Scope of this Privacy Notice
This privacy notice describes how Towers Watson (Pty) Limited collects and processes Personal Information when providing valuator services to the trustees ("Trustees") of retirement funds in South Africa (each a “Fund”) and/or actuarial services in accordance with International Accounting Standards to companies (each a “Company”). Such services are together referred to as the “Services” and each Fund and Company are together referred to as our “Clients”.
The information in this privacy notice also applies to the processing of Personal Information by any valuator appointed by a Fund whose services are provided through Towers Watson (Pty) Limited.
Our address is stated in the ‘Contact and Comments’ section at the end of this privacy notice.
When Towers Watson (Pty) Limited and/or individual valuators (who are Towers Watson (Pty) Limited employees) ("we", “our” or "us") process your Personal Information, we act as a responsible party (as defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act of 2013 (“POPIA”)). Our Clients also process your Personal Information in relation to their role as either Trustees of the Fund or sponsor of the particular arrangement offered to the Company’s employees, and you should ensure that you are familiar with the Fund’s or Company’s privacy notice for those processing activities.
Where this privacy notice uses terms, which are defined in POPIA, then the definitions set out in POPIA shall apply.
The Services we provide that are covered by this privacy notice are:
- performing actuarial valuations for our Clients; and
- providing advice.
When providing valuator services to a Fund, our Services will also include providing certifications of rule amendments and certifications of transfers of members to and from the Funds and other assistance to Trustees on matters such as:
- the value of an individual member's pension;
- the value of options available to members;
- the value of the Fund as a whole;
- the levels of funding that the Fund needs; and
- the investment plan for the Fund.
In providing these Services, we may be required to process the Personal Information of Fund members and their family members, beneficiaries or other individuals that are connected to Fund members which can include children, their legal guardians or caregivers, as well as Personal Information relating to the Fund itself. This privacy notice applies to any such person whose Personal Information we process in the course of providing the Services (each a "data subject" or "you" or “your”).
Personal Information We Collect
The Personal Information we process is provided or made available to us by or on behalf of our Clients. A failure to provide this Personal Information will mean we are unable to provide our Services, which could affect your ability to receive benefits to which you may be entitled from the relevant Fund or Company.
The Personal Information we process may include:
- names and/or personal identifiers of individuals such as identity or passport numbers, employee numbers or Fund member numbers;
- juristic data of our Clients which can include the Client’s name, its registered number and address.
- dates of birth;
- gender;
- service dates in the Fund, and dates of employment (which may differ);
- employment category (assigned by your employer);
- salary and pension amounts;
- contribution/investment amounts and choices;
- marital or partnership status, and details of other dependents who may be entitled to benefits such as pensions in the event of your death; and
- whether a pension in payment resulted from ill health or retirement.
Depending on the particular Services we are providing, all or only some of the above categories of Personal Information may be provided to us by (or made available to us on behalf of) our Clients.
We also process Special Personal Information relating to your health when a payment is claimed as a result of your ill health.
If you are entitled to receive a pension in your own right and are legally determined to be a child, we will process your Personal Information in accordance with the rules relating to children’s personal information as set out in POPIA.
Legal Bases for Processing Personal Information
We must have a legal basis to process your Personal Information. In most cases the legal basis will be one of the following:
- for your legitimate interests to provide Services to our Client relating to your membership of, or benefits under, the relevant Fund or the particular arrangement offered by the Company; or
- for our legitimate interests to enable us to comply with our legal and professional obligations, such as due diligence and reporting obligations.
We process Special Personal Information and Personal Information of children on the following legal bases:
- your consent, where your consent is required by law (in which case our Clients will obtain this). You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting the Trustees or the Company (as the case may be) or us; or
- to establish, exercise or defend obligations or rights in law.
How We may use Your Personal Information
We use your Personal Information:
- to provide the Services and fulfil our contractual obligations to our Clients;
- 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.
In carrying out certain types of analysis, we may aggregate, pseudonymise or anonymise information about you.
Disclosure of Your Personal Information
We may share your Personal Information with third parties under the following circumstances:
- to any Willis Towers Watson group company for the uses and purposes set out above;
- if we are obliged to disclose your Personal Information under applicable law or regulation, which may include laws outside your country of residence; and
- in the event of any reorganisation, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or shares (including in connection with any insolvency or similar proceedings).
When we share Personal Information with third parties, where we have a legal right to do so, we take all reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate security measures and confidentiality undertakings are in place to protect the information shared.
Cross-Border Transfers
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 Information to countries located outside of the country of origin. The laws applicable to the country where the Personal Information is being received may not be equivalent to that in your location. However, we always take steps to ensure any transfer of Personal 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 to ensure that transfers of Personal Information within our group receive a consistent and adequate level of protection, similar to that applicable under POPIA, wherever it is transferred.
- For transfers to third parties outside of the Willis Towers Watson Group of Companies: We will only transfer Personal Information to parties located outside the Personal Information’s origin country in accordance with applicable data protection law.
Please see the ‘Contact and Comments’ section below for details on how you can contact us to get further information on the third countries to which Personal Information will be transferred and further information relating to the safeguards we have in place in relation to international transfers of Personal Information.
Security and Retention
Towers Watson (Pty) Ltd is part of the Willis Towers Watson group which maintains reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect the security of your Personal Information against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure or alteration. These measures are aimed at ensuring the ongoing integrity and confidentiality of Personal Information. We evaluate these measures on a regular basis to ensure the security of the processing.
We may retain your Personal Information for as long as we provide the Services to the Client. When we have ceased providing the Services, we will then retain your Personal Information for a period of time that reasonably allows us to comply with our regulatory obligations and to commence or defend legal claims. We may retain anonymised data (which is not treated as Personal Information under this privacy notice) for longer.
Choices and Access
If you would like to access or request the deletion of your Personal Information or request a copy of Personal Information about you, please contact us using the details set out in the ‘Contact and Comments’ section below.
You also have a right to lodge a complaint to the Information Regulator if you have any 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 the regulator at any time in writing at either complaints.IR@justice.gov.za or JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001.
Changes to Our Privacy Notice
We review our privacy notice regularly. Where the privacy notice has been updated, it will be clearly identified by reference to the date of the update.
Contact and Comments
If you have any questions or comments regarding this privacy notice or if you would like to exercise your rights in relation to your Personal Information, please contact us at either privacy@willistowerswatson.com or by using the contact details of our Information Officer below:
