Privacy Policy
1.INTRODUCTION
1.1 Van der Nest Inc. processes personal information and other confidential information of individuals and juristic persons to deliver professional services as a compliance partner to other businesses with respect to employee relations and legal matters in the workplace. The nature of the personal information which we process depends on the service we render in each matter, as well as the legislative requirements to be adhered to by us.
1.2. This Privacy Policy describes how Van der Nest Inc. collects, processes, retains, and discloses your personal information in accordance with the requirements of the Protection of Personal Information Act (“POPIA”), the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) and any other applicable laws or regulations. This Policy will enable you to make an informed decision when sharing your personal information with Van der Nest Inc..
1.3. Please note that your consent is voluntary and may be withdrawn, with notice to us, at any time.
1.4. Van der Nest Inc. is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that your personal information is collected and used properly, lawfully and transparently.
1.5. Van der Nest Inc., for purposes of this notice, includes any member firm and/or affiliated entity within the Van der Nest Inc. Ltd network and is herein after referred to as ‘Van der Nest Attorneys”, ‘we’, ‘us’.
2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We may collect your personal information from a variety of sources which includes, but is not limited to, that which we obtain from you directly as well as personal information we collect from other sources, including commercially available sources, such as public databases (where permitted by law). Primarily, we endeavor to collect information directly from you. We will inform you if the provision of your personal information is mandatory or voluntary. We do not usually seek sensitive information (e.g., data relating to race or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, criminal record, physical or mental health, or sexual orientation) from you. We will, where necessary, obtain your explicit consent to collect and use such information.
2.1 Information we collect directly from you
The categories of personal information that we may collect directly from you include the
following:
2.1.1 personal details (e.g. name, age, date of birth, gender, identity number, registration number contained in identity documents, birth certificates and founding documents);
2.1.2 contact details (e.g. phone number, email address, physical address, postal address or mobile number);
2.1.3 employment details (e.g. job title; employer name, employee number);
2.1.4 economic or financial information (e.g. bank details, details of income, financial statements, VAT registration number, tax clearance certificate or investment information).
2.2 Information we collect from other sources
The following categories of personal information are collected from other sources as the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission; Financial Institutions; SARS, include the following:
2.2.1 Identity verification of personal details (e.g. name, age, date of birth, gender, identity number, registration number) from the Department of Home Affairs and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission;
2.2.2 contact details (e.g. phone number, email address, postal address, physical addressor mobile number);
2.2.3 employment details (e.g. job title; employer name, employee number) from yourself or other third parties;
2.2.4 economic or financial information (e.g. details of income, financial statements, VAT registration number, tax clearance certificate or investment information) from SARS, Financial Institution, and your Auditor.
3. PERSONAL INFORMATION, PROCESSING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
Personal Information means information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person, and where it is applicable, an identifiable, existing juristic person, including, but not limited to-
3.1 (a) information relating to the race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health, wellbeing, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth of the person;
3.2 (b) information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person;
3.3 (c) any identifying number, symbol, e-mail address, physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier or other particular assignment to the person;
3.4 (d) the biometric information of the person;
3.5 (e) the personal opinions, views or preferences of the person;
3.6 (f) correspondence sent by the person that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature or further correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence;
3.7 (g) the views or opinions of another individual about the person; and
3.8 (h) the name of the person if it appears with other personal information relating to the person or if the disclosure of the name itself would reveal information about the person; Processing means any operation or activity or any set of operations, whether or not by automatic
means, concerning personal information, including-
3.9 the collection, receipt, recording, organization, collation, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, alteration, consultation or use;
3.10 dissemination by means of transmission, distribution or making available in any other form; or
3.11 merging, linking, as well as restriction, degradation, erasure or destruction of information; Personal information may only be processed if-
3.12 the data subject or a competent person where the data subject is a child consents to the processing;
3.13 processing is necessary to carry out actions for the conclusion or performance of a contract to which the data subject is party;
3.14 processing complies with an obligation imposed by law on the responsible party;
3.15 processing protects a legitimate interest of the data subject;
3.16 processing is necessary for the proper performance of a public law duty by a public body; or
3.17 processing is necessary for pursuing the legitimate interests of the responsible party or of a third party to whom the information is supplied.
4. PURPOSE OF VAN DER NEST ATTORNEYS PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
4.1 to perform the services and comply with the obligations set out in the relevant services contract;
4.2 to conduct due diligence including, but not limited to, relevant conflict and risk assessments prior to accepting you as a client (which may include any criminal checks);
4.3 to correspond and communicate with you;
4.4 to ensure that our records are current and accurate;
4.5 to ensure we issue accurate invoices, statements or fee notes for our services;
4.6 to send you information about products and services which we think will be of interest to you;
4.7 to comply with legal and regulatory obligations to which we are subject to;
4.8 for insurance purposes;
4.9 for the detection and prevention of fraud, crime, money laundering or other malpractice;
4.10 in connection with legal proceedings;
4.11 for reference purposes in tenders, proposals, resume’s, marketing material and other similar submissions that Van der Nest Attorneys may make to prospective clients for the purpose of demonstrating Van der Nest Attorneys experience and expertise;
4.12 for reference purposes in tenders, proposals, resume’s and other similar submissions that Van der Nest Attorneys Employees may make to demonstrate their experience and expertise;
4.13 to comply with applicable legislation.
4.14 online events, such as webcast events
5. YOUR RIGHTS
Please let us know if any of the personal information that we hold about you changes so that we can correct and update the personal information on our systems.
5.1 Right of access to information You have the right to request confirmation as to whether we hold personal information related to you. You also have the right to request a copy of the personal information or a description of the personal information we hold about you. Submission of access request forms together with the details of the access request procedure can be requested by contacting us on the contact information made available in section 13 of this Privacy Policy.
5.2 Right to request correction or deletion of personal information You have the right to request, subject to any applicable law and where appropriate, the correction, updating or deletion of your personal information held by us. Submission of a request for correction or deletion forms together with the details of the request for correction and deletion procedure can be executed by contacting us directly via email or
telephone or simply by unsubscribing to any of communications that you wish not to receive.
5.3 Right to object to the processing of personal information
In certain circumstances, such as when we process your information for our or your legitimate interests, you may object to the processing of your personal information, unless we are required to process the information on another bases, such as a legal basis.
5.4 Right to ask us to share your personal information in a usable format with another entity
We are able to provide the personal information in commonly used and machinereadable format.
5.5 Right to unsubscribe from direct marketing
Where you do not wish to receive marketing communication from Van der Nest Attorneys, you can unsubscribe from marketing emails by clicking on the unsubscribe link provided in each email. We will still be able to contact you when there is important communication required to
be sent.
5.6 Right to withdraw consent
Where you have given your consent to a particular type of processing, you may withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us using the contact details set out below.
5.7 Right to lodge a complaint with the information regulator
You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator, in the prescribed manner and form, if you believe that we are interfering with the protection of your personal information. You can contact the Information Regulator on 010 023 5207 (telephone number) and can lodge a complaint via email on inforeg@justice.gov.za.
6. INFORMATION SHARING
6.1 to service providers who may need to perform part of the Services, which may include other Van der Nest Attorneys parties or third parties in order to respond to your requests or inquiries, as part of a corporate transaction such as a sale, divestiture, reorganization, merger or acquisition, or where those parties handle information on our behalf;
6.2 to third parties who provide IT services, data processing or IT functionality services, for example cloud-based software providers, web hosting services, data analysis providers and data storage or backup providers;
6.3 to other Van der Nest Attorneys regional offices for purposes of sending you information about products and services which we think will be of interest to you;
6.4 to Van der Nest Attorneys and any of its affiliates for the purpose of ensuring that the Van der Nest Attorneys and/or Van der Nest Attorneys affiliate, to whom the personal information is supplied, is able to perform the services and comply with the obligations set out in the relevant
services contract;
6.5 to fulfil our contractual obligations to you;
6.6 to prospective clients for reference purposes in tenders, proposals, resume’s, marketing material and other similar submissions that Van der Nest Attorneys may make, for the purpose of demonstrating Van der Nest Attorneys experience and expertise;
6.7 to insurers;
6.8 to our Regulators;
6.9 where permitted by law, to protect and defend our rights and property; and
6.10 when required by law, and/or public authorities.
7. INFORMATION SECURITY
We have implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security to protect personal information from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction. You may request a copy of our Information Security and Privacy Overview Policy from us using the contact details set out below. We require all staff, (Directors and employees) to keep personal information confidential and only authorized staff have access to this personal information.
8. TRANSFER OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
8.1 We undertake to use your personal information only for the purpose for which the information is essential and not to share or further process your personal information without your consent.
8.2 Please note that in certain circumstances,
8.2.1 we must share personal information with third parties as part of the services we render to our clients. Subject to paragraph 8.2.4 below, we must inform you when we do so and will share only what is needed for those purposes. We aim to have agreements in place with our service providers to ensure that the personal information that we remain responsible for, is safeguarded by our service providers. Anyone to whom we pass on your personal information, will be required by us to treat your information with the same level of protection as we are obliged to do.
8.2.2 we have to obtain personal information about clients and other persons or entities from third parties as part of the services which we render. We will inform you when we have to obtain personal information about you from a third party.
8.2.3 we release account and other personal information to third parties when we believe that such release is appropriate to comply with the law; to enforce our client agreements and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property or safety of our organization and our clients. We will inform you when we decide to do so and will share only what is needed for those purposes.
8.2.4 South African legislation allows for the disclosure of personal information to law enforcement or other agencies without your consent. In circumstances where we are required to disclose information because we are legally obliged to do so, we will first consider the legitimate interests of all concerned.
8.3 We may need to transfer your personal information to another country for processing or storage of data or when it is otherwise required by virtue of the nature of the services rendered to you. This will be done only in limited circumstances and in strict adherence to the requirements of the POPI Act and other relevant legislation.
9. CLICKSTREAM DATA
In the interests of better customer service, Van der Nest Attorneys may collect anonymous information from visitors to its websites. For example, Van der Nest Attorneys keeps track of the domains from which people visit its website and also measures visitor activity on its website. In the process, Van der Nest Attorneys ensures the information cannot be used to identify you. This information is sometimes known as “clickstream data”. Van der Nest Attorneys or its analytics vendors (including Google Analytics) may use this data to analyze trends and statistics and to provide better customer service. The information referred to as traffic data, which may be collected includes:
9.1 Your IP address;
9.2 The search terms you have used;
9.3 The pages accessed on the website and the links you’ve clicked on;
9.4 The date and time you visited the website;
9.5 The referring website (if any) through which you clicked through to our website; and
9.6 The type of website browser you use. As mentioned, the traffic data is aggregated and not personally identifiable and our website analysis will also respect any ‘do not track’ setting you might have on your web browser.
10. COOKIES
A cookie is a small text file that is downloaded onto ‘terminal equipment’ (for example, a computer or smartphone) when you access a website. It allows the website to recognize your device and store some information about your preferences or past actions.
10.1 What cookies do we use?
Some cookies which we use are essential to the functioning of our website. Some cookies help us with the performance and design of our website. This allows us to measure how many times a page has been visited, whether a page has been visited on the website through an advertisement or by other means. Other cookies help us to remember your settings which you may have selected or assist with other functionality when you browse and use our website. This helps us to remember what you have selected, so on your return visit – we remember your preferences. Uncertain pages of the website, we use cookies to help us understand your interests as you browse the internet, so we can tailor and render to you more personalized content and services in the future. This assists us in delivering relevant advertising to you during various advertising campaigns we may run from time to time through participating third-party sites. In addition, we also use cookies on certain pages of our website to communicate with third-party data suppliers in order to extrapolate your digital behaviour. This helps us to understand and target more relevant advertising in the future. The information we receive is all aggregate and anonymous, but will include statistics such as demographics, online behaviour, product interests and lifestyle.
10.2 How do I disable cookies?
If you do not want to receive a cookie from the website, you have the option of setting your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, so that you may determine whether to accept it or not. However, please be aware that if you do turn off ‘cookies’ in your browser, you will not
be able to fully experience some of the features of the website. For example, you will not be able to benefit from automatic log-on and other personalization features.
11. CHILDREN
While few, if any, of Van der Nest Attorneys’ website(s) are directed towards children, Van der Nest Attorneys is committed to complying with all applicable laws aimed at the protection of children and in particular the protection of their personal information.
12. UPDATES
This Privacy Policy was last updated on 26th November 2021. A privacy notice will be posted on the Van der Nest Attorneys website home page whenever the Privacy Notice is materially changed. Please check the website regularly to ensure that you are aware of the latest version of this Privacy Notice.
13. CONTACT US
If you have questions or concerns regarding the way in which your personal information has been used, or should you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please use the contact details set out below and provide the details relating to your query.
14. CONTACT DETAILS
You can contact us at info@vdninc.co.za
15. THE INFORMATION REGULATOR
Whereas we would appreciate the opportunity to first address any complaints regarding our processing of your personal information, you have the right to complain to the Information Regulator, whose contact details are:
The Information Regulator (South Africa) JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001. P.O Box 31533, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017.
Complaints email: complaints.IR@justice.gov.za
General enquiries email: inforeg@justice.gov.za
16. CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY
Should we be required to collect additional personal information from you, we will send you an updated Privacy Notice.
17. TERMINATION
Should you at any point wish to revoke this consent, please contact us and we will assist you
accordingly.
