This Data Protection notice describes how Willis Towers Watson SA/NV (“Willis Towers Watson,” “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects and processes Personal Data when we provide transactional and advisory services (such as insurance broking, claims management, consulting, reinsurance, underwriting and other forms of insurance services) ("Services") to our clients.
Willis Towers Watson operates worldwide through subsidiary and affiliate companies.
In providing the Services, we may be required to process Personal Data of individuals named in an insurance policy, or individuals that are beneficiaries of, or have made claims under, an insurance policy, or individuals who are involved in an incident giving rise to an insurance claim. We also process Personal Data of individuals who are employees, contractors and representatives of our clients. This data protection notice applies to any individual whose Personal Data we process in the course of providing the Services (each a "data subject" or "you").
1. SCOPE OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE
This privacy notice applies when we collect your Personal Information in the course of offering or administering our Services, and it applies to all Personal Information we collect or process about you in relation to this Service.
2. CROSS-BORDER TRANSFER
Willis Towers Watson is a global organisation operating in more than 140 countries and our business activities are global in nature. As such we sometimes transfer personal data to countries located outside of the country of origin (e.g. EEA, DIFC etc.). The laws applicable to the country where the data is being received may not be equivalent to that in your location. However, we always take steps to ensure any transfer of information is carefully managed to protect your privacy rights. In particular:
- For transfers between Willis Towers Watson Group companies: We have put in place an intra group data transfer agreement incorporating the European Commission-approved Standard Contractual Clauses to ensure that transfers of Personal Data within our Group receive a consistent and adequate level of protection wherever it is transferred.
- For transfers to third parties outside of the Willis Towers Watson Group of Companies: Where we are legally required to do so, transfers of Personal Data to parties located in countries outside the EU/EEA will be made pursuant to the European Commission-approved Standard Contractual Clauses or other legally acceptable mechanisms that ensure an adequate level of protection. Some recipients located outside of the EEA are located in countries for which the European Commission has issued adequacy decisions. Where other national regulators have issued Standard Contractual Clauses to ensure transfers of Personal Data to parties located outside the country of origin complies with the applicable national data protection law, we will make such transfers pursuant to those Standard Contractual Clauses also.
Please see the Contact & Comments section below for details on how you can contact us to get further information on the third countries to which Personal Data will be transferred and further information relating to the safeguards we have in place in relation to international transfers of data.
3. PERSONAL DATA
In this section we describe the types of Personal Data we collect in providing the Services, what we use it for and what our lawful basis is for doing so under applicable data protection legislation.
(A) PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT
“Personal Data” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual.
We may collect your Personal Data in the following ways:
- Our client may provide your Personal Data to us. When a client provides us with Personal Data about you, we ask that the client provides a copy of this privacy notice to you before doing so.
- You may provide your Personal Data directly to us if you are our client or if you are involved in a claim that we are handling for a client.
- We may collect your Personal Data from publicly available sources such as information available on social media platforms, information about your registered property or assets and information about claims and convictions on public records.
The Personal Data we may collect about you from our clients (or directly from you) will depend on the type of Service we are providing and the relationship between us, or between you and our client, but may include:
- name and contact information;
- demographic information (such as gender, age, date of birth, marital status, nationality, education/work histories, academic/professional qualifications, employment details, hobbies, family composition, and dependents);
- personal identification documentation and related information such as passport numbers and employee identification numbers;
- financial and payment data such as bank account numbers and transaction information;
- information related to the provision of the Services, such as policy information, claims information, and information relating to incidents giving rise to claims and related losses;
- information about your property and assets;
- statements made by or about you;
- records of communications and CCTV footage; and
- human resources data, such as job title and role; benefits and compensation information; dependent/beneficiary information; educational, academic and professional qualifications information; emergency contact information; and performance management information.
Depending the Services we may provide, some of the categories of information that we collect are special categories of Personal Information ("Sensitive Personal Information"). These include your health records (such as your medical history and reports on medical diagnoses, injuries and treatment); information about your personal characteristics and circumstances of a sensitive nature such as your racial or ethnic origin, sex life, mental and physical health and genetic information; and criminal records.
(B) HOW WE MAY USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We use your Personal Data:
- to provide the Services and fulfill our contractual obligations to clients;
- to conduct data analysis;
- for fraud monitoring and prevention;
- to help develop new services and to enhance, improve or modify our Services;
- to operate and expand our business activities;
- to carry out marketing activities;
- to carry out background checks and conduct due diligence;
- to perform administrative activities in connection with our Services;
- to exercise, defend or protect our legal rights or the rights of our clients or third parties; and
- to comply with legal and professional obligations and to cooperate with regulatory bodies.
The way we analyse Personal Data for the purposes of risk assessment, fraud prevention and detection, and to report to our clients as part of the Services may involve profiling, which means that we may process your personal Data using software that is able to evaluate your personal aspects and predict risks or outcomes.
We may also aggregate or anonymise information about you. Aggregated or anonymised data is not capable of being used to identify individuals and is not treated as Personal Data under this Data Protection notice.
(C) LEGAL BASES FOR PROCESSING PERSONAL DATA
We must have a legal basis to process your Personal Data in accordance with applicable data protection legislation. This will be for at least one of the following purposes:
- where it is necessary to enter into a contract with us / in order to perform the Services to you;
- where it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations such as due diligence and reporting obligations, for example know-your-customer checks to prevent money laundering and fraudulent activities;
- where you have provided your consent, for example if you have agreed to receive marketing communications from us. You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the details at the end of this privacy notice;
- where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, or those of a third party, for example to ensure that the Services we provide are appropriate our clients' requirements, to improve our Services, manage our risks, maintain accurate transaction records, and manage our business in an efficient way. These circumstances shall only apply where such legitimate interests are not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms.
We only process Sensitive Personal Data in limited circumstances:
- where applicable under national data protection laws the processing is necessary for our insurance purposes (i.e. for advising, arranging, underwriting or administering an insurance contract or handling claims);
- where we have your explicit consent, (in which case our client will obtain your explicit consent to collect and use the data for the purposes described in this privacy notice). You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the details at the end of this privacy notice; or
- to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
4. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We may share your Personal Data with third parties under the following circumstances:
- to any Willis Towers Watson group company for the uses and purposes set out above;
- to our clients, intermediaries, advisers and business partners for the purposes of fulfilling our contractual obligations to clients, for example to deliver our Services and to arrange insurance products for clients;
- to the insurance companies in the relevant cases for arranging insurance coverage or checking tariffs and quotes;
- to third party service providers including entities providing customer service, email delivery, marketing service providers, IT service providers, auditing and other services;
- to any court, regulator, law enforcement agency, government body or professional body if we are obliged to disclose your Personal Data under applicable law or regulation, which may include laws or regulations outside your country of residence; and
- to a potential buyer, investor or business partner in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).
When we share Personal Data with third parties, we take all reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate security measures and confidentiality undertakings are in place to protect the Personal Data shared.
5. SECURITY AND RETENTION
Willis Towers Watson maintains appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect the security of your Personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure or alteration. These measures are aimed at ensuring the ongoing integrity and confidentiality of Personal Data. We evaluate these measures on a regular basis to ensure the security of the processing of your Personal Data.
We will retain your Personal Data for as long as is necessary for the provision of Services to our clients. When we no longer need your Personal Data in connection with the Services, we will then retain your Personal Data for a period of time that reasonably allows us to:
- Maintain business records for analysis and/or audit purposes;
- Comply with record retention requirements under applicable law or regulation;
- Comply with any legal or other regulatory obligations;
- Defend or bring any existing or potential legal claims; and
- Deal with any complaints regarding our activities.
We may retain aggregated or anonymised data (which is not treated as Personal Data under this privacy notice) for longer.
We will delete your Personal Data when it is no longer required for these purposes. If there is any personal Data that we are unable, for technical reasons, to delete entirely from our systems, we will put in place appropriate measures to prevent any further processing or use of such Personal Data.
6. DATA SUBJECT RIGHTS
Willis Towers Watson is the controller responsible for the Personal Data that we collect and process.
To exercise any of your rights, which are set out below, you may contact us by sending us an email at dataaccessrequest@willistowerswatson.com or sending your request by postal mail to the address provided in the “Contact & Comments” section.
- Right to rectify and complete Personal Information: you can request the rectification of inaccurate data and the completion of incomplete data. We will inform relevant third parties to whom we have transferred your data about the rectification and completion if we are legally obliged to do so.
- Right to erasure (right to be forgotten): You have the right to obtain from us the erasure of Personal Information concerning you in limited circumstances where:
- it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected; or
- you have withdrawn your consent (where the data processing was based on consent); or
- following a successful right to object; or
- it has been processed unlawfully; or
- the data has to be erased in order to comply with a legal obligation to which Willis Towers Watson is subject.
- compliance with a legal obligation; or
- the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
- Right to restriction of processing: You have the right to obtain from us restriction of processing your Personal Information. In this case, the respective data will be marked and only be processed by us for certain purposes. This right can only be exercised where:
- the accuracy of your Personal Information is contested, to allow us to verify its accuracy; or
- the processing is unlawful, but you do not want the Personal Information erased; or
- it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, but you still need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
- you have exercised the right to object, and verification of overriding grounds is pending.
- we have your consent; or
- to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
- to protect the rights of another natural or legal person.
- Right to data portability: You have the right to receive the Personal Information concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and you have the right to transmit those data to another entity without hindrance from us, but in each case only where:
- the processing is based on your consent or on the performance of a contract with you; and
- the processing is carried out by automated means.
- Right to object: You have the right to object at any time to any processing of your Personal Information which has our legitimate interests as its legal basis. You may exercise this right without incurring any costs.
If you raise an objection, we have an opportunity to demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate interests which override your rights and freedoms.
The right to object does not exist, in particular, if the processing of your Personal Information is necessary to take steps prior to entering into a contract or to perform a contract already concluded. - Right to object to how we use your Personal Information for direct marketing purposes: You can request that we change the manner in which we contact you for marketing purposes. You can request that we not transfer your Personal Information to unaffiliated third parties for the purposes of direct marketing or any other purposes.
- Right to withdraw consent: if you have given us your consent for the processing of your Personal Information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
- Right to obtain a copy of Personal Information safeguards for transfers outside your jurisdiction: You can ask to obtain a copy of, or reference to, the safeguards under which your Personal Information is transferred outside the EU/EEA. We may redact data transfer agreements to protect commercial terms.
- Right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority: You have a right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority if you have concerns about how we are processing your Personal Information.
We ask that you please attempt to resolve any issue with us first, although you have a right to contact your supervisory authority at any time.
Please note that the aforementioned rights might be limited under the applicable national data protection law. We may ask you for additional information to confirm your identity and for security purposes, before disclosing the Personal Information requested to you. We reserve the right to charge a fee where permitted by law, for instance if your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
Subject to legal and other permissible considerations, we will make every reasonable effort to honour your request promptly or inform you if we require further information in order to fulfil your request.
We may not always be able to fully address your request, for example if it would impact the duty of confidentiality we owe to others, or if we are legally entitled to deal with the request in a different way.
We are committed to working with you to obtain a fair resolution of any complaint or concern about your Personal Data. If, however, you believe that we have not been able to assist with your complaint or concern, you have the right to make a complaint to the Data Protection Authority, the Belgian data protection regulator. For further information on your rights and how to complain in French, in German, in English and in Dutch.
7. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY NOTICE
You may request a copy of this Data Protection notice from us using the contact details set out below.
We may modify or update this Data Protection notice from time to time by notifying or providing a revised version to our clients. Where changes to this Data Protection notice will have a fundamental impact on the nature of the processing or otherwise have a substantial impact on you, we will ask that our clients give you sufficient advance notice of these changes so that you have the opportunity to exercise your rights (e.g. to object to the processing).
8. CONTACT & COMMENTS
The controller of your Personal Data is Willis Towers Watson SA/NV, with registered office at Quai des Vennes 18-20, 4020 Liège, Belgium and registered at FSMA under number 0415.981.926. If you have any questions or comments regarding this Data Protection Notice, please contact our Global Privacy Office, at Quai des Vennes 18-20, 4020 Liège, Belgium or by email at the following email address: DPO@willistowerswatson.com.
