Privacy Policy

At Southern Response Earthquake Services Limited, formerly AMI Insurance Limited (Southern Response), your privacy is important to us. We comply with the Privacy Act 2020 and take all reasonable steps to ensure that your private information is protected.

Privacy Policy

The current version of Southern Response's Privacy Policy can be viewed here

Requests for Personal Information under the Privacy Act

If you would like to request personal information we hold about you under the provisions of the Privacy Act 2020, you can do so in writing to:

The Privacy OfficerSouthern Response Earthquake Services Ltd.
PO Box 9052
Tower Junction
Christchurch 8149

or by using the following email address:

privacy@southernresponse.co.nz

You can expect to be notified of the decision on your request within 20 working days after the day on which the request was received in accordance with the Act. If an extension of time is required to make a decision, you will be notified prior to 20 working days expiring, in accordance with the Act.

Official Information Act requests apply to official company and non-personal information held by us. If you would like to request official information, the relevant section of our website is linked here.

Privacy Statement

Southern Response is the Crown owned company established to be responsible for any Canterbury earthquake and other major event related claims of the old AMI business that occurred prior to 5 April 2012 (Retained Claims). The responsibility for Retained Claims, now with Southern Response was separated from AMI Insurance's ongoing insurance business by the transaction that saw that ongoing insurance business being transferred to a new company owned by IAG (NZ) Holdings Limited (IAG) (the Transaction).

We have provided more details here about the personal information we collect (including online) and how we use this information.

We collect personal information you give us

We collect personal information that you give us such as your name, e-mail address, and telephone numbers and other specific information that you knowingly provide.

Failure to provide necessary personal information when requested may result in us being unable to process your claim.

We may record phone calls for training, quality assurance and record keeping purposes.

We may also collect personal information about you from third parties where you authorise this or you agree to it as part of the applicable terms and conditions of insurance provided to you.

We may also collect information that AMI Insurance Limited or its successors or assigns (AMI) (the IAG owned company that was transferred the remainder of the AMI Insurance's ongoing insurance business by the Transaction and formerly named AMI Insurance (Operations) Limited) and other companies in the IAG New Zealand group have collected or collect about you, so that we can evaluate, process, manage and settle any claims, and undertake other functions that are necessary for, or incidental to, evaluating, processing, managing and settling such claims.

We use your personal information for the purpose of managing claims and related functions

The personal information you provide may be used by Southern Response for the purposes of evaluating, processing, managing and settling Retained Claims and any matters that are necessary for, or incidental to, such purposes and Southern Response may use it for other insurance purposes (including verifying your identity, writing contract works insurance, training and recording assent to agreement) or for any other purpose which is stated to you at the time of collection or that you otherwise authorise.

As a result of the Transaction, we may also need to use and disclose the personal information that we collect about you to AMI, in accordance with permitted uses and disclosures under the Privacy Act 2020, including:

  • as necessary to facilitate the Transaction between AMI and Southern Response;
  • use and disclosure in a form that you are not identified to AMI; and
  • use and disclosure by AMI for its statistical or research purposes that will not be published in a form that could reasonably be expected to identify you.

Where you provide us with personal information about any other person to enable us to underwrite and administer your insurance, you confirm that you have the authority from those persons to disclose such information and to authorise Southern Response to use and disclose the information in the administration of your policy and all other policies with Southern Response on which the person is named or listed.

Other than providing information (including claims information) to:

  • AMI for the purposes of its insurance business;
  • Southern Response's affiliates (meaning any person or other entity which directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by or is under common control with Southern Response) for the purposes set out in this privacy policy; and
  • third parties for the purpose of managing claims on behalf of Southern Response,

We do not distribute your personal information to third parties other than to assist us with our market research, to assist us with providing our services to you or as otherwise authorised by you or permitted by the Privacy Act 2020.

However, we reserve the right to disclose your personal information when we believe it is appropriate to do so in order to comply with any laws (including the Official Information Act 1982), facilitate court proceedings or to protect Southern Response's rights.

We may have obligations under the Public Records Act 2005 in terms of the storage of your personal information that we are required to comply with. In accordance with the Privacy Act 2020, we have taken such security safeguards as are reasonably required in the circumstances to protect your personal information from loss, unauthorised access and misuse.

We analyse information about how you use our website but only use it for quality improvement purposes

Quality control data

We may use a web analytics service for quality control and to improve the customer experience on our website. We may record mouse clicks, mouse movements, scrolling activity as well as any text you type in this website but we don't collect personally identifiable information that you do not voluntarily enter in this website.

Log files and other analytics data

We also use other analytics software to measure general patterns in website usage. This software measures data about how you use the website such as date and time of visits, pages viewed your IP address and technical details about the browser you are using. This is anonymous statistical data and we make no attempt to associate individual users from this data.

You have the right to request access to information we hold about you

Any personal information that you provide to Southern Response will be collected and held by Southern Response at 53 Princess Street, Riccarton, Christchurch.

You have the right to request access to information held by Southern Response about you, and you may ask for it to be corrected, in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. We also welcome your questions and comments.

Contact our Privacy Officer by mail

The Privacy Officer
Southern Response
PO Box 9052
Tower Junction
Christchurch 8149

Complaints

We want to know if you have any concerns about our privacy practices or privacy requests.

In the first instance, let us know about your concerns and we will try our best to resolve it. You can raise your concerns with your Claims Specialist or with our Privacy Officer.

If we cannot resolve your concerns, then you have the right to complain to the Privacy Commissioner about our actions:  https://www.privacy.org.nz/your-rights/making-a-complaint/ 

There may be situations when Southern Response is required to collect, use, and share information to protect the health, safety and security of people, property and information.

Transparency Statement

We collect, use and share information appropriately, and meet our obligations under;

  • the Privacy Act 2020;
  • the Official Information Act 1982;
  • the Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators Act 2010; 
  • the Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators (Code of Conduct – Surveillance of Individuals) Regulations 2011;
  • the Trespass Act 1980;
  • the Code of conduct for the State Services;
  • the State Services Commission's Model Standards on Information Gathering and Public Trust (effective from 18 December 2018)[1]; and 
  • in accordance with relevant Southern Responsepolicies and procedures.

This statement applies to information gathered by:

  • Southern Response Personnel; and
  • any third party contractor, or agent of Southern Response, that we have engaged

We may collect information from a variety of sources including:

  • directly from people
  • other agencies and entities
  • publicly available sources, including online sources

We may use the information we hold to:

  • decide whether to investigate a complaint or a threat
  • undertake protective security and risk assessment activities
  • support other state sector agencies' activities

We may share information with the New Zealand Police and other government agencies in order to properly carry out our functions or if required by law. For example:

  • to assist with the investigation of a criminal offence
  • to ensure the health and safety of our people, property, and information

Information is shared lawfully under legislation and information sharing agreements.

We are committed to respecting information and keeping it safe. We have systems, policies and governance in place to control how we collect, manage and use information.

If you have any inquiries about our information gathering, or believe that we have not acted in accordance with this statement, you should contact us at privacy@southernresponse.co.nz.

Social Media Transparency Statement

Southern Response does not have an active social media presence and has not authorised the use of any social media accounts on any platforms, except for a Company page on LinkedIn which allows Company personnel to connect.

[1] Further information regarding these Model Standards can be found here ("Acting in the spirit of service – Information Gathering and Public Trust")

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