus New Zealand collect personal information?

Where possible, Lexus New Zealand will collect your personal information directly from you. This may take place in a number of ways, such as when you give us a written order or ask us to provide a product or service over the telephone or internet.

Our Web site may also offer interactive facilities, such as customer enquiry or comment forms and competition entry forms, where personal information may be collected. In addition, we may obtain personal information from third parties such as our dealers and distributors, contractors and regulatory authorities.

Regardless of who provides personal information to us, it will always be handled by Lexus New Zealand in accordance with this privacy policy and the National Privacy Principles.

Do we disclose personal information to anyone else?

In providing you with a product or service, we may sometimes need to disclose your personal information to others. It is generally our policy not to disclose information to external organisations, however, examples of the types of organisations we may need to disclose information to in the course of providing a product or service are:

related bodies corporate
Lexus New Zealand dealers
parts suppliers
insurers and financiers
a person outside Lexus New Zealand who is contracted to us to provide a particular service on our behalf.

Some examples of the kinds of organisations with which we contract are:

mailing houses for bulk mailing of letters and notices;
printers for marketing material; and
accountants, lawyers and other service providers.

Those contracted parties are not authorised by us to use personal information for anything other than the purpose for which we supplied that information to them.

Sometimes, the law requires us to disclose personal information. For example, information may be disclosed to a court in response to a subpoena or to a Government agency such as a vehicle licensing authority or the Inland Revenue Department.

We may also disclose personal information where the individual consents to us doing so. That consent may be written, verbal or implied from your conduct.

Direct marketing

From time to time, we may use personal information to inform our customers about our products and services, or about special offers and promotions that we think may be of interest to you. We will generally give you the opportunity to express a wish not to receive direct marketing communications. You can let us know at any time if you no longer wish to receive marketing material (by contacting us by any of the means set out below) and we will remove your details from our direct marketing database.

Lexus New Zealand does not disclose personal information to organisations outside Lexus New Zealand and its related companies for the purposes of allowing them to direct market their products. However, we may join motor vehicle dealers and other business associates of Lexus New Zealand in joint marketing of our respective products and services to customers.

If the law requires us to provide you with information about our products or services, we will provide that information even if you have elected not to receive information about our products and services generally.

Ensuring personal information is up-to-date

We rely on the personal information we hold in conducting our business. Therefore, it is very important that the information we hold is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

We do everything we can to ensure that the personal information we hold is accurate complete and up-to-date whenever we collect or use it. This means that from time to time, we will ask you to tell us if there are any changes to your personal information. If you find that information we hold about you is incorrect, please contact us immediately and we will correct it.

Security of personal information

Security of personal information is important to us and we take all reasonable precautions to protect personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Some of the ways we protect personal information include:

external and internal premises security;
restricting access to personal information only to staff who need it to perform their day to day functions;
maintaining technology products to prevent unauthorised computer access or damage to electronically stored information, such as requiring identifiers and passwords, firewalls and anti-virus software; and
maintaining physical security over paper records.

Access to personal information by individuals

You can access most of the personal information we hold about you by contacting us by any of the means set out below.

Access to personal information may be refused in a number of circumstances, such as where the information relates to anticipated legal proceedings or the request for access is frivolous or vexatious. If we deny or restrict your access, we will explain why.

Privacy and our website at http://www.lexus.co.nz/

The type of personal information we collect on our website depends on how you make use of the site.

When you visit the site, our host, records your server address, domain name, the date and time of the visit and the pages viewed. This information may be collected by using cookies (data sent to your web browser, which generally allows our site to interact more efficiently with your computer). If you disable the use of cookies, your use of our site may be affected. 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.

When visiting our site, you will not be required to provide us with any personal information unless you request information about a Lexus New Zealand product or service or respond to a Lexus New Zealand competition or promotion. In that case, we will ask you to provide contact details along with other information required to respond to your request or allow you to enter the competition or promotion.

The information provided may also be retained for product planning purposes, and unless you tell us that you don’t want it used for direct marketing purposes, may be used for those purposes.

If you send us an email

If you send us an email containing personal information, we will take reasonable steps to ensure the confidentiality of that information. The content of emails is sometimes monitored by our Internet Host for maintenance and fault detection purposes. We may also monitor email for legal compliance purposes. E-mails may also be sent to our dealers or contractors when they relate to product or service enquiries or complaints. They also treat the information confidentially, but do record it in our in-house database.

Although we take steps to protect information sent by e-mail, e-mail is not a secure method of communication and if you are concerned about sending your personal information to us in this manner you may prefer to contact us by any of the other means set out below.

Resolving concerns

If you believe that the privacy of your personal information has been compromised, please let us know. You can make a complaint by contacting the person or department you were dealing with or by calling [insert contact details] and asking for the privacy officer. We will respond to complaints as soon as possible.

Additional information

If you would like more information about Lexus New Zealand's approach to privacy, please contact us by calling 0800 4 LEXUS (453 987).

Third Party Websites

Our website may contain links to Web sites which are owned or operated by third parties independent of Lexus New Zealand including websites owned or operated by Lexus New Zealand dealers and by our service providers. Those Web sites should contain their own privacy statements and their owners or operators are responsible for informing you about their security and privacy practices.

Contacting us

You can contact Lexus New Zealand by:

emailing us at: oncall@lexus.co.nz
writing to us at: Lexus New Zealand
National Customer Centre
Roberts Line, P.O. Box 46
Palmerston North.
telephoning us on: 0800 4 LEXUS (453 987).

LEXUS FINANCIAL SERVICES - PRIVACY POLICY

Lexus Financial Services aims to provide its customers with the best possible products and service. To achieve this, we aim to make efficient use of the personal information we collect from our customers.

We also want our customers to have confidence that in handling personal information, we afford that information an appropriate level of privacy, consistent with the National Privacy Principles.

Who are we?

Lexus Financial Services is a division of Toyota Finance New Zealand Limited which is owned by Toyota Financial Services Corporation of Japan, part of the Toyota Motor Corporation group of companies.

What is Personal Information?

Personal Information is any information about an individual that identifies them or by which their identity can reasonably be ascertained.

Why personal information is collected by LFS

LFS collects the personal information it needs to provide the products and services it offers. Those products and services include various types of motor vehicle finance, warranties, insurance products and other financial services within New Zealand.

LFS also collects personal information about its customers and suppliers, or employees or officers of its customers and suppliers, so that it can complete business transactions, purchase products and services, administer accounts, provide customer support, respond to customer inquiries and requests for product information and meet regulatory requirements.

If LFS is unable to collect personal information from or about an individual, it may not be able to do business with that individual or the organisation with which the individual is connected.

Where relevant, we will handle personal information about our current and former employees relying on the exemption in the Privacy Act relating to employee records.

How does LFS collect personal information?

Where possible, LFS will collect personal information directly from the individual it relates to. This may take place in a number of ways, such as when an application for a product or service is completed or a product or service is requested over the telephone or internet.

We will also collect personal information during the course of our relationship with customers, for example where a loan is refinanced or the terms of an arrangement with us are varied.

Sometimes, personal information may be collected from a source other than the individual to which it relates. Some examples are:

where we obtain a credit report about an individual from a credit reporting agency in the course of assessing a loan application;
from an accountant where we approach the accountant in assessing a loan application;
where an individual is an officer of a company that has applied for finance with us, we may obtain information about the officer from public records or from other officers of the company who arrange the company’s finance application;
from the motor vehicle dealership where a vehicle is purchased or finance with LFS is arranged.

Regardless of who provides personal information to us, it will always be handled by LFS in accordance with this privacy policy.

Do we disclose personal information to anyone else?

In providing our customers with their chosen product or service, LFS may sometimes need to disclose personal information to others.

Examples of the types of organisations we may need to disclose information to in the course of providing a product or service are:

the vehicle manufacturer (including Lexus New Zealand Limited) or supplier of the vehicle or any extended warranty taken out in connection with the vehicle that is the subject of the finance;
insurers under insurance policies applied for or taken out in connection with the vehicle that is the subject of the finance, or in connection with the finance itself (for example consumer credit insurance);
a guarantor if a finance arrangement is guaranteed; and
parties outside LFS where that party is contracted to us to provide a particular service on our behalf and is bound by the same privacy rules we follow.

Some examples of the kinds of organisations contracted by LFS are:

mailing houses for bulk mailing of letters and notices;
printers for direct marketing material;
debt collection agencies; and
lawyers.

Those contracted parties are not authorised by LFS to use personal information for anything other than the purpose for which LFS supplies that information to them.

Sometimes, the law requires us to disclose personal information. For example, information may be disclosed to a court in response to a subpoena or to a Government agency such as the Inland Revenue Department on receipt of a direction issued under taxation laws.

We may disclose personal information to our related companies both in and outside New Zealand.

We may also disclose an individual’s personal information where the individual consents to us doing so. That consent may be written, verbal or implied from the individual’s conduct.

Direct marketing

From time to time, we may use personal information to inform our customers about our products and services including special offers. We may also send our customers material relating to joint promotions with motor vehicle dealers and other business associates of LFS of our respective products and services.

If an individual does not wish to receive this information, they just need to let us know by contacting our National Customer Centre on 0800 4 LEXUS (453 987).

Once an individual lets us know that they no longer wish to receive this information, we will stop sending it. The individual can change their mind about receiving information about our products and services at any time. They just need to let us know by phoning the above number.

If the law requires us to provide our customers with information about our products or services, we will provide that information even if an individual has elected not to receive information about our products and services generally.

The dealer network

We would like to be able to make certain personal information about our customers available to our accredited motor vehicle dealers to assist those dealers to better serve customer needs (for example, to save customers time when they contact one of our accredited dealers about vehicle servicing, roadside assistance, advice on a vehicle’s features and performance or purchase of a new vehicle).

The information shared with accredited dealers will not include any credit or financial information. It will be limited to identity details (such as name, address, driver’s licence number and date of birth) and contact details (home and work/business).

If an individual does not wish us to share their information with our accredited dealer network in this way, they just need to let us know by contacting the National Customer Centre on 0800 4 LEXUS (453 987).

Ensuring personal information is up-to-date

We rely on the personal information we hold in conducting our business. Therefore, it is very important that the information we hold is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we hold is accurate complete and up-to-date whenever we collect or use it. This means that from time to time, we will ask individuals to tell us if there are any changes to their personal information. If an individual finds that information we hold about them is incorrect, they should contact us immediately and we will correct it.

Security of personal information

The security of information is important to LFS and we take all reasonable precautions to protect personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Some of the ways we protect personal information include:

external and internal premises security;
restricted access to personal information to staff who need it to perform their day to day functions;
maintaining technology products to prevent unauthorised computer access including identifiers and passwords; and
maintaining physical security over paper records.

Access to personal information by individuals

An individual can access most of the personal information LFS holds about them by contacting the Customer Centre on 0800 4 LEXUS (453 987).

Depending on the amount of information requested, LFS may charge an access fee to cover the cost of retrieving the information and supplying it to the person who has requested access.

Privacy and our website at http://www.lexus.co.nz

The type of personal information we collect on our website depends on how an individual makes use of the site.

When an individual visits the site, LFS records the individual’s server address, domain name, the date and time of the visit and the pages viewed. This information may be collected by using cookies (data sent to the user’s browser, which generally allows our site to interact more efficiently with the user’s computer). If an individual disables the use of cookies, the use of our site by that individual may be affected. Information collected about an individual’s visit to the LFS site is retained for statistical and website development reasons and is not in a form, which would enable us to identify the individual to which the information relates.

An individual who visits the site will not be required to provide LFS with any personal information unless that individual requests information about a LFS product or service. In that case, we will ask the individual to provide contact details along with other information required to respond to the individual’s request. The information provided may also be retained for product planning purposes, and unless the relevant individual asks us not to do so, for marketing purposes.

Although LFS takes steps to protect information sent by e-mail, e-mail is not a secure method of communication and individuals who are concerned about sending their personal information to us in this manner may prefer to call the National Customer Centre on 0800 4 LEXUS (453 987).

Resolving concerns

If an individual believes that the privacy of their personal information has been compromised, they are entitled to complain. Complaints can be made by the individual contacting the person or department they were dealing with or by calling the National Customer Centre on 0800 4 LEXUS (453 987) and asking for the privacy officer. We will respond to complaints as soon as possible.

Additional information

Individuals who would like more information about LFS’s approach to privacy are encouraged to contact the National Customer Centre on 0800 4 LEXUS (453 987).