Phone
+ 357 25353555
Contact Email
melaslaw@cytanet.com.cy
Working Hours
Mon - Thurday :08:30-17:00 Friday 8:30-13:00

Privacy Policy

COSTAS MELAS & ASSOCIATES LLC

Privacy Notice

COSTAS MELAS & ASSOCIATES LLC (Email: melaslaw@cytanet.com.cy, phone: +357-25353555, address: 21 Theklas Lysioti Street, Melas Court, 3rd floor, 3030 Limassol, Cyprus, P.O. Box 53131) was founded by Costas Melas in 1975. The firm has grown rapidly and today is one of the most well-known law firms in Cyprus, offering a wide range of services to a large clientele, covering all aspects of the law. We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of personal data provided to us and information about visitors to our website. COSTAS MELAS & ASSOCIATES LLC is the data controller of any personal data provided to us when you use our services and our website. 

This Privacy Notice explains how we may process personal data that we obtain about you, and your rights in relation to that personal data. 

Your use of our services and our website constitutes your acknowledgment of the terms of this Privacy Notice. 

When we collect personal data 

We receive personal  data from you, when you request information from us or provide information to us; when you engage our legal services; when you provide services to our clients; when you send us your cv; when you visit our website (https://www.melaslaw.com/).  

Types of personal data we collect

We may collect your:

  • name and surname 
  • residential address 
  • telephone numbers 
  • email address 
  • identification data (identity and/or passport numbers) 
  • date and place of birth 
  • authentication data (e.g. signature) 
  • current employment position, other professional activities 
  • current income and expenses
  • property ownership 
  • banking details 
  • tax residence and tax ID
  • curriculum vitae 
  • marital status 
  • religion or ethnicity. 

Also, we may collect other personal data which may not be obvious to you such as: 

  • your internet protocol address and/or your geo-location.

Furthermore, we may process “Special Category Data” (which includes information on a person’s race, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic or biometric data processed for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, health data, data on a person’s sex life or sexual orientation or data relating to a person’s criminal record or alleged criminal activity). In such cases, legal bases for processing that data may include explicit consent or the processing is being necessary for compliance with a legal obligation or for the purposes of legal proceedings or legal advice.

In addition, we process personal data relating to our employees and candidates for employment, for general employment and recruitment purposes.

How we obtain personal data 

Personal data may be obtained by us:

  • directly from you, from our clients or their counterparties and authorised representatives; 
  • from other entities or other third parties including companies that introduce you to us
  • from other entities that provide information for regulatory and/or legal compliance;
  • from publicly available sources (e.g. the Department of Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver, commercial registers/catalogues, the internet, adverts etc) 

How we use personal data

We use personal data to:

  • provide our services;
  • fulfil our legal, regulatory, accounting, reporting, risk management or professional obligations;
  • protect, establish, exercise or defend legal rights; safeguard our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party (legitimate interests include but are not limited to fraud prevention, internal administrative purposes relating to employees and clients, ensuring network and information security, and reporting possible criminal acts or threats to public security to a competent authority);
  • process and respond to requests, enquiries or complaints received from you.

We have the right to process your personal data for any reasons other than the reasons mentioned above, provided that you have given us your specific consent for such process, in which case, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. 

We don’t use automated decision-making processes or profiling while processing personal data.

We may be not able to provide you with our services or proceed with your employment in case of failure to provide us your personal data that we shall request.

Your rights 

You have the right to access, rectify, ask copy, erase your personal data, request restriction of processing and object to us using your personal data for a particular purpose subject to the limitations referred to in the present Notice and/or of any law or regulation. You can exercise your rights or request clarifications by placing a request in writing at melaslaw@cytanet.com.cy . 

If you wish to complain about how we process your personal data, you may contact us at the email address melaslaw@cytanet.com.cy  and telephone number +357-25353555.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.

We may refuse to act on the request to exercise your rights if the relevant legislation allows us to do so, in which case we will provide reasons for our decision as required by law.

We may charge a fee for the exercise of the rights described above. 

In the case of a personal data breach, we shall without undue delay after having become aware of it, notify the personal data breach to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, unless the personal data breach is unlikely to result in a risk to your rights. When the personal data breach is likely to result in a high risk to your rights, we shall communicate the personal data breach to you without undue delay. 

Where a type of processing is likely to result in a high risk to your rights, we shall, prior to the processing, carry out an assessment of the impact of the envisaged processing operations on the protection of personal data. We shall consult the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner prior to processing where a data protection impact assessment indicates that the processing would result in a high risk in the absence of measures taken to mitigate the risk.  

All the above rights are limited and subject to the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Cypriot Law no. 125(I)/2018.

Retention Policy

We will retain your personal data in printed and electronic form for as long as you remain our client or our employee, as the case may be. After the end or our relationship, we will retain your personal data for as long is reasonably necessary in the circumstances in accordance with our legal obligations. 

For prospective clients we will retain your personal data for six (6) months from the date of conclusion of all communications which did not lead to cooperation or provision of services.  

For candidates of employment, if you are not one of the successful candidates, then your personal data (CV) will be kept in our records for six (6) months, so it will be re-examined for a potential future collaboration. If you do not wish to keep your personal data in our records, please contact us at the email address melaslaw@cytanet.com.cy  or telephone number +357-25353555 and we will destroy it immediately.

Sharing of Personal Data 

We may share your personal data with third parties including:

  • our professional advisers, auditors and insurers, IT support
  • regulatory authorities, courts, government agencies, law enforcement agencies and other third parties
  • our employees
  • external legal or other consultants and associates

We do not intend to transfer your personal data to a third country or international organisation. 

Cookies

A Cookie is a piece of information stored on your computer device by websites. Our website is using Cookies to store your preferences like language and time zone settings. You can configure your browser to reject Cookies from our website. For more details about the use of cookies from our website, please refer to our “Cookies Policy”.

Contact us

COSTAS MELAS & ASSOCIATES LLC has a Data Protection Officer (DPO) and all enquiries in respect of this Privacy Notice or any requests to exercise any of the rights set out above should be directed to the DPO at the email address melaslaw@cytanet.com.cy or telephone number +357-25353555 or by post at: Data Protection Officer, COSTAS MELAS & ASSOCIATES LLC, 21 Theklas Lysioti Street, Melas Court, 3rd floor, 3030 Limassol, Cyprus, P.O. Box 53131.

Amendments 

We keep this Privacy Notice under review to ensure that it up to date with any changes to the GDPR legislation. We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Notice from time to time. Any updates will appear on our website at https://www.melaslaw.com/

This Privacy Notice was last updated on 01/12/2024.