PRIVACY POLICY FOR OUR APIA OFFICE (as at 01 March 2023)
1. This Privacy Policy (“this policy”) sets out how Vaai, Hoglund & Toma at Fonofou Street, Fugalei, Apia, Samoa (“VHT Apia”) collects, uses, stores and discloses personal information about our clients, potential clients, persons associated with our clients, employees, suppliers and others. “Personal information” means information about an identifiable individual.
WHY COLLECT INFORMATION?
2. We collect personal information to carry out our business, provide and market our services and meet our legal obligations (“our services”).
3. By using our services or providing us with your personal information, you consent to our collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this policy.
HOW INFORMATION IS COLLECTED
4. Directly by you: our usual practice is to collect personal information directly whenever an individual interacts with us for the purposes of providing our services. This may be done in a number of ways, such as:
4.1 face to face meetings and interviews;
4.2 telephone conversations;
4.3 forms that are filled out and documents or communication provided to us;
4.4 through an on-going employment relationship.
5. Information created through our services: this may include our assessment records about our interactions with you and our interactions with third parties. This information may be confidential to us.
6. From third parties: this may include verification of your identity, credit checks, background checks, medical records or reports or third party references.
7. Public information: this covers information you have clearly made public such as through social media or other online platforms.
WHAT INFORMATION IS COLLECTED?
8. The information includes but is not limited to names, addresses, contact details, identity verification such as your driver’s licence, passport and birth certificate, bank account and other financial information and other details which assist us to conduct our business, provide and market our services and meet our legal obligations under applicable privacy laws.
HOW DO WE USE OR DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION?
9. We may use and disclose your personal information for the purpose for which it is collected, for other purposes authorised by you, for directly related purposes and in other circumstances authorised by the law. We may use and disclose personal information:
9.1 to verify your identity;
9.2 to process your personal information for our own internal work purposes;
9.3 to provide legal services and client services;
9.4 to carry out firm and trust account transactions, such as client billing and payments, firm creditors, employee transactions and client trust account transactions;
9.5 to undertake credit management activities;
9.6 for dealing with commercial or legal conflicts;
9.7 for debt recovery purposes which may also include disclosing information to debt collectors;
9.8 to provide promotional information in hard copy or electronic form or information that we believe may be of interest;
9.9 to purchase products and services;
9.10 to communicate with clients, potential clients, suppliers, staff, contractors and others;
9.11 to carry out our responsibilities as an employer; and
9.12 to comply with our legal obligations and to meet our reporting obligations as required by law.
10. We may be required to disclose personal information to third parties in the course of representing and advising our clients if it is required or authorised:
10.1 by an individual;
10.2 by law; or
10.3 by the Law Society’s Rules of Professional Conduct for Barristers and Solicitors of Samoa.
11. From time to time, we may share personal information with certain service providers who provide services to us or perform administrative or marketing activities on our behalf.
OVERSEAS DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION
12. When we disclose personal information, it may be transferred to and used by third parties in overseas countries. Some third parties may be located in countries where they are not required to protect personal information in the way that we are under the law. However, where we disclose personal information to a third party in another country we endeavour to put safeguards in place to ensure your personal information is protected.
SECURITY & STORAGE OF INFORMATION
13. Personal information may be stored in hard copy and/or electronic form. Electronic data that is stored in the cloud by third parties is usually encrypted.
14. Access to personnel files is limited to HR, Finance and our Partners. At all times, access to a file must be for a work-related purpose and comply with the provisions of the law.
15. We take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold. We do this by use of appropriate physical security and restricted access to both electronic and hard copy records. All our staff are required to access personal information for work-related purposes only, to respect the confidentiality of personal information and the underlying privacy of individuals.
16. If your personal information is subject to unauthorised or accidental access, disclosure, alteration, loss or destruction or actions which prevent us from accessing it on a temporary or permanent basis (constituting a “privacy breach”) and such privacy breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you.
17. We will retain your personal information for as long as we have a relationship with you and for a period of time afterwards where we have an ongoing business need to retain it, in accordance with our internal retention policies and practices. Following that period, we will ensure it is deleted or made anonymous. Generally, we only keep your personal information for as long as we require it for the purposes of providing you with our services.
HOW YOU ACCESS OR CORRECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
18. It is up to you to ensure that the personal information you provide us is accurate, complete and current.
19. You may request access to the information we hold about you, that we update or correct any personal information we hold about you or that we restrict or cease using and disclosing your personal information. You can do this by setting out your request in writing and sending it to us at info@vaaihoglundtoma.com.
20. We will review your request as soon as reasonably practicable to comply with our legal obligations. If we are unable to give you access to the information you have requested, we will give you reasons for this decision when we respond to your request.
PRIVACY OFFICER
21. If you have any concerns about privacy or the use or collection of your personal information by our office please contact us at info@vaaihoglundtoma.com or call us on 20545. We will respond as soon as we can and handle all complaints in a way that is fair and consistent. However, if you remain dissatisfied, you can make a formal complaint with the Law Society of Samoa.
UPDATES
22. This policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new legislation and technology, changes to our operations and practices and the changing business environment.
23. Your continued use of our services following notification of any changes to this policy constitutes acceptance of those changes. If you do not agree with any aspect of the updated policy, you must immediately stop using our services.
