Privacy statement

When you engage us to provide you with professional services, we collect and use personal data when we have a valid business reason to do so in connection with those services. For an overview of our services, click here .
In the context of providing professional services to clients, EY also processes personal data of individuals who are not directly our clients (for example, employees, customers or suppliers of our clients). See the section “Individuals whose personal data we obtain in connection with providing services to our clients ” for additional information.
The majority of the personal data we collect and use to provide our services is supplied voluntarily by (or collected by us from third-party sources at the request of) our clients. Because of this, if you are a client of EY, then it will generally be obvious to you what personal data we collect and use. This information can include:

• Basic information, such as your name, the company you work for, your position and your relationship to a person
• Contact information, such as your postal address, email address and telephone numbers
• Financial information, such as payment-related information
• Any other personal data relating to you or other third parties which you provide to us for the purpose of receiving our services

We use this information:

• To provide services to you
• To administer our relationship and maintain contractual relations
• For accounting and tax purposes 
• For marketing and business development
• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
• To establish, exercise or defend legal rights
• For historical and statistical purposes

Given the diversity of the services we provide, we process many categories of personal data. Please see below (non-exhaustive) examples of personal data categories for our four main service lines:

In addition, we also process identification and background information as part of our client acceptance, finance, administration and marketing processes, including audit independence, anti-money laundering, conflicts, reputational and financial checks, and to fulfill any other legal or regulatory requirements to which we are subject.

The checks could include the following:

• Identity verification: proof of name and address
• Ultimate beneficial ownership of corporate and other legal entities
• Conflicts checks: to avoid a conflict of interest with any other client
• Anti-money laundering, proceeds of crime and terrorist financing checks
• Politically exposed persons (PEP) checks: those with prominent roles in government, judiciary, courts, central banks, embassies, armed forces and state-owned enterprises, including their family members and close associates
• Adverse media checks
• Government sanctions list checks
• Independence checks

These checks are made for legal, regulatory or business reasons and need to be repeated during the course of our engagement. As part of these checks, we are required to process special category data (for example, to verify if you are a politically exposed person or to collect information about criminal convictions where this is required for anti-money laundering laws). It is important you provide us with all necessary information and documents as this affects our ability to provide services to you.

Legal grounds for processing personal data of our clients are:

Performance of a contract

• Compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation
• Our legitimate interest in providing you with seamless, consistent, high-quality services and securing prompt payment of any fees, costs and debts in respect of our services
• Our legitimate interest in understanding any conflict of interest or challenge with regard to independence legislation
• Our legitimate interest in safeguarding EY against inadvertently dealing with the proceeds of criminal activities or assisting in any other unlawful or fraudulent activities (for example, terrorism)

Once a company undergoes an insolvency, one or more EY insolvency practitioners (i.e., administrators and liquidators) could be appointed to manage the company’s affairs, business and property. Similarly, when a debtor is subject to insolvency or a restructuring regime, one or more EY insolvency practitioners could be appointed to manage the debtor’s affairs, business and property.

In this section:

• Office holder refers to the EY insolvency practitioners.
• Company refers to the insolvent entity for which the office holders have been appointed.
• Debtor refers to the individual who is subject to an insolvency or restructuring regime.
• “You” refers to the data subjects concerned by the insolvency procedure of the company or debtor.

In providing insolvency services, EY processes your personal data for the legitimate interests of assisting the office holders in the performance of their legal and regulatory obligations with regard to the insolvency procedures. For clarity purposes, the company or debtor remains data controller of your personal data processed for purposes that are not related to the legal and regulatory obligations of the office holders.

Most of the personal data we process is obtained from you directly, but we also indirectly obtain personal data about you.

The office holders and EY process your personal data for the following (non- exhaustive) purposes:

• Communicating with the company or debtor’s creditors and individual creditors: specific information essential in order to carry out statutory duties (this information is to be used to assess, for example, an entitlement to any dividend should one be payable)
• Provision of references or reports to government departments, regulatory authorities and appropriate bodies in connection with the holding of public office or responding to requests
• Provision of statutory returns
• Case administration purposes, including the realization of assets, agreement of claims and payment of distributions
• Processing for personal purposes of employees in accordance with the law and the company’s own policies
• Administration of payroll, raising invoices, credit control and other data relating to the company’s finances
• The reasonable and lawful provision of information to interested parties
• The prevention and detection of crime or fraud
• Establishing, exercising or defending legal rights, taking legal advice, taking or defending legal proceedings
• Complying with legal obligations to which the company or debtor is subject
• Quality and risk management purposes

The types of personal data processed for the above purposes include (but are not limited to) name, address, identifying information, payroll information, as well as any information with your dealings with the company or debtor that are necessary for the performance of the office holders’ statutory obligations during the insolvency procedure.

You have certain rights in relation to your personal data. If you have a query or wish to exercise your rights, please make a written request to the party responsible for your personal data (the company, debtor or the office holder) using the contact details provided in communications about the insolvency.

We process personal data about participants in EY meetings, conferences, events and learning sessions (events). We use various applications to manage event registration processes, which applications will contain their own privacy notices explaining why and how personal data is collected and processed by these applications. We encourage participants to refer to the privacy notices available on those applications.

As part of our event management processes, we process the following personal data (but only to the extent required for a specific event):

• Name, age or date of birth
• Client personnel information (home, office and business information)
• Credit or debit card number
• Customer information (home, office and business information)
• Email address
• Gender
• Home or other physical address
• Names of employers (EY or company)
• Occupation (job title)
• Passport number
• Personal web URL (if you have a personal website that you would like to share)
• Telephone or fax numbers
• Event-related data such as: Dietary restrictions or special requirements, registration status, participant status/type, media interview attendance, previous event experience, arrival time/departure time, hotel check-in/check-out time, flight information (airline, arrival and departure dates)

We do not intentionally collect sensitive category data, unless you provide us with such data (for example, special dietary requirements which reveal your religious affiliation or any food allergies or other data relating to your health necessary to provide support to participants, if needed, for example, if a wheelchair will be required).

Attendees of EY events hosted at external venues are required to bring a photo ID for identification purposes to safeguard our people, assets and information, and to prevent unauthorized people gaining access to off-site EY events.

EY is allowed to take photographs and make audio or video recordings in public areas of the EY events. We use such media in our marketing materials. Images and voices of attendees will be recorded. Recordings will be edited, copied, exhibited, published or distributed.

Legal grounds for processing personal data of participants are:

• Explicit consent of the participant
• Our legitimate interest in organizing events and managing the registration process for such events.
• Our legitimate interest in protecting our people, assets and information, and to prevent unauthorized people gaining access to off-site EY events.
• Our legitimate interest in providing information about EY, our services and events we organize

We provide external users access to various applications managed by us (such as the EY Client Portal and the My EY platform). In instances where such applications process personal data that goes beyond basic contact information used for application authentication purposes, such applications will contain their own privacy notices explaining why and how personal data is collected and processed by those applications. We encourage individuals using our applications to refer to the privacy notices available on those applications.

EY uses a variety of tools to maintain the security of our IT infrastructure, including our email facilities. Examples of such tools are:

• Systems that scan incoming emails to EY recipients for suspicious attachments and URLs, in order to prevent malware attacks
• Tools that provide end-point threat detection to detect malicious attacks
• Tools that block certain content or websites

If you correspond via email with an EY recipient, your emails will be scanned by the tools EY operates to maintain the security of its IT infrastructure, which could result in content being read by authorized EY persons other than the intended recipient.

Legal grounds for processing personal data of individuals who correspond with EY via email:

• Our legitimate interest in protecting our IT infrastructure against unauthorized access or data leakage
• Our legitimate interest in analyzing email traffic

We collect information from and about candidates in connection with available employment opportunities at EY. The information that we collect, the manner in which it is used, and the timing in which it is gathered varies depending on the country in which you apply. As general matter, the data we collect regarding our job applicants includes resumes or CVs, identification documents, academic records, work history, employment information and references.

We use your personal data to match your skills, experience and education with specific roles offered by EY. This information is passed to the relevant hiring managers and persons involved in the recruitment process to decide whether to invite you for an interview. EY will collect further information if you are invited to the interview (or equivalent) stage and onward. Such information includes interview notes, assessment results, feedback and offer details.

In connection with our recruitment activities including applications and onboarding, we also collect special category data from candidates where we have an employment law obligation to do so. This information is relevant to their future working environment at EY or the future provision of employment benefits, or with the individual's explicit consent, where collecting such information is permitted by law. For example, where allowed under applicable law, we will collect information about an individual’s disabilities in order to analyze the diversity of our workforce. Once onboarded, an individual’s provision of information regarding disabilities will also be used to provide a suitable working environment. We will also need to conduct criminal background checks for certain candidates to assess their eligibility to work at EY or for EY clients. In certain countries, we will also ask candidates to provide diversity information about their race and ethnicity, and sexual orientation for diversity monitoring purposes, although the provision of this information will be entirely voluntary. However, where a candidate does not voluntarily provide such information, we could be required by law to make our own assessment of such criteria.

Our recruitment tools and websites contain their own privacy notices explaining why and how personal data is collected and processed by those applications. We encourage individuals using our recruitment tools and websites to refer to the privacy notices available on those tools and websites.

Depending on the country in which you apply, EY collects personal data about candidates (“you”) from the following sources:

• Directly from you – for example, information that you have provided when applying for a position directly through the EY careers website (for additional information about the processing of your personal data via our global recruitment management system, please read the data privacy statement available in this system)
• From recruitment agencies – for example, when a recruitment agency with your details contacts us to suggest you as a potential candidate;
• Through publicly available sources online – for example, where you have a professional profile posted online (e.g., on your current employer's website or on a professional networking site, such as LinkedIn)
• By reference – for example, through a reference from a former employee or employer, or from a referee you have identified
• Results of background screening checks

Legal grounds for processing personal data of our job applicants are:

• Explicit consent of the candidate
• Our legitimate interest in attracting, identifying and sourcing talent
• Our legitimate interest to process and manage applications for roles at EY, including the screening and selecting of candidates
• Our legitimate interest to hire and onboard candidates by making an offer to successful candidates, and carrying out pre-employment screening checks
• Our legitimate interest to manage our career websites (including conducting statistical analyses)
• Compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation (when carrying out background checks to warrant a candidate is eligible to work)

We process personal data about our suppliers (including subcontractors, and individuals associated with our suppliers and contractors) in order to manage our relationship and contract, and to receive services from our suppliers.

The personal data we process is generally limited to contact information (name, name of employer, phone, email and other contact details) and financial information (payment-related information).

In addition, we also use data about our suppliers to check whether we have a conflict of interest or audit independence restriction to appointing a supplier. Before we take on a new supplier, we also carry out audit independence and other background checks required by law or regulation, for example, adverse media, bribery and corruption, and other financial crime checks.

Legal grounds for processing personal data of our suppliers are:

• Performance of a contract
• Compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation
• Our legitimate interest in managing payments, fees and charges, and to collect and recover money owed to EY
• Our legitimate interest in understanding any conflict of interest or challenge with regard to independence legislation
• Our legitimate interest in safeguarding against EY inadvertently dealing with the proceeds of criminal activities or assist in any other unlawful or fraudulent activities (for example, terrorism)