Netherlands Privacy Policy

1.1. AirCounsel Ltd, trading as AirCounsel, is a limited company, registered under number 12000525. Contact details can be found at section 16.

1.2. We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal data about you. When we do so we must comply with the Netherlands General Data Protection Regulation (Netherlands GDPR). We must also comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) in relation to services we offer to individuals in the European Economic Area (EEA).

1.3. Our services and website are not aimed specifically at children who are usually represented by their parents or guardians. If you are a child and you want further information about how we might use your data, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ at section 16).

It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:

3.1 We collect or use the following information:

• Your name, address and telephone number
• Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth or passport details
• Gender and pronoun preferences
• Occupation
• Marital status
• Electronic contact details, e.g. your email address and mobile phone number
• Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation
• Information to enable us to undertake a credit or other financial checks on you
• Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, e.g. the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction
• Payment details (including card or bank information for transfers and direct debits)
• Information about how you interact with and use our website, products and services
• Audio recordings, e.g. calls
• Video recordings, e.g. of virtual meetings

Personal data may collect depending on why you have instructed us

• Your National Insurance and tax details
• Details of your professional online presence, e.g., LinkedIn profile
• Details of your spouse/partner and dependants or other family members, e.g., if you instruct us on a family matter or a will
• Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, e.g., if you instruct us on a matter related to your employment or in which your employment status or income is relevant
• Your nationality and immigration status and information from related documents, such as your passport or other identification, and immigration information, e.g., if you instruct us on an immigration matter
• Details of your pension arrangements, e.g., if you instruct us on a pension matter or in relation to financial arrangements following breakdown of a relationship
• Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances, e.g., if you instruct us on a matter related to your employment or in which your employment records are relevant
• Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs, e.g., if you instruct us on a discrimination claim
• Information relating to sex life or sexual orientation, e.g., if you instruct us on a discrimination claim
• Your trade union membership and/or political opinions, e.g., if you instruct us on a discrimination claim or your matter is funded by a trade union
• Genetic information and/or biometric information used to identify someone, e.g., where this is relevant to a matter we are working on for you

3.2 The main purpose of collecting and using this information is to provide products and services to you through our website www.aircounsel.com. However, we may also collect and use the above information for the purposes set out in section 3.

3.3 If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing those services.

4.1 We collect most of the above information from you.

4.2 However, we may also collect information:

• 4.2.1 from publicly accessible sources, including Companies House or HM Land Registry;
• 4.2.2 directly from a third party, for example:
  • (a) sanctions screening providers;
  • (b) credit payment agencies, e.g. Klarna;
  • (c) client due diligence providers;
• 4.2.3 from a third party with your consent, including:
  • (a) your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor;
  • (b) your employer and/or trade union, professional body or pension administrators;
  • (c) your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;
• 4.2.4 via our website—we use cookies and similar technologies on our website (for more information on cookies, please see the cookie schedule)
• 4.2.5 via our security, information technology (IT) systems, e.g.:
  • (a) via our case management, document management and time recording systems; and
  • (b) through automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, email and instant messaging systems.

5.1 Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason, for example:

• 5.1.1. you have given consent—where we need your consent, we will ask for it separately of this privacy policy and you can withdraw consent at any time;
• 5.1.2 to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
• 5.1.3 to fulfil our contract with you or take steps at your request before entering into a contract; or
• 5.1.4 for our legitimate interests or those of a third party.

5.2 A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your personal data, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. We will always carry out an assessment when relying on legitimate interests, to balance our interests against your own. You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests. We must then stop the processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds which override your interests, rights and freedoms or the processing is required to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

5.3 The table below explains what we use your personal data for and why.

5.4 Where we process special category personal data (see section 2 ‘Terminology’), we will also ensure we are permitted to do so under data protection laws:

• 5.4.1 we have your explicit consent;
• 5.4.2 the processing is necessary to protect your (or someone else’s) vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent;
• 5.4.3 the processing is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
• 5.4.4 the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.

6.1 We may use your personal data to send you updates (eg by email, text message, telephone, post or social media channels) about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services.

6.2 We have a legitimate interest in using your personal data for marketing purposes (see section 5 ‘How and why we use your personal data’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you marketing information. Where this is not the case, we will always ask for your consent.

6.3 In all cases, you have the right to opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by:

• 6.3.1 contacting us at info@aircounsel.com; or
• 6.3.2 using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails.

6.4 We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

6.5 We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never sell it to or share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.

7.1 We routinely share personal data with:

• 7.1.1. third parties we use to help deliver our services to you, including providers of our case management and finance system, IT service providers including cloud service providers such as data storage platforms, shared service centres and financial institutions in connection with invoicing and payments;
• 7.1.2 third party external advisors or experts engaged in the course of providing services to you, e.g. barristers, tax advisors, local counsel and technology service providers;
• 7.1.3 companies providing services for money laundering checks and other crime prevention purposes and companies providing similar services, including financial institutions;
• 7.1.4 other third parties we use to help promote our business, e.g. marketing agencies;
• 7.1.5 third parties approved by you, e.g. social media sites you choose to link your account to or third party payment providers;
• 7.1.6 our insurers and brokers; and
• 7.1.7 our banks.

7.2 We only allow those organisations to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We ensure all outsourcing providers operate under service agreements that are consistent with our legal and professional obligations, including in relation to confidentiality.

7.3 We or the third parties mentioned above may occasionally also share personal data with:

• 7.3.1 our external auditors, e.g. in relation to the audit of our accounts, in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
• 7.3.2 our and their professional advisors (such as lawyers and other advisors), in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
• 7.3.3 law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
• 7.3.4 other parties that have or may acquire control or ownership of our business (and our or their professional advisers) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition or asset sale or in the event of our insolvency—usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible and the recipient of any of your personal data will be bound by confidentiality obligations

7.4 If you would like more information about who we share our data with and why, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us as section 16).

8.1 Personal data may be held at the offices of AirCounsel Ltd and those of our third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described in section 7 ‘Who we share your personal data with’.

8.2 Some of these third parties may be based outside the Netherlands. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this occurs, see section 10 ‘Transferring your personal data abroad’.

9.1 We will not keep your personal data for longer than we need it for the purpose for which it was collected or as required by law.

9.2 As a general rule, we will keep your personal data for at least seven years from the conclusion of your matter, in case you, or we, need to bring or defend any complaints or claims. However, different retention periods apply for different types of personal data and for different services.

9.33 Following the end of the of the relevant retention period, we will delete or anonymise your personal data.

9.4 If you would like further information about how long we keep your personal data, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us at section 16).

10.1 It is sometimes necessary for us to transfer your personal data to countries outside the Netherlands and EEA. This may include countries which do not provide the same level of protection of personal data as the Netherlands or EEA.

10.2 We will transfer your personal data outside the Netherlands and EEA only where:

• 10.2.1 the Netherlands government or European Commission has decided the recipient country ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an adequacy decision); or
• 10.2.2 there are appropriate safeguards in place (e.g. standard contractual data protection clauses published or approved by the relevant data protection regulator), together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for you; or
• 10.2.3 a specific exception applies under data protection law.

11.1 You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

11.2 If you make a request, we must respond to you without undue delay and in any event within one month.

11.3 If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

• 11.3.1 email, call or write to us—see section 16 ‘How to contact us’; and
• 11.3.2 provide enough information to identify yourself (your full name, address and client or matter reference number) and any additional identity information we may reasonably request from you;
• 11.3.3 let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

12.1 We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to keep your personal data confidential and secure from unauthorised access, use and disclosure. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your personal data will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

12.2 We require our business partners, suppliers and other third parties to implement appropriate security measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, use and disclosure.

12.3 We also have procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are required to do so.

13.1 Please contact us if you have any queries or concerns about our use of your personal data (see ‘How to contact us’ at section 16). We hope we will be able to resolve any issues you may have.

13.2 You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (the Netherlands data protection regulator also known as the ICO) and/or the relevant supervisory authority in your jurisdiction.

13.3 The contact details for the ICO are:

13.4 Please contact us if you would like further information.

14.1 This privacy policy was published on 13th September 2024 and last updated on 13th September 2024.

14.2 We may change this privacy policy from time to time. When we do we will publish the updated version on our website and ask for your consent to the changes if legally required.

We take reasonable steps to ensure your personal data remains accurate and up to date. To help us with this, please let us know if any of the personal data you have provided to us has changed, for example your surname or address—see ‘How to contact us’ at section 16).

16. 1 Individuals in the Netherlands

You can contact us by email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you, to exercise a right under data protection law or to make a complaint.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file which is placed onto your device (e.g. computer, smartphone or other electronic device) when you use our website. We use cookies on our website. These help us recognise you and your device and store some information about your preferences or past actions.

For example, we may monitor how many times you visit the website, which pages you go to, traffic data, location data and the originating domain name of your internet service provider. This information helps us to build a profile of our users and optimise our services. Some of this data will be aggregated or statistical, which means that we will not be able to identify you individually.

For further information on our use of cookies, including a detailed list of your information which we and others may collect through cookies, please see below.

For further information on cookies generally, including how to control and manage them, visit the guidance on cookies published by the Netherlands Information Commissioner’s Office, or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Consent to use cookies and changing settings

We will ask for your consent to place cookies or other similar technologies on your device, except where they are essential for us to provide you with a service that you have requested (for example to enable you to put items in your shopping basket and use our check-out process).

You can withdraw any consent to the use of cookies or manage any other cookie preferences by clicking on the banner at the bottom of any page on our site. You can then adjust sliders or untick boxes as appropriate. It may be necessary to refresh the page for the updated settings to take effect.

Our use of cookies

The table below provides more information about the cookies we use and why:

How to turn off all cookies and the consequences of doing so

If you do not want to accept any cookies, you may be able to change your browser settings so that cookies (including those which are essential to the services requested) are not accepted. If you do this, please be aware that you may lose some of the functionality of our website.

For further information about cookies and how to disable them please go to the guidance on cookies published by the Netherlands Information Commissioner’s Office, or www.allaboutcookies.org.

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about this cookie policy or the information we hold about you.

If you wish to contact us, our Data Protection Officer, please send an email to info@aircounsel.com.