Privacy notice

We believe that all personal data should be treated with the utmost care. We seek to respect the privacy of all those on whom we hold personal data. This privacy notice explains how RWV Advocaten handles personal data. It does not apply to job applicants, our own staff and employees of temping agencies.

Data controller’s contact details

RWV Advocaten may be designated as a ‘controller’ responsible for processing personal data under the terms of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These are the contact details for RWV Advocaten:

What sort of personal data do we process?

We may hold the following types of personal data on you:

• contact details such as surname, forename(s), address, telephone number and email address;
• date of birth;
• gender (if you wish to inform us);
• job title (if you wish to inform us);
• a copy of your identity document;
• medical data;
• your IP address;
• your navigational behaviour on our website, such as the details of your first visit to our website, your previous visit, your current visit, the pages you open and the way in which you navigate our website;
• whether you have opened a newsletter or commercial email we sent you, and the specific items you viewed;
• your internet browser or the device you are using;
• your payment details and payment history (required in order to enter into a contract);
• credit information;
• file number;
• details of any correspondence.

If you ask one of our lawyers to represent you, you will need to supply us with your surname, forename(s), address details, telephone number, email address and payment details in order for us to enter into a contract with you and/or to perform the contract we have entered into with you. You may also be required to provide other personal data, depending on the nature of the case. We will let you know if this is the case. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to discharge our contract with you in a proper manner if you do not supply us with this additional personal data. We will inform you accordingly if you decide not to supply us with certain data which we are under a statutory obligation to process. We will also inform you about the potential consequences of any failure to supply us with such personal data.

For what purposes do we process your personal data

We collect and process personal data for a number of purposes. In addition to making use of the data we have received from you, we may also make use of personal data obtained from other sources. This may involve personal data that is available on business websites in the public domain and professional forms of social media such as LinkedIn, personal data obtained from the Trade Register at the Chamber of Commerce and/or the Land Registry, and personal data we obtain from our customers and suppliers. 

Legal services

We may process your personal data for the following purposes:

a.     Customer relations
The data is used for (i) supplying you with information you have requested, (ii) communicating with you about the performance of your contract with us, and (iii) dealing with queries and/or complaints.

b.     In order to perform a contract
We process your personal data for the purpose of carrying out your instructions to supply you with legal services and/or legal advice. We need certain personal data, for example, in order to supply you with legal advice and to process your payment.

c.     In order to analyse website navigation, search and/or click behaviour and for making personal offers
We process your personal data in order to analyse your behaviour on our website with the ultimate aim of improving our website. We also process your personal data to be able to offer you products or services that are likely to be of interest to you.

d.     For direct marketing purposes
We use your personal data in order to send you special offers, newsletters, surveys and invitations to master classes and other events by email. We also use your personal data in order to send you text messages, to place telephone calls to you and/or to correspond with you by mail. We use direct marketing to inform you about services that we believe are potentially of interest to you.

e.     For performing risk analyses
We may wish to assess your creditworthiness in certain instances.

f.      For keeping a record of client reviews
If you wish to write a review, you can decide for yourself whether you wish your personal data to be visible to other visitors to the website. In principle, we keep a record of your reviews with a view to improving the quality of our products and services. We wish to be able to contact you, if desired, in order to ask you more detailed questions about certain aspects of your review.

g.     For preventing fraud
We use your personal data in order to investigate, prevent and combat fraud.

h.     For improving the information on our products and services and for marketing purposes
In order to ensure that we send our clients information that is of interest to them, we combine and analyse the personal data that we hold on them. We use this information to decide which particular types of information and communication channels are most suitable and what are the best times for sending information. It goes without saying that we do not make use of special types of personal data for marketing purposes.

i.      For performing customer satisfaction surveys
In certain cases, we ask our clients to complete a customer satisfaction survey. This is entirely voluntary. If you agree to complete a customer satisfaction survey, we will then process your answers.

j.      For protecting ourselves against legal claims
We may process your personal data in order to protect ourselves against possible legal claims.

k.     For complying with a statutory obligation
Under the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act, lawyers are obliged to obtain and record certain types of information such as copies of clients’ passports or other ID documents. Other laws also require lawyers to divulge certain information on their clients to third parties.

l.      For internal security purposes
Whenever you visit our offices, we make a record of your name and time of entry. We may also note the time at which you leave our offices.

m.    For the purpose of maintaining a knowledge database
We believe in gathering and disseminating knowledge and to this end may record your personal data in an internal knowledge database.

n.     For the purpose of organising contests and lotteries
If you take part in a contest or lottery, we will process your personal data so that we can contact you if you win a prize.

o.     For managing and collecting debts owing both to ourselves and to our clients
We also process personal data in order to (i) send invoices, reminders and payment demands with a view to collecting debts; (ii) call a debtor to remind him or her about an unpaid invoice, and (iii) undertake or, as the case may, manage court action in order to collect a debt. 

Insolvencies

Depending on the nature of the case, when winding up an insolvent company or a bankrupt’s estate, we process personal data for the following purposes: 

1. for liquidating the estate. This involves, for example, collecting debts and selling items of movable and immovable property. To this end, we also keep lists of creditors and write to creditors.
2. for allowing third parties to exercise their rights, such as in relation to the retention of title.
3. for managing the estate of the bankrupt or the insolvent company; this involves, for example, making a list of all contracts currently in force and entering into new contracts. We may also process personal data in this connection.
4. for keeping a record of the state of the estate. We are under a statutory duty to keep a full set of accounts in relation to bankruptcies, liquidations and debt restructurings, and also to keep a record of the rights, obligations and correspondence relating to the estate in question.
5. for publishing public reports, financial statements, lists of creditors, lists of verified claims and distribution lists, which may include personal data.

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Legal services

This is the legal basis for processing your personal data:

Statutory obligation
Where we are under a statutory obligation to do so, we process your personal data accordingly. For example, lawyers are obliged, under the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act, to obtain and record certain types of information such as copies of clients’ passports or other ID documents. Other laws also require lawyers to divulge certain information on their clients to third parties. Finally, lawyers are under a statutory obligation to include certain personal data on their clients (such as their name and address) in court documents. 

In order to perform or enter into a contract
We process your personal data in so far as is necessary in order to perform or enter into a contract.

Legitimate interest
We may have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data. Such an interest is generally based on legal, financial or business grounds. The following are examples of situations in which we have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data:

• in order to send you publicity material about other services of ours;
• in order to defend ourselves against possible legal claims;
• general customers relations, i.e. in order to answer questions or deal with complaints;
• in order to perform risk analyses so as to assess your creditworthiness;
• in order to ensure that the content presented to you on our website is of maximum relevance;
• in order to prevent and/or detect fraud;
• in order to conduct our business activities;
• in order to maintain our internal knowledge database;
• in order to protect our business assets.

Consent
If you have given us your consent to process your personal data, you are entitled to withdraw this consent at any time. The withdrawal of your consent does not affect the legitimacy of any processing activities based on consent given prior to its withdrawal.

Insolvencies

When winding up an insolvent company or a bankrupt’s estate, we process personal data in order to discharge our statutory duty as a court-appointed receiver or administrator.

Sharing personal data with third parties

In certain situations, we may share your personal data with third parties. Where we divulge personal data to third parties, we do this exclusively for the purposes referred to in this privacy notice and exclusively on the legal basis stated in this privacy notice. The following are examples of situations in which we are entitled to pass on your personal data to the types of third party listed below: 

1. where this is necessary in order to perform our contract with you. For example, we make use of advisers, translators and a third party for handling payments by iDeal. We may also divulge your personal data to third parties assisting us in collecting a debt. We use postal companies for sending post;
2. we may pass on your personal data to an agency or authority in order to assess your creditworthiness and/or perform anti-fraud checks;
3. we may pass on your personal data to web-hosting agencies and/or agencies that need personal data in order to analysis your internet behaviour, to personalise and optimise our website, and to inform you about and show you relevant offers and advertisements;
4. we may pass on your personal data to computer companies helping us to keep our software systems stable and safe;
5. we use the services of a cloud-based service-provider and an archive management company for storing your personal data;
6. we may use the services of a data destruction company in order to destroy your personal data in a secure manner;
7. we may pass on your personal data to our insurance company in order to comply with the terms of our professional liability insurance policy;
8. we may use the services of communications agencies and marketing distribution agencies in order to distribute our marketing materials.

In all other cases, we divulge your personal data to third parties only if you have given your prior consent, where this is necessary in order to safeguard our interests, or if we are obliged to do so under the law.

The third parties to whom we divulge your personal data are themselves responsible for complying with statutory privacy regulations. We are neither responsible nor liable for the way in which these third parties process your personal data. In so far as a third party processes your personal data as a processor acting on our behalf, we will enter into a GDPR-compliant data-processing contract with the third party in question.

Should this be necessary in the interests of your particular case, we may divulge your personal data to a ‘third country’, i.e. any non-EU member state, with the exception of member countries of the European Economic Area, or an international organisation. Your personal data will be divulged to a third country only if a suitable level of data protection is guaranteed or if a specific derogation from the GDPR applies.

Personal data security

We will take suitable measures to protect your personal data against misuse, loss, unauthorised access, undesired disclosure or unauthorised alteration. More specifically, we will ensure that the only persons who have access to your personal data are those who need to do so, that access to your personal data is protected, that our website is protected by means of information security arrangements (such as firewalls) and that our security measures are regularly checked (by external consultants). If you believe that your personal data are not properly protected or if there are any indications that your personal data are being misused, please get in touch with us at: info@rwv.nl.

Retention period

We do not retain your personal data for any longer than is reasonably necessary for the purpose of achieving the aims set out in this privacy notice or in order to comply with statutory regulations. 

We retain most personal data in any event as long as is necessary in order to perform our contract with you, to collect a debt or to settle any disputes that may arise as a result of a matter we have dealt with. We are, however, required by law to retain certain personal data for longer than this. We also keep your personal data on file for direct marketing purposes until you withdraw your consent for us to do so and/or object to this form of processing.

Your rights

You are entitled to view, correct and erase your personal data. You are also entitled to request us to restrict the processing of your personal data, and to object to the processing of your personal data. You also have a right to data portability, which means that you are entitled to ask us to supply you with the personal data that we hold on you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or to transmit the same data to an organisation specified by you. 

If you wish to exercise one of your rights, please send us a request at: info@rwv.nl. In order to prevent any data misuse, we may ask you, before complying with your request, to confirm your identity by sending us a copy of a valid identity document. When sending us a copy of your identity document, you should protect your privacy by covering up your photograph, the machine readable zone, i.e. the numbered strip at the bottom of your passport, your passport number and your ‘citizen service number’ (burgerservicenummer). There is a special government-distributed app known as the KopieID app that you can use for this purpose. 

We will respond as soon as possible to your request, and in any event within one month. We are happy to deal with any complaints you may have about the processing of your personal data. Should we not be able to solve the matter to your satisfaction, please note that you are entitled to submit a complaint to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens). You can use the following link to do so: https://autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl/nl/contact-met-de-autoriteit-persoonsgegevens/tip-ons. (N.B. This is a Dutch-language contact form.)

Automated decision-making

There is no automated decision-making.

Changes in privacy notice

This privacy notice was last amended on 02-02-2021. We reserve the right to make unilateral changes to this privacy notice. Please consult this privacy notice at regular intervals to ensure that you remain familiar with its contents. We will post a clear notice on our website whenever we make a significant change to this privacy notice.