Privacy Policy

Forvis Mazars Alumni Platform: Privacy Notice

The following information applies to users of this Forvis Mazars LLP Alumni platform hosted by Enterprise Alumni (“Alumni Service”).

Data Controller and applicable data protection laws

Forvis Mazars LLP (“Mazars”) whose registered office is at 30 Old Bailey, London, EC4M 7AU is the Data Controller for your personal data processed through the Alumni Service.

The information in this notice  is aligned to the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”), including as it forms part of the law of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland by virtue of section 3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act and the Data Protection Act 2018 in each case, as updated, amended or replaced from time to time.

Throughout this notice, the term ‘personal data’ should be interpreted as defined within GDPR.

In the event you are a citizen of a jurisdiction where alternate data protection laws apply and those laws are applicable to us by virtue of their international reach, we ensure we comply with all applicable data protection law requirements and the information below should be read in accordance with our obligations to you under  all applicable law. 

Why we process your personal data

Registration to the Alumni Service is voluntary, to enable you to receive information on Forvis Mazars’ activities, maintain relationships with past colleagues and communicate future opportunities.

As part of your submission of a registration for the Alumni Service your personal data are being processed for the following purposes:

• Creation of a user account
• Verification of your identify as a former Forvis Mazars employee or Partner
• Enabling you to enter any competitions or other promotions notified to you as part of the registration process

Once registered, your personal data may be processed by Forvis Mazars to/for:

• Provision access to and management of the Alumni Service
• Facilitate contact with you in relation to prospective employment
• Facilitate communication with you on business related matters
• Facilitate contact within the Platform from other Alumni Service users
• Provide you with direct marketing material (unless you have asked us not to either as part of the registration process of subsequently)
• Security management and monitoring of the Alumni Service
• Provision of technical support in relation to the Alumni Service
• Respond to any questions or other contact you make with Forvis Mazars

We may also process your personal data where we are subject to a legal or regulatory requirement to do so, including as part of prospective or existing litigation.

Processing your personal data

Your personal data are processed in accordance with the following legal bases:

• Consent: When signing up to the Alumni Service you are required to accept the Terms and Conditions of Use which include the processing of your personal data for the above stated purposes. If you are unable to agree to the processing purposes (except optional activities including direct marketing and competition or promotion entry), we will not be able to process your request to join the Alumni Service. This is because the information initially required enables us to verify your identity as a previous employee or partner of Forvis Mazars and the subsequent uses are part of the core functionality of the Alumni Service. In the event we need to seek your consent for any other purpose at a later time we will make clear as part of the request why your consent is required, the purpose for which the affected personal data will be used and any consequences of failing to provide consent. In the event you provide us with your consent and later change your mind, you are able to withdraw your consent by contacting us in accordance with the ‘Contacting us’ section of this notice and we will terminate your access to the Alumni Service although you are welcome to register again in the future. Withdrawing consent will not impact on processing activities which have already taken place on the basis of your consent.
• Legitimate interests: We may use your personal data on the basis of our own legitimate interests in delivering, promoting and developing our services, benchmarking and assessing our performance. Activities promoting our services include direct marketing which individuals may opt-out of at any time. Opt-out can be achieved by responding using the unsubscribe options contained within the information you have received or by emailing privacy@mazars.co.uk. We also use personal data in pursuit of the legitimate interests of third parties, including our suppliers supporting our delivery of the Alumni Service. Those interests include delivering our services and facilitating service improvements in the software we utilise and other ancillary activities, such a security management, to ensure we can continue delivering our services. 

For the purpose of the Alumni Service, we may process personal data in the following categories:

Category          Field types

Demographic  -  such as your name, title, email, address and geographic location

Employment   -  including information about your current employer, business contact details

Engagement   -  how you engage and interact with our services.

You should note that the field types are not an exhaustive list of every field of data we may process.

Unless you choose to provide it to us for any reason, we do not anticipate processing special category (or similar) personal data as a part of your use of this service. Except where explicitly requested as part of event registration, we ask that you do not upload special category personal data to this Alumni Service. In the event we do require special category personal data from you, we shall provide an explanation of the reason for the request. You may choose not to provide the requested information but it may mean we are unable to make specific adjustments to our events to accommodate your requirements.

Data sharing and international transfers

Where necessary we will share your personal data with following:

Our suppliers: We utilise a range of IT suppliers to support the delivery of our services. Those suppliers provide us with a range of platforms and integration solutions to enable a seamless experience for you. Some suppliers store data on our behalf on their servers. Where necessary suppliers may be provided with access to your personal data to provide us with technical support.

Other third parties: Where we request and you give us your permission to share your personal data with another organisation we may do so in accordance with the consent provided. It may also be necessary for us to share your personal data with our regulators, Group Member Firms and any other organisations responsible for ensuring our compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. In the event we are required to disclose your personal data to law enforcement agencies we may do so but we will normally redirect any request for disclosure to you or your employer (depending on our contractual arrangements), unless we are prohibited from doing so on the important grounds of public interest.

As an international business it may be necessary for us to transfer your personal data globally across international borders to enable us to deliver our services. Where this takes place, we ensure appropriate technical and organisational measures are in place including the use of Standard Contractual Clauses. In the event you require further information on the measures put in place, these can be obtained by using the details in the ‘Contacting us’ section of this notice.

Links to third party websites

Where we provide links to third party websites, those sites are covered by their privacy policies and are outside the scope of this notice. When accessing those websites you will be subject to the relevant privacy notices and practises of the applicable website. It is your responsibly to ensure you understand how those companies may use your personal data. We cannot accept liability for the content of any third party website.

Data retention

Your personal data will be retained for as long as necessary to facilitate your access to the Alumni Service and then in compliance with our legal and regulatory requirements.

Your rights

You may exercise a number of rights in respect of the personal data we process about you. 

You may:

• Request access to the personal data we hold about you
• Ask us to correct any data which are inaccurate
• Request to have your personal data deleted
• Put in place restrictions on our processing of your data
• Ask us to transfer your data to another controller (data portability)

We will handle all exercise of your data subject rights in accordance with the requirements of GDPR and any applicable national laws at the time of your request. Requests should be submitted to our Data Protection Officer at privacy@mazars.co.uk.

If you are a UK citizen and are dissatisfied with the way we have handled your personal data and we are unable to resolve the matter for you, you may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Further details can be found via their website at www.ico.org.uk. For EU citizens, you may contact the Belgian supervisory authority for data protection, and the details of our  EU representative are set out below. 

Profiling

We carry out profiling as defined in Article 4(4) UK GDPR for the purposes of marketing, developing our business and understanding the needs of our clients. To facilitate this, we collect data from the following sources as a result of your interactions with us:

• The Alumni Service
• Our website;
• Our social media sites which may in turn collect data from your personal social media accounts or directly from your account; and
• Zoom (or other such facility) in the event you register for and attend any event we have organised.

We do not use profiling technologies for any credit or other automated decision taking processes as part of the Alumni Service.

Marketing

When registering for the Alumni Service you will have the option to opt into or out of direct marketing. This option relates solely additional contact outside of the Alumni Service platform and direct messaging communications within the Alumni Service platform. In registering for the Alumni Service you may see marketing materials as part of the system. We have considered relevant to our Alumni Service audience in general. If you do not wish to see such materials within the Alumni Service platform we would ask that you do not register for the Alumni Service platform.

Where you agree we may contact you with other direct marketing material please note that some of our marketing emails may contain web beacons, web bugs, cookies or other similar technologies which enable us to understand whether an individual opens, reads, or deletes the message and any interaction an individual makes with links contained therein. When an individual clicks on a link in a marketing email they receive from us we may also use cookies to log what pages that individual views, in accordance with our cookies policy.

Targeted emails from us may include additional data privacy information.

Cookies

The Alumni Service uses cookies. Some functional cookies are necessary for the core functionality of the platform. Where additional cookies are available, we will provide you with the option to accept or reject those cookies. Further information on cookies in the platform can be found here.

Data Security

Forvis Mazars has put technological and organisational controls, including policies and procedures, in place to protect personal data from loss, misuse, alteration or unintentional destruction. Our personnel who have access to the data have been trained to maintain the confidentiality of such information. Conditions to protect data to at least an equivalent standard to our own are cascaded to our contractors, sub processors and suppliers.

We carry out regular monitoring and testing of our security defences to ensure they continue to be effective against the latest threats.

Data transferred over the internet by us and through our website are protected using encryption technologies. Please note that no communication over the internet can be guaranteed as secure. Whilst we take appropriate steps to protect personal data we cannot guarantee that it will remain secure in transit. 

Data Protection EU Representative

In accordance with Article 27 GDPR we have designated an EU representative to act on our behalf if and when we undertake data processing activities to which article 3(2) of GDPR applies.

Our representative is:

Forvis Mazars in Belgium
Bellevue 5 - B 1001
9050 Gent
Belgium

Contacting us

Should you have any questions or queries in relation to our use of your personal data or to exercise any of your data subject rights you can contact our Data Protection Officer by emailing privacy@mazars.co.uk or alternatively you are welcome to speak with your local Forvis Mazars contact who will assist in ensuring your questions are answered by us.

Changes to this Statement

We recommend you check this statement on a regular basis to ensure you remain in agreement with the activities we carry out in respect of processing personal data.

Should we make significant changes to the way we process personal data, we will draw your attention to the relevant part(s) of this statement through email and or other appropriate communications as part of our Alumni Service. 

Last updated: April 2022