Personal information is any information that can be used to identify you (either directly or indirectly), and may be collected directly from you, by a third party you have given consent to disclosing your personal information, or by a credit agency, government or statutory body.

VERITAS collects and stores personal information (including names, telephone numbers, address, email address, occupation, education and qualifications etc) in a range of contexts, such as:

• when entering into relationships with new clients or potential clients;
• when individuals apply for employment or other business opportunities with us; and
• when we conduct surveys, community consultation and other studies as part of our business.

VERITAS may use your personal information:

• to enable us to provide services to you or our clients;
• to communicate information about our services;
• for our internal administrative, planning, product development, marketing and research requirements; and
• to consider the suitability of applicants for employment with us, which may be processed by third parties engaged to undertake pre-employment screening services, or for any other reason you allow or consent us to.

As an example, one of the key objectives of VERITAS’ website is to provide information about who we are, what we do and our professional capabilities. We may collect personal information to update our website and in order to provide relevant information about VERITAS, our services, our key people or our capabilities in a variety of contexts.

Whilst at all times complying with this Privacy Policy and having primary regard for the protection of your personal information, VERITAS may share or disclose your personal information in a number of circumstances, such as:

• during the course of your employment;
• when passing information between VERITAS offices, credit, law enforcement, and government agencies, and professional services providers, if required; and
• with your consent or as necessary to complete any transaction or provide any service you have requested of us or authorised.

VERITAS’ employee personal information and employment/personnel records are stored securely and used in the jurisdiction in which it is collected and relevant to the particular VERITAS employee.

VERITAS will not use, share or disclose your personal information that was collected for a particular purpose for another secondary purpose (which you would not reasonably expect) without your consent unless we are required or authorised by law, or compelled for legitimate legal reasons by government authority or law enforcement agency. VERITAS must seek additional consent from you to use or retain your personal information other than as set out in this Privacy Policy and you have the choice to opt-out at all times by contacting us (as outlined below).

Your personal information is never shared, sold, rented or otherwise disclosed except if required by law or with your consent.

VERITAS is driven by a client-service led culture. For this reason, we may send marketing material or communicate information that we think may be relevant or of interest to you or your industry or provide you with details about our latest services that you may benefit from.

At any time, you may opt-out of receiving any communications from us (other than as required for the operation of our business, for example, regarding payment of accounts) or change your marketing communication preferences.

Electronic marketing or communications material will have an “unsubscribe” link or contain instructions allowing you to opt-out or change your preferences. Alternatively, you can contact us directly about our marketing and communications by using the contact details below.

5.1. Cookies

The VERITAS website located at https://www.veritas-asiapacific.com uses cookies for collecting information.

A “cookie” is a small data file that is placed on your computer or other device to allow a website to recognise you as a user when you return to the website using the same computer and web browser, either for the duration of your visit (using a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (a ‘persistent cookie’). Other similar files work in the same way and we use the word “cookie” in this Privacy Policy to refer to all files that collect information in this way.

You may disable cookies by changing the settings on your browser – please refer to your browser options or instructional material. If you disable cookies, it is likely to affect how your browser works. For more information on cookies visit: www.allaboutcookies.org

5.2. Data analytics and other technologies

The VERITAS website located at https://www.veritas-asiapacific.com uses log files and Google Analytics™.

VERITAS may automatically log IP addresses (i.e. the electronic addresses of computers connected to the Internet) to analyse trends, administer the site, track user movements, and gather broad demographic information.

This information collected is not “personal information” and you cannot be identified from its collection. It is only used to assist VERITAS in optimising the content and effectiveness of our website.

Websites operated by us may contain links to other websites that are operated by third parties. Whilst VERITAS tries to link only websites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we make no representations or warranties as to the privacy practices of any third-party site and cannot be responsible for the privacy policies, content or security of other sites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to, or cover, linked websites.

If you access or share information to websites linked to our website, the operators of those websites may collect your information in accordance with their own privacy policies that may differ to ours. You should review the privacy, “cookie” and other policies displayed on these websites to find out how your personal information may be used and stored.

VERITAS will take all reasonable steps and apply appropriate technical and organisational measures to maintain the security of any personal information we receive from you and protect it from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, disclosure or modification.

VERITAS use a variety of secure techniques to store and protect your information, including secure VERITAS’ IT systems and firewalls. Any digital transfer of personal information is secured using a range of security methods. VERITAS is constantly reviewing its information security technology and practices.

VERITAS will only keep your personal information when we consider it necessary for one of the purposes for which you have disclosed it. If it is no longer necessary to keep your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your personal information safely, if required.

You may have a right in certain circumstances to request a copy of the personal information about you we may hold, request the removal of personal information from our records and to have inaccurate information changed or out-of-date information amended. For example, persons in the European Union, may have a right under the GDPR to request the deletion or erasure of their personal information, where that information is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected.

Please submit a request to the VERITAS Integrity Officer, or via the Contact Us link on our website, and VERITAS will respond to your request as required by applicable law.

For security reasons, we will ask you to verify your identity to ensure that we do not give information to the wrong person or change or remove your personal information without your express consent.

If there is no applicable legal or regulatory requirement for VERITAS to respond to your request, VERITAS will respond at its discretion.

In the highly unlikely event of a data breach, VERITAS will act promptly to comply with applicable local laws. Where it is reasonably foreseeable that an individual will suffer as a result of a data breach, the relevant regulatory body and, where possible, the affected individual will be contacted without undue delay.

This notification shall include the nature of the breach, the personal data possibly involved and measures taken to address the breach (including to reduce the harm of negative consequences), the contact details for whom affected individuals can obtain further information and details of any assistance being provided to affected individuals.

Whilst this policy generally speaks about “consent”, our use of your personal data as outlined above is subject to different legal bases for processing in order to comply with the GDPR, including where necessary for:

• the purposes of the performance of any contract we enter into with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you;
• our legitimate interests, for example in providing you with news or marketing or communications material, managing and monitoring our website operation, preventing fraud and for our business compliance purposes; and
• compliance with our legal and regulatory responsibilities.

Your privacy is important to us and VERITAS is committed to its privacy practices being up-to-date with prevailing best practices and changes in local laws, regulations and data protection standards and technology.

Given this, VERITAS may change our Privacy Policy from time to time and will notify you by posting an updated version of our Privacy Policy on our website. The amended policy will apply as and when it is posted on our website.

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, wish to opt-out of our Privacy Policy or have any complaint regarding the treatment of your privacy or personal information by us, please use the Contact Us link on our website, or contact our Integrity Officer using the details set out below.

Any genuine concerns or complaints will be investigated and responded to in line with local law.

Integrity Officer C/- Office of the Company Secretary
Level 57, MLC Centre
19 – 29 Martin Place
Sydney NSW 2000

Email: integrity.officer@veritas-asiapacific.com
Website: www.veritas-asiapacific.com