Privacy Notice
Godinez Villanueva Espiritu & Soliman (GVES Law) (“we”, “us”, “our”) is a full-service firm providing legal services to a myriad of clients, both local and foreign, and across different industries. In the course of your engagement with us, we collect information from you, including your personal information. As such, as your legal counsel, we are committed in preserving and managing the privacy and security of your information.
In this Privacy Notice, we lay down the procedure and measures we observe in processing your information that you provide us in the course of our engagement with you in compliance with the Data Privacy Act and the rules and regulations issued by the National Privacy Commission.
A. What Information We Collect From You
We will collect information, including but not limited to the following:
i. Personal information such as your name, address, contact numbers, email address, age, civil status, and nationality.
ii. Other information, legal and personal, which you provide us in order for us to address your legal needs.
We may also collect and process other personal information necessary for the accomplishment of our engagement with you.
We collect your personal information either personally or through our correspondences with you in various communication channels, including this website.
We also collect information from you when you fill up the required fields in the “Contact Form” in this website.
B. How We Use Your Information
We will use your information (i) to perform our obligations pursuant to our engagement; (ii) to provide you with any legal updates by way of client advisories and GVES Law’s activities and services; (iii) to comply with regulatory and legal requirements; and (iv) to perform other processing that may be essential under existing laws and regulations.
In the use of your personal information, we will take appropriate measures to protect your information and shall restrict this information to only to our lawyers, paralegals, and staff who are bound to discharge their duties in relation to your engagement with us.
We may only strictly disclose your information if we are under a duty or legal obligation to disclose such. The information you disclosed to us is strictly covered under the lawyer-client privilege.
C. Access, Storage, Retention
In the storage of your information, we maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with the relevant laws and regulations to protect your personal information from any unauthorized access and disclosure. We will restrict access of your personal information to our employees or agents who have a legitimate reason for knowing such information.
We will retain and store the information we collect from you in accordance with the purposes for which it was initially collected, subsequently authorized, or as permitted under applicable laws and until it is no longer necessary for the fulfillment of the purpose/s for which it was obtained. After such period expires or as when retention is no longer required, we will destroy your information and, accordingly, ensure that the information is irretrievable and unusable.
D. Cookies
We use cookies and similar technologies to recognize you and/or your device(s) on, off and across different Services and devices. You can control cookies through your browser settings and other tools. In case you do not agree on the use of cookies, you can turn the cookie feature off on your computer or mobile device. You may refer to the instructions of your Internet browser on how to disable the use of cookies and how to delete persistent cookies. Kindly note that our platforms may not function properly without the use of Cookies.
E. Your Rights
Pursuant to the Data Privacy Act, we respect and uphold your rights in relation to the collected personal information. For a detailed information about such rights, you may refer to the National Privacy Commission’s webpage at https://privacy.gov.ph/know-your-rights/.
F. Our Commitment to Data Security
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data integrity and accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and management control procedures reasonably designed to safeguard and secure the information we collect from you. Personnel who have access to our database are trained to maintain and secure all information.
Please understand, however, that no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our databases, nor can we guarantee that the Information that you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to and from us over the Internet. In particular, e-mail sent to or from the website may not be secure, and you should therefore take special care in deciding what information you send to us via e-mail.
G. Notice Update
We reserve the right to change or update this Notice at any time by placing a prominent notice on our website or other documents that we provide. Such changes shall be effective immediately upon posting in our website.
H. How To Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or you want to exercise your rights under the Data Privacy Act, including accessing your personal information, please contact us at info@gveslaw.com.
As of 18 October 2021