Legal Costs Online (Pty) Ltd is committed to compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 and this policy sets out its internal procedures in respect thereof.
Last updated June 2021
Definitions
Business Legal Costs Online (Pty) Ltd, a company registered in terms of the laws of South Africa
Guideline for Best Practice the best practice procedures regarding the processing of personal information in Legal Costs Online (Pty) Ltd as contained in paragraph 10 hereof
Personal Information means information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person, and where it is applicable, an identifiable, existing juristic person, including, but not limited to-
(a) information relating to the race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health, well-being, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth of the person;
(b) information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person;
(c) any identifying number, symbol, e-mail address, physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier or other particular assignment to the person;
(d) the biometric information of the person;
(e) the personal opinions, views or preferences of the person;
(f) correspondence sent by the person that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature or further correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence;
(g) the views or opinions of another individual about the person; and
(h) the name of the person if it appears with other personal information relating to the person or if the disclosure of the name itself would reveal information about the person;
POPIA means the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013
Process/ processing means any operation or activity or any set of operations, whether or not by automatic means, concerning personal information, including-
(a) the collection, receipt, recording, organisation, collation, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, alteration, consultation or use;
(b) dissemination by means of transmission, distribution or making available in any other form; or
(c) merging, linking, as well as restriction, degradation, erasure or destruction of information;
Responsible Party is Legal Costs Online (Pty) Ltd
Information Officer means Matthys Lourens
Data protection principles
This policy must be read and interpreted in conjunction with the Legal Costs Online (Pty) Ltd Privacy Notice.(insert hyperlink)
1. Lawful processing
Legal Costs Online (Pty) Ltd is committed to processing data in accordance with its responsibilities under the POPIA.
As the POPIA requires that personal information of clients, employees and third party service providers to Legal Costs Online (Pty) Ltd, may only be processed in terms of the conditions for lawful processing as stipulated in POPIA, personal information shall be:
1.1 processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals and other entities;
1.2 collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes. Further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes shall not be considered to be incompatible with the initial purposes;
1.3 adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is processed;
1.4 accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date. Every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal information which is inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, is safely deleted or rectified without delay;
1.5 kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed. Personal information may be stored for longer periods insofar as the personal data will be processed solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes, always however ensuring that the rights and interests of the data subjects are protected; and
1.6 processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.”
2. General provisions
2.1 This policy applies to all personal information processed by Legal Costs Online (Pty) Ltd, whether it relates to the information of clients (both natural persons and entities), employees and third party service providers to the business.
2.2 The Information Officer is responsible for the business’ ongoing compliance with this policy.
2.3 This policy shall be reviewed at least annually.
2.3 The Information Officer shall be registered with the Information Regulator as Information Officer of the business.
3. Lawful, fair and transparent processing
3.1 To ensure its processing of personal information is lawful, fair and transparent, the business shall maintain a Guideline for Best Practice, which forms part of this policy and in paragraph 10 hereof.
3.2 The Guideline for Best Practice shall be reviewed at least annually and shall otherwise be updated continuously, to serve as also as continuous risk assessment in respect of the procedures applied with regards to data processing.
3.3 Data subjects have the right to access their personal data and any such requests made to the business shall be dealt with in a timely manner and in accordance with the Privacy Note.
4. Lawful purposes
4.1 All data processed must be done on one of the following lawful bases:
4.1.1 consent from the data subject;
4.1.2 in terms of a contract on which the data subject is a party;
4.1.3 in the exercise of a legal obligation;
4.1.4 for the furtherance of a legitimate interest of the data subject or of the business; or 4.1.5 for a public law duty.
4.2 The business shall record the appropriate lawful basis in the documentation regulating the client relationship.
4.3 Where electronic direct marketing activities are performed by the business in respect of data subjects:
4.3.1 that are not customers, consent is relied upon as a lawful basis for processing data. Evidence of opt-in consent shall be kept with the personal data. Where electronic communications are sent to individuals based on their consent, the option for the individual to revoke their consent shall be clearly available and systems should be in place to ensure such revocation is reflected accurately in the business’ systems.
4.3.2 that are customers, consent is not required. However, the option for the individual recipient to revoke their consent shall be clearly available and systems should be in place to ensure such revocation is reflected accurately in the business’ systems.
5. Data collection minimisation
5.1 The business shall ensure that private information is adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed.
5.2 In collecting and storing data, the business will collect only such data as it reasonably requires for purposes of completing the contract in terms of which it was instructed.
5.3 The details of the data collected shall be aligned to the Guideline for Best Practice contained in paragraph 10 hereof.
6. Accuracy
6.1 The business shall take reasonable steps to ensure personal data is accurate.
6.2 Where necessary for the lawful basis on which data is processed, steps shall be put in place to ensure that personal data is kept up to date.
6.3 As a general rule, the data shall be obtained from the data subject and only where it is certain that the interests of the data subject will not be prejudiced, will other means be applied to verify the accuracy of the data.
7. Archiving / removal
7.1 To ensure that personal information is not kept for no longer than necessary, Legal Costs Online (Pty) Ltd shall ensure that files are retained for the period stipulated in the Guideline for Best Practice and review this process annually.
7.2 The archive provisions shall consider what data should/must be retained, for how long, and why.
8. Security
8.1 The Business shall ensure that personal data is stored securely using software that is kept-up-to-date.
8.2 Access to personal data of employees, clients and third parties shall be limited to personnel who need access and appropriate security is in place to avoid unauthorised sharing of information, as set out in the Guideline for Best Practice.
8.3 When personal data is deleted this shall be done safely so that the data is irrecoverable.
8.4 Appropriate back-up and disaster recovery solutions shall be in place.
9. Breach
In the event of a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data, the Information Officer shall promptly assess the risk to the data subject’s rights and advise both the Information Regulator and the data subject, if possible and as required after the assessment of the incident.
10. Guideline for Best Practice
In line with the principles set out above, Legal Costs Online (Pty) Ltd shall:
10.1 Collection of data
10.1.1 Collect only such data from clients and third parties and employees that is necessary for purposes of the relevant transaction. This is generally limited to names, email, physical and business addresses, VAT number and business registration number (in the case of an entity).
10.1.2 In respect of employees, additional information may be collected and the employment agreement with employees shall record that the employee furnish consent for such processing. These include information about the employee or applicant’s occupational health and safety, recruitment and training and for general compliance with applicable law, trade union membership, health or biometric information; details of next of kin and medical aid for the use in the event of an emergency; previous employment records; criminal records; bank details.
10.2 Security
10.2.1 Access to physical files is reserved for those appointed by Legal Costs Online, as employer, to have access. Although not all the physical files are locked away during working hours, all staff and employees are made aware of the fact that the files contain private information of data subjects and may only be accessed for business purposes, and on the instruction and permission of the employer.
10.2.2 Access to electronic files is similarly reserved for those appointed by the responsible person to have access. Access is controlled by way of confidential passwords and the password holders may not share the password with any third party, unless obliged to do so by the employer.
10.2.3 The premises are locked after working hours, and access is only granted to staff/employees/third parties on permission and supervision of the employer.
10.2.4 The Information officer may monitor emails sent form the business’ email address to ensure the quality of communications as well as to detect possible unauthorised use of the email system.
10.3 Incident response
10.3.1 Should there for any reason arise a reasonable suspicion that the records of the business had been breached and unlawfully accessed, the relevant employee or data subject shall communicate this with the Information Officer who will, in turn, investigate the incident.
10.3.2 Where necessary, the Information Officer shall then noptify the data subject concerned as soon as possible, as well as with the Information Regulator, as provided for in clause 9 hereof.
10.4 Data subject access to information
10.4.1 Data subjects shall have the right to access to their data held by the business, as provided for in the Legal Costs Online Privacy Notice.
10.4.2 Data subject may request changes to the details held, and the Information Officer shall assess the request and assist the relevant enquirer, as provided for in POPIA and in the Legal Costs Online Privacy Notice.
10.5 Risk Assessment
10.5.1 The Information Officer shall from time to time perform a risk assessment of its exposure to the risk of a data breach and implement necessary provisions as may be required.
10.6 Archiving
10.6.1 Legal Costs Online (Pty) Ltd is obliged, by the Legal Practice Act to keep its files for a period of 7 years.
10.6.2 The business will ensure that the archiving facility used, ensures to it that adequate safety measures are in place to guard against unlawful interference with the data so archived.
10.6.3 On termination of this period, the Information Officer shall ensure to arrange for destruction of both its physical and electronic data by a service provider that guarantees adequate destruction.
