About this privacy policy

Masouros & Partners is a Greek law firm whose registered office is at 4, Dimokritou str., 106 71 Athens – Greece.

In this policy we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This privacy policy (together with our Terms of Use and any other documents referred thereto) sets out the basis on which we collect and process personal data.

Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices on the ways we treat your personal data. It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice we may supply on specific occasions (for example, if you apply for a role with us). This policy supplements such notices and is not intended to override them.

Masouros & Partners herein referred to as “Masouros & Partners” / “we” / “us” / “our” is therefore the data controller responsible for processing the personal data you provide.

Masouros & Partners is committed to managing your personal data securely and effectively; we will only keep the personal data required to undertake our business processes and will only share or transfer the data you provide us for the purposes outlined below.

Our data protection policy and procedures have been developed in line with the requirements of the 1995 European Union Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC) and the General Data Protection Regulation and applicable national law.

The data we collect:

We collect and process personal data about you when you use our website. You are able to make an enquiry via the “contact” section of our website. We ask for your name and contact details in order to identify you and respond to your enquiry. You might provide additional information or personal data in describing the nature of your enquiry.

Special categories of personal data

We do not generally seek to collect sensitive or special categories of personal data.

In case you may supply us with, or we may receive, special categories of personal data, we shall process these special categories of personal data on the basis of one or more of the following:

• where you have given explicit consent;
• where the processing relates to personal data which is manifestly made public by you;
• where the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims;
• where the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, in accordance with applicable law.

You may contact us to let us know that you do not wish us to process your personal data by contacting us as set out later in this policy. However, if such information is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, we may not be able to perform our obligations under that contract.

Our website is not intended for or directed at children under the age of 16 and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children under this age.

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed.  When we engage third party data processors (such as IT consultants, document storage and document shredding contractors) they will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.  We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and we will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Ways we use your personal data

Personal data means any information about you from which you can be identified. We may use your personal data in order:

• to assess how we might assist you, to contact you and if appropriate, to take steps to enter into an engagement with you;
• to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, e.g. to comply with anti-money laundering regulations and checking for conflicts of interest;
• to monitor use of our website, communications and online services and we may use your information to help us check, improve, promote and protect our products, content, services and websites, both online and offline, in accordance with our legitimate interests;
• to respond to any enquiries or complaints we may receive from you, and/or in accordance with our legitimate interests including to investigate any complaints received from you or from others, about our website or our services.

Disclosure of personal data

We do not share, sell or distribute personal data to or with third parties unless:

(i) the transfer of your data to third parties is strictly necessary for the performance of the purposes;

(ii) you have consented to this; or

(iii) this is required to enforce or apply our website terms and conditions or other agreements, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Masouros & Partners, our clients or others (this includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction).

We may disclose, transfer or share any of the information described above, including personally identifiable information, with:

• our partners, staff and consultants based in Athens or in the Hague;
• other professional advisers (e.g. barristers, engineers, counsels) and third parties in accordance with your instructions;
• third parties who provide services to us (e.g. IT services);
• other third parties, if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation; or in order to enforce or apply our Terms of Use; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of us, our clients, or others, including exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction; or to assist us in improving our products and services; or if we have been provided with your prior written consent to such disclosure, transfer, or sharing.

External Links

Once you have used a link on our website to access any 3rd party site, you should note that we do not have any control over what the external site may collect or do with your data.

Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collect it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or regulatory requirements.  If we carry out legal work on your behalf this will be subject to our terms of business, which set out our policy in relation to file retention and destruction. The retention period of your personal data is 5 years but can be extended under tax legislation or until the lapse of outstanding claims.

Data storage

The personal data we collect may be stored in various cloud provider platforms and may be transferred and stored outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”).  The data may also be processed by staff operating outside of the EEA who works for us or for one of our suppliers. Where we do so, the third country’s data protection laws will have been approved as adequate by the European Commission or other applicable safeguards are in place.   

Where such transfers occur, we ensure the confidentiality and protection of all data is preserved through compliance with legal requirements and the current Data Protection legislation and approved by the relevant regulatory authority.  Data encryption, integrity and confidentiality are enforced by following best practice. Masouros & Partners also ensures that cryptographic controls are implemented following industry best practice, through the use of VPN tunnels, TLS and by conducting regular testing.

Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances you have the following legal rights in relation to your personal data:

• The right to request access to your personal data;
• The right to request correction of your personal data;
• The right to request erasure of your personal data;
• The right to object to processing of your personal data;
• The right to request restriction of our processing of your personal data;
• The right to request transfer of your personal data to a third party;
• The right to withdraw consent (insofar as we may be relying on your consent for processing).

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above please write to us at info@masouros.com  or 4, Dimokritou str., 106 71 Athens – Greece.  You will not usually have to pay a fee to access your personal data, or to exercise any of the other rights listed above.  However, we may charge a reasonable fee if we consider your request is unfounded, repetitive or excessive.  Alternatively, we may refuse to act on your request in these circumstances.

Please bear in mind we may need to request specific information from you to help us to confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data, or to exercise any of your other rights.  This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to a person who has no right to receive it.  We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month.  Occasionally it may take us longer than one month if your request is particularly complex or if you have made a number of requests within a short period of time.  In such case we will notify you and keep you updated.

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (HDPA), the Greek supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.dpa.gr).  We would however appreciate the chance to deal with any concerns before you approach the HDPA, so please contact us in the first instance.

If at any time during the course of our dealings you provide us with any personal data relating to a third party, you must, prior to disclosing it to us, ensure that all consents required by relevant data protection legislation have been obtained or, where such disclosure is otherwise permissible under the relevant legislation, that the relevant requirements have been met.

How we use your information

The purpose for which we use and process your information (excluding sensitive personal data) and the legal basis on which we carry out each type of processing is set out in the table below:

Purposes for which we will process the information	Legal basis for the processing
To provide you with any information and/or services that you have requested from us.	It is in our legitimate interests to respond to your requests in order to generate and develop business.
To send you information regarding changes to our policies, other terms and conditions and other administrative information.	It is in our legitimate interests to communicate changes to our policies and other terms to you.
To monitor, administer and improve our website and to keep our website safe and secure.	It is in our legitimate interests to continually monitor and improve our services and our website and to ensure network security.

We use your personal data under your instructions, data protection laws and our professional duties (including confidentiality). The purposes for which we use your personal data is set out in the table below:

Purposes for which we will process the information	Legal basis for the processing
To provide legal services to you	To perform our contract with you and/or to take steps at your request to enter into such a contract.
To conduct appropriate reviews (including anti-money laundering compliances) and all processing which is necessary for us to comply with our professional, legal and regulatory obligations.	To perform our contract with you and/or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract; to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
To ensure compliance with our business policies.	It is in our legitimate interests or those of a third party to ensure we are following our own internal procedures so that we can deliver the best possible service.
For operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control.	It is in our legitimate interests to be as efficient as possible to deliver the best service at the best price.
To prevent unauthorized access and modifications to our systems.	It is in our legitimate interests to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging to either of us.
To maintain up-to-date client records.	To perform our contract with you and/or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
To carry out credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies.	It is in our legitimate interests to carry out credit control and to satisfy ourselves that our clients are able to pay for our services.

Cookies

“Cookies” are small text files that are stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive, mobile telephone or other device you use to access the web. They store information about your browsing preferences and the configuration of your computer.

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

When you use our website for the first time, a banner will be shown at the top of your screen, explaining that we use cookies. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of cookies on your device as set out in this policy.

We recognize and respect that you may not wish for particular cookies to be set on your device. If you would like to use our website, but do not consent to any or all cookies being set, you can configure your web browser accordingly. This is commonly known as ‘opting out’.

You can configure your web browser to disable and/or refuse all cookies. However, doing so may affect your browsing experience on our website. Please note that disabling a cookie does not delete it from your device; you can do this manually within your own browser.

Cookies we use on our website

To help you understand the cookies we use on our Website, we have classified each cookie as one of the following:

• strictly necessary cookie

These cookies are essential to our Website in order to enable you to move around and to use the features, such as remembering information you have entered on forms when you move to other pages within a browser session. Without strictly necessary cookies, we may not be able to provide certain services which you have asked for and our Website will not perform as smoothly as we would like them to for you. Accepting strictly necessary cookies is a condition of using our Website and you cannot decline consent.

• performance cookie

Performance cookies collect information about your use of our Website and enable us to improve the way it works. For example, performance cookies will show us which are the most frequently visited pages on our Website and help us record any difficulties you have with our Website. Performance cookies do not collect information that identifies you personally; all information collected by these cookies is aggregated and anonymous We may use third parties to manage our performance cookies, but we do not allow any third party to use these cookies other than for the types of purpose listed in this paragraph. You consent to such cookies by continuing to browse our website or by indicating that you agree on the cookie message displayed on the Website. If you reject these cookies then we cannot or predict how our Website will perform when you visit it, nor guarantee your security.

• functionality cookie 

Functionality cookies allow us to remember the choices you make on our Website. These cookies also allow us to provide enhanced and more personal features and to remember changes you have made to our Website, such as customizing a certain webpage. These features help us to improve your visit to our Website. Our functionality cookies will not track your activity on other websites. We may use third parties to manage our functionality cookies, but we do not allow any third party to use these cookies other than for the types of purposes listed in this paragraph. You consent to such cookies by continuing to browse our website or by indicating that you agree on the cookie message displayed on the Website. If you prevent the use of functionality cookies, then this may mean that we cannot offer some services on our Website and may interrupt your enjoyment of it. It may also mean we are limited in the scope of support we can offer you.

From Google Analytics, we use _utma, _utmb, _utmc and _utmz. These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where the visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. Should you wish to opt out of this type of data being collected from your device, please see the Browser Add-On at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. The longest lifespan of these cookies is two years.

From Content   Management System, we use ASP.NET_SessionId. This cookie is set by our content management system upon arrival to our site. It is not used by us for any purpose. This cookie is deleted when a user closes their browser.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review; we will publish any updates or new versions on this web page. You should check on this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this privacy policy.

If the changes are significant, we may also notify you by email.

Where required by applicable laws, we will obtain your consent to make these changes and provide users with the ability to opt out or unsubscribe at this time.

This page was last updated on 12th July 2019.

Our details

You can contact us:

• By post to Masouros & Partners, 4 Dimokritou str. 106 71 Athens – Greece;
• Using our website “contact” form;
• By telephone on (+30) 2103 613 694
• By email to info@masouros.com

Questions & Comments

Please feel free to contact us using the details above if you have any questions about this privacy policy or if you are concerned about the information we hold about you, how your information is used or wish to exercise any of the rights set out in this policy.