Privacy Policy

Introduction & Purpose

Rurik McKaiser Attorneys Incorporated (“RMA INC”) fully complies with the provisions of the Protection of Personal Information Act 2013 (“POPIA”), as amended, which regulates the handling and processing of Personal Information received from other persons.

RMA INC is sensitive to the Personal Information that you and other persons provide to them.

The purpose of this privacy policy is to explain how RMA INC will protect your Personal Information and the Personal Information of other persons.

By providing RMA INC with your personal information, you:

  • agree to this privacy policy and authorise RMA INC to process such information as set out herein; and
  • authorise RMA INC and its associates, service providers and other relevant third parties to process your personal information for the purposes stated in this privacy policy.

RMA INC may, from time to time, review and/or update this privacy policy. The latest version is available upon request.

RMA INC will not use your Personal Information for any other purpose than that set out in this privacy policy and will endeavour to protect your Personal Information that is in our possession from any unauthorised alteration, loss, disclosure or access.

This Policy applies to all external parties with whom RMA INC interact. This includes, but is not limited to, our natural and juristic clients and their representatives, our visitors, other users of our legal services, and anyone who might gain access to it.

Collection of Personal Information

RMA INC may collect or obtain your Personal Information in the following ways:

  • directly from you;
  • during the course of our legal relationship with you;
  • during the course of RMA INC complying with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (“FICA”);
  • through a third party, such as law enforcement;
  • when you make your Personal Information public
  • when you visit our offices
  • when you share your personal information on our website by interacting with any advertising or third-party content;
  • on social media;
  • during your interaction with us, RMA INC may create personal information about you by using records of your communication, records on the access entry books, information on your curriculum vitae during the course of interviews and any other event which may bring about the sharing of such Personal Information.

Categories of Personal Information RMA INC May Process

RMA INC may create the following categories of Personal Information from you:

  • personal identifiers: name; identity number; passport number;
  • demographic information: gender; date of birth; nationality; marital status; title; and language preference;
  • contact details: personal telephone number; work telephone number; personal email address; work email address; facsimile;
  • commercial information: records of properties or commodities;
  • instruction details: details of individuals instructing RMA INC, Personal Information included in correspondence, documents, evidence or other materials that RMA INC Process in the course of providing legal services;
  • payment details: billing address; payment method; bank account number or credit card number; invoice records; payment records; SWIFT details; payment amount; payment date; and records of cheques;
  • employer details: name; address; telephone number; email address of your employer should you engage with RMA INC in your capacity as an employee of an organisation;
  • attendance record: details of meetings and other events organised by or on behalf of RMA INC that you have attended;
  • data regarding your visit(s) to our website: your device type; operating system; browser type; browser settings; IP address; language settings; dates and times of connecting to a website; and other technical communications information;
  • content and advertising data: records of your interactions with our online advertising and content, records of advertising and content displayed on pages displayed to you, and any interaction you may have had with such content or advertising.

Sensitive Personal Information

When RMA INC needs to process your sensitive Personal Information, we will do so in the ordinary course of our business, for a legitimate purpose, and in accordance with applicable law and POPIA.

Purpose and Legal Basis for Processing Personal Information

RMA INC will process your Personal Information in the ordinary course of the business of providing legal and other related services. RMA INC will use your Personal Information only for the purpose for which it was originally obtained. RMA INC will use your Personal Information for a secondary or other purposes only if such purpose(s) constitute a legitimate interest and are closely related to the original purpose for which the Personal Information was obtained. RMA INC may subject your Personal Information to processing during the course of various activities, including:

  • operating RMA INC’s business;
  • compliance with applicable law and fraud prevention;
  • transfer of information to RMA INC’s service providers and other authorised third parties or;
  • recruitment.

RMA INC may process your Personal Information for relationship management and marketing purposes in relation to our services (including, but not limited to, processing that is necessary for the development and improvement of our legal and related services), for accounts management, and for marketing activities in order to establish, maintain and/or improve our relationship with you and with our service providers.

RMA INC may process your Personal Information for internal management and management reporting purposes, including but not limited to:

  • conducting internal audits;
  • conducting internal investigations;
  • implementing internal business controls;
  • providing central processing facilities;
  • for insurance purposes and for management reporting analysis.
  • RMA INC may process your Personal Information for safety and security purposes.

Disclosure of Personal Information to a Third-Party

RMA INC may disclose your Personal Information to our associates and service providers, for legitimate business purposes, in accordance with applicable law and subject to applicable professional and regulatory requirements regarding confidentiality. In addition, RMA INC may disclose your Personal Information:

  • if required by law;
  • legal and regulatory authorities, upon request, or for the purposes of reporting any actual or suspected breach of law or regulation applicable;
  • third-party operators (including, but not limited to, data processors such as providers of data hosting services and document review technology and services), located anywhere in the world, subject to paragraph 6.2 below;
  • where it is necessary for the purposes of, or in connection with, actual or threatened legal proceedings or establishment, exercise or defence of legal rights;
  • to any relevant party for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, including, but not limited to, safeguarding against, and the prevention of threats to, public security;
  • to any relevant third-party acquirer(s), in the event that RMA INC sell or transfer all or any portion of the business or assets (including, but not limited to, in the event of a reorganization, dissolution or liquidation); and
  • to any relevant third-party provider, where our website uses third party advertising, plugins or content.

If RMA INC engage a third-party operator to process any of your Personal Information, RMA INC recognises that any operator who is in a foreign country must be subject to a law, binding corporate rules or binding agreements which provide an adequate level of protection similar to POPIA. RMA INC will review our relationships with operators that RMA INC engage and, to the extent required by any applicable law in force, RMA INC will require such operators to be bound by contractual obligations to:

  • only process such Personal Information in accordance with our prior written instructions; and
  • use appropriate measures to protect the confidentiality and security of such Personal Information.

International Transfer of Personal Information

RMA INC may transfer your Personal Information to recipients outside of the Republic of South Africa.

Subject to paragraph 6.2, Personal Information may be transferred outside of the Republic of South Africa provided that the country to which the data is transferred has adopted a law that provides for an adequate level of protection substantially similar to POPIA, the Operator/third party undertakes to protect the Personal Information in line with applicable data protection legislation and the transfer is necessary in order to provide the legal and other related services that are required by RMA INC’s clients.

Personal Information transferred outside the Republic of South Africa will be done so in accordance with Section 72 of POPIA.

Section 72 provides that Personal Information may only be transferred outside of the Republic of South Africa if the recipient organisation is able to adequately implement and maintain a similar level of protection as contained in POPIA.

Personal Information may be transferred outside the Republic of South Africa if:

  • the transfer of the Personal Information is required for the purposes of abiding or upholding a contractual obligation;
  • the data subject to whom the Personal Information relates provides consent to its transfer.

Data Security

RMA INC has implemented appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect your Personal Information that is in our possession against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, unauthorised access, in accordance with applicable law.

Where there are reasonable grounds to believe that your Personal Information that is in our possession has been accessed or acquired by any unauthorised person, we will notify the relevant regulator and you, unless a public body responsible for detection, prevention or investigation of offences or the relevant regulator informs us that notifying you will impede a criminal investigation.

The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will implement all reasonable measures to protect your Personal Information that is in our possession, RMA INC cannot guarantee the security of any information transmitted using the internet and cannot be held liable for any loss of privacy occurring during the course of such transmission.

Data Accuracy

Personal Information provided to RMA INC should be accurate, complete and up to date. Should Personal Information change, the onus is on the provider of such data to notify RMA INC of the change and provide RMA INC with the accurate data.

Data Minimisation

RMA INC will restrict its processing of Personal Information to data which is sufficient for the fulfillment of the original purpose for which it was collected.

Data Retention

RMA INC shall only retain and store Personal Information for the period for which the data is required to serve its original purpose or a legitimate interest or for the period required to comply with an applicable legal requirement, whichever is longer.

Your Legal Rights

You may have rights under South African and other laws to have access to your Personal Information and to ask us to rectify, erase and restrict use of your Personal Information. You may also have rights to object to your Personal Information being used, to ask for the transfer of Personal Information you have made available to us and to withdraw consent to the use of your Personal Information.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

RMA INC may process your Personal Information by our use of Cookies and similar technologies.

When you visit our website we may place Cookies onto your device, or read Cookies already on your device, subject always to obtaining your consent, where required, in accordance with the applicable law. RMA INC uses Cookies to record information about your device, your browser and, in some cases, your preferences and browsing habits. RMA INC may process your Personal Information through Cookies and similar technologies, in accordance with our Cookie Policy.

Direct Marketing

RMA INC may process your Personal Information for the purposes of providing you with information regarding services that may be of interest to you. You may unsubscribe for free at any time.

Contact Details

Information Officer of Rurik McKaiser Attorneys Incorporated

Attention:
  

Rurik McKaiser


Telephone:
  +27 11 646 1909
Email:
  enquiries@rurikmckaiser.com