Privacy Policy
Reference is made to the User Terms and Conditions relating to the use of the Services (the “Terms and Conditions”), this Privacy Policy forms part of the Terms and Conditions. All capitalized terms shall have the same meanings as set out in the Terms and Conditions, unless otherwise defined in the provisions herein.
You shall be deemed to have read and irrevocably or unconditionally agree to be bound by the Terms and Conditions and this Privacy Policy by accessing, viewing, downloading, or otherwise using the Services or by registering with the Services.
Your privacy is the Provider’s top concern. The Providers agrees to maintain the User’s data in accordance with the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap 486 of the Laws of Hong Kong). The Provider’s endeavour to earn and keep your trust, so the Provider adheres to the following principles to protect your privacy:
- The Provider does not rent or sell your personally identifiable information to third parties for marketing purposes.
- The Provider does not share your contact information with another User without your consent.
- Any personally identifiable information that you provide will be secured with industry standard protocols and technology.
The Provider reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If the Provider makes material changes to this Privacy Policy, the Provider will notify you either by email, or by means of a notice on its home page. By continuing to use the Services after notice of changes have been sent to you or published on the Website, you are consenting to the changes.
Through this Privacy Policy you will learn about:
- What personally identifiable information of yours is collected by the Provider through the Services.
- How the information is used.
- With whom the information may be shared.
- How you can access and change your account settings.
- What security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information collected by the Provider
- How to contact the Provider.
1. Personal Information Collected
The purpose of the Website is to facilitate Users to obtain industry news, network, chat, swap ideas and share experiences on a web-based site. To enable full use of the Website, when registering, Users are voluntarily requested to provide basic information about themselves along with contact details. You willingly provide the Provider certain personal information, which the Provider collects in order to allow you to benefit from the Services. If you have any hesitation about providing such information to the Provider and/or having such information displayed on the Website or otherwise used in any manner permitted in this Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions, you should reconsider becoming a User of the Services.
The Provider collects your personal information in the following ways:
Registration
In order to become a User, you must first create an account on the Website. To create an account you are required to provide the following contact information, which you recognize and expressly acknowledge is personal information allowing others, including the Provider, to identify you, namely: name, email address, country, position, profession, industry. You will be provided a password which can then be changed by you upon login.
Profile Information
Once you become a registered User, you may provide additional information in the “Profile Section” describing your skills, professional experiences, and networking objectives. Providing additional information beyond what is required at registration to become a User is entirely optional, but enables you to better connect with other like Users and find new opportunities in the Services to build and leverage your professional network. Any information you provide at registration or in the Profile Section that is not personally identifiable may be used in the same manner and extent to which other information that is not personally identifiable is permitted to be used hereunder, including for the purpose of serving advertisements through the Services. If you opt-out, you may lose the potential benefit of being a User, including receiving advertisements that are more targeted to your interests.
Customer Service
The Provider may collect information through the Services in order to, among other things, accurately categorize and respond to a User’s inquiry and deliver appropriate service levels.
Cookies
Like most websites, the Provider uses cookies and web log files to track site usage. A cookie is a tiny data file which resides on your computer which allows the Provider to recognize you as a User when you return to the Website using the same computer and web browser. If your browser settings do not allow cookies, you will not be able to use the Website. Like the information you enter at registration or in your Profile Section, cookie and log file data is used to customize your experience on the Website.
One type of cookie, known as a “persistent” cookie, is set once you’ve logged in to your User’s account. The next time you visit the Website, the persistent cookie will allow the Provider to recognize you as an existing User so you will not need to log in before using the Services. In order to access or change any of your private information, however, you must log in securely again with your password even if your computer contains your persistent cookie.
Additionally, if you log out of the Website you will need to re-enter your password the next time you visit in order to log in to your User’s account. Another type of cookie, called a “session” cookie, is used to identify a particular visit to the Website. Session cookies expire after a short time or when you close your web browser.
The Provider uses cookies to improve the quality of its service by storing User preferences and tracking User trends. In the course of serving advertisements or optimizing services to our Users, the Provider may allow authorized third parties to place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. The cookies placed on our site by these third parties are used to track visitor behavior, and the Provider has no access to or control over these cookies. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by the Provider only and does not cover the use of cookies by any third parties.
Any information provided to third parties through such cookies will not be personally identifiable but may provide general segment information, e.g. your industry or geographic location, your occupation, or information about your profession, for greater customization of your user experience. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Unfortunately, if your browser settings do not allow cookies or you opt to refuse all cookies, you may not be able to use the Services. The Provider does not store personally identifiable information in the cookies.
Log files, IP addresses and information about your computer
Due to the communications standards on the Internet, when you visit the Website the Provider automatically receives the URL of the site from which you came and the site to which you are going when you leave the Website. The Provider also receives the Internet protocol (IP) address of your computer (or the proxy server you use to access the World Wide Web), your computer operating system and type of web browser you are using, email patterns, as well as the name of your ISP. This information is used to analyze overall trends to help the Provider improve the Services. The linkage between your IP address and your personally identifiable information is not shared with third-parties without your permission or except when required by law.
Consent to Provider Processing Information About You
Certain information you provide to the Provider may reveal, or allow others to identify, your nationality, ethnic origin, religion or other aspects of your private life, and more generally about you. Please be aware that in providing information to the Provider for the purposes of opening your User’s account, you are expressly and voluntarily accepting the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions. The supplying of all such information by you to the Provider, including all information deemed “sensitive” by applicable law, is entirely voluntary on your part. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions, but please note that your withdrawal of consent will not be retroactive.
Rights to Access, Correct and Eliminate Information About You
You have a right to access, modify, correct and eliminate the data about you which has been collected pursuant to your decision to become a User. If you update any of your information, the Provider may keep a copy of the information which you originally provided to us in our archives for uses documented herein.
The Provider takes your rights seriously and encourages you to use them if you deem this to be appropriate. You may exercise these rights by emailing us at editor@retailinasia.com
2. Uses of Personal Information
The Services are online services dedicated to helping all types of professionals more effectively connect with one another. The personally identifiable information you choose to provide on the Website is used to help you describe yourself to other Users. Other information, that does not personally identify you as an individual, is collected by the Provider from Users (such as, for example, patterns of utilization) and is exclusively owned by the Provider. This information can be utilized by the Provider in such manner as the Provider, in its sole discretion, deems appropriate.
RETAILinasia Communications
The Provider will communicate with you through email and notices posted on the Website. These include a series of up to five welcome emails which help inform new Users about various features of the Services. Please be aware that you will always receive certain emails from the Provider related to the proper functioning of your User’s account, such as email notices when another User in your network sends you an opportunity. The Provider may send you promotional information unless you have opted out of receiving such information. You can change your e-mail and contact preferences at any time by logging into your ‘Account & Settings’ and amending your email notification choices. If you wish, you can also opt-out of receiving promotional emails, by sending a request to editor@retailinasia.com.
Customized Content
Information provided to the Provider (or to third parties with whom it offers combined services) is also used to customize your experience on the Website.
Sharing Information with Third Parties
The Provider takes the privacy of Users very seriously. The Provider does not sell, rent, or otherwise provide your personally identifiable information to third parties for marketing purposes. The Provider will only share your personally identifiable information with third parties to carry out your instructions or to provide specific services or information.
The Provider offers a “public profile” feature which allows Users to publish portions of their profile, including their “name”, but not their “email address” to the public Internet. Users may opt-out of this feature by editing their Users’ account and settings, however the Provider does not warrant how often third-party search engines will update their cache.
The Provider may provide aggregated anonymous data about the usage of the Services to third parties for such purposes as the Provider deems, in its sole discretion, to be appropriate, including to prospective advertisers on the Website. The Provider may segment its Users by role (i.e. retail store managers, vice presidents), industry, geographic location, or company. If you would like to be excluded from the aggregated research or products based upon aggregated data about Users’ activities on the Website, please email editor@retailinasia.com.
Surveys and Polls
As a User, you may receive requests to participate in market research including polls and surveys submitted by other Users. If you participate in surveys and polls offered through Website, the information you provide may be visible to others using the Website. You may opt-out of participating by changing your User’s account and settings to stop receiving these inquiries and requests.
Forums/Chats/Blogs
If you post on the “Answers Section” of the Website, or use a bulletin board, import a blog, or participate in a chat room on the Website, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you choose to provide there can be read, collected, or used by other Users of these forums, as well as Platform Developers and other third parties, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. The Provider is not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums.
Communications to other Users
Your contact information will only be shared with another User if you have indicated that you would like to establish contact with another user and chose to share this information.
Legal Disclosure
It is possible that the Provider may need to disclose personal information when required by law, such as responses to civil or criminal subpoenas, or other requests by law enforcement personnel. The Provider will disclose such information wherein it has a good-faith belief that it is necessary to comply with a court order, ongoing judicial proceeding, subpoena, or other legal process or request to the Provider brought in any country throughout the world, or to exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims.
Disclosures to others
The Provider may also disclose your personal and other information you provide, to another third party as part of a reorganization or a sale of the assets of a division of the Provider or company. Any third party to which the Provider transfers or sells its assets will have the right to continue to use the personal and other information that you provide to it.
3. Your Information Choices
Accessing and Changing Your Account Information
You can review the personal information you provided to the Provider and make any desired changes to the information you publish, or to the settings for your User’s account including your email, and contact preferences, at any time by logging in to your User’s account on the Website. Please be aware that even after your request for a change is processed, the Provider may, for a time, retain residual information about you in its backup and/or archival copies of its database.
Closing Your Account
You can also close your User’s account through the Website. If you close your User’s account, the Provider will remove your name and other personally identifiable information from its publicly viewable database. The Provider may retain certain data contributed by you if it believes it may be necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally identifiable data, account recovery, or if required by law. To request that the Provider closes your User’s account and remove your information from the Website, please send your request to editor@retailinasia.com. Please send your request using an email account that you have registered with RETAILinasia under your name. You will receive a response to requests sent to editor@retailinasia.com within ten business days of its receipt.
4. Your Obligations
As a User, you have certain obligations toward the other Users with whom you will be communicating. Certain of these obligations are imposed by applicable law and regulations, and others have become commonplace in user-friendly communities of like-minded Users, such as:
a) You must, at all times, respect the terms and conditions of the then-current Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions. This includes respecting all intellectual property rights which may belong to third parties (such as photographs).
b) You must not download or otherwise disseminate any information which may be deemed to be injurious, violent, offensive, racist or xenophobic or which may otherwise violate the purpose and spirit of the Provider and its community of Users.
c) You must not provide information to the Provider and /or other Users which you believe might be injurious or detrimental to your person, professional or social status.
Any violation of these guidelines may lead to the restriction, suspension or termination of your User’s account by the Provider, as the Provider takes these principles seriously and consider them to be the basis on which its Users adhere to the Services which it offers.
5. Important Information
Children
Children are advised not to use the Services and the Provider requests that minors (under the age of 18) do not submit any personal information to it or use the Services.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
The Provider may update this Privacy Policy at any time, with or without advance notice. In the event there are significant changes in the way the Provider treats your personally identifiable information, the Provider will display a notice on the Website or send you an email, as provided for above. Unless stated otherwise, the Provider’s current Privacy Policy applies to all information that it has about you and your User’s account.
If you use the Services after notice of changes have been sent to you or published on the Website, you hereby provide your consent to the changed practices.
6. Security
In order to secure your personal information, access to your data on the Services is password-protected, and sensitive data is protected by encryption when it is exchanged between your web browser and the Website. To protect any data you store on the Provider’s servers the Provider also regularly audits its system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks and the Provider uses a secured-access data center. It is your responsibility to protect the security of your login information. Please note that emails and instant messaging and similar means of communication with other Users are not encrypted and the Provider strongly requests you not to communicate any confidential information through these means.
7. How to Contact Us
For more information or queries you can email us at editor@retailinasia.com.