PwC Malta's Privacy Statement

October 2024

PricewaterhouseCoopers Malta (“PwC”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) is strongly committed to protecting personal data.  As a data controller, we ensure that all processing of personal data is carried out in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the Data Protection Act (Chapter 586 of the laws of Malta) and the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). For any question arising under this statement, please contact mt_privacy@pwc.com. 

This privacy statement describes why and how we collect and use personal data of concerned data subjects (“you” or “your”) and provides information about individuals’ rights. It applies to personal data provided to us as a data controller in terms of the GDPR, both by individuals themselves or by others. We use personal data provided to us for the purposes described in this privacy statement or as otherwise stated at the point of collection or any time later as may be required.

Personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable living person. PwC processes personal data for numerous purposes. The means of collection, lawful basis of processing, use, disclosure, and retention periods for each purpose may differ. In any case, we ensure that only the strict minimum information is collected.

When collecting and using personal data, our policy is to be transparent about why and how we process personal data. To find out more about our specific processing activities, please go to the relevant sections of this statement.

Business contacts

Collection​ ​of​ ​personal​ data

PwC processes personal data about contacts (existing and potential PwC clients and/or individuals associated with them) using a customer relationship management system (the “PwC CRM”).

The collection of personal data about contacts and the addition of that personal data to the PwC CRM is initiated by a PwC user and will include name, employer name, contact title, phone, email and other business contact details. In addition, the PwC CRM collects data from PwC’s email (sender name, recipient name, date and time) and calendar (organiser name, participant name, date and time of event) systems concerning interactions between PwC users and contacts or third parties.

 

Use​ ​of​ ​personal​ data

Personal data relating to business contacts is visible to and used by authorised PwC users to learn more about an account, client or opportunity they have an interest in.  The personal data in this case is generally processed on the basis of Article 6 (1)(f) GDPR, as there is a legitimate interest for us in :

  • Administering, managing and developing our businesses and services.
  • Providing information about us and our range of services.
  • Making contact information available to PwC users.
  • Identifying clients/contacts with similar needs.
  • Describing the nature of a contact’s relationship with PwC.
  • Performing analytics, including producing metrics for PwC leadership, such as on trends, relationship maps, sales intelligence and progress against account business goals.

PwC member firms do not sell or otherwise release personal data contained in the PwC CRM to third parties for the purpose of allowing them to market their products and services without consent from the data subjects themselves to do so.

 

Data retention

Personal data will be retained on the PwC CRM for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out above (i.e. for as long as we have, or need to keep a record of, a relationship with a business contact).

Security

Security remains a high priority for PwC, and we remain accountable to our clients, suppliers, visitors and other stakeholders and the information we are entrusted with.

Our offices make use of security measures including CCTV surveillance and building access controls, generally on the basis of Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, as PwC has a legitimate interest to protect the property against burglary, theft or vandalism and to prevent and detect any unlawful conduct whilst also safeguarding our employees and visitors to our offices. There are signs throughout our premises showing that CCTV is in operation whereby PwC Malta acts as the exclusive controller of the data collected. The images captured are securely stored and only accessed internally on a need to know basis (e.g. to look into an incident). CCTV recordings are typically automatically overwritten after 90 days unless an issue is identified that requires investigation (such as a theft). In such an event, we may be required to process and transfer the data collected in order to cooperate with law enforcement authorities whether local or foreign, as the case may be.

Furthermore, all personal data is processed in accordance with our internal information security procedures, which provide a baseline security level for all PwC firms.  All PwC staff who process personal data are required to follow the provisions of such procedures and are bound by confidentiality obligations. Various technical and organisational measures are set out throughout PwC, including the use of data loss prevention, web filtering, transport layer security, incident response procedures and full disk encryption. For more information, please refer to the PwC Global Information Security Statement.

When and how we share personal data and locations of processing

We will only share personal data with others when we are legally permitted to do so.  When we share data with others, we put contractual arrangements and security mechanisms in place to protect the data and to comply with our data protection, confidentiality and security standards.

We are part of a global network of firms and in common with other professional service providers, we use third parties located in other countries to help us run our business. As a result, personal data may be transferred outside the countries where we and our clients are located. This includes countries outside the European Union ("EU") and European Economic Area (“EEA”) and to countries that do not have laws that provide specific protection for personal data. We have taken steps to ensure all personal data is provided with adequate protection and that all transfers of personal data outside the EU are done lawfully in such a manner that the same level of protection provided to personal data under the GDPR is ascertained. Where we transfer personal data outside of the EU to a country not determined by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data, the transfers will be under an agreement which covers the EU requirements for the transfer of personal data outside the EU, such as the European Commission approved standard contractual clauses. The European Commission approved standard contractual clauses are available here.

Personal data held by us may be transferred to:

  • Other PwC member firms

For details of our member firm locations, please click here. We may share personal data with other PwC member firms where necessary for administrative purposes and to provide professional services to our clients (e.g. when providing services involving advice from PwC member firms in different territories). Our business contacts are visible to and used by PwC users from other PwC member firms to learn more about a contact, client or opportunity they have an interest in (please see the Business contacts section of this privacy statement for more information about our processing of this type of data).

  • Third party organisations that provide applications/functionality, data processing or IT services to us

We use third parties to support us in providing our services and to help provide, run and manage our internal IT systems. For example, providers of information technology, cloud based software as a service provider, identity management, website hosting and management, data analysis, data back-up, security and storage services. The servers powering and facilitating that cloud infrastructure are located in secure data centres around the world, and personal data may be stored in any one of them.

From time to time we can also make use of AI tools for the purpose of supporting or automating work. We have measures and safeguards in place to ensure that the tools we use are trustworthy AI solutions that offer the necessary levels of protection to data and that implement all the requirements of the GDPR. Such measures include rigorous testing and risk and impact assessments. 

  • Third party organisations that otherwise assist us in providing goods, services or information
  • Auditors and other professional advisers
  • Law enforcement or other government and regulatory agencies or to other third parties as required by, and in accordance with, applicable law or regulation

Occasionally, we may receive requests from third parties with authority to obtain disclosure of personal data, such as to check that we are complying with applicable law and regulation, to investigate an alleged crime, to establish, exercise or defend legal rights. We will only fulfil requests for personal data where we are permitted to do so in accordance with applicable law or regulation.

Individuals’ rights and how to exercise them

Individuals have certain rights over their personal data and data controllers are responsible for fulfilling these rights. Where we decide how and why personal data is processed, we are a data controller and include further information about the rights that individuals have and how to exercise them below.

 

Access to personal data

You have a right of access to personal data held by us as a data controller. This right may be exercised by emailing us at  mt_privacy@pwc.com. We may charge for a request for access in accordance with applicable law. We will aim to respond to any requests for information promptly, and in any event within the legally required time limits (currently one month which may be extended to two months). We shall inform you of any such extension within one month of receipt of the request, together with the reasons for the delay.

Amendment of personal data

To update personal data submitted to us, you may email us at  mt_privacy@pwc.com or, where appropriate, contact us via the relevant website registration page or by amending the personal details held on relevant applications with which you registered.

When practically possible, once we are informed that any personal data processed by us is no longer accurate, we will make corrections (where appropriate) based on your updated information.

Withdrawal of consent

Where we process personal data based on consent, individuals have a right to withdraw consent at any time. We do not generally process personal data based on consent (as we can usually rely on another legal basis). To withdraw consent to our processing of your personal data please email us at  mt_privacy@pwc.com or, to stop receiving an email from a PwC marketing list, please click on the unsubscribe link in the relevant email received from us.

Other data subject rights

This privacy statement is intended to provide information about what personal data we collect about you and how it is used.  As well as rights of access and amendment referred to above, individuals may have other rights in relation to the personal data we hold, such as a right to erasure/deletion, to restrict or object to our processing of personal data and the right to data portability. 

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please send an email to  mt_privacy@pwc.com.

Complaints

We hope that you won’t ever need to, but if you do want to complain about our use of personal data, please send an email with the details of your complaint to  mt_privacy@pwc.com. We will look into and respond to any complaints we receive.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (the Malta data protection supervisory authority).

 

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