Business Contacts

Collection of personal data

PwC processes personal data about business contacts - individuals with whom we are or may be in contact - in the course of our business activities. These business contacts include existing and potential private clients, business relationship partners, employees, officers and directors, or other representatives and contacts at corporate clients, legal and business advisers, members of the press, suppliers and other third parties and intermediaries PwC interacts with in the course of business.

PwC may collect business contacts’ details directly from the individuals themselves or the organisation which they work for or represent or, indirectly, from publicly available sources including social media sites and/or third parties, such as companies operating public relations or business development databases. 

The categories of personal data processed by us are:

• Contact details (name, email address, contact number, postal address); and

• Job details (job title, employer/organisation you are associated with, and areas of business interest).

PwC processes personal data about its business contacts using a customer relationship management system (the “PwC CRM”).

In addition to the above, the PwC CRM may collect data from PwC email and calendar systems (names, date, and time) in respect of interactions between PwC users and others.

Use of personal data

Personal data relating to business contacts is used for the following purposes:

• Administering, managing and developing our businesses and services

We process personal data in order to run our business, including:

• managing and improving our relationship with clients;
  • developing and promoting our businesses, products and services (including identifying client requirements and improvements in service offerings and delivery;
  • analysing and evaluating the strength of interactions between us and a business contact. PwC’s CRM solutions use algorithms to help with this analysis primarily based on interaction frequency, duration, recency and response time;
  • performing analytics and using artificial intelligence algorithms for reporting and statistical purposes, 
  • using and maintaining IT systems, and protecting the security of these;
  • hosting or facilitating the hosting of events and meetings; and
  • administering and managing our website, systems and applications, and protecting the security of these.

Lawful basis for processing: Legitimate interests

The processing of the personal data relating to business contacts to administer, manage and develop our business and services is in the legitimate interests of PwC and other PwC member firms.

• Conducting corporate research and market analytics
  We use business contacts’ information to conduct surveys or other forms of market research, and to carry out market analytics and profiling, in order to develop and offer our products and services.

Lawful basis for processing: Legitimate interests

The processing of the personal data relating to business contacts when conducting corporate research and market analysis is in the legitimate interests of PwC and other PwC member firms.

• Undertaking marketing activities, including the provision of PwC business insights and information about PwC’s products and services that we consider relevant to business contacts

We process contact information and other information, such as job title, role, location, business sector and employer/organisation that individuals are associated with in order to carry out marketing activities, such as sending relevant marketing material and showing you information we think is relevant. We also gather statistics on email performance to help us to monitor and improve email performance.

Lawful basis for processing: Legitimate interests and consent

Undertaking marketing activities in order to keep business contacts up to date with market developments and PwC’s products, services and events is generally in the legitimate interest of PwC and other PwC member firms. Wherever applicable by the law, we will only send marketing emails if the business contact has consented to receive marketing, for example where the business contact has asked us to add them to a mailing list or has ticked a box to receive marketing when visiting a PwC webpage or when signing up to an event or newsletter. We also gather statistics on email performance to help us to monitor and improve email performance.

Data retention

Personal data of business contacts will be retained in line with our retention policy. Personal data may be held for longer periods where extended retention periods are required by law or regulation, and/or where this may be needed to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.

You can stop receiving marketing communications from us at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in any marketing email. We will, however, need to retain basic contact information on a suppression list to prevent you from receiving future marketing. We may also still contact you for other purposes such as administrative messages or to contact you about services we are providing to you.

How do we share personal data

The PwC CRM is provided by Salesforce. Use of the PwC CRM is supported by additional functionality provided by a third party, Introhive. The PwC CRM may also be accessed by PwC member firms for the purposes described above. For details of our member firm locations, please click here.

Where we have entered into a business relationship, a collaboration agreement or joint marketing venture, we will share your personal data with the associated organisation to provide a service or carry out marketing activity.