1. Introduction
1.1 This is the privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) of Messrs. C.C.Choo, Hazila & Teong (“the Firm”), a full service Malaysian law firm.
1.2 This Privacy Policy applies to personal information about individuals held by the Firm. The Firm will only process your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act 2010, the applicable regulations, guidelines, orders made under the PDPA and any statutory amendments or re-enactments made of the PDPA from time to time (collectively referred to as the “PDPA”) and this Privacy Policy.
1.3 The Firm reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, update and/or amend this Privacy Policy from time to time.
1.4 If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy or any amendments to this Privacy Policy, the Firm may not be able to render all services to you and you may be required to terminate your relevant engagement with the Firm and/or stop accessing or using the Site.
2. COLLECTION OF PERSONAL DATA
2.1 The term “Personal Data” means any information in the possession of the Firm or control of the Firm that relates directly or indirectly to an individual to the extent that the individual can be identified or are identifiable from that and other information in the possession of the Firm such as your name, contact details, address, email address, personal identification numbers, bank account information or such other personal details provided to or requested by us from time to time. “Third Party Personal Data” means personal data provided by you of any third party including, but not limited to, your spouse, children, family members, agents, principals, associates and/or employees. The Firm may process your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data by way of collecting, recording, holding, storing, using and/or disclosing it.
2.2 Your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data may be collected from you during your course of dealings with the Firm in any way or manner including pursuant to any transactions and/or communications made from/with the Firm. The Firm may also collect your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data from a variety of sources, including without limitation, online search tools, lawful third party sources, surveys or at events organized or participated by the Firm.
2.3 In addition, the Firm may also receive, store and process your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data which are provided or made available by any third parties, credit reference bodies, regulatory and law enforcement authorities, for reasons including delivery of the Firm’s services, performance of conditions of agreements and/or to comply with the Firm’s legal and regulatory obligations.
3. PURPOSE OF ACQUIRING AND PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL DATA
Your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data may be processed for the following purposes:
(a) for internal administrative purposes;
(b) to provide services that you have requested from us;
(c) to prepare any document or instrument which may be required for the purposes set out in sub-paragraph (b) above and such other ancillary work in connection with sub-paragraph (b) above, including but not limited to, preparing the necessary contracts or agreements or instruments to which you are a party;
(d) to communicate with you;
(e) for storage, hosting and/or backing up (whether for disaster recovery or otherwise) of your personal data, whether within or outside Malaysia;
(f) to provide information to regulatory and governmental authorities in order to comply with statutory and regulatory requirements;
(g) to comply with the Firm’s obligations as prescribed by applicable laws;
(h) to provide you with information and/or updates on the law and services offered by us and/or our associate firms;
(i) to send you materials such as season greeting cards, newsletters, articles, write-ups and other updates;
(j) to distribute information of events, conferences, talks and seminars which may be of interest to you;
(k) to send as potential referees to editors/researchers in legal ranking publications and journals and potential clients who request for referees of past work in our credential statements, tenders and submissions;
(l) to process and analyse your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data either individually or collectively with other individuals;
(m) to conduct market research or surveys, client profiling activities, planning and statistical and trend analysis within the Firm in relation to the Firm’s services;
(n) to share any of your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data with the auditor for the Firm’s internal audit purposes;
(o) to share any of your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data pursuant to any agreement or document which you have duly entered with the Firm for purposes of seeking legal and/or financial advice and/or for purposes of commencing legal action;
(p) to share any of your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data with insurance companies necessary for the purpose of applying and obtaining insurance policy(ies), if necessary;
(q) to share any of your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data with financial institutions necessary for the purpose of applying and obtaining credit facility(ies), if necessary;
(r) to maintain and improve client relationship;
(s) for audit and risk management purposes;
(t) for detecting, investigating and preventing fraudulent, prohibited or illegal activities;
(u) for enabling the Firm to perform its obligations under the agreement or document which you have duly entered into with the Firm;
(v) for meeting any applicable legal or regulatory requirements and making disclosure under the requirements of any applicable law, regulation, direction, court order, by-law, guideline, circular or code applicable to the Firm;
(w) to enforce or defend the Firm’s rights and your rights under, and to comply with, the Firm’s obligations under the applicable laws, legislation and regulations; and/or
for other purposes required to operate and maintain the Firm’s legal practice,
(collectively referred to as the “Purposes”), and you agree and consent to the Firm using and processing your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data for the Purposes in the manner as identified in this Privacy Policy.
4. CONSEQUENCES OF NOT CONSENTING TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
It is obligatory for the Firm to collect and retain your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data unless stated otherwise. Failure to supply the Firm with your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data, or to consent to the above or this Privacy Policy, will render the Firm unable to:
(a) provide you legal services as requested;
(b) communicate with you; and/or
(c) update you on the law and any other updates and you may be required to terminate your agreement or discontinue hiring our services and/or your business relationship with the Firm.
5. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
The Firm will not disclose any of your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data to any third party without your consent except to the following third parties, within and outside Malaysia, for one or more of the above Purposes:
(a) the Firm’s associate firms;
(b) the Firm’s service providers;
(c) any professional advisors and auditors;
(d) statutory, regulatory and governmental authorities;
(e) any party who undertakes to keep your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data confidential;
(f) any person to whom the Firm is compelled or required under the law to disclose to;
(g) the Firm’s employees;
(h) your immediate family members and/or emergency contact person as may be notified to the Firm from time to time;
(i) successors in title to the Firm;
(j) any party who is involved in connection with corporate exercises, such as a potential or actual sale/disposal of any business or interest of the Firm, merger, consolidation, re-organisation or funding exercise relating to the Firm, or asset sale, or in the event of winding-up of the Firm;
(k) any person under a duty of confidentiality to which has undertaken to keep your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data confidential which the Firm has engaged to discharge the Firm’s obligations to you;
(l) any party in relation to legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings;
(m) the Firm’s auditors, consultants, lawyers or other financial or professional advisers on a need to know basis for the purpose of those advisers providing advice to the Firm;
(n) any party nominated or appointed by the Firm either solely or jointly with other service providers, for purpose of establishing and maintaining a common database where the Firm has a legitimate common interest;
(o) storage facility providers, data centres and/or servers located within or outside Malaysia for data storage purposes;
(q) payment channels including but not limited to financial institutions for purpose of assessing, verifying, effectuating and facilitating payment of any amount due to the Firm in connection with your hiring of the Firm’s services;
(r) government agencies, law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals, regulatory bodies, ministries, and/or statutory agencies or bodies, offices or municipality in any jurisdiction, if required or authorised to do so, to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, order or judgment of a court or tribunal or queries from the relevant authorities;
(s) the Firm’s business partners, appointed service providers, suppliers or vendors, that provide related services in connection with the Firm’s business, or discharge or perform one or more of the above Purposes and (t) other purposes required to operate and maintain the Firm’s business;
insurance companies for the purpose of applying and obtaining insurance policy(ies), if necessary;
(u) financial institutions for the purpose of applying and obtaining credit facility(ies), if necessary; and/or
any persons, authorities or regulators to whom the Firm is permitted or required to disclose to under the applicable laws.
6. ACCURACY OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
The Firm aims to keep all Personal Data as accurate, complete, not misleading, up-to-date and reliable as possible. Therefore, the accuracy of your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data depends to a large extent on the information you provide. As such, it is a condition of the Firm providing the services to you that you:
(a) warrant and declare that all your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data submitted or to be submitted to the Firm are accurate, not misleading, updated and complete in all respects for purposes of acquiring or using the relevant products and/or services and you have not withheld any Personal Data which may be material in any respect and that the Firm is authorized to assume the authenticity and updatedness of the Personal Data given by you when processing the Personal Data submitted by you to the Firm (and the Firm is not obliged to independently verify any of such Personal Data); and
(b) you understand and agree to, the importance of the need to, update the Firm as and when such Personal Data provided earlier to the Firm becomes inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, outdated or changes in any way whatsoever by contacting the Firm at the contact details below.
7. YOUR RIGHTS
7.1 Subject to the exceptions provided under the PDPA, you have the right to request for access to, request for a copy of and/or request to update or correct Personal Data held by the Firm. The Firm may charge a small fee (such amount as permitted by the PDPA) to cover the administration costs involved in processing your request to access your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data.
7.2 In respect of your right to access and/or correct your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data, the Firm has the right to refuse your request to access and/or correct your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data for the reasons permitted under the law, such as where the expense of providing access to you is disproportionate to the risks to your privacy, or where the rights of others may also be violated, amongst other reasons.
7.3 You have the right at any time to request the Firm to limit the processing and use of your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data (for example, requesting the Firm to stop sending you any marketing and promotional materials or contacting you for marketing purposes).
7.4 In addition, you also have the right to inform the Firm on your withdrawal (in full or in part) of your consent given previously to the Firm subject to any applicable legal restrictions, contractual conditions and a reasonable duration of time for the withdrawal of consent to be effected. However, any limitation or the withdrawal of such consent may affect the Firm’s service as stipulated in paragraph 4 of this Privacy Policy.
8. RETENTION OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
Any of Personal Data provided to the Firm is retained for as long as the purposes for which the Personal Data was collected continues; the Personal Data is then destroyed unless its further retention is required to satisfy a longer retention period to meet the operational, legal, regulatory, tax or accounting requirements of the Firm.
9. SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
9.1 The Firm is committed to ensuring that your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data is stored securely. In order to prevent unauthorised access, disclosure or other similar risks, the Firm endeavours, where practicable, to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations to safeguard against and prevent the unauthorised or unlawful processing of your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data, and the destruction of, or accidental loss, damage to, alteration of, unauthorised disclosure of or access to your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data.
9.2 The Firm will make reasonable updates to its security measures from time to time and ensure the authorised third parties only use your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data for the Purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, and to adequately safeguard your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data.
9.3 The Firm cannot and does not accept responsibility for any unauthorised access or interception or loss of Personal Data that is beyond the Firm’s reasonable control.
10. PERSONAL DATA FROM MINORS AND OTHER INDIVIDUALS
To the extent that you have provided (or will provide) Personal Data about your family, spouse and/or other dependents, you represent and warrant that you have obtained their consent to provide their Personal Data to the Firm and they consent to their Personal Data being processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy and, with respect to minors (i.e. individuals under 18 years of age) or any individuals not legally competent to give consent, you consent on their behalf (and you confirm that you have the authority to do so).
11. TRANSFER OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA OUTSIDE OF MALAYSIA
The Firm’s information technology storage facilities and servers may be located in other jurisdictions outside of Malaysia. Your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data may be transferred to entities outside of Malaysia. This may include, but not limited to, instances where your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data may be stored on servers located outside of Malaysia. Please note that these foreign entities may be established in countries that might not offer a level of data protection that is equivalent to that offered in Malaysia under the laws of Malaysia. You hereby expressly consent to the Firm transferring your Personal Data and/or Third Party Personal Data outside of Malaysia for such purposes.
12. CONTACT DETAILS
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or would like to make a complaint or data access or correction request, you may contact the Firm at the contact details below:
Data Protection Partner
Address: Suites A-20-9, A-20-10 & A-20-11, Tower A, Level 20, Menara UOA Bangsar, No.5, Jalan Bangsar Utama 1, Bangsar,59000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Contact No.: 603-2711 5530
Facsimile No.: 603-2711 5529
Email Address.: general@ccchoolawyers.com
Last Updated: April 2022