Data Privacy Statement

This privacy statement explains key information on how Forvis Mazars in Hong Kong collects and processes your personal data. 

Should you engage us to provide you with services either directly or through one of our Group firms, the fair processing information of that firm will apply and be notified to you at the time.  You can view the website privacy statements of our Group firms on their local website, accessible via www.forvismazars.com.

Forvis Mazars in Hong Kong complies with the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (“Ordinance”). You may visit the official website of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data for more information.

Information for EU / UK data subjects

The following information is for visitors to this site from within the EU and UK and pertains to our obligations to you under the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (including as implemented into UK law by the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and as amended by Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. 

Data Controller 

Forvis Mazars in Hong Kong is the data controller for the personal data you provide to us via this website.  On occasion we may be acting as a data processor to our clients or other third parties

Collection of personal data

To enable us to operate our website and deliver our services, we may collect your personal data from:

• You directly.
• Our network firms.
• Law enforcement or similar agencies.
• Our suppliers.
• Third parties you authorise us to obtain your personal data from.

We will always only ask you to provide the minimum personal data necessary to fulfil any specific objective.  Where we ask you to provide us with certain data and you are unable or unwilling to do so it may affect how we are able to interact with you. In such an event, we will explain to you the impact of not providing the requested personal data.

The personal data we process as a result of you visiting our website depends on the data you provide to us. In general, we collect the following categories of personal data through our website:

If you access our site but do not interact further with us, we will only process the data contained in cookies (see ‘Cookies’ below for more info).  Should you decide to interact with us by, for example, submitting a request form we will process the data you provide for the purposes stated on the form.  Some fields are mandatory as without them we will be unable to make further contact with you to respond to or action your request.

When you contact us, we make certain fields of data mandatory to enable us to process your request. You may choose to provide us with additional personal data, including Special Category Personal Data.  If you choose to provide us with any special category personal data you agree we may process those personal data for the purpose of investigating and responding to your enquiry.  

Use of personal data  

We may process your personal data collected through our website for the purposes outlined below:

• Contract entry and performance: Should you indicate an interest in becoming a client of Forvis Mazars in Hong Kong we will use the personal data in order to take steps to enter into a contract for services with you.  We may continue to use the data provided through our website in order to perform our duties under a contract with you. 
• Our legitimate interests: We process personal data in order to run our business, including managing our relationship with you, meeting our administrative, accounting and corporate rights and obligations, maintaining and using our security systems and developing our business and services. 
• Recruitment and personnel administration: If you apply for a job or information on opportunities with us, we collect personal data from applicants / prospective applicants in order to recruit new team members.
• Security, quality and risk management: Personal data may be processed in the context of maintaining security and within the scope of internal quality and risk analysis. 
• Direct marketing: We may process personal data for direct marketing purposes to promote and develop our services and to provide you with information we think will be of interest to you. In all cases we will give you the opportunity to opt-out of our direct-marketing activities. Opt-out can be achieved by responding using the unsubscribe options contained within the information you have received or by contacting us at info.hk@forvismazars.com. Complying with legal requirements, regulations or a professional body of which we are a member of:  We are subject to legal, regulatory and professional obligations. We need to keep certain records to demonstrate that our services are provided in compliance with those obligations and those records may contain personal data. 

All personal data submitted through this site may be used by us in an anonymised form to assess and improve the services delivered herein and for our wider business development activities. 

Disclosures of personal data

On occasion we may transfer or disclose your personal data to other entities of the Forvis Mazars network globally, or to third parties for any of the purposes listed above.  Third parties include governmental and professional agencies and contracted parties who perform services on our behalf, such as web hosting providers, IT-providers, payment providers, customer relationship management providers.

When we disclose your personal data to third parties who perform services on our behalf, we ensure that such service providers use your data only in accordance with our instructions. 

We may also disclose your personal data to third parties where we are required to do so by law, our regulators or for the purposes of, or in connection with any legal proceedings, or otherwise for the purpose of establishing, exercising or defending our legal rights. 

We may share personal data with other Forvis Mazars network firms where necessary for administrative purposes and to provide professional services to our clients.

Owing to the global nature of our operations, we may transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and United Kingdom to countries whose data protection laws may not be as extensive as those in these jurisdictions.  

When we transfer data outside the EEA, UK or our jurisdiction, we will only transfer such personal data (i) to a country which the European Commission or Information Commissioner’s Officer (as applicable) considers to have adequate data protection laws; or (ii) where we have put in place an appropriate data transfer mechanism, such as Standard Contractual Clauses, to ensure that your personal data are adequately protected.   

Should you make an enquiry through our website which concerns one of the Forvis Mazars network firms we may need to forward the request to them on your behalf. 

We do not sell or rent your personal data for any purpose.   

Data Subject Rights 

You may exercise a number of rights over your data including: 

• Accessing the personal data we hold about you 
• Asking us to correct any of your personal data we hold which are inaccurate 
• Request to have your personal data deleted 
• Withdraw consent to our processing of your personal data (where we process your personal data based on consent) 
• Put in place restrictions on our processing of your personal data 
• Objecting to our processing of your personal data 
• Asking 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 applicable privacy law.  Should you wish to exercise any of your data subject rights or have any questions about this statement please contact using info.hk@forvismazars.com.

If you are dissatisfied with the way we have handled your personal data and we are unable to resolve the issue for you, you may take the matter to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD).  Further details can be found via their website at https://www.pcpd.org.hk/.

Duration of Processing 

We will hold your personal data on our systems for the longest of the following periods: (i) as long as is necessary for the purpose of which it was collected; (ii) any retention period that is required by law; or (iii) the end of the liability period in which litigation or investigations might arise in respect of our services.  

After the applicable retention period(s) have expired, personal data will be deleted or anonymized. 

Californian personal data

This section applies specifically to individuals located in California.

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, residents of California are provided with certain rights regarding their personal information:

1. The right to know, by way of our privacy statement and any specific inquiries you direct to us, the categories of personal information we collect from you, the source(s) of your personal information, what we use that information for, whether it is being disclosed or sold, and if so, to whom;
2. The right to “opt-out” of the sale of your personal information to any third parties;
3. The right to request we stop sharing your personal information with third parties;
4. The right, with some exceptions, to have your personal information deleted from our possession or control;
5. The right to correct inaccuracies in your personal information; and
6. The right to receive equal service and pricing from us, even if you exercise any of your privacy rights.

For all California residents, any such enquiries shall be responded to within forty-five (45) days and at no cost to you. We must verify your identity with respect to such inquiries. Depending on the nature of the personal information at issue, we may require additional measures or information from you as part of that verification.

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents who use our website to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.  Please note, we do not and will not sell personal information about California residents. We also have not done so for the last 12 months.

For California residents under age 18 who have publicly posted content or information, you may request and obtain removal of such content or information pursuant to California Business and Professions Code Section 22581, provided you are registered user of any website where this statement is posted. Please be aware that such a request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information you have posted and that the law may not require or allow removal in all instances, even if requested.

To contact us to exercise any of the California rights listed above, please use the contact details at the end of this notice.

The following information applies to all personal data, irrespective of the applicable laws.

Data Security 

We ensure appropriate technical and organisational controls are in place to protect your personal data from loss, misuse, alteration and unintentional destruction, such as the use of anti-virus, firewalls, secure servers, hard disk encryption software, password protection, physical access controls, two-factor authentication, intrusion and anomaly detection.

Our personnel who have access to your personal data have been trained to maintain the confidentiality of such data.  They will only be granted access to your personal data to the extent that they need this information to perform their duties properly. The persons who can consult your data are also bound by strict professional discretion.   

Conditions to protect data to at least the same standard as we do are cascaded to all our contractors, (sub) processors and suppliers.    

Regular monitoring and testing of our security defences is carried out to ensure they continue to be effective against the latest threats.  

Data transferred over the internet by us and through this website are protected using encryption technologies. No transaction carried out over the internet can ever be guaranteed to be secure. 

Children and our website 

Forvis Mazars in Hong Kong understands the importance of protecting children's privacy, especially in an online environment. Our sites are not intentionally designed for or directed at children. We do not knowingly collect or maintain information about anyone under the age of 16 through our website. If you are under 16 years of age you must obtain the consent of a parent or guardian to submit information via our website. Please ask them to review this information before you communicate with us.   

Cookies 

Navigation on our website will result in cookies being placed on your computer. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by the websites that you visit. 

For further details, please consult our Cookies Policy at https://www.forvismazars.com/hk/en/legals/cookies-information. 

Contact

Should you have any questions or concerns about this statement, or how we use your personal data, please contact us at info.hk@forvismazars.com.

Changes to this privacy statement 

This privacy statement was last updated in October 2024.  We may amend it from time to time. Any changes will be published on this page and we recommend you check here regularly to ensure you remain aware of how we process your personal data.