1. PRIVACY POLICY
We are a professional partnership committed to protect the personal data of our staff, associates, partners, clients, and other individuals whose personal data is under our control and supervision as part of the firm’s operations and in the provision of our legal services.
In this Privacy Policy, we tell you about how we collect, use, protect, and possibly share your personal data when you join the law firm or become one of our clients. Through transparency, we hope to empower you to make choices about your personal data in the most informed and meaningful ways.
This Privacy Policy applies to all personal data processing activities performed by FAJARDO LAW OFFICES including those involved in the provision of our legal services and the management of our staff, associates, and partners. We may also update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law and in our firm’s practices.
2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND USE
Personal Data of Individual Clients and Representatives of Business Clients
During consultations with any of our lawyers for the provision of legal services, we collect basic identifiers and contact information from our individual clients and representatives of business clients such as full names, addresses, contact numbers, and e-mail addresses to maintain further correspondence with them in preparation for legal representation. We also use this information as part of our ongoing contact list to reach out to both present and past clients for potential engagements in the future.
Once we’ve fully onboarded a client for an existing case or legal matter, we may ask for additional personal data depending on the requirements of the legal service, especially in the establishment of a client’s legal defense or claim. This may include electronic or paper-based supporting documents such as government identification, regulatory documents and certificates, real property titles, marriage documents, law enforcement reports, photos, affidavits, logs, and recordings. While we may be unable to mention all the categories of personal data that we may ask for due to the intricacies of each case or legal matter, the confidentiality of all such information is covered by the lawyer-client privilege under the Revised Rules of Court.
Personal Data of FLO Staff, Associates, and Partners
We collect and process both personal and sensitive personal information of our staff, associates, and partners for Administrative and Human Resource Development purposes as well as in compliance to applicable laws, rules and regulations including, but not limited to:
- Identity verification
- Pre-qualification and post-qualification assessment
- Processing of employment compensation and benefits, including payroll and loan management
- Implementation of employee login credentials for the firm’s IT and communications network
- Maintenance of onsite and remote access security to the organization’s network and/or facilities
- Compliance to regulatory requirements such as Bureau of Internal Revenue (“BIR”), Department of Labor and Employment (“DOLE”), SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG reportorial requirements; and
- For the protection of lawful rights and interests of the organization in internal administrative and court proceedings, or the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims against prospectively malfeasant employees.
Cookies
We only collect cookies, web beacons, small data text files, or similar technologies primarily to ensure that the core functions of our website and apps are optimally accessible to you.
3. INFORMATION WE SHARE
We outsource the processing of information to third parties including vendors, service providers, and partners, to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy. This includes information verification and regulatory compliance.
These third parties are only authorized to access and use information pursuant to, and only for the duration of, our engagement with them. Rest assured, they are contractually required to protect personal data with appropriate organizational, physical, and technical security measures consistent with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws, rules, and regulations.
We never share personal data with any third party unless you explicitly allow us to or are otherwise required or permitted by law to do so. In any case, we will let you know exactly what we are sharing, why, and what basis under the law, apart from consent, we rely on, before we do so.
4. HOW WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION
We secure and protect your information with appropriate safeguards to ensure confidentiality and privacy, prevent loss, theft, use for unauthorized purposes, and comply with the requirements of the law.
To detect and mitigate evolving threats to information security and data privacy, we have implemented appropriate organizational, physical, and technical controls to protect your information.
5. RETENTION AND DISPOSAL OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
It is the policy of FAJARDO LAW OFFICES to ensure that personal data is only retained for a limited period or until the lawful and legitimate purpose of the processing is achieved. To that effect, we have established procedures for securely disposing files that contain personal information whether the same is stored on paper, film, optical or magnetic media, personal information stored offsite, and computer equipment, such as disk servers, desktop computers and mobile phones at end-of-life.
6. YOUR RIGHTS AS A DATA SUBJECT
We recognize your rights under the Data Privacy Act of 2012.
Right to Be Informed
You have the right to be informed of how and why we collect and process your information, including where we collected it, with whom we share it and why, how we protect it, how long we keep it, and how we dispose of it, and any changes to our data processing activities before they are implemented.
Right to Object
You have the right to object to the processing and/or sharing of your information especially when you feel that we do not have lawful grounds to do so.
Right to Withdraw Consent
When our collection and processing of your information depends on the consent that you provided to us, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time subject to FAJARDO LAW OFFICE’s internal procedures. This, however, does not apply to instances where we rely on grounds provided by law, other than consent. Nevertheless, you always have the right to object.
Right to Access
You have the right to request reasonable access to your information subject to FAJARDO LAW OFFICE’s internal procedures. We, however, reserve the right to seek reasonable fees when providing such data presents certain challenges due to its volume as well as to restrict access to linked data that may be confidential, proprietary, or belong to other individuals.
Right to Data Portability
You have the right to obtain a copy of your electronic information, or have it transmitted to other entities in a format that is portable and commonly accessible. However, such a right is limited only to personal data we have obtained directly from you.
Right to Rectify
We keep our records as accurate as possible. Where there are any errors or inaccuracies to your information, we give you ways to dispute and rectify or update it, subject to FAJARDO LAW OFFICE’s internal procedures.
Right to Erasure or Blocking
You have the right to suspend, withdraw, or order the blocking, removal, or destruction of inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, false, or unlawfully obtained information, or information not necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, and for such other cases provided in the Data Privacy Act of 2012.
7. HOW TO REACH US
Should you wish to exercise any of your data subject rights or have any questions or concerns regarding our privacy practices, you may contact our Data Protection Officer:
Data Protection Officer
FAJARDO LAW OFFICES
U-707 7/F Cityland 10 Tower 2,
HV. Dela Costa Cor. Valero Sts.,
Brgy. Bel-Air, Makati City,
Metro Manila, Philippines