CMS — Canto, Medeiros & Sousa - Solicitadores, Consultoria e Serviços, S.P., Lda. respects your privacy. This policy explains, in plain language, what personal data we process when you visit this website or contact us, why, for how long and what your rights are, under the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, “GDPR”) and Portuguese Law no. 58/2019 of 8 August.
1. Data controller
The controller of your personal data is:
- CMS — Canto, Medeiros & Sousa - Solicitadores, Consultoria e Serviços, S.P., Lda., a firm of solicitors (solicitadores)
- NIF (tax number): 519448480
- Ponta Delgada office: Largo de São João n.º 6, 9500-106 Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal
- Lagoa office: Av. Infante D. Henrique 54G, 9560-022 Lagoa, Azores, Portugal
- Email: geral@cmslegal.pt
- Telephone: +351 961 515 994 (Ponta Delgada) · +351 933 462 344 (Lagoa)
2. What data we collect
We only collect the data you give us directly:
- “Book a consultation” form — your name and email (required), telephone number (optional), the subject you choose from the list and any message you decide to write.
- Contact by email or telephone — the data you share with us in that communication, such as your identification, contact details, a description of the matter and any documents you choose to send.
Please keep what you write in the form to what we need to arrange the consultation. The details of your case and any more sensitive information (for example, about your health) can be discussed later, in a meeting.
As with any website, the hosting server may log technical access data (such as the IP address, date and time, and the page requested) to keep the site running securely: [to be confirmed: technical logs kept by the hosting provider and for how long].
This website has no user accounts or restricted areas, and it does not use analytics or advertising tools.
3. Purposes and legal basis
- Replying to your request and booking the consultation. We process your data to follow up the contact you started — steps taken at your request before entering into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR).
- Providing our services, if you become a client. Your data is then processed as part of the professional relationship (Article 6(1)(b)) and to comply with the legal obligations we are subject to, such as tax and professional-conduct rules and, where applicable, anti-money-laundering rules (Article 6(1)(c)).
- Keeping the website running securely. The technical logs mentioned above are processed on the basis of our legitimate interest in protecting the website (Article 6(1)(f)).
We do not use your data for marketing, we have no newsletter and we will not send you promotional messages. We do not make automated decisions or build profiles about you.
4. Professional secrecy
Solicitadores are bound by professional secrecy under the Statute of the Portuguese Order of Solicitors and Enforcement Agents (Ordem dos Solicitadores e dos Agentes de Execução, OSAE). This duty covers the facts we learn in the course of our profession and continues after the professional relationship has ended.
We treat the information you send us through the form, by email or by telephone with the same discretion, even if you do not go on to instruct us.
5. How long we keep your data
- Contact requests that do not lead to a service — kept for 30 days after the last communication and then deleted.
- Clients — for the duration of the professional relationship and, once it ends, for the periods required by law (for example, tax and professional-conduct rules) or for as long as needed to defend rights in the event of a dispute.
After these periods, the data is deleted or anonymised.
6. Recipients and processors
The website and our contact channels rely on service providers that process data on our behalf, only on our instructions and under a contract that protects the data (Article 28 GDPR):
- Contact form delivery: [to be confirmed: form delivery service]
- Website hosting: [to be confirmed: website hosting provider]
- Email service: [to be confirmed: email service provider]
If you become a client, some data may be shared with the bodies before which we act on your behalf (for example, land and company registries, the courts or the Tax Authority) or with other entities where the law requires it.
We do not sell your data or pass it on to third parties for commercial purposes.
If any provider processes data outside the European Economic Area, the transfer only takes place with appropriate safeguards, such as a European Commission adequacy decision or standard contractual clauses (Articles 44 et seq. GDPR).
7. Your rights
Under the GDPR, you have the right to:
- access — find out whether we process your data and obtain a copy;
- rectification — have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected;
- erasure — ask us to delete your data where there is no legal reason to keep it;
- restriction of processing — ask us to set your data aside, for example while we check its accuracy;
- data portability — receive the data you gave us in a structured, commonly used format, or ask us to send it to another organisation;
- object — object to processing based on our legitimate interest.
To exercise any of these rights, email us at geral@cmslegal.pt or write to either of our offices. We may ask you to confirm your identity. Requests are free of charge and we will reply within one month, which may be extended for complex requests, in which case we will let you know (Article 12(3) GDPR).
Some rights may be limited by our duty of professional secrecy or by legal retention obligations; if so, we will explain why.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Portuguese data protection authority, the Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (CNPD), at www.cnpd.pt (opens in a new window).
8. Security
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data against loss, unauthorised access or improper disclosure — including an encrypted (HTTPS) connection to the website and limiting access to the people who need it to handle your matter.
No means of communication is completely secure. If you need to send us particularly sensitive documents, we can agree with you on the most suitable way to do so.
9. Cookies and local storage
This website does not set any cookies of its own, and uses no statistics, analytics or advertising cookies.
- Local storage (pre-launch phase). While the site is under maintenance, if you use the “Early Access” button your browser keeps a technical entry in local storage (localStorage) only to remember that access. It contains no personal data and you can remove it by clearing this site’s data in your browser.
- Theme preference (light/dark). If you use the theme button, your browser saves your choice (light or dark mode) in local storage (localStorage), only so that it is kept on later visits. It is not a cookie, contains no personal data and is not sent to us. If you do not use the button, nothing is saved and the website follows your device’s theme setting. You can remove it at any time by clearing this site’s data in your browser.
- Google Fonts. The website’s typefaces are loaded from Google’s servers. To do this, your browser connects to those servers, which receive your IP address and technical details of the request. Google processes that data under its own privacy policy (opens in a new window).
- Google Maps. The website does not embed any maps. The “View on map” links only open Google Maps, in a new window, if you click them; from then on, Google’s privacy policy applies.
Other external links (for example, to the OSAE or the electronic Complaints Book) lead to third-party websites with their own policies.
10. Data protection officer
[to be confirmed: whether a DPO has been appointed]
Any question about how we process your data can be sent to geral@cmslegal.pt.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy to reflect changes in the law or in how the website works. The version in force is always the one published on this page, with the date of the last update shown at the top. If the changes are significant, we will highlight them on the website.
This English version is provided for convenience; if there is any discrepancy, the Portuguese version prevails.