1.1 Our Pledge
We are committed to safeguard the privacy of individuals with respect to your personal data. We assure that our policies and practices, and those adopted by our affiliated companies and agents in relation to the collection, use, retention, disclosure, transfer, security and access of your personal data comply with the requirements under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Chapter 486) (the "Ordinance") under the laws of Hong Kong, as well as the relevant code of practice and guidance issued by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong. The meaning of the term "personal data" adopted in this Statement is defined in the Ordinance.
Where our operations are subject to privacy legislation other than that of Hong Kong (such as due to our carrying out of operational functions outside of Hong Kong), this Statement shall apply so far as it is consistent with such local legislation.
1.2 Collection of personal data
At times, you may be required to provide your personal data including, but not limited to, your name, gender, date of birth, identity document number and/or its copy, telephone number, fax number, location, postal address and/or its proof, email address, credit card information, bank account number etc. Refusal to provide such information may render us unable to handle any application or request you are making, or may deny you access to certain parts of our websites, or may otherwise defeat the objectives of your visit. If you are under the age of 18, consent from your parent or guardian is required before you provide us with any personal data.
Information relating to your use of our services, such as usage of program, duration of login and other value added services whether provided by us, our affiliated companies or our business partners, may be automatically collected for our accurate reporting and administration of your accounts.
When you visit our websites, we will record your visit only but will not collect any personal data from you unless otherwise stated. Cookies used (if any) in any part of our websites will not be deployed for collecting personal data. For your information, Cookies are small computer files that can be stored in web surfers' computers for the purposes of obtaining configuration information and analyzing web surfers' viewing habits. They can save you from registering again when re-visiting a website and are commonly used to track your preferences in relation to the subject matter of the website. You may refuse to accept Cookies by modifying the relevant Internet options or browsing preferences of your computer system, but to do so you may not be able to utilize or activate certain available functions in our websites. Our websites may bar users who do not accept Cookies.
Calls between you and our Customer Service may be recorded for the purposes of staff training, improvement of service quality and clarification of contractual issues.
1.3 Accuracy of personal data
Your application for our services may be subject to verification of your personal details. If we regard results of such checking is unsatisfactory, we will not enter into an agreement with you. Under certain circumstances, data provided by you will be validated by using generally accepted practice. We may also require you to show the original documentation before the data may be used, such as personal identification document and/or proof of address.
1.4 Use of personal data collected
Specific purposes for which your personal data may be used are set out in our "Personal Information Collection Statement" set out in Part 2 below (particularly those contained in points (i) through to (viii) in the first paragraph of Part 2.1 below).
1.5 Data access and correction
Under the Ordinance, you have the right to:
i. Check whether we hold any of your personal data;
ii. Access your personal data held by us;
iii. Request us to correct any inaccurate personal data held by us; and
iv. Ascertain our policies and practices established (from time to time) in relation to personal data and the types of personal data held by us.If you want to access and/or correct your personal data which you have given us via application form, internet or other means, or if you want to ascertain our policies and practices in relation to personal data and the kind of your personal data held by us, please contact our Data Protection Officer in writing, we will respond within 40 days after receiving the request. We may charge you a reasonable fee for each personal data access. However, such fee will be waived if the data access is made for the purpose of correcting your personal data.
1.6 Security of personal data
We use various encryption techniques to transmit via the Internet your personal data, which can only be accessed by our authorized personnel. Given the operational nature of the Internet, we cannot guarantee that the transmission is fully secure. Please refer to our "Security Statement" in Part 3 below for details on the steps that we have taken to ensure that any personal data collected by us via our websites is safe and secure to avoid unauthorized interference by third parties.
1.7 Internal Guidelines on Record Retention and Access to Personal Data
Our staff are required to strictly adhere to our Internal Guidelines on Record Retention and Access to Personal Data. Physical records containing personal data are securely stored in locked areas when not in use. Access to such physical and/or computer records is strictly controlled and requires management approval for each access. Approvals for access to customers' personal data are granted only on a "need to know" basis. Where we retain, use and/or transmit customers' personal data, we have put in place adequate measures to protect it from accidental and/or unauthorized disclosure, modifications, loss and/or destruction.
1.8 Retention of personal data
If you are a customer of ours, your personal data which you have given us via application form, internet or other means, during the service subscription period will be erased after two years upon termination of your subscription. If you are a participant of any of our business collaboration programs, your personal data which you have given us via the channel(s) designated by us will be erased after one year upon occurence of the latest business activity carried out by you under the relevant business collaboration program unless otherwise specified.