PRIVACY POLICY

This is the privacy notice of LOWE & WILLS. In this document, “we”, “our”, or “us” refers to LOWE & WILLS. We are a partnership and we conduct our practice from 307 Pietermaritz Street, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, 3201, South Africa.

Introduction

This privacy notice aims to inform you about how we collect and process any information that we receive from you, or that you provide to us. It covers information that could identify you (“personal information”) and information that could not. In the context of the law and this notice, “process” means collect, store, transfer, use or otherwise act on information. It tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you. We are committed to protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information. Our policy is not just an exercise in complying with the law, but a continuation of our respect for you and your personal information. We undertake to preserve the confidentiality of all information you provide to us and hope that you reciprocate.

Our policy complies with the Protection of Personal Information Act 2013.The law requires us to tell you about your rights and our obligations to you in regard to the processing and control of your personal information.

1. Information Officer

We have appointed an Information Officer who is responsible for ensuring that our policy is followed.  If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact our Information Officer, Ruth Pieterse at ruth@lwh.co.za .

2. Information we process

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal information about you. We have collated these into groups as follows:

Your identity – includes information such as first name, last name, title, date of birth, and other identifiable information that you may have provided at some time.

Your contact information – includes information such as residential address, postal address, delivery address, email address, telephone numbers and any other information you have given to us for the purpose of communication in any form.

Your financial information – includes information such as your bank account and credit card details.

Transaction information-  includes details about payments or communications to and from you and information about our services.

Technical information – includes your internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.

1.         Special personal information

Special personal information is data about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, health and biometric data etc.

We will only collect special personal information about you, if there is a lawful basis on which to do so.

2.         If you do not provide personal information we need

Where we need to collect personal information by law or under the terms of a contract, we have with you, and you fail to provide that information when requested, we may not be able to perform that contract. In that case, we may have to stop providing a service to you. If so, we will notify you of this at the time. 

The bases on which we process information about you

3.         Information we process because we have a contractual obligation with you

When we have a contract with you to perform a legal service, in order to carry out our obligations under that contract, we must process the information you give us. Some of this information may be personal information.

We may use it in order to:

• verify your identity for security purposes
• provide you with our services

We process this information on the basis there is a contract between us, or that you have requested we use the information before we enter into a legal contract.

We shall continue to process this information until the contract between us ends or is terminated by either party under the terms of the contract.

4.         Information we process with your consent

Through certain actions when otherwise there is no contractual relationship between us, such as when you browse our website or ask us to provide you more information about our business, including our services, you provide your consent to us to process information that may be personal information.

Wherever possible, we aim to obtain your explicit consent to process this information, for example, by asking you to agree to our use of cookies.

If you have given us explicit permission to do so, we may from time to time, pass your name and contact information to selected associates whom we consider may provide services you would find useful.

We continue to process your information on this basis until you withdraw your consent or it can be reasonably assumed that your consent no longer exists.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by instructing us ruth@lwh.co.za.

5.         Information we process for the purposes of legitimate interests

We may process the information on the basis there is a legitimate interest, either to you or to us, of doing so.

Where we process your information on this basis, we do after having given careful consideration to:

• whether processing (or not processing) might cause you harm
• whether you would expect us to process your information, and whether you would consider it reasonable to do so

For example, we may process your information on this basis for the purposes of:

• record-keeping for the proper and necessary administration of our legal services
• responding to unsolicited communication from you to which we believe you would expect a response
• protecting and asserting the legal rights of any party
• insuring against or obtaining professional advice that is required to manage risk
• protecting your interests where we believe we have a duty to do so

6.         Information we process because we have a legal obligation

Sometimes, we must process your information in order to comply with a statutory obligation.

For example, we may be required to give information to legal authorities if they so request or if they have the proper authorization such legal authorities being the South African Revenue Services or a court order.

This may include your personal information.

Specific uses of information you provide to us

7.         Information provided on the understanding that it will be shared with a third party

Personal information provided to us must be adequate, relevant, not excessive and, most importantly, we need your consent to use the information for the furtherance of the mandate which you have given to us.  The information (data) will only be collected directly from you unless another person has your written authority to release the information.

8.        Complaints regarding content on our website

If you complain about any of the content on our website, we shall investigate your complaint.  If we feel it is justified or if we believe the law requires us to do so, we shall remove the content while we investigate.

9.         Information relating to your payments

Your payment information will be kept confidential and only be used for the purposes for which it was collected.

10.       Job application and employment

If you send us information in connection with a job application, we may keep it for up to 3 (three) years in case we decide to contact you at a later date.

If we employ you, we collect information about you and your work from time to time throughout the period of your employment. This information will be used only for purposes directly relevant to your employment. After your employment has ended, we will keep your file for 7 (seven) years before destroying or deleting it.

11.       Communicating with us

When you contact us, whether by telephone, through our website or by e-mail or post, we collect the information you have given to us in order to reply with the information you need.

We keep personally identifiable information associated with your messages, such as your name and email address so as to be able to track our communications with you to provide a high-quality service.

12.       Complaining

When we receive a complaint, we record all the information you have given to us and we use that information to resolve your complaint.

If your complaint reasonably requires us to contact some other person, we may decide to give to that other person some of the information contained in your complaint. We do this as infrequently as possible, but it is a matter for our sole discretion as to whether we do give information, and if we do, what that information is.

We may also compile statistics showing information obtained from this source to assess the level of service we provide, but not in a way that could identify you or any other person.

13.       Affiliate and business partner information

This is information given to us by you in your capacity as an agent or affiliate of ours.  The information is not used for any other purpose but for the furtherance of the transaction at hand and we undertake to preserve the confidentiality of the information and of the terms of our relationship and expect any affiliate or partner to agree to reciprocate this policy.

Use of information we collect through automated systems when you visit our website

14.       Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer’s hard drive by your web browser when you visit any website. They allow information gathered on one web page to be stored until it is needed for use on another, allowing a website to provide you with a personalized experience and the website owner with statistics about how you use the website so that it can be improved.

Some cookies may last for a defined period, such as one day or until you close your browser. Others last indefinitely.

Your web browser should allow you to delete any you choose. It also should allow you to prevent or limit their use.

Our website uses cookies. They are placed by software that operates on our servers, and by software operated by third parties whose services we use.

When you first visit our website, we ask you whether you wish us to use cookies. If you choose not to accept them, we shall not use them for your visit except to record that you have not consented to their use. If you choose not to use cookies or you prevent their use through your browser settings, you will not be able to use all the functionality of our website.

15. Personal identifiable information from your browsing activity

Requests by your web browser to our servers for web pages and other content on our website are recorded.

We record information such as your geographical location, your Internet service provider and your IP address. We also record information about the software you are using to browse our website, such as the type of computer or device.

We use this information on our website to record how we perform in providing content to you.

Disclosure and sharing of your information

Control over your own information

16.       Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes.

17.       Access to your personal information

At any time you may review or update personally identifiable information that we hold about you.  After receiving the request, we will tell you when we expect to provide you with the information.

18.       Removal of your information

If you wish us to remove personally identifiable information from records, you should contact us to make your request. This may limit the service we can provide to you.

19.       Verification of your information

When we receive any request to access, edit or delete personal identifiable information we shall first take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access or otherwise taking any action. This is important to safeguard your information.

Other matters

19.       How you can complain

If you are not happy with our privacy policy or if you have any complaint then you should email us at the following addresses clive@lwh.co.za or ruth@lwh.co.za.

If a dispute is not settled, then we hope you will agree to attempt to resolve it by engaging in good faith with us in the process of mediation or arbitration.

20.      Retention period for personal data

Except as otherwise mentioned in this privacy notice, we keep your personal information only for as long as required by us:

• to provide you with the services you have requested;
• to comply with other law, including for the period demanded by our tax authorities;
• to support a claim or defence in court.

21.       Compliance with the law

Our privacy policy has been compiled so as to comply with the law of every country or legal jurisdiction in which we aim to do business. If you think it fails to satisfy the law of your jurisdiction, we should like to hear from you.

However, ultimately it is your choice as to whether you wish to use our website.

22.      Review of this privacy policy

We may update this privacy notice from time to time as necessary. The terms that apply to you are those posted here on our website on the day you use our website. We advise you to print a copy for your records.

If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, please use the following email addresses clive@lwh.co.za or  ruth@lwh.co.za