CYGNUS LAW’S PRIVACY POLICY

13 August 2024

Introduction

This privacy policy explains how Cygnus Law Ltd (Cygnus Law, we, us, our) collects, uses, discloses, stores and protects personal information.  We comply with the Privacy Act 2020 (Act) when dealing with personal information.  “Personal information” is information about an identifiable individual (a natural person).

By providing personal information to us you consent to us collecting, using, disclosing, storing and protecting your personal information in accordance with this privacy policy.

You are not required to provide the personal information that we request (including under the laws noted below) but, if you choose not to do so, in many cases we may not be able to provide our services or to continue to provide them.

Updates

We may change this policy by uploading a revised policy onto our website. The change will apply from the date that we upload the revised policy.

What Personal Information we collect

We collect personal information from you, including (but not limited to) information such as your name, telephone number, date of birth, address, biometric information (e.g. photographs of faces from identity documents, apps that collect information for anti-money laundering checks- see below under “How we use personal information”), passport or driver licence and other information which assists us in conducting our business, providing and marketing our services and complying with our obligations at law.  We may collect technical information whenever you access or use our website including details of your visits to our website such as traffic data, location data, website analytics.

How we collect personal information

We collect personal information about you directly from you, through contact with us (for example, in a meeting, or via an email), or when we provide services to you.  We may also (if we have an engagement with you) collect information from relevant third parties including (but not limited to) related businesses and persons, accountants and lawyers (with your prior consent) and third parties who support us to meet our legal obligations with respect to anti-money laundering law as described below under “who we provide personal information to” (“third parties”).  You hereby authorise each of those third parties to provide the requested personal information to us.

If you provide us with personal information about another person you are confirming that that person has authorised disclosure of their personal information to us in accordance with this privacy policy.

How we use personal information

We collect personal information for the following purposes:

  • to arrange for you to become a client including to carry out identity, address and conflicts of interest checks;
  • to provide our services to you (and to assist in improving our services);
  • in connection with providing services to our client
  • where you are party to a transaction with, or in relation to, a Cygnus Law client and where you witness a document;
  • to respond to communications from you;
  • to make contact with you in the future about matters we believe will be of interest;
  • in connection with defending, protecting and/or enforcing our legal rights and interests including defending a complaint, claim or other action;
  • to comply with our obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 including to carry out identity verification using facial recognition services provided by third party service providers including Trust, Integrity & Compliance Ltd;
  • to comply with our obligations at law under the Tax Administration Act 1994, Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006, Income Tax Act 2007, Russia Sanctions Act 2022 and United Nations Act 1946 (and related regulations);
  • for any other purpose authorised by you or the Act.

Who we disclose personal information to

We may disclose personal information to:

  • the extent necessary to enable us to carry out your instructions;
  • to the extent necessary for the purpose for which you provided the information;
  • Actionstep Ltd, Xero Ltd, Microsoft Corporation (including Microsoft New Zealand Ltd) and Adobe in order to use their respective cloud-based business software systems (in the case of Microsoft Corporation that includes the applications Word, Outlook and OneDrive);
  • IT and software consultants (including Belton IT Nexus Ltd and Verlata Consulting (New Zealand) Ltd), who access our servers, computers and software systems (and the data they hold) from time-to-time for the purposes of providing support and training, carrying out maintenance, upgrades and repairs, and providing backups;
  • the New Zealand government and overseas governments (and their agencies), and our bank, as required under, or as necessary in connection with, the laws noted above;
  • third parties who support us to meet our legal obligations with respect to anti-money laundering law, which may include Trust, Integrity & Compliance Ltd, Information Logistics Company Ltd, Centrix Group Ltd, Centrix Data One Ltd, Verifi Identity Services Ltd, the Department of Internal Affairs and auditors of our anti-money laundering risk assessment and compliance programme;
  • any other business or person(s) that supports provision of our services (including related companies, lawyers, accountants);
  • obtain credit or other references, and collect unpaid debts (including disclosing information to collection agencies);
  • the New Zealand Law Society in connection with its rights and powers under Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006;
  • the extent required by law (including the laws noted above);
  • lawyers and other professionals, and our insurers (and their advisers), in connection with defending, protecting and/or enforcing our legal rights & interests;
  • any other person authorised you or the Act.

How we protect personal information

We will take steps that are reasonable in the circumstances to keep personal information safe from loss and from unauthorised access, use, modification, or disclosure.

How long we keep your information

Subject to Cygnus Law’s terms of engagement (if you are a client of Cygnus Law), we will retain personal information for as long as is reasonably required in connection with the purpose for which it was provided and for any longer period required by law.

Accessing and correcting personal information

Subject to certain grounds for refusal set out in the Act, you have the right to access your personal information and to request a correction to that personal information.  We can be contacted at: 09 930 3228 and simon@cygnus.local.

Internet use

While we take reasonable steps to maintain secure internet connections, if you provide us with personal information over the internet, the provision of that information is at your own risk.

If you follow a link on our website to another site, the owner of that site will have its own privacy policy relating to your personal information.  We recommend that the site’s privacy policy is reviewed before any personal information is provided.