If you are an EU national and reside in the EU, or are a non-EU national residing in the EU, the data controller (as defined under EU data protection law) will be the Harris Williams &Co. Corporate Finance Advisors GmbH (“Harris Williams”) that you engage with. You may find the contact details of the data controller, including its representative, and of the relevant Data Protection Officer (“DPO”) under www.harriswilliams.de, https://www.harriswilliams.com/de/kontakt and dpo.germany@harriswilliams.com.
WEBSITE
The www.harriswilliams.com Website collects personally identifiable information as outlined in the following sections and uses cookies and tracking mechanisms. To comply with privacy regulations, visitors will identify their country and be directed to a site compliant with local regulations. Visitors that indicate that they are an EU national or reside in the EU will be directed to a version of the website on which tracking mechanisms have been removed by default and can be activated after given valid consent. Certain personal information, such as name, email and company, may still be collected for EU residents or nationals when it is shared by those visitors directly, such as to opt into our e-newsletter program and provide consent.
The Website includes all web pages accessible by the public. Any reference to “you” in this Policy shall mean any user of the Website, including without limitation employees of Harris Williams.
Please note that this Policy does not apply to other organizations to which we link. We are not responsible for their privacy policies or practices of any other third party websites and you should make your own inquiries regarding them.
We take your privacy very seriously. Your use of the Website, including any disputes arising from it, is subject to this Policy as well as our Terms of Use, Disclosures, and Cookie Policy and all dispute resolution provisions therein, including the limitation of liability and choice of law provisions.
CONSENT
Upon entering Harris Williams' Website, you have the opportunity to explicitly consent to our collecting and using your personal information in the manner described in this Policy.
INFORMATION WE COLLECT
Harris Williams may ask for and collect from you personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) including name, gender, email address, telephone number, mailing address, other personal or preference information, details about your operating system, internet service provider, browser, IP address, the company name that the relevant IP address is affiliated with, the pages you visited on the Website, and websites you linked to and from. Harris Williams is entitled to process your personal data as necessary for the performance of the engagement with you, or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into an engagement (legal basis: performance of contract). Apart from this, the information we collect upon your visit to our Website is collected based on your consent (legal basis: consent) or based on our legitimate interest to provide the Website and our online services to you in the most efficient way (legal basis: legitimate interests).
Harris Williams is subject to certain regulatory requirements under various anti-money laundering laws in Europe which require us to verify the identity of clients and other parties. So we may need to make certain inquiries and obtain certain information from you for that purpose. You confirm that all information you supply will be accurate and that we may disclose such information as we consider necessary to comply with any reporting or legal and regulatory requirements. Therefore, such processing of your personal data is lawful, as it is necessary for compliance with certain legal obligations to which Harris Williams may be subject (legal basis: compliance with a legal obligation).
USES OF COLLECTED INFORMATION
The purposes for which we process and store your Personal Information are:
To improve our products and services, and to administer, monitor, understand Website performance and use, and to improve the user experience (legal basis: consent);
To administer, monitor, understand marketing email performance and use, and to improve the user experience (legal basis: consent);
To enable us to aggregate user profiles (legal basis: legitimate interests – in statistical purposes and business intelligence);
Where you have requested it or in accordance with privacy laws, to provide you (by email, phone and/or mail) with marketing, promotional, or other information that we think may be of interest to you (legal bases: consent; legitimate interests where an active contractual relationship already exists and marketing refers to own similar products, legitimate interest lies in promoting our own products);
To execute events and other programs, which you have opted into, or not opted out of (legal basis: performance of contract);
To execute digital advertising campaigns which you have opted into (legal basis: consent);
As part of current or future legal or similar proceedings (legal basis: legitimate interests – in defense or assertion of legal claims); and
To enable us to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations (legal basis: legal obligation).
Any promotional correspondence to you will provide you with the ability to opt-out of receiving future promotional material from us, such as by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link in any of our promotional emails that you may receive. Please note that promotional emails are different from emails related to events (described further below), such as event invitations, updates or event-related promotions. If you wish to opt-out of event-related emails, you must click on the “unsubscribe” link in those emails as well, because unsubscribing from non-event related promotional emails does not unsubscribe you from event-related invitations and promotional emails (and vice versa). Thus, to opt-out of both event (including invitations) and non-event related promotional emails, you must click on the “unsubscribe” link on both types of emails whenever you receive them in order to be unsubscribed for both. You may also contact us at any time to tell us that you do not want to receive marketing, promotional and/or event information from us by emailing us at the email address below.
HOW WE STORE INFORMATION
Please note that Harris Williams will store and use your Personal Information only as long as it is necessary for the purposes stated above. If such purposes have been fulfilled or cannot be reached anymore, we will erase your personal data and delete any documents immediately, unless we need to retain the data due to legal obligations or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION
Harris Williams may ask for and collect from you personally identifiable information. This processing and use of information as described above is lawful as far as it is necessary for the performance of the engagement with you, or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into an engagement (legal basis: performance of contract). In certain instances, we may need to obtain your consent in order to collect data from you (legal basis: consent). Alternatively, we may process your data on the basis of our legitimate interest, which is detailed for each specific purpose above or in our Cookie Policy (legal basis: legitimate interests). Content available to website visitors may be different for each visitor based on their prior pages accessed and cookie selection.
We also collect information through our service providers (e.g. Google Analytics, YouTube, Google Ads, LeadLander, Microsoft (including Azure and Teams) and LinkedIn) and through cookies, web beacons, pixel tags or similar digital marker technologies. These methods permit us, among other things, to collect various types of information, including which pages you visit, which of our newsletter articles you clicked on, ads you clicked on, as well as audio and video recordings of our calls with you that is collected by Microsoft Teams under our agreements with Microsoft. The data collected through some of our service providers (such as through Microsoft Teams and Azure) is used to more improve Harris Williams’ products and services and more efficiently operate Harris Williams’ business, as well as to promote our services and administer the Website. Harris Williams may combine this information with the personally identifiable and other information it collects. For more information on the service providers and the associated collection and processing of your personal data, please refer to our Cookie Policy https://www.harriswilliams.com/de/cookie-policy.
The collection of data (e.g., IP address, operating system, browser, Referrer-URL, requesting domain) on your device that access our Website that is strictly necessary for operating the Website and ensuring its stability or security (e.g. storing and accessing data on your device through Strictly Necessary Cookies set on the device) is legally permitted (legal basis: necessity for providing the digital service explicitly requested by accessing our Website). The subsequent processing of this data is based on our legitimate interest whereby the above purposes constitute our legitimate interest, especially providing our Website to you. Other collection of data on your device through cookies and other technologies and the subsequent processing of this data through our service providers are based on your consents, both for the placement of cookies on your device and for the subsequent processing of the personal data (legal basis: in each case consent). You can revoke a consent once given at any time with future effect in our Privacy Preference Center Manage Cookies. In addition to the above, we note that “Do Not Track” is a type of privacy setting that web site visitors can set in certain web browsers. Harris Williams does not currently recognize or respond to “Do Not Track” signals from browsers. To learn more about Do Not Track, click https://allaboutdnt.com.
Please also refer to our Cookie Policy, which explains the use of cookies. For instructions on rejecting or deleting cookies, please visit allaboutcookies.org.
Automated Decision making
Please note that automated decision making, including profiling, will not take place at Harris Williams.
EVENTS BY HARRIS WILLIAMS
Harris Williams is the data controller of information you provide to us in relation to events hosted or organized by Harris Williams which you attend or express an interest in attending (an “Event”). The following information provides details of the processing of your personal data which may be carried out to allow you to participate in an Event and to ensure your experience at the Event is as smooth and comfortable as possible (legal bases: performance of contract, legitimate interests and, where specified, consent).
Personal Data Collected
The personal data which may be processed in connection with an Event is usually the information which you provide to us through the registration process. The type of personal data collected will depend on the Event but will normally include your name, title, contact details (email, phone number and address), company name, fund size and certain other biographical information. We process this data to prepare and carry out the event, as well as to manage participation, meaning the processing is based on the performance of a contract (legal basis: performance of contract).
Event Information Sharing and Storing
In relation to some Events, we arrange specific activities, such as sporting or social activities, and it may be necessary to provide certain information you provide to us to third parties who we engage to provide such activities. The sharing of data is based on your consent via signing up for such an activity (legal basis: performance of contract, consent).
If you provide us with information in relation to allergies and dietary requirements you will be asked for your consent to us providing that information to the relevant provider (such as a restaurant or hotel) so that this information can be taken into account in any food presented to you (legal basis: consent). If you do not consent, you will need to inform the relevant provider of any allergies and dietary requirements directly. You may withdraw your consent at any time, but this will not affect the sharing of data which has already happened by the time you withdraw consent.
If we arrange travel or accommodation on your behalf in connection with an Event, your name and the dates for which you wish to book accommodation will be provided to the relevant travel provider, hotel or other accommodation provider for the purposes of booking your travel or accommodation. If you provide us with your flight details, this information may be provided to the relevant hotel or other accommodation provider in order to give them an indication of your expected arrival time. Your flight details may also be provided to your contacts at Harris Williams so they can know when you will be expected. We process this data based on the performance of a contract to provide the corresponding accommodation you wish for and to manage the organization surrounding the Event (legal basis: performance of contract).
Certain information that you provide to us, such as your name, title, phone number, company name, fund size and certain other biographical information may be provided to other delegates at an Event for the purposes of networking (legal bases: legitimate interests – coordinating the event content and establishing contact for business purposes and, where specified, consent). The sharing of this information may include the provision of information through an app provided for use by delegates. This app is operated by the service provider Cvent, Inc[EF1] [SM2] ., 1765 Greensboro Station Place, Suite 700, Tysons Corner, VA 22102 ("Cvent"). We process your personal data through the app when you use it, for example, to access information, interact with its features, submit data to us, participate in online surveys, or register for Event-sessions. According to Cvent's Privacy Policy, it processes Event delegates data for its own business purposes, particularly to improve its services. This includes using the data for its own data analysis, to enhance its services, to administer user access and security, to evaluate marketing campaigns, and to manage its overall business operations. According to Cvent, it processes this data in an aggregated form so that it no longer contains any personal data. We have no influence on this data processing conducted by Cvent for its own purposes. Please find more information on how Cvent processes data here: https://www.cvent.com/en/cvent-global-privacy-policy. The legal basis for the data processing related to the use of the app is your consent. The provider of the app is located in the United States and your information will therefore be transferred to the United States for the purpose of inclusion in the app. We will ensure that the transfer is carried out in accordance with data protection legislation. For the transfer of personal data to the United States, an adequate level of data protection is ensured by the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF), which constitutes an adequacy decision under Art. 45 (1) sentence 1 GDPR. This framework confirms that certified companies provide a level of data protection comparable to that of the GDPR. Cvent is certified under the EU-U.S. DPF and is listed in the Data Privacy Framework List managed by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Consequently, a high level of data protection is guaranteed for any data transferred to Cvent's servers in the United States.
As a general matter, if you tell us you wish to attend an Event, your name and organization will be shared with the venue (legal basis: performance of contract). We may also share your information when legally required to do so (legal basis: compliance with a legal obligation).
We will only retain the information you provide in connection with an Event for as long as it remains necessary for us to keep it for the purposes set out above. This does not affect our ongoing use of your personal data which has been collected or is collected in the future for other purposes.
Any event invitations or other event-related promotional emails to you (legal bases: legitimate interests if you already attended an event of us, otherwise consent) will provide you with the ability to opt-out of receiving future event-related promotional material from us, such as by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link in any of our event-related promotional emails that you may receive. As noted above, promotional emails are different from event invitations and other event-related promotional emails. Thus, if you wish to opt-out of non-event related promotional emails, you must click on the “unsubscribe” link in those emails as well, as unsubscribing from non-event related promotional emails will not stop event-related invitations and promotional emails (and vice versa). You may also contact us at any time to tell us that you do not want to receive marketing, promotional and/or event information from us by emailing us at the email address below.
INFORMATION SHARING
Unless otherwise stated in this Privacy Policy, Harris Williams may disclose your personal data to another entity (i) for purposes of outsourcing one or more of its services or the functions described above (based on a data processing agreement, or based on legitimate interests); (ii) to confirm or update information provided by you (legal basis: performance of contract),; (iii) to inform you of Events, information about its services, and other important information (legal bases: legitimate interests – offering similar events or services, otherwise consent), (iv) for other purposes disclosed at or before the time the information is collected, or (v) for purposes you have explicitly consented to. In cases where information is shared, we will seek assurances where practicable that the receiving party has implemented appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure the security of your personal data. The legal basis for the transfer of your personal data under data protection legislation will be that it is necessary for the fulfillment of our engagement, that it is necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interest to provide you with our services and run our Events in the most efficient way, or, when you have consented to the sharing of data, your consent.
We may provide your personal data to our affiliates, including without limitation The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. to the extent permitted by applicable law. For this purpose, we may transfer the information you provide outside your country to another country that does not have similar data protection legislation and may provide a lower level of protection for your information. Should this be the case, we will take the necessary steps to adequately protect your data. We may share your Personal Information with vendors we have hired to provide services for us where it is necessary for the service. We are permitted to share your personal data with our affiliates or vendors where they process data on our behalf and with whom we have concluded a contract on commissioned data processing. We may also release Personal Information about you if you explicitly consent to the sharing of your data, or if we are required or authorized by law, or if we reasonably believe that the disclosure is necessary in order to (a) fulfill a government request; (b) conform with the requirements of law or to comply with legal process served on us; or (c) protect or defend our legal rights or property or third party licensors of any material on the Website.
PROTECTING YOUR INFORMATION
Harris Williams attempts to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of your Personal Information. Appropriate measures have been taken to safeguard your Personal Information to prevent unauthorized access, and to comply with applicable laws regarding the protection of such information. These measures may include physical, electronic or other procedural protections, such as passwords, firewalls, and encryption or authentication technology. While we do our best to protect your Personal Information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information that you transmit to us. The information you provide to us is sent over an open network, such as the Internet or email, and may be accessed by anyone. We cannot guarantee the confidentiality of any communications or materials sent to us over such open networks. We therefore do not accept any liability for direct or indirect losses in relation to security of any data that you send to us over an open network.
UPDATING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
To ensure that you have as much control over your personally identifiable and other information as possible, you may update your information by contacting us as provided in the “Contacts” section below. We will use reasonable efforts to process any change you make; provided, however, that requests to delete information are subject to Harris Williams` retention policies and all applicable legal obligations.
INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
We are an international practice and your data might be passed on to our international offices, some of which are in countries outside the European Economic Area, including the United States. The Website is hosted on servers in the United States. Of course, we have implemented the necessary guarantees to protect the transmission of your data as well as its processing on our servers and to ensure an adequate level of data protection. Depending on the type of transfer, we have implemented appropriate mechanisms. Some data transfers are based on adequacy decisions. For third-country transfers to the United States, we rely on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework as an adequacy decision, provided the recipient is listed in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework List maintained by the U.S. Department of Commerce. In such cases, an adequate level of protection for the data processing in the United States is ensured. For other countries, we rely on adequacy decisions issued by the European Commission, where available. If no adequacy decision exists or applies, we enter into the EU Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses with the recipient and implement additional measures to ensure the protection of the data. Furthermore, we rely on other legally regulated mechanisms for data transfers to third countries.
CHILDREN
Children under 16 years old are not the target audience for the Website. To protect their privacy, we prohibit the solicitation of Personal Information from these children. If you are under the age of 16, please do not submit your email address or any other personal information to us through the Website.
YOUR RIGHTS AS A DATA SUBJECT
If we process your Personal Information, you have the right to access the Personal Information that we hold about you, including a confirmation as to whether or not your personal data are being processed. If you discover any inaccuracy in your data, you have the right to rectification. Moreover, you have the right to ask us to erase your personal data, if there are no legal reasons for us to retain it (such as freedom of expression, legal obligations, public interest or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal disputes). When we delete data that we've shared with third parties, we will also contact those third parties and ensure that your data are erased there as well. Apart from this, you can assert your right to restriction of processing of your personal data when (i) you contest the accuracy of your personal data, during the time necessary to verify the accuracy of such data; (ii) the processing of your personal data is unlawful but you oppose the erasure thereof and instead demand the limitation of processing; (iii) we no longer need your personal data but you still need such personal data for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims; or (iv) you have objected to processing pending the verification whether our legitimate grounds override those claimed by you.
You further have the right to receive personal data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to transmit such data to another controller or other party without hindrance from Harris Williams. Whenever this is technically feasible, you may also request that your personal data be transmitted directly to another data controller or other party by Harris Williams.
If we process your personal data on the legal basis of your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time with future effect. Please note that a revocation of your consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out prior to such revocation.
You have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to processing of your personal data which is based on legitimate interests, including profiling. In this case Harris Williams will no longer process the personal data unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
You may also ask us at any time to remove your name from our marketing databases and if you do that we will comply as soon as practicable.
If, despite our efforts to protect the confidentiality of your personal data, you consider that your rights have not been respected, you have the right to file a complaint with the national data protection authority, or similar authority, in your country.
If you wish to request access to your personal information or wish to exercise one of your rights described above, please email or write to us at the email address or postal address set out below in the “Contact Us” section.
CANDIDATES
If you apply for a role with Harris Williams, including in the EU or UK, we will collect certain Personal Information from you as part of the application process, which will include any information you provide through the “Join Harris Williams” function available on the Website. The information will be used for the purposes of considering your application for employment. The lawful basis for the processing of this information is that it is necessary in order to take steps at your request prior to potentially entering into a contract with you and in some cases it will also be necessary for our legitimate interests in selecting the best candidate for a role, as well as complying with legal obligations (such as verifying a person’s right to work in the jurisdiction relevant to their application). If an employment relationship is not established, we will delete the data related to the application process six months after the process is completed, i.e., after notification of the rejection decision.
Should you provide references within your application materials, we reserve the right to verify them in order to gain further insight into your skills, knowledge, experience and suitability for the open position (legal basis: performance of a contract / taking steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract). You provide this data to us directly by actively and voluntary sharing your references; we do not obtain it from third parties. Harris Williams uses an external service provider for the purpose of processing reference checks relating to candidates for employment, which is located in the United States. As part of the engagement of this service provider, we may provide them with your name, email address and mobile phone number. We have concluded a data processing agreement with the service provider, as it only processes data on our behalf. For the third-country transfer to the United States, we rely on the EU-U.S. DPF as an adequacy decision, provided the service provider is listed in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework List maintained by the U.S. Department of Commerce. In such cases, an adequate level of protection for the data processing in the United States is ensured. If the service provider is not certified under the EU-U.S. DPF, we enter into the EU Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses with the service provider and implement additional measures to ensure the protection of the data.
Last updated: September 2026