This Privacy Notice explains how the Guardian Group (1) (“Guardian”, “we”, or “us”) collects, uses and discloses your personal data and your rights in this regard. Please note that this Privacy Notice is not an exclusive description of how Guardian processes the personal data of individuals.
Who is the data controller?
Guardian is what is known as the “controller” of the personal data you provide to us.
Where can you contact the data controller?
If you have any questions about this privacy notice or wish to exercise any of your rights as detailed below, you can contact Guardian at the following address:
c/o Guardian Trust Company Limited (Tortola), Geneva Branch, 118 rue du Rhone, 1204, Geneva, Switzerland,
Tel +41 22 718 7200,
Fax +41 22 718 7201,
Email to: dpo@guardiantrust.ch
What personal data is collected?
Guardian collects the following information about you:
- your name, place and date of birth, passport or national identity card details and IP address;
- country of birth, domicile, residence, tax residence, nationality and citizenship;
- contact information such as residential, business and email addresses, fax and telephone numbers;
- information relating to your tax affairs, including tax identification number(s) (where applicable);
- information relating to your financial situation such as assets, sources of wealth, net worth and financial details (including, but not being limited to, bank account details);
- information about your knowledge and experience of investments;
- information to assess whether you may represent a money laundering or terrorist financing risk (such as whether you are a Politically Exposed Person, have had previous criminal convictions or regulatory sanctions imposed);
- employment details or history and other such information.
How we collect your personal data
We collect and store your personal data from:
- Information contained in subscription or application forms relating to your investment with us or setting up of an account with us completed by you, or completed by another person on your behalf;
- Information set out in a trust deed, letter of wishes, will, or like document provided to us or drawn by us from information provided to us by you, a settlor, testator or another trust company;
- Information you provide to us when you meet with an employee(s) of Guardian;
- You when you communicate with us, or when we communicate with you by telephone, fax, email or other forms of electronic communication. In this respect, we may monitor, record and store any such communication;
- When you interact with our website www.guardiantrust.ch;
- Documents and information provided by you at our request to fulfil any legal obligations we have with respect to undertaking due diligence on you, verifying your identity, for reasons of tax compliance or other such legal requirement;
- Affiliated companies of Guardian (2);
- Your agents, advisers and employees of firms with which you are associated;
- Publicly available sources or third parties where we need to conduct background checks about you.
The Purpose of Processing and Legal Basis for Processing
We may process your personal data for the following purposes:
- to facilitate the opening of your account with Guardian, the management and administration of your holdings and accounts with Guardian on an on-going basis (the “Services”) which are necessary for the performance of your contract with Guardian, to deliver the Services you have subscribed or applied for and to deal with any complaints or feedback that you may have and for any other purpose for which you provide us with your personal data;
- in order to carry out anti-money laundering checks and related actions which Guardian considers appropriate to meet any legal obligations imposed on Guardian relating to, or the processing in the public interest or to pursue Guardian’s legitimate interests in relation to, the prevention of fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery, corruption, tax evasion and to prevent the provision of financial and other services to persons who may be subject to economic or trade sanctions, on an on-going basis, in accordance with Guardian’s anti-money laundering procedures;
- to report tax related information to tax authorities in order to comply with a legal obligation;
- to monitor and record calls and electronic or other communications for (i) processing and verification of instructions, (ii) investigation and fraud prevention purposes, (iii) crime detection, prevention, investigation and prosecution, (iv) to enforce or defend Guardian’s rights in order to comply with any legal obligation imposed on Guardian, (v) to pursue Guardian’s legitimate interests in relation to such matters, (vi) where the processing is in the public interest or (vii) for quality, business analysis, training and related purposes in order to pursue the legitimate interests Guardian to improve its/their service delivery;
- to disclose information to other third parties such as service providers of Guardian, including but not being limited to auditors, lawyers, tax advisors, banks, regulatory authorities, investment advisors, administrative service providers, registered agents, corporate services providers, payment processors, data storage providers and technology providers in order to assist with the management of your accounts/investments with Guardian, comply with any legal obligation imposed on Guardian in order to pursue the legitimate interests of Guardian;
- to update and maintain records and for fee calculations;
- to retain AML and other records of individuals to assist with the subsequent screening of them by Guardian;
- where you are a beneficiary of a trust whose personal data may have been provided to Us by a third party such as the settlor of the trust, to communicate with you, assess your beneficial entitlement and comply with legal or regulatory requirements;
- to ensure the security of our organisation, prevent or detect fraud or abuses of our website;
- to develop and improve our offering, for example, by reviewing visits to our website and its various subpages and to conduct research about the use of our website
and in each case where we have a valid legal basis for such processing, including: (i) it is necessary to comply with Guardian’s legal obligations; (ii) it is in Guardian’s legitimate interests as a business (except where your interests or fundamental rights override these); (iii) the processing is in the public interest; (iv) if you are a party to a contract, because processing your personal data is necessary for the performance of a contract; or (v) you have given your consent to particular processing activities (where applicable).
Disclosure of Your Personal Data
There are circumstances where we may wish to disclose or are compelled to disclose your personal data to third parties. This will only take place in accordance with the applicable law and for the purposes listed above. Guardian may disclose your personal data to:
- third party (3) service providers in order to process the data for the above mentioned purposes and to facilitate the provision of our services;
- competent authorities (including tax authorities), banks, courts and bodies as required by law;
- another legal entity, on a temporary or permanent basis, for the purposes of a joint venture, collaboration, financing, sale, merger, reorganisation, change of legal form, dissolution or similar event. In the case of a merger or sale, your personal data will be permanently transferred to a successor entity;
- legal advisors who may need to advise us or to manage or litigate a claim;
- our group companies for internal investigations and reporting; and
- to any other third party where you have provided your consent.
International Transfers of Personal Data
The disclosure of personal data to Guardian and/or to the third parties (3) set out above may involve the transfer of data to jurisdictions outside the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland. Such countries (4) may not provide the same level of protection as in Switzerland or the European Union. The list of countries to which your personal data may be made accessible is available on request.
In any event, Guardian must be able to transfer certain personal data in order to conclude and perform your contract and also has an important private interest in being able to do so in order to comply with its legal and regulatory obligations.
In these circumstances we will, as required by applicable law, ensure that your privacy rights are adequately protected by appropriate technical, organisational, contractual or other lawful means. Please contact us at the details above for information about the safeguards, which we have put in place to protect your personal data and privacy rights in these circumstances.
How long Guardian Stores Your Personal Data
Guardian will retain your personal data for as long as required to perform the Services and/or perform investigations in relation to the same and/or as may be required by law (how long the information will be retained will depend on whether additional legal/regulatory obligations mandate that Guardian retains your personal data and/or mandates the period of retention) but as a rule at least 10 years following the termination of your contractual relationship with Us or more in case of a pending investigation or legal proceedings related to your contract. You may request a copy of our Data Retention Policy for more information.
Data Subject Rights
You have the following rights, in certain circumstances, in relation to your personal data. You have the right to:
- access your personal data – you have the right to obtain a copy of the personal data we hold about you. If you would like to obtain a copy of this information, please contact us at the details set out above. You may be required to submit proof of your identity;
- rectify your personal data – you may request that we rectify any inaccurate and/or complete any incomplete personal data. We will respond to your request to correct or supplement your personal data within a reasonable time period and, in any event, within any time period specified in relevant laws;
- withdraw consent – where consent is the lawful ground for processing particular personal data, you may (as permitted by applicable law) withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data at any time. Such withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on your previous consent;
- request that your personal data is erased – you may (in certain specific circumstances) request that we erase your personal data;
- object to processing of your personal data – you may (in certain specific circumstances), request that we stop processing your personal data;
- data portability – you may (in certain specific circumstances) request that your personal data be transmitted to a different service provider; and
- lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority – please contact us first about any questions or if you have a complaint in relation to how we process your personal data. However, you do have the right to contact the relevant supervisory authority directly in the EU Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or in the place of the alleged infringement or the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) if you consider that the processing of personal data relating to you carried out by Guardian or its service providers infringes the General Data Protection Regulation or Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection.
Where Guardian requires your personal data in order to comply with AML or other legal requirements, failure to provide this information means that Guardian may be required to take a number of actions, including refusing to accept you as a client and/or an investor, refusing to make payment to you or to complete a transaction or fulfil some other obligation with you, advising the specified authorities that your account is undocumented (which could prompt further investigation by them), closing your account, refusing to conduct further business with you and other such measures.
Links
Our website may provide hyperlinks to websites owned and controlled by others. We are not responsible and accept no liability in relation to such websites or their contents or for their privacy practices. You should read any applicable privacy notice on any such website.
Changes to this Privacy Notice
We may amend this Privacy Notice at any time (to reflect any changes in the law or in the way that we process your personal data) and will notify you of those changes by posting an updated version of this policy on our website. It is your responsibility to check our policy each time before you access our website for any changes. This Privacy Notice supersedes any previous version of this notice (including anything to the contrary provided in any agreement with us). We reserve the right to change this policy at any time.
(1) Guardian Holdings Limited, Guardian Corporate Services Limited, Guardian Trust Company Limited, Paladin Trust Company S.A, Paladin Corporate Services Limited, GTC Nominees Limited, Patron (PTC) Limited
(2) Generally speaking these affiliated companies include Credo Capital Limited and Argo Real Estate Limited. For a full list of affiliated companies please contact Us.
(3) For an up to date list of these third-party service providers please contact us
(4) For a list of these countries please contact us