PRIVACY POLICY

1. Introduction

Greenwood Roche is committed to protecting your personal information and complying with the Privacy Act 2020. Personal Information is any information that relates to an identifiable individual, and could include identity information (e.g. name, date of birth, address etc.), contact information, emails and other documents, and information about finances or employment.

This privacy policy sets out how we may collect Personal Information, how we use, store, or disclose Personal Information, what your rights are in respect of any Personal Information we may hold, and what we do to ensure that your privacy is protected.

We collect information from you when you ask us to act for you (if you are the client) or if you are an employee or representative of our client, if you visit our website or if you are a prospective employee.

We may update or amend this policy from time to time. Any amendments we make to this policy will take effect once it is published on our website.

This policy should be read with our terms of engagement, which is on our website.

2. How we collect Personal Information

We may collect Personal Information in a number of ways, including:

when we interact with you directly;
when we are conducting conflict checks or customer (client) due diligence, including by using our data suppliers and third-party data providers to verify your identity on our behalf for the purpose of complying with our anti-money laundering obligations;
through third parties that are related to the matter which you engaged us for;
when you engage with our website;
when you apply to work at Greenwood Roche; or
where the information is publicly available.

Where possible, we will endeavour to collect Personal Information directly from you. We may ask you to consent in writing to us collecting, storing and disclosing your Personal Information.

We use “cookies” on our website. A cookie is a small piece of data that is stored on your computer. Cookies help us provide you with better functionality and allows us to analyse site usage. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can adjust your browser preferences to disallow or restrict cookies.

3. How we use your Personal Information

Some of the ways we may use Personal Information are:

in the course of representing or advising you;
for internal business purposes such as preparing invoices;
for purposes you specifically authorise, including posting information on our website;
for dealing with any legal conflicts;
sending you invitations or publications; and
to comply with our legal and professional obligations.

We may be required to disclose your information to third parties, including agents or third-party contractors, who assist us in providing our services (such as our third-party data storage or online storage operators) in certain circumstances, both within and outside New Zealand, including:

in undertaking work for you, according to your instructions;
in undertaking customer (client) due diligence;
as required by law; or
if we are required or permitted to do so by the New Zealand Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.

If your Personal Information is to be transferred outside New Zealand, and, if relevant, the European Commission has not provided an adequacy decision in relation to the proposed transferee, we will ensure that the proposed transferee provides sufficient safeguards and that the rights and remedies in relation to the Personal Information remain available, or we will obtain your express consent to the transfer.

4. How we store your Personal Information

We may store your Personal Information in hard copy or electronic form, including with third party data storage operators or in online storage located within or outside New Zealand. When you give us your Personal Information, you consent to us storing this information outside of New Zealand and in third party facilities.

We will take reasonable steps to protect your Personal Information we hold from misuse and loss and from unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.

We will retain your Personal Information for as long as we have a relationship with you and for a period after this that we must do so for legal or business reasons – for example, to comply with anti-money laundering or audit obligations. After that period, we will comply with our legal obligations in relation to your Personal Information, which will generally mean deleting that information.

5. What your rights are in respect of Personal Information we may hold about you

The Privacy Act 2020 sets out what your rights are in respect of any Personal Information we may hold.

Visit https://www.privacy.org.nz/your-rights/your-privacy-rights/ for further information.

You have the right to contact us to review and/or request that we correct any Personal Information we hold about you.

You may have additional rights if you are a person to whom the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU2016/679) (GDPR) applies. If the GDPR applies, your rights would include:

us obtaining your consent to process your Personal Information, which you may revoke at any time;
being entitled to access your Personal Information and/or being entitled to request a portable copy of your Personal Information;
being entitled to request restrictions upon the processing of your Personal Information, and being able to request rectification or erasure of your Personal Information under certain circumstances; and
being entitled to file a complaint with a supervisory authority.

If you would like to contact us to in respect of your Personal Information, please email us at mail@greenwoodroche.com.

Third-party websites

Our website includes links to third-party websites. When you click on one of these links, you will be subject to that third-party's privacy policies. We are not responsible for the actions of any third-party websites, or for how that third-party may collect, store, use or disclose any Personal Information that you may provide.

6. Protecting your privacy

We will treat your Personal Information as strictly confidential and subject to the reasons why we may disclose that information, as set out above, we will only use your Personal Information for the purpose for which it was collected. Some of the ways we protect your Personal Information include:

having access-restricted premises;
storing information in secure off-site data storage facilities or secure electronic servers; and
providing Privacy Act training to staff.