Privacy Collection Notice - Online ID verification

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ABN 48 123 123 124) (the Bank) provides a wide range of banking and financial products and services. 

In this Privacy Collection Notice, 'we', 'us' or 'our' refers to the Bank.

We collect the following types of personal information as part of our online ID verification process: 

• Your full name, mobile number, email address, home address, date of birth and employment category;
• Scan(s) of your identity documents (e.g. a driver’s licence, passport, birth certificate or Medicare card);
• Extracts of key information from your identity documents (e.g. issuing state and licence numbers of drivers licence, or issuing state and registration number for birth certificates); and
• If you are an adult, a ‘selfie’ photo (that is converted and held as a biometric template). We will ask for your consent prior to collection of your ‘selfie’.

We generally collect this information from you directly. Please note that providing false or misleading information about your identity is an offence under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Act 2006 (Cth).

We collect your information to verify your identity:

• To meet our ‘Know Your Customer’ requirements under Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Act 2006 (Cth), and other anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism funding, regulations or other instruments;
• To more effectively identify, mitigate and manage financial crime and fraud risks through knowing who uses the Bank’s products and services; and
• To provide you with the Bank’s financial products and services.

Further information on our online ID check process

We will disclose your personal information to credit reporting bodies, verification partners and other organisations (our identity service providers) who match your information with their records and/or information held by the issuer or official record holder (which include fraud watch lists). 

Our identity service providers will assess and advise the Bank whether all or some of the information you provided match their records and/or information held by the issuer or official record holder for that identity document.

We will advise you if the Bank is unable to verify your identity electronically and you will need to visit a branch to complete the identification process.

Below is further information on the types of organisations we may disclose your identity information to: 

(a) Checking your personal details with Credit Reporting Bodies

The Bank discloses your name, address and date of birth to selected credit reporting bodies for the purposes of having the credit reporting body assess whether your information matches (in whole or in part) the information the credit reporting body holds on record.

Please be aware, if you apply for credit, the Bank will advise you separately if it checks your creditworthiness against information held by any credit reporting body.

(b) Other organisations used to help conduct identity verification

The Bank also provides your identity information to:

• Commonwealth and state government departments (including for Document Verification Service checks); and
• Verification partners (such as GBG, Equifax and Daon) who coordinate the electronic identification process for the Bank, including by performing additional matches against public or proprietary databases.

The verification partners may record, use and disclose your information in accordance with their own privacy policies and legal obligations. Some of these verification partners operate outside of Australia. As a result, we may send your identity information overseas. 

(c) Biometric checks

The Bank also conducts biometric checks based on a photograph of your face (a ‘selfie’). The Bank will separately ask for your consent to collect your ‘selfie’.

Your photograph will be shared with our identity service providers for the purpose of performing the relevant identity check. 

Your photograph will be retained and used to ensure no other new customers seek to use your likeness or photograph to impersonate you as part of a ‘fraud watchlist.’     

If you prefer not to proceed with electronic ID verification, you can choose to visit a branch to complete the identification process.

If you choose not to proceed with either branch or electronic identification, the Bank will be unable to verify your identity and provide you with financial services.

Our Group Privacy Statement is available on our website at commbank.com.au or upon request from any branch of the Bank, and should be read in conjunction with the above. It contains further details about our information collection and handling practices including information about:

• other ways we may collect, use or exchange your information;
• how you may access and seek correction of your information; 
• how to make a complaint about a breach of your privacy rights; and 
• our complaint handling procedures.

For privacy related enquiries, please contact the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ABN 48 123 123 124) by:

• Email at CustomerRelations@cba.com.au;
• Telephone 1800 805 605; or
• Writing to CBA Group Customer Relations, Reply Paid 41, Sydney, NSW, 2001