Privacy

Introduction

KPMG is committed to maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of personal information we collect. This Privacy Policy sets out how KPMG Fiji handles personal information. KPMG may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect its current privacy practices.

In this Privacy Policy, ‘KPMG’, ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ mean the partnership carrying on business under the name KPMG Fiji that is part of the KPMG group entities.

We may need to update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect our current privacy practices or changes in the law, regulations and/or professional standards. When we make any changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the updated policy on our website. 

To the extent of any inconsistency between this Privacy Policy and the terms of a service-specific Privacy Statement or Privacy Consent provided to you (including but not limited to those applying to whistle blower services provided or surveys conducted by KPMG), the terms and stated limitations of those Privacy Statements or Privacy Consents override this Privacy Policy, in respect of how we handle your information collected in connection with those specific-services or surveys.

Collecting Personal Information

To run our business, KPMG collects different types of personal information depending on the nature of our engagement with you.  We obtain personal information about you if you choose to provide it — for example, to contact mailboxes or to register for certain services. In some cases, you will have previously provided your personal information to KPMG (if, for example, you are a former employee). If you choose to register or login to a KPMG web site using a third party single sign-in service that authenticates your identity and connects your social media login information (e.g., LinkedIn, Google, or Twitter) with KPMG, we will collect any information or content needed for the registration or log-in that you have permitted the social media provider to share with us, such as your name and email address. Other information we collect will depend on the privacy settings you have set with your social media provider, so please review the privacy statement or policy of the applicable service.

When you register or submit personal information to KPMG we will use this information in the manner outlined in this privacy statement. Your personal information is not used for other purposes, unless we obtain your permission, or unless otherwise required or permitted by law or professional standards. For example, if you register to a KPMG web site and provide information about your preferences we will use this information to personalize your user experience. Where you register or login using a third party single user sign-in we may also recognize you as the same user across any different devices you use and personalize your user experience across other KPMG sites you visit. If you send us a resume or curriculum vitae (CV) to apply online for a position with KPMG, we will use the information that you provide to match you with available KPMG job opportunities.

In some cases where you have registered for certain services we will store your email address temporarily until we receive confirmation of the information you provided via an email (i.e. where we send an email to the email address provided as part of your registration to confirm a subscription request).

It may be necessary in some circumstances for us to collect some forms of sensitive information about you in order to provide specific services to you. Sensitive information includes information about a person’s race, gender diversity, sexual orientation, disability, ethnic origin, political opinions, health, religious or philosophical beliefs and criminal history. We will only collect and use sensitive information with your consent, in accordance with applicable laws.

Purpose for Collecting Personal Information

The reasons we may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information include:

·       To provide our services to you or to our client in accordance with the terms of any engagement letter, service agreement or employment agreement;

·       To maintain contact with our clients and other contacts (including alumni), and keep them informed of our services, industry developments, seminars and other events.

·       For administrative purposes, including:

• processing payment transactions,
• charging and billing,
• detecting or preventing fraud, and
• identifying breaches of our terms and conditions of engagement.

·       For purposes relating to the employment of our personnel (including Partners), or our Clients’ personnel, contractors and sub-contractors including:

• recruitment purposes such as pre-employment screening, contacting referees, processing applications, administering psychometric testing, assessment for suitability for future positions, background checks and ongoing analytic purposes such as ensuring we are reaching a diverse range of candidates,
• ongoing probity checks for existing personnel, including monitoring of the use of KPMG systems, and the use and location of KPMG managed devices, applications and networks,
• personnel retention purposes such as workplace diversity, wellbeing and cultural safety checks and initiatives,
• providing internal services or benefits to our Partners and staff, and
• matters relating to the KPMG Partnership.

·       For governance and compliance purposes including:

• managing any quality, conduct or risk management issues including conflict of interest or independence (including auditor independence) obligations or situations,
• meeting regulatory obligations, and
• where we are required to or authorized by legislation or industry code, direction or standard to do so.

Disclosure of personal information

KPMG will not disclose your personal information to third parties unless:

• as set out in this Privacy Policy;
• permitted by law or regulation;
• one or some of KPMG’s businesses is offered for sale; or 
• In some cases, we will ask you for specific permission to process some of your personal information, and we will only process your personal information in this way if you agree to us doing so. 

If we do disclose personal information to third parties, we will do so in accordance with the purpose for which the personal information was collected, or a related or ancillary purpose. The types of third parties to whom we may disclose your personal information include:

• experts or other third parties contracted as part of an engagement;
• our professional advisers;
• Our agents, third party contractors and suppliers that assist us with providing our business processes and products and services;
• other KPMG firms or KPMG International; or
• if you are an employee, a contractor or supplier of services to a client, then we may disclose your personal information as part of providing services to that client.

We do not disclose personal information to third parties for the purpose of allowing them to send marketing material to you. However, we may share non-personal, de-identified or aggregated information to them for research or promotional purposes. 

Automatic collection of personal information

Together with our service providers we use cookies, web beacons and other technologies on some of our websites and through email to automatically collect certain types of information. The collection of this information allows us to customize and personalize your online experience, improve the performance, usability and effectiveness of KPMG's online presence, and to measure the effectiveness of our marketing activities.

IP addresses

An IP address is a number assigned to your computer whenever you access the internet. It allows computers and servers to recognise and communicate with one another. IP addresses from which visitors appear to originate will be recorded for IT security and system diagnostic purposes. This information will also typically be used in aggregate form to conduct web site trend and performance analysis.

Cookies

Cookies will typically be placed on your computer or internet-enabled device whenever you visit us online. This allows the site to remember your computer or device and serves a number of purposes.

On some of our web sites, a notification banner will appear requiring your consent to collect cookies. If you do not provide consent, your computer or internet-enabled device will not be tracked for marketing-related activities. A secondary type of cookie referred to as "user-input" cookies may still be required for necessary functionality. Such cookies will not be blocked through the use of this notification banner. Your selection will be saved in a cookie and is valid for a period of 90 days. If you wish to revoke your selection, you may do so by clearing your browser's cookies.

Although most browsers automatically accept cookies, you can choose whether or not to accept cookies via your browser's settings (often found in your browser's Tools or Preferences menu). You may also delete cookies from your device at any time. However, please be aware that if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to fully experience some of our web sites' features.

Further information about managing cookies can be found in your browser's help file or through sites such as www.allaboutcookies.org.

Where reasonably practicable or required by law, we will inform you about the purposes which your personal data has been collected and used for.  

Web beacons

A web beacon is a small image file on a web page that can be used to collect certain information from your computer, such as an IP address, the time the content was viewed, a browser type, and the existence of cookies previously set by the same server. KPMG only uses web beacons in accordance with applicable laws.

KPMG or its service providers will use web beacons to track the effectiveness of third party web sites that provide us with recruiting or marketing services or to gather aggregate visitor statistics and manage cookies.

You have the option to render some web beacons unusable by rejecting their associated cookies. The web beacon may still record an anonymous visit from your IP address but cookie information will not be recorded.

In some of our newsletters and other communications, we will monitor recipient actions such as email open rates through embedded links within the messages. We collect this information to gauge user interest and to enhance future user experiences.

Google Analytic

KPMG uses Google Analytics. More information about how Google Analytics is used by KPMG can be found here: http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html

To provide website visitors with more choice on how their data is collected by Google Analytics, Google have developed the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics. The Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on does not prevent information from being sent to the website itself or to other web analytics services.

Social media widgets and applications

Some of our websites and services may include functionality to enable information sharing via third party social media applications, such as LinkedIn, X, and the services owned by Meta. These social media applications may collect and use information regarding your use of our websites. Any personal information that you provide via such social media applications may be collected and used by members of that social media application separate to us and are subject to the privacy policies of the relevant companies that provide the applications. We do not have control over, or responsibility for, those companies or their use of your information.

Any personal information that you provide on any KPMG social media feature may be shared with other users of that social media feature (unless otherwise stated at the point of collection), over whom we may have limited or no control.

Children

KPMG understands the importance of protecting children's privacy, especially in an online environment. In particular, our sites are not intentionally designed for or directed at children under the age of 13. It is our policy never to knowingly collect or maintain information about anyone under the age of 13, except as part of an engagement to provide professional services.

Choices

In general, you are not required to submit any personal information to KPMG, but we will require you to provide certain personal information in order for you to receive additional information about our services and events. KPMG will also ask for your permission for certain uses of your personal information, and you can agree to or decline those uses. If you opt-in for particular services or communications, such as an e-newsletter, you will be able to unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions included in each communication. If you decide to unsubscribe from a service or communication, we will try to remove your information promptly, although we may require additional information before we can process your request.

As described in "Cookies" above, if you wish to prevent cookies from tracking you as you navigate our sites, you can refuse cookies at the point at which we present you with a choice to accept or reject cookies, and/or you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Note, however, that some portions of our sites may not work properly if you elect to refuse cookies.

Data security and integrity

KPMG has reasonable security policies and procedures in place to protect personal information from unauthorized loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction. Despite KPMG's best efforts, however, security cannot be absolutely guaranteed against all threats. To the best of our ability, access to your personal information is limited to those who have a need to know. Those individuals who have access to the data are required to maintain the confidentiality of such information.

We also make reasonable efforts to retain personal information only for so long i) as the information is necessary to comply with an individual's request, ii) as necessary to comply with legal, regulatory, internal business or policy requirements, or iii) until that person asks that the information be deleted. The period for which data is retained will depend on the specific nature and circumstances under which the information was collected; however, subject to requirements of i)-iii) above, personal information will not be retained for more than 2 years.

Complaints

You can notify us of any complaint you may have about our handling of your personal information by emailing fj-fmprivacy@kpmg.com.au  Following your initial contact, you will be asked to set out the details of your complaint in writing in a form provided.

We will endeavour to reply to you within 30 days of receipt of the completed complaint form and, where appropriate, will advise you of the general reasons for the outcome of the complaint.

How to contact us

If you have any questions in relation to this Privacy Notice or our management of your personal information, you can contact our Privacy Liaison by email at fj-fmprivacy@kpmg.com.au