POPI Act

Your privacy is critically important to us.

Introduction

Du Plessis De Heus, Van Wyk & Chiba Attorneys ("DDV" or "we" or "us" or "our") is a dynamic law firm practicing in Benoni. As a law firm, we are considered to be a responsible party in respect of your personal information. We understand that our clients ("you" or "your" entrust us with their personal information which is a big responsibility that we take seriously. We strive to ensure that we use your personal information in a manner that is legal, reasonable and relevant to our business activities.

This Privacy Policy is intended to help you understand what information we collect; how we collect it; why we collect and use it; and how you can correct, export, manage and delete your information.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. Should you be concerned about any aspect of this Privacy Policy, please do not continue to engage with us, use our website or our services.

WHO DOES THIS POLICY APPLY TO?

This Privacy Policy applies to your personal information that is being or was processed by us or on our behalf, and our successors-in-title. This Privacy Policy applies to all persons who utilise our services or whose services we utilise, regardless of the device which you or we may use.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to the processing of your personal information by other third party relating to or by means of third parties’ websites, products or services, such as websites linked to, from or advertised on our website or through our services.

WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION AND THE TYPES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT WE PROCESS?

"Personal information" refers to private information about an identifiable person, whether natural or juristic. Personal information does therefore not include information which does not identify a person, or which has been de-identified to prevent the re-identification of a person. The personal information that we process differs based on your engagement with us, the services that you receive from us or the services that you provide to us.

We may process the following types of personal information in the following manners:

Identity information

This includes information such as your name, username, marital status, title, occupation, date of birth, gender, race and legal status. This information will also include copies of your identity documents, photographs, identity number, registration number and your qualifications (where applicable).

Contact information

Your bulling address, delivery address, e-mail address and telephone numbers are included in this category of personal information.

Financial information

This includes your bank account details, insurance information, financial statements, tax clearance certificate, VAT registration numbers and details of the funds and accounts in which we invest and hold such funds on your behalf. It may also include details of the payments that were made to or received from you.

Technical Information

This includes information such as internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone settings and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the device that you use to access our website or to use our products and services or engage with us. This will also include the type of links and content you accessed, the amount of the content view and the order in which it was view, as well as the amount of time spent in respect of the specific content. Your geographical information (such as GPS and IP location) from your devices may also be processed.

Marketing and Communication information

Your preferences in respect of the marketing information you may receive from us and our third parties, as well as your communication preferences are included in this class of personal information.

Aggregated Data

Historical and statistical data (“aggregated data”) may be processed for any purpose, including for market research purposes. Aggregated data may be derived from various sources such as personal and non-personal information. Where we combine or connect aggregated data in such a manner that it has the effect of directly or indirectly identifying you, we will consider and treat the combined data as personal information, which will be managed and regulated by this Privacy Policy.

SPECIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION AND THE TYPES OF SPECIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT WE PROCESS

"Special personal information" refers to information about your religious or philosophical beliefs, race or ethnic origin, trade union membership, political persuasion, health or sex life, biometric information or information about your criminal offences or convictions.

We hereby notify you that by engaging with us, you consent to your special personal information being processed by us. To process your special personal information, we require further justification and will implement the appropriate policies and safeguards, which we are required by law to implement and maintain.

As a general rule, we will only process your special personal information to the extent that it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal right or obligation, alternatively where we have obtained your consent to do so. In certain instances where you special personal information has been publicly disclosed by you, we may also process such special personal information.
We may process the following types of special personal information in the following manners:

Recruitment
As part of our recruitment and hiring process, we may process information relating to your criminal behaviour, including but not limited to pending criminal charges, previous criminal charges and previous convictions.

Know-your-client and customer due diligence
In compliance with any know-your-client ("KYC") and customer due diligence ("CDD") we may process information pertaining to your political persuasion.

COVID-19
We may process information relating to your health to comply with the legal obligations imposed on us by the Covid-19 regulations and protocols.

HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL AND SPECIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect your personal and special personal information through direct or active interactions with you, through automated or passive interactions with you and from third parties and public sources.

We may process the following types of personal information in the following manners:

Direct or active collection from you

We may require that you submit certain information to apply for employment opportunities, to make contact with our staff, to grant you access to our premises, to enable you to facilitate the conclusion of an agreement with us, that is necessary for us to fulfil our statutory or regulatory obligations.

We also collect personal and special personal information directly from you when you communicate directly with us, for example when you complete certain forms, via e-mail, telephone calls, giving us your business card, on-site comments.

If you contact us, we reserve the right to retain a record of that correspondence, including your personal and special personal information, in accordance with any applicable data protection legislation or regulations.

Passive collection from your devices

We may passively collect your personal information from the devices that you use to access our website or us to access our service. We do this through various technological applications such as server logs which collects and maintains information.

We also use cookies and anonymous identifiers which enable our computer system to recognise you when you next visit our website to distinguish you from other users and to improve our service delivery. You may disable the use of cookies by configuring your browser to refuse all cookies, however, this may cause certain parts of our website to function suboptimally and you may not be able to enjoy all the features of our website.

The personal information that we passively collect from the device that you use to access our website, or our services may include your identity information, your contact information, your technical information, your marketing and communications information, or any other personal information which you permit us to passively collect from the device.

Collection from third parties and public sources

We receive personal information and special personal information about you from various third parties such as recruitment agencies, suppliers of background check services and publicly available sources.

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL AND SPECIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use your personal and special persona information for various purposes such as the provision and related legal services; in relation to matter-related documents and information, for legal research, referencing and drafting; to invest funds on behalf of our clients; to comply with our regulatory reporting obligations; to comply with our statutory obligations, including KYC and CDD obligations, screening of clients and staff’s health when accessing our premises to comply with Covid-19 protocols and regulations; to conduct recruitment and hiring processes, which includes conducting criminal record and credit checks, the capturing of a job applicant’s details and providing status updates to job applicants; in relation to supplier information, to create supplier profiles on our systems, pay suppliers, and for general supplier administration; to maintain and update our client or potential client databases, and our supplier databases; to detect, prevent or manage actual or alleged fraud, security breaches or the abuse, misuse or unauthorised use of our systems and files, website or this Privacy Policy; and to inform you of changes to this Privacy Policy or other changes that are relevant to you; to conduct market research surveys.

Apart from the above, we use your personal and special personal information to to offer you information and content which is more appropriately tailored for you as far as reasonably possible; to provide you with the latest information about our services; for administrative, legal and security purposes; for client relations purposes; for campaign and opportunity tracking and reporting; to communicate with you and to retain a record of our communication with you and your communication with us; to fulfil any contractual obligation that we may have with you or any third party; to compare your data with other people’s data; and for other purposes which are adequate, lawful, reasonable, reasonable and not excessive in relation to the provision of our services, the use of our website, our business activities or such other purpose for which it was collected.

We also use your personal information to maintain and improve our website and to improve the user’s experience; to retain and make information available to you on our website; to operate, administer, secure and develop our website and to optimise the performance and functionality of our website; to establish and verify your identity on the website; to inform you of changes to our website; compile and use statistical information about you and other users and their access to our website and to analyse your browsing habits, click-patterns, preferences, frequency and times of use, trends and demographic information;

Prior to the processing of other personal or special personal information for any purpose other than those specifically mentioned above, we shall obtain your consent to do so.

COMPULSORY PERSONAL INFORMATION AND CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR FAILURE OR REFUSAL TO SHARE IT WITH US

In certain instances, the provision of personal information such as your name and surname, and your contact details are compulsory. Should you fail to provide us with the compulsory personal information, we will not be able to engage with you or provide our services to you and you will not be able to utilise our website fully.

Depending on the nature of your engagement or relationship with us, other types of personal information may be necessary, such as financial information; names and registration numbers as contained in documents issued by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and the South African Revenue Service; information required for compliance with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 38 of 2001.The provision of other personal information is optional. Should you fail to provide us with the optional personal information, we might not be able to engage with you fully, you might not be paid for the products or services provided to us or enjoy all the features of our website.

SHARING OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will not intentionally share your personal information other than with your consent, as permitted by law or in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

You consent to the disclosure of your personal information by us with the following persons, under the following circumstances, namely: our agents, advisers, consultants, contractors, employees and suppliers who require such personal information in order to process it for us and/or in the provision of services for or to us, which include know-how and research, presentation to other clients to obtain further instructions; reporting purposes, hosting, development and administration, technical support and other support services relating to our website or the operation of our business; to enable us to enforce or apply the terms of any agreement we have with you; to enable us to monitor web traffic; for statistical purposes; to protect our safety, property or rights as well as that of our clients, contractors, staff, suppliers or other third parties; with government agencies and other regulatory bodies, if we are required by law to do so or when we believe that such action is reasonably necessary; to comply relevant legislation; to detect, prevent or manage actual or alleged fraud, security breaches, technical issues, or abuse or unauthorised use of our website or contravention of this Privacy Policy.

We will only share your personal information if the receiving party has agreed to be bound by applicable data protection legislation and this Privacy Policy or similar terms, which offer the same level of protection as this Privacy Policy.

STORAGE AND TRANSFER OF YOUR PERSONAL AND SPECIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION

We store you personal and special personal information at our premises, in hard copy format; the premises of third-party service providers; our servers; or on the servers of our third-party service providers.

Where we store your personal and special personal information other than at our premises, we will ensure that we have entered into written agreements with those third-party service providers which agreements will require them to secure the confidentiality and integrity of your personal and special information in their processing by taking the necessary and/or relevant technical and organisation measures.

SECURITY

We take reasonable organisational and technical measures to secure the confidentiality and integrity of your personal and special personal information and use accepted technological standards to prevent unauthorised access to or disclosure of your personal as well as the prevention of the unauthorised alteration, destruction, loss and misuse of your personal and special personal information. We review our information collection, processing and storage practices to ensure that we remain well-informed of the latest safety practices. We also create back-ups of your personal and special personal information for business continuity, operational and safety purposes.

We have implemented procedures to address actual or suspected data breaches and undertake to notify you and the relevant regulatory authorities of breaches where we are legally required to do so.

Notwithstanding our best efforts, there is no absolute measure to secure and prevent data breaches. As such, by using our services and website you acknowledge that: you know and accept that your personal and special personal information is at risk when subjected to processing; we do not and cannot promise that your personal and special personal information will always be completely secure; you will not take action against us if you suffer losses or damages in these circumstances, to the extent that such an indemnification is permissible by law

RETENTION OF YOUR PERSONAL AND SPECIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may retain your personal and special personal information for as long as you continue to engage with use, utilise our services, provide services and/or products to us and access our website or until you request that we delete it.

We may also retain your information for as long as we are required or permitted by law or contract to do so; we reasonably need to do so for lawful purposes related to our services; e reasonably require it for evidentiary purposes; or you agree to us retaining it for further specified periods.

To determine the appropriate retention period we will consider, factors such as the nature and sensitivity of your personal and special personal information, the potential risks or harm that may result from its unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process it and whether those purposes may be achieved through other means. We will always comply with applicable accounting, legal, regulatory, tax or other requirements as they pertain to the retention of personal or special personal information.

MAINTENANCE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

To the extent that we are required to do so by law, we shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal and special personal information is accurate, complete, not misleading and up to date. Should you become aware that the personal and special personal information that we have about you is inaccurate, incomplete, misleading or outdated, you should contact us so that we may rectify the errors. We will thereafter take all reasonable steps to correct your personal and special personal information, accordingly, having regard to the purpose for which we collected or used the information.

YOUR RIGHTS

You are afforded certain rights in respect of your personal and special personal information. We aim to be transparent about the personal and special personal information that we process so that you may make meaningful choices about what personal and special personal information you make available to us. You have the right to block all our cookies, to request access to your personal and special personal information, to request that your personal and special personal information be corrected, to request that we erase your personal and special personal information, to object to the processing of your personal and special personal information, to request that the processing of your personal and special personal information be restricted and to withdraw the consent that you previously gave for the processing of your personal and special personal information at any time.

Should you withdraw your consent to process your personal and special personal information, will not prevent the processing of your personal and special personal information to the extent that it was done before the withdrawal of your consent, that the processing is in compliance with a legal obligation, that the processing is necessary to finalise the performance of a contract in which you are a party, that the processing is required to protect our, your or other third-party’s legitimate interests. The withdrawal of your consent may limit our ability to provide certain services to you.

To the extent that the law permits, we may charge a fee for attending to any of the above requests, and may also refuse to carry out any of your requests in whole or in part.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

To the extent allowed by the law, this Privacy Policy may be amended and updated from time to time in our sole discretion, without notice, provided that if we do so, we will post the revised policy on the Website and we will take reasonably practicable steps to inform you of the updated Privacy Policy. Accordingly, please check this Privacy Policy for changes periodically. If you continue to engage with us, provide products or services to us or access or use the Website and/or products and services after amendments are made to the Privacy Policy and displayed on this Website, you will be deemed to have accepted the updated Privacy Policy.

CHILDREN

Our services and website are not targeted at people under the age of 18. In certain circumstances we may be required to process the personal or special personal information of children in order to provide our services. We shall not process the personal or special personal information of children without the consent of a competent person or without a legal obligation to do so. Should you have any questions in respect of the processing of personal and special personal information of children, please contact us.

THIRD PARTY SITES

This Privacy Policy does not apply to websites of any other parties, or the services such websites may advertise, or which may be linked to our website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of such third-party websites or for any claims, damage or loss arising from such websites. You are advised to read the privacy policies of each third-party website and decide whether you agree to their privacy practices and policies.

APPLICATION OF RELEVANT LEGISLATION TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

If this Privacy Policy is regulated by or subject to any laws, the provisions of this Privacy Policy must be treated as being qualified, to the extent necessary, to ensure that the provisions of any applicable laws are complied with. No provision of this Privacy Policy purports or does exempt or limit us from any liability to the extent that the law does not allow such an exemption or limitation; requires you to assume risk or liability, to the extent that the law does not allow such an assumption of risk or liability; or excludes or limits any obligations or warranties which are implied into this Privacy Policy or by any applicable law, to the extent that the law does not allow them to be excluded or limited.

GENERAL

You agree that this Privacy Policy, our relationship and any dispute of whatsoever nature relating to or arising out of this Privacy Policy shall be governed by South African law.

You further agree that we may at any time, assign, cede, delegate or transfer any or all of our rights and obligations under this Privacy Policy without your permission. We shall inform you if we assign, cede, delegate or transfer any or all of our rights and obligations under this Privacy Policy to a third-party but not when we assign, cede, delegate or transfer any or all of our rights and obligations under this Privacy Policy to a person who acquires all or part of our business. We may in certain instances also sub-contract our obligations without notifying you or without your permission.

Our failure to enforce or exercise and provision or our rights in terms hereof shall not constitute a waiver of such a provision or right. Each provision of this Privacy Policy, or any part thereof, shall be severable from each other. If any provision or part thereof is found to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it must be treated as if it was not included in this Privacy Policy and the remainder of this Privacy Policy shall remain valid and enforceable.

This Privacy Policy shall be binding on and applicable to each party and their successors.

CONTACT DETAILS OF THE INFORMATION OFFICER

Should you believe that your rights in respect of your personal and special personal information have been infringed, please address your concerns to our information officer at karin@ddv.co.za. If you feel that our attempts to resolve the matter have been inadequate, you may lodge a complaint with the South African Information Regulator by accessing their website at www.justice.gov.za.