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  • BDO Portal User Terms and Conditions

BDO Portal User Terms and Conditions

1. BDO User Terms of Use

About BDO
Ownership
Scope and Licence of use
Terms of use
Access to the BDO Portal
Third parties
Liability, indemnification
Intellectual property
Force majeure
Property rights
Evidence
Applicable law

The BDO Portal web site (the “BDO Portal”) is an online collaboration space, available 24/7,designed to assist our clients in meeting the business challenges they face by connecting them with the knowledge and expertise of the BDO professionals and to assist the BDO professionals in serving our clients better.
 

About BDO

BDO is an international network of independent public accounting, tax and advisory firms (the “BDO Network”), which perform professional services under the name of BDO (each a “Member Firm” or “BDO Member Firm”). BDO International Limited (“BDOI”) is a UK company limited by guarantee. It is the governing entity of the BDO Network.

Each of BDOI and the Member Firms is a separate legal entity and has no liability for another such entity's acts or omissions. Nothing in the arrangements or rules of the BDO Network shall constitute or imply an agency relationship or a partnership between BDOI and the Member Firms.

BDOI provides no client services. Services are provided solely by the BDO Member Firms in their respective geographic areas.
 

Ownership

The BDO Portal is protected under the copyright laws of all countries which are signatories to the Berne Convention or the Universal Copyright Convention. No part of it may be copied without the prior written consent of Stichting BDO. All rights are reserved.

The BDO Portal is made available to Member Firms by Brussels Worldwide Services BVBA, on behalf of Stichting BDO and the BDO Network (individually or all together referred to hereinafter as “BDO”, “we” or “us” as the context requires).
 

Scope and Licence of use

The BDO Portal is intended for the sole use of (i) partners, principals, directors and employees of BDO Member Firms (“BDO Professionals”) and (ii) persons expressly authorised by a BDO Member Firm to use the BDO Portal.  Persons falling in either categories (i) or (ii) are hereinafter referred to together as “BDO Users”.  Further references below to “you”, “yourself”, or “your” shall be applicable to you as a BDO User provided that you fall into one of those two categories. The use of the BDO Portal is governed in all respects by the Member Firm Licence.

For the purposes of these Terms of Use (“MF Terms”), a BDO Member Firm is a firm that has entered into a Member Firm Licence agreement with BDO IP Limited and is at the moment of the use of the  of the BDO Portal by you still bound to the terms of that Member Firm Licence.

By virtue of a Member Firm Licence, BDO Member Firms have been granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free licence to use the BDO Software, which includes the BDO Portal, in their Territory for all purposes associated with the provision of Professional Services by BDO Member Firms in their respective Territory and, subject to limitations contained in the Member Firm Licence, outside of their Territory for all purposes ancillary to the provision of Professional Services in or from their respective Territory, as long as such purposes are in accordance with the obligations and responsibilities of the BDO Member Firms, the Member Firm Licence and the Regulations.

Unless defined in this document, all capitalised words used herein shall have the same meaning as in the Member Firm Licence.
 

Terms of use

By using this BDO Portal, you are agreeing to these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, then you are not allowed to use this BDO Portal and should immediately terminate such usage.

If you are not a BDO User, you must stop using the BDO Portal immediately.

These MF Terms are different to the terms of use for clients of your Member Firm, which can be found here.

Please read carefully all of these MF Terms and ensure that you do not act in any way which would infringe the obligations of the BDO Member Firm in which you are a BDO Professional or which has authorised you to use the BDO Portal.

The BDO Portal may redirect you to various separate web sites and applications. These MF Terms apply solely to the content on the BDO Portal, and not to each individual web site or application it redirects to. BDO does not bear any responsibility whatsoever for the content, accuracy or security of any web sites or applications that are linked (by way of hyperlink or otherwise) to the BDO Portal.

We may revise these MF Terms of Use at any time in our sole discretion by posting such revised MF Terms at the MF Terms (i.e. this page that you are currently viewing) or elsewhere on the BDO Portal. Such revisions shall be effective as to you upon posting, unless explicitly stated by us. It is your responsibility to be aware of any such revised MF Terms by checking this page. Your continued use of the BDO Portal following changes to these MF Terms constitutes your agreement to the revised MF Terms.

Member Firms and BDO Users are wholly responsible for their use of the BDO Portal, and for the user names and passwords allocated (if relevant). Each BDO User shall make use of the BDO Portal only with its own individually allocated user name and password or the user name and password granting access to the BDO Portal. Member Firms and BDO Users shall in no way violate third party intellectual property rights, and shall in no way interfere with or commercially exploit the system of which the BDO Portal forms a part of, except as specifically permitted herein or in the Member Firm Licence.

BDO and its licensors retain the usage and ownership rights to the BDO Portal and the related technology. You access this BDO Portal using Microsoft SharePoint technology and by using this BDO Portal, you and your Member Firm agree to be bound by their license terms, set out at here, as they may be amended from time to time.

You and your Member Firm will maintain the confidentiality of the content and technology of this BDO Portal using at least the same degree of care as you and your Member Firm use in maintaining your own proprietary and/or confidential information, but in no event using less than a reasonable degree of care.

You and your Member Firm will ensure that any and all copies of this BDO Portal content (printed or electronic) retain and/or reflect any copyright, confidentiality, or other legal notice that appears on or with such material when accessed on this BDO Portal. You and your Member Firm will not copy, download, reproduce, modify or distribute this BDO Portal technology in whole or in part, except as may be expressly permitted in these MF Terms or elsewhere in writing outside of these MF Terms.

Except as otherwise provided in an applicable agreement with BDO, you and your Member Firm may not engage in any of the following relating to the BDO Portal and/or its contents, nor may you and your Member Firm authorise other parties to do so:

(a) make use of the service for any purpose other than that for which access has been provided,
(b) copy or distribute the BDO Portal or any of its contents,
(c) amend or create an extract of the BDO Portal,
(d) deduce, change or edit source codes relating to the BDO Portal, or
(e) distribute, exploit, transfer or sub-license the BDO Portal or any rights related to it.

If you and/or your Member Firm save information from the BDO Portal on your own computer, server or other storage medium, you and your Member Firm will use reasonable endeavours to ensure the security, storage and availability of this information.


Access to the BDO Portal

To access the BDO Portal, you may have received from your local Member Firm a user name and a password. The user name and password must be treated confidentially, and they are not transferable.

You and your Member Firm are responsible for the proper usage and security of the Member Firm's hardware and software and of the user certificates giving access to the BDO Portal. You and your Member Firm are prohibited from allowing unauthorized parties access to the BDO Portal. You and your Member Firm are required to use reasonably reliable antivirus software before and during use of the BDO Portal.

If you and your Member Firm know or suspect that unauthorized third parties are, or may become, privy to information concerning the user name or password or that these have been lost, stolen or are missing, you and/or your Member Firm must notify BDO immediately.

If necessary for the proper running of the BDO Portal, your password(s) may be reset from time to time.


Third parties

BDO may engage third parties for the purposes of providing and maintaining the BDO Portal. To the extent that contracted third parties may need to have access to the BDO Portal, you and your Member Firm agree to the processing of your and its data for these purposes, as set out in the privacy policy.


Liability and indemnification

Although we take commercially reasonable steps to make this BDO Portal useful and secure, this BDO Portal (including all BDO Portal technology, BDO Portal content and other content) is provided as is, without warranty of any kind. Without limiting the foregoing, we do not warrant that this BDO Portal will be secure, error-free, free from viruses or malicious code, or will meet any particular criteria of performance or quality, and we expressly disclaim all implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability, title, non-infringement, compatibility, security, accuracy and fitness for a particular purpose.

BDO is only responsible for damage or costs incurred due to willful intent to cause damage, deception, fraud or willful recklessness on the part of BDO.

Your use of this BDO Portal is at your own risk and you assume full responsibility and risk of loss resulting from your usage, including with respect to loss of service or data. We will not be liable for any damage or costs incurred by you, your Member Firm or by third parties as a result of your use of the BDO Portal, regardless of the reason for such damage or costs, which may include without limitation damage due to: (i) inaccurate or incomplete Client information; (ii) malfunctions, errors, delays or any other deficiencies of the BDO Portal and/or BDO’s means of communication, such as not being able to send, receive, store or change information; (iii) viruses, spyware and other harmful software; (iv) temporary or prolonged denial of access to or shutdown of the BDO Portal for the purposes of maintenance, adjustments or improvements; (v) the alteration, extension or (partial) deletion of the BDO Portal; (vi) any acts or omissions by you, your Member Firm and/or other authorised users in breach of the obligations arising from or in connection with the BDO Portal; or (vii) loss of electricity if you are logged in on the system.

BDO is not responsible or liable for the existence of an operational point-to-point connection between the systems and software owned or used by you and the BDO Portal or the platform on which the BDO Portal runs.

If you use the Single-Sign-On functionality to connect to software applications owned by or licensed to you or the Member Firm, BDO is in no way responsible and/or liable for the content and/or use of the software, software packages or data in question.

Except as stipulated above, BDO is not liable for any loss of turnover, profit or goodwill for any reason whatsoever, even if BDO has been informed of the likelihood of this loss. BDO will endeavour to repair malfunctions reported to BDO by you and/or your Member Firm, except if the cause of the malfunction is attributable to you and/or the Member Firm or to the system and/or software used by you and/or the Member Firm. If you and/or the Member Firm act in breach of the obligations arising from or in connection with the use of the BDO Portal, you and/or the Member Firm will be liable for all the resulting damage and costs incurred by BDO.

The above limitations of liability shall be applicable not only to us but also to each other entity within the BDO Network and to our and their respective personnel.

If any of the above limitations of liability is invalid or unenforceable in any jurisdiction, then (i) in that jurisdiction it shall be re-construed to the maximum effect permitted by law to effect its intent as nearly as possible and the remaining terms shall remain in full force and effect, and (ii) in every other jurisdiction all of these terms shall remain in full force and effect.


Intellectual property

BDO or the third party from which BDO has obtained permits/licences will at all times remain the owner of all the intellectual and other property rights regarding this BDO Portal.

This BDO Portal contains material which is owned by or licensed to your Member Firm. This material includes, but is not limited to, any features developed or provided by your Member Firm, including, but not limited to, analytics, insights, CRM connectivity, as well as users, clients and projects lists.

You may not publish information relating to the BDO Portal or operate or otherwise use the BDO Portal with the aid of third parties or on your own in a manner (including but not limited to storing or reproducing all or part of the BDO Portal on another internet page or inserting links, hyperlinks or deep links between the BDO Portal and any other internet page) for which no prior written permission has been obtained from BDO.


Force majeure

BDO is not obliged to meet any obligation it is unable to meet due to force majeure. Force majeure is understood to include shortcomings by third parties engaged by BDO as well as disruptions to or failures in the electricity supply and/or telecommunications systems.


Property rights

You may link to this BDO Portal provided that such link does not involve unauthorized use of the BDO Portal, or of our logos; any false claims (actual or implied) of endorsement by, or other relationship with BDO; or any other infringement of our trademarks, copyright and/or other intellectual property rights.

This BDO Portal contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these Terms of Use. You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other web site or other form of electronic retrieval system.


Evidence

Data extracts from BDO’s computer and other systems will provide sufficient evidence of any and all use of the BDO Portal and any and all instructions, guidelines and other communications between BDO and you and/or your Member Firm. Evidence to the contrary may be submitted only in the event of clear errors in the data extracts from BDO’s computer and other systems. The use of login data for the BDO Portal provides sufficient proof of the identity of the authorised user.


Applicable law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of Belgium.  Should any dispute arise between us, the parties will attempt to resolve it by senior level negotiations (this may include mediation using the services of an agreed mediator). If the dispute is not resolved through negotiation or mediation, the Belgian courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve any disputes arising out of these Terms.

For any further information or questions regarding these Terms, please send us an email at portal@bdo.co.nz.

 

2. Privacy Statement

Introduction
Consent to Processing
What personal information do you collect when I visit this BDO Portal?
Technical information
When do you collect personal information through this BDO Portal?
How do you use my personal information?
Your Rights
Will you provide my personal information to a third party?
How long do you keep my personal information?
Is my personal information secure?
International Transfers
Updating this Privacy Statement
 

Introduction

This privacy statement (“Privacy Statement”) applies only to this BDO Portal which is provided by BDO New Zealand (also referred to below as “we”, “us”, “our” or “BDO”).

The BDO Portal may redirect you to various separate web sites and applications. This Privacy Statement applies solely to the content on the BDO Portal, and not to each individual web site it redirects to.

By using this BDO Portal and submitting any personal information to us, you agree to the use by us of your personal information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Statement.


Consent to Processing

By providing any personal information to this BDO Portal, you fully understand and unambiguously consent to the transfer of such personal information, and the collection and processing of such personal information provided, to the extent permitted in this Privacy Statement.

Please note that any other specific websites contained within this BDO Portal are provided by the applicable related entities managing them and are not the responsibility of BDO. Such websites, as well as other websites that may be linked to this BDO Portal, are not governed by this Privacy Statement. We encourage visitors to review each of these other web sites' privacy statements before disclosing any personal information.


What personal information do you collect when I visit this BDO Portal?

In order to register and gain access to this BDO Portal, users may be asked to provide their full name, email address and location. This information is used to verify your identity each time you log in to this BDO Portal. You may also have the option to submit additional information such as telephone number, the name of your company, your professional position and your picture. This information will be used to manage your account and customize and improve this BDO Portal.

Please note that personal or other information that you upload or post via this BDO Portal may also be read or used by other authorised users who have been granted access to this BDO Portal’s collaboration spaces to which you have access.

Use of this application may be subject to review, monitoring and recording at any time to help us ensure compliance with the Terms of Use and to ensure that only authorised parties are accessing this BDO Portal using your user login and password.

We do not collect sensitive personal information from you from this BDO Portal. Sensitive information includes data relating to: race or ethnic origin; political opinions; religious or other similar beliefs; physical or mental health; trade union membership; sexual orientation or criminal record. Where you provide sensitive personal information to us voluntarily we will assume that we have your explicit consent to use that information in connection with the purpose for which it has been provided.


Technical Information

When you visit this web site, we may collect technical information such as your IP (Internet Protocol) address, details of the pages you visit on this BDO Portal and which browser you used to view this BDO Portal.

This BDO Portal collects standard internet log and technical data to measure and improve its effectiveness, to help diagnose problems with our server, to administer this BDO Portal, to see where web site traffic is coming from and to identify our users. In connection with this, we may use "cookies" to collect this information. For more information, see our Cookie Policy.


When do you collect personal information through the BDO Portal?

We collect personal information from you in the following circumstances:

  • when you register to BDO Portal
  • when you complete your user profile
  • when you subscribe to any of our insights
  • when you subscribe to any of our blogs
  • when you register to attend an event
  • when you enter a discussion forum
  • when you contact us to request further information.

We collect the minimum amount of information to enable us to deal with your request. We will indicate where the provision of information is voluntary or compulsory. We would normally only request additional information to enable us to provide the most appropriate response to your request.


How do you use my personal information?

We only use the personal information that you provide to deal with your request, and to manage this BDO Portal and the services that we offer to you via this BDO Portal as described in this Privacy Statement.

When requesting material or asking someone to contact you, there will be the option to receive other information that may be of interest.


Your Rights

You have the right to request access to the personal information that you have submitted through this BDO Portal, update or correct your details, opt out of receiving other information from BDO or request that your personal details are deleted from our systems at any time by e-mailing portal@bdo.co.nz. We will treat all such requests in accordance with applicable local law.

If you would like to opt out of receiving promotional or marketing e-mail from us in the future, you may let us know by sending an e-mail to us at portal@bdo.co.nz, and stating the e-mail address you wish to be removed from our mailing list. However, your option not to receive promotional and marketing e-mail shall not preclude us from corresponding with you, by e-mail or otherwise, regarding your existing relationship with us.


Will you provide my information to a third party?

We may contract with other companies or individuals to deal with your enquiry or to otherwise operate this BDO Portal or our business activities. We may give such companies access to your personal information in connection with those purposes on our behalf, and these companies will process your personal data only on BDO's instructions and solely for the purposes of providing and maintaining the BDO portal. We may also share your personal information with other member firms within the BDO network provided that this is consistent with the basis on which we have collected your personal information.

From time to time, we may disclose personal information in response to a court order, subpoena, government investigation, or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

We do not provide information to third parties for their own marketing purposes and we do not undertake mailings for third parties.

We may not, as a result of a sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of assets, reorganization or liquidation of our company (a "Reorganisation Event"), transfer, sell or assign your personal information to third parties involved in the Reorganisation Event.


How long do you keep my information?

We only keep your Information for the period required for fulfilling your request and will delete it in accordance with our data retention policies.


Is my information secure?

We have implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security to protect personal information from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction. We require all employees and principals to keep personal information confidential and only authorised personnel have access to this information.


International Transfers

You acknowledge that in order to provide services to you via this BDO Portal we may need to transfer your personal information [outside the EEA] to countries that may not provide a level of protection of personal information that may be regarded as equivalent to that afforded under the European data protection legislation. Whenever your personal information is transferred internationally, we will take appropriate steps to ensure its security and confidentiality in accordance with applicable data protection law.


Updating this Privacy Statement

We may modify or update this Privacy Statement from time to time. You will be able to see when we last updated the Privacy Statement because we will include a revision date. Changes and additions to this Privacy Statement are effective from the date on which they are posted. Please review this Privacy Statement from time to time to check whether we have made any changes to the way in which we use your personal information.
 

Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement you can contact us at via email at Portal@bdo.co.nz or using the contact us link.

Last modified 28 May 2018.


3. Cookies

Cookies
How to control my cookies
Managing cookies in my browser
Managing analytics cookies
Further information about cookies and how to manage them

We gather information from users of this BDO Portal automatically and when you decide to provide us with information, for example, when you register to this BDO Portal. This information is treated with confidence, and is only used by BDO as per the terms of the Privacy Statement.

We may use "cookies" to keep, and sometimes track, information about you.


Cookies

Cookies are small text files which are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a web site or application. Your web browser (such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome) then sends these cookies back to the web site or application on each subsequent visit so that they can recognise you and remember things like personalised details or user preferences. Cookies do not damage your system. You can reset your browser so as to refuse any cookie or to alert you to when a cookie is being sent.

To improve your experience and to make our service to you better we use cookies for the purposes of system administration and analytics of our web site and Portal. This gives us information about the number of visitors to different parts of our web site.

BDO does not share this data with third parties. Our cookies do not store sensitive information such as your name or address, they simply just enable us to see behaviour on the web site to help us improve your experience. However, if you’d prefer to restrict, block or delete cookies from this BDO Portal, or any other web site, you can use your browser to do this. Each browser is different, so check the ‘Help’ menu of your particular browser (or your mobile phone’s handset manual) to learn how to change your cookie preferences.


How to control my cookies

There are various ways that you can control and manage your cookies which are discussed in more detail below. Please remember that any settings you change will not just affect this BDO Portal’s cookies but will apply to all web sites that you visit (unless you choose to block cookies from particular web sites).


Managing cookies in my browser

Most modern browsers will allow you to:

  • See what cookies you’ve got and delete them on an individual basis
  • Block third party cookies
  • Block cookies from particular web sites
  • Block all cookies from being set
  • Delete all cookies when you close your browser

You should be aware that any preferences will be lost if you delete cookies. This includes where you have opted out from cookies, as this requires an opt-out cookie to be set. Also, if you block cookies completely many web sites will not work properly and some functionality on these web sites will not work at all.


Further information about cookies and how to manage them

If you’d like to learn more about cookies in general and how to manage them, visit aboutcookies.org*

*Please note that we can’t be responsible for the content of external web sites.

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