What is this policy?
When you use our services or contact us (online or in “the real world”), you trust us with your personal information. We collect and store this information about you to help us deliver the best possible legal and patent attorney services.
Here we will explain what information we collect, how we collect it and what we actually do with it.
By giving us your information, you are agreeing for us to process it in the ways described here.
Who are we?
LegalVision is a technology-powered law firm.
LegalVision NZ Limited (company number 8107340) provides legal services under the LegalVision brand in a collaborative manner to Kiwis.
LegalVision NZ Operations Limited (company number 8494431) delivers certain operational services to LegalVision and its clients. Legal Vision Pty Limited (ABN 83 155 748 628) is the ultimate holding company of LegalVision NZ Operations Limited.
Legal Vision Pty Limited and its subsidiaries, together with LegalVision NZ Limited, are referred to together in this policy as members of the LegalVision Group.
This Privacy Policy applies to all LegalVision Group members (collectively “we”, “us” or “our”).
What information do we collect?
We operate in multiple jurisdictions, currently Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The LegalVision Group members operating in those jurisdictions are bound by the respective privacy laws in those jurisdictions.
Any LegalVision Group member operating in a country must comply with the applicable privacy legislation of that country. In New Zealand, this includes the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and the information privacy principles set out in that Act. In Australia, this includes the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles set out in that Act.
For the purposes of this privacy policy, “personal information” is information about an identifiable individual (a natural person).
We collect personal information that helps us contact you, solve your legal problem and personalise our content for you. This includes:
- communicating with you;
- improving our website, social media pages and connected applications;
- giving you information;
- internal administrative record keeping;
- product improvement and Business Development; and
- marketing, including sending you information about our products, our competitions and other parties.
We will only ask for, use or share sensitive information with your consent and only for the reason we collected it (unless we need to by law). Examples of sensitive information include your political and philosophical opinions, religion, race, professional memberships, sex life, criminal records and health and biometric information.
We collect contact details like your name, phone number, email and address. The information we collect to personalise content for you includes job titles, images, opinions and how you use our site. We also ask about your work, business situation and credit card details. If we do not need your information anymore, we will anonymise or delete it.
If you are giving us others’ personal information, please do so only if they agree to this policy.
When you access any website, including ours, you may be providing it with information about your location, Internet provider, computer hardware, browser type and operating system.
How do we collect information?
We collect personal information about you:
- from you when you provide that information to us, including when you reach out to us through the phone, use our website or open our emails;
- from third parties where you have authorised this or the information is publicly available.
If possible, we will collect personal information from you directly.
This can be through online enquiry forms or questionnaires when you download our free resources.
We also use software like cookies to tell us how you use our website and how we can help you. As well as being delicious sweets, cookies are tiny digital identifiers that are automatically stored on your computer. These help us personalise our service to you and can be turned off or deleted at any time through your browser settings.
One way cookies help us personalise content for you is by causing Google or Facebook to make our advertisements appear on your social media feeds.
We also use web beacons (or ‘Clear GIFs’) on our site. These are small pieces of code that collect information about how a person uses our website. For example, this software can help us count the number of visitors to our site.
You do not have to disclose your information to us, or you can remain anonymous when dealing with us in relation to a particular matter. However, this may mean that we will not be able to provide our services to you.
What do we do with this information?
Using your information:
We use all personal information legally, fairly and transparently, and on this page, we explain everything that we do with it. We will only use your information to give you the best legal service, which comes down to researching your case, communicating with you and marketing our services to you. This includes:
- giving you legal advice;
- asking you for feedback; and
- marketing.
We do these through:
- Government database searches;
- phone calls;
- emails; and
- snail mail (occasionally).
Security and storage of your information:
We store your information securely in Sydney, and only our staff and businesses we work with can access it. We use physical, electronic and management processes to keep your information safe from loss, unauthorised activity, or other misuse. For example:
- access to your information is protected by strict user logins;
- our servers are locked away with multiple physical safeguards;
- all our staff are trained in information security; and
- we limit access to your information according to the strict client confidentiality laws that apply to law firms.
While we do our best to ensure personal information is kept secure and take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, loss, interference, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, no system is totally secure. We cannot guarantee your information is completely protected from hackers, interference or misappropriation. If you suspect any misuse, loss, or unauthorised access to your information, please contact us immediately.
Sharing your information:
Your information may be shared with other members of the LegalVision Group in accordance with this privacy policy, including entities located in Australia. All LegalVision Group members handling your information are required to comply with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. Further, all disclosure of information by us within the LegalVision Group is subject to compliance with all legal requirements, including but not limited to the Code of Conduct for Trans-Tasman Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys 2018 and the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008.
We also regularly share your information with a core few organisations that we work with to collect, process and use your information. These include:
- data analysis (Google Analytics & Mouseflow);
- targeted ads (Facebook & LinkedIn);
- marketing content (Marketo); and
- payment services (Stripe).
Aside from these, we might also occasionally share your information with other contractors and groups like compliance providers, marketers, advisors, data storage and payment service providers, and only on a need-to-know basis. This includes providers of IT, data storage, web-hosting, servers, debt collection, maintenance, marketing, advertising, professional advisory, credit reporting, compliance and payment systems services. To find out how other groups use your information from our website, see their privacy policies (Google’s is here).
This may mean your personal information is held and processed outside New Zealand, including in Australia and the US.
We will never sell your information (or give it away for free). However, the government might ask for your information – for example, through certain laws or a court order. This might include the police investigating a crime or a court hearing for failure to pay. If this happens, we’ll comply. If LV is ever sold, your personal information will also be shared with the new owner.
Remember, when reaching out to us online, we can’t guarantee that your information has not been intercepted by someone else before reaching us. That is your responsibility!
What if you have a special relationship with us?
Some relationships are ‘special’ because of the different data requirements they have. We have outlined some examples here.
When we become your lawyer, we might ask you for important documents like contracts and may legally need to keep your data for a certain length of time.
When you apply for a job with us, we might ask for personal data like your work history.
If you are under 16, we can only let you use our site and submit your data to us if you have your parents’ or guardians’ permission.
How to contact us?
We will do our best to keep your data up to date. You can view – and ask us to correct – any data we have about you. You can also ask us at any time to stop communicating with you.
If you’re unhappy with something we’ve done or you think we’re not following privacy laws, let us know and we’ll get back to you promptly to try and fix that. Just reach out at info@legalvision.co.nz.
You can also make a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
If this policy ever changes, we’ll update it here.
LegalVision Pty Limited / LegalVision ILP Pty Limited / LegalVision NZ Limited / LegalVision NZ Operations Limited
Last updated June 2023.