Privacy and cookie policy

As a law firm, Animo BV highly regards the privacy of its clients, prospective clients, suppliers, job applicants and visitors to its website (www.animo-law.be).

Please find below the privacy and cookie policy of Animo BV. This policy clarifies how we process your personal data and the rights you have in relation to this data. We reserve the right to change this privacy and cookie policy at any time (e.g. in order to comply with new legal requirements).

This privacy and cookie policy applies to all data processing activities controlled by Animo BV.

1    Who is the data processor of your personal data?

Animo BV with registered seat at Vaartstraat 146, 3000 Leuven, Belgium and registered with enterprise number 0765.254.972 (hereinafter referred to as “Animo”; “we” or “our”), is the legal entity that processes all personal data with respect to its clients, prospective clients, suppliers, job applicants and visitors to its website.

If you have any questions about our privacy and cookie policy or want to exercise your rights as set out below, you can contact us.

Our contact details are:

Animo BV
Vaartstraat 146
3000 Leuven
E-mail: info@animo-law.be 

2     What categories of personal data does Animo process?

Animo may, in the course of its business, collect and process personal data about you, for example when you visit our website, when you engage our services or request information from us or as a result of your relationship with us as a supplier.

Clients

With respect to our clients, we collect and process the following categories of personal data that we receive directly from them:

• Basic information, such as your name and surname, the enterprise you work for, the legal form of the enterprise, your title or position;
• Contact information, such as your personal or professional address, your telephone number and/or e-mail address;
• Identification and background information as part of our client intake procedure, as required by the relevant legislation (including anti-money laundering legislation). This may possibly include personal data which we do not only directly obtain from you, but also through third party sources;
• Financial information (such as a VAT number) and account details (such as a payment history);
• Information related or relevant to the matters Animo provides you legal assistance with.

Animo may also process additional information received from other sources, such as publicly available information sources.

Prospective Clients

With respect to prospective client, Animo processes the following information:

• Basic information, such as your name and surname, the enterprise you work for, the legal form of the enterprise, your title or position;
• Contact information, such as your personal or professional address, your telephone number and/or e-mail address;
• Information related to our services you have shown interest in.

Suppliers

With respect to its suppliers Animo processes the following information:

• Basic information, such as your name and surname, the enterprise you work for, the legal form of the enterprise, your title or position;
• Contact information, such as your personal or professional address, your telephone number and/or e-mail address;
• Information regarding the products or services you provide;
• Financial information, such as your VAT-number or bank account information.

Job applicants

With respect to job applicants, Animo processes the following information:

• Basic information, such as your name and surname;
• Contact information, such as your personal address, your telephone number and/or e-mail address;
• A curriculum vitae, containing information such as personal information, academic history, previously held positions, language skills etc.
• A motivation letter;
• Academic records.

Through our website, Animo will not collect any personal data about you (e.g. your name and surname or your contact details), unless you voluntarily choose to provide us with it (for example by subscribing to a newsletter, registering for an event or providing information in the context of a job application), or unless you provide your consent.

 

3    For what purposes do we process your personal data?

In general, Animo processes your personal data for the following purposes:

• To communicate with you, including replying to your requests;
• To provide and improve our services to our clients, including handling the personal information of others on behalf of our clients;
• To manage our relationship with our clients and our suppliers;
• To fulfil our legal and regulatory obligations;
• To defend our legal rights;
• To promote our services, including sending legal updates, publications and details of events;
• For the purposes of recruitment, including the evaluation and assessment of job applicants.

The personal data that you online provided us with, will be collected, used or disclosed by Animo only in accordance with the purpose as mentioned to you, unless the use of the personal data:

• Is necessary to establish or preserve a legal claim or defense;
• Is necessary to prevent fraud or illegal activities.

Clients and suppliers are legally or contractually obliged to provide certain personal data (e.g. in the framework of our anti-money-laundering obligations). Prospective clients or visitors of our website are not obliged to provide any personal data to us. If you are a job applicant, the provision of certain personal data is a requirement necessary for entering into a possible contract.

4    What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Animo processes your personal data on the following legal bases:

1. The processing is necessary for the performance of a contract. We process personal data prior to entering into a contract (e.g. to allow us to prepare a proposal of services) and we process personal data to enable us to provide our services and in the normal course of our business.
2. The processing is necessary to improve and further develop the services Animo renders and its position in the market (e.g. by sending newsletters, invitation to events etc.).
3. Compliance with legal and regulatory obligations to which Animo is subject.
4. Your consent.

5    Who do we share your personal data with?

As a rule, Animo does not share your data with third parties.

Animo only shares personal data with third parties, insofar this is necessary or related to the provision of the services rendered. Your personal data can be shared with:

• Service providers who perform services to Animo, such as our accountant and our IT-specialist;
• Suppliers to whom we outsource certain support services such as translators;
• Third parties engaged in the course of the services we provide to clients, such as specialists in particular areas of law, opposing parties and/or their legal counsel, notary publics, bailiffs and technology service providers such as data room managers;
• Third parties involved in hosting or organizing events or seminars;
• Regulatory authorities, courts, tribunals, government and public services.

Animo uses social media sites such as LinkedIn. If you use these services, you should review their privacy policy for more information on how they deal with your personal information.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties, nor do we make it commercially available to any third party.

Animo is a Belgian law firm established in Leuven. principle, we only process personal information within the European Economic Area (EEA). In case we need to transfer personal data to recipients located in countries outside the EEA, It should be assessed whether these countries offer adequate protection of your personal data. In such case, Animo will implement appropriate measures to ensure that all personal data remains protected in accordance with applicable data protection legislation.

6     How long do we store your personal data?

Animo will not store your personal data for the stated purpose for longer than necessary, taking into account legal and regulatory requirements to retain the information for a minimum period, prescription periods, good practice and our business purposes. When the personal information we collect is no longer required, we will destroy or delete it in a secure manner.

Personal data concerning our clients will be retained for five years from the date of our last interaction with the client, but may be retained for a longer period of time if necessary for compliance with regulatory obligations or in relation to our professional liability.

As regards suppliers, personal data will be stored for a period of maximum ten years after termination of our relationship.

As regards prospective clients and job applicants, the personal data will only be retained for a period of maximum two years should the prospective client not enter into an engagement with Animo or should the job applicant not be successful.

7    How do we protect your personal data?

Animo makes use of various technical and  organizational measures to help protect personal data. We have implemented appropriate data collection and processing practices and corresponding security measures to protect it against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction.

8    What are your rights as a data subject and how can you exercise them?

You have a number of right regarding the personal information that we process:

Right of access

You are entitled to request details of the information we hold about you and how we process it.

Right to rectification / right to erasure / right to restrict the processing / right to data portability

You are entitled to have your personal data rectified or deleted, to restrict the processing of that information, to stop unauthorized transfers of your personal data to a third party and, in some circumstances, to have your personal data transferred to another organization.

Right to lodge a complaint

You have the right to lodge a complaint in relation the processing of your personal data by Animo. A complaint can be lodged with the local supervisory authority, i.e. the Data Protection Authority. The contact details of it are:

Data Protection Authority
Drukpersstraat 35
1000 Brussels
Belgium

Tel: 0032 2 274 48 00
E-mail: contact@apd-gba.be

Right to object / right to withdraw consent

If you object to the processing of your personal data, or if you have provided your consent to processing and you later choose to withdraw it, we will respect that choice in accordance with our legal obligations. At all times, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

Requests for access, correction, deletion, data transfer of your personal data or requests for withdrawal of your consent or objection to the processing of your personal data can be sent to us by e-mail (info@animo-law.be) or by regular mail to the address as mentioned under section 1 of this privacy and cookie policy. Please note that Animo can only process your request with proof of your identity.

The aforementioned rights may be applicable in certain circumstances only and may be subject to certain conditions, exemptions or exceptions as set out in applicable data protection legislation.

If you should have any further questions or complaints about the processing of your personal data, about Animo or about this privacy and cookie policy, you can contact us via our contact details as mentioned under section 1 of this privacy and cookie policy.

9    Cookies

This website (www.animo-law.be) uses cookies. Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user's experience more efficient.

We use cookies to personalize content, to provide social media features and to analyze our website traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you have provided to them or that they have collected from your use of their services. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website.

The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. For all other types of cookies we need your permission.

This website uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.

You can at any time change or withdraw your consent via the privacy setting on our website. If you should have any further questions or complaints about your consent, about Animo or about this privacy and cookie policy, you can contact us via our contact details as mentioned under section 1 of this privacy and cookie policy.

We use the following cookies:

• Necessary cookies help make a website usable. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
• Performance cookies allow owners of a website to understand how the visitors use their website, by anonymously collecting and reporting data.
• External cookies are used to track visitors when they visit various websites. They are used for individually tailored and relevant advertising purposes for a visitor. These advertisements are therefore more valuable for external advertisers.

Cookies

You will find an overview of the cookies we use below:

COOKIE	TYPE	Description	Duration
cookie-agreed	Necessary	Stores the user’s privacy settings for the current domain.	100 days
cookie-agreed-categories	Necessary	Stores the user’s cookie consent state for the current domain.	100 days
_ga	Performance	Google Analytics – Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.	2 years
_gat	Performance	Google Analytics – Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate.	1 day
gid	Performance	Google Analytics – Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.	1 day
collect	Performance	This cookie is used to send data to Google Analytics about the device and the behaviour of visitors. Traces visitors on various devices and marketing channels.	session
CONSENT	External	Cookie consent tracker of Google. Used when presenting services of Google and Youtube. For example when a map of Google Maps is presented.	20 years