1. Introduction
Tillid advocaten attaches great importance to the safe, transparent and confidential collection and processing of your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection legislation, in particular the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) and national implementing legislation.
Of course, we are also bound by our professional secrecy so that your data will be treated by us as strictly confidential.
We want to inform you about the collection and processing of your personal data by means of this Privacy Statement. Please read this Privacy Statement carefully, as it contains essential information about how your personal data are processed and for what purpose.
By communicating your personal data, you expressly declare that you have read this Data Protection Policy and also expressly agree to it, as well as to the processing itself.
2. Scope of application
This Privacy Statement therefore covers all services provided and, in general, all activities carried out by both Tillid lawyers and the individual lawyers of the firm.
3. Processing manager
Tillid advocaten makes a distinction in the processing of personal data depending on whether this personal data is obtained through the use of the website or through any other contact with the individual lawyers.
In view of the scope of application of the Privacy Statement, each individual lawyer at Tillid advocaten is responsible for the processing and storage of personal data obtained other than by using the website or by requesting to receive a newsletter.
With regard to the personal data obtained through the use of the website or through requesting to receive a newsletter, Tillid Advocaten, with registered office at Bouwensstraat 21 in 2140 Antwerp, registered with the KBO under number 0680.858.935, is the processing manager, of which the individual lawyers are part.
When collecting and processing your personal data, we respect the Belgian data protection regulations, as well as the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) as of its entry into force on 25 May 2018.
4. Processing of personal data
Depending on your activities and your relationship with our office, we process the following personal data: your personal identification data; file number; national register number to the extent necessary for processing your file; identification data within the framework of the Act of 18 September 2017 on the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism to limit the use of cash; data relating to solvency, insurance, financial transactions; CBE number, professional activities; agreements and settlements; licences; personal details; immigrant status; mandates held; complaints, incidents or accidents; family composition, marriage or current form of cohabitation; memberships of associations, organisations, groups or professional bodies; judicial data on suspicions, convictions and penalties, judicial measures or administrative sanctions; current employment; pay data to the extent necessary to process the file; data of persons under 16 years of age; data regarding sexual behaviour or sexual orientation; data revealing political opinions or trade union membership; image and audio material necessary for the handling of the file or as part of a training course or event; data provided when using the website (Cookie statement).
We kindly remind you that you are responsible for all data you provide to us and that we rely on its accuracy. If your details are no longer up to date, please inform us immediately.
You are under no obligation to disclose your personal data, but you understand that the provision of certain services or collaboration becomes impossible if you do not consent to the collection and processing.
5. Processing purposes and legal basis
As part of our services and activities, we collect and process personal data of our clients and commissioning parties, their staff, employees, appointees and other useful contact persons. We process the following personal data: personal identification data; file number; national register number to the extent necessary for processing your file; financial identification data; data relating to solvency, insurance; financial transactions; professional activities; agreements and settlements; permits; personal details; immigrant status; mandates held; complaints, incidents or accidents; family composition, marriage or current form of living together; memberships of associations, organisations, groups or professional associations; judicial data concerning suspicions, convictions and penalties, judicial measures or administrative sanctions; current employment; payroll data to the extent necessary for processing the file; image and audio material necessary for processing the file or as part of a training course or event.
The purposes for these processing operations are the execution of agreements with our clients, client management, accounting and direct marketing activities such as sending promotional or commercial information or use on social media. The legal grounds are the execution of the agreement, the fulfilment of legal and regulatory obligations and/or our legitimate interest. For direct marketing activities by e-mail (such as a newsletter or invitation to events) permission will always be requested and can also be withdrawn at any time.
6. Duration of processing
Personal data will be stored and processed by us for a period of time that is necessary in function of the purposes of the processing and in function of the (contractual or non-contractual) relationship we have with you.
Your data will in any case be deleted from our systems after a period of ten years after the termination of the agreement, the file, the cooperation or the project, except for the personal data that we have to keep for a longer period on the basis of specific legislation or in case of an ongoing dispute for which the personal data is still necessary. The identification details of our former lawyers/employees may be kept for networking or marketing purposes, such as invitations to office or alumni events, until the death of the lawyer/employee, unless he or she indicates that he or she no longer wishes to receive such invitations.
7. Rights
In accordance with and subject to the conditions of Belgian privacy law and the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation, we inform you that you have the following rights:
Right to access and inspection
You have the right to check the information we hold about you free of charge and to find out what it is used for.
Right to rectification
You have the right to obtain rectification (correction) of your incorrect personal data, as well as to complete incomplete personal data.
Right of data erasure or restriction
You have the right to request us to delete your personal data or to limit their processing in the circumstances and under the conditions set out by the General Data Protection Regulation. We may refuse the deletion or limitation of any personal data that is necessary for us to fulfil a legal obligation, the performance of the contract or our legitimate interest, and this for as long as these data are necessary for the purposes for which they were collected.
Right to data portability
You have the right to obtain the personal data relating to yourself that you have provided to us in a structured, common and machine-readable form. You have the right to transfer these data to another data controller.
Right to object
You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data for serious and legitimate reasons. Please note, however, that you cannot object to the processing of personal data that is necessary for us to fulfil a legal obligation, the performance of the contract or our legitimate interest, as long as these data are necessary for the purposes for which they were collected.
Right of withdrawal of consent
If the processing of personal data is based on prior consent, you have the right to revoke this consent. These personal data will then only be processed if we have another legal basis for doing so.
Automatic decisions and profiling
We confirm that the processing of personal data does not include profiling and that you will not be subject to fully automated decisions.
You can exercise the aforementioned rights by contacting the individual lawyers of Tillid advocaten.
We make every effort to handle your personal data in a careful and legitimate manner in accordance with applicable regulations. If you nevertheless believe that your rights have been violated and your concerns have not been addressed by our firm, you are free to lodge a complaint with:
Data Protection Authority
Rue du Prince 35, 1000 Brussels
- +32 (0)2 274 48 00
- +32 (0)2 274 48 35
- E-mail contact@apd-gba.be
In addition, you may bring an action before a court if you believe that you would suffer damage as a result of the processing of your personal data.
8. Transfer to third parties
Certain personal data collected by us will be passed on to and possibly processed by our lawyers and, where appropriate, their respective (management) companies, as well as to the courts and other government departments or to third party service providers, such as our IT supplier, accountant, auditor, social secretariat, insurance companies, etc. Within the framework of the anti-money laundering legislation, details of clients, agents and beneficial owners may, in certain circumstances, be forwarded to the President of the competent Bar.
One or more of the above-mentioned third parties may be located outside the European Economic Area (‘EEA’). However, only personal data will be transferred to third countries with an adequate level of protection.
The employees, managers and/or representatives of the above-mentioned service providers or institutions and the specialist service providers appointed by them must respect the confidential nature of your personal data and may only use these data for the purposes for which they were provided.
If necessary, your personal data may be passed on to other third parties. This could be the case, for example, if we were reorganised in whole or in part, if our activities were transferred or if we were declared bankrupt. It is also possible that personal data may have to be transmitted pursuant to a court order or in order to comply with a certain legal obligation. In that case, we will make reasonable efforts to inform you in advance of this communication to other third parties. However, you will acknowledge and understand that in certain circumstances this may not always be technically or commercially feasible or that legal restrictions may apply.
Under no circumstances will we sell or make your personal data commercially available to direct marketing agencies or similar service providers, except with your prior consent.
9. Technical and organisational measures
We take the necessary technical and organizational measures to process your personal data with an adequate level of security and to protect them against destruction, loss, falsification, alteration, unauthorized access or accidental disclosure to third parties, as well as any other unauthorized processing of these data.
Under no circumstances can Tillid advocaten, nor the individual lawyers, be held liable for any direct or indirect damage resulting from the incorrect or unlawful use of personal data by a third party.
10. Third party access
With a view to processing your personal data, we provide access to your personal data to our employees, attorneys, employees and appointees. We guarantee a similar level of protection by making contractual obligations opposable to these employees, collaborators and appointees, which are similar to this Data Protection Policy.
11. Any more questions?
If, after reading this Data Protection Policy, you have further questions or comments regarding the collection and processing of your personal data, you may contact the individual lawyers at Tillid advocaten.