PRIVACY POLICY STATEMENT

 

Thank you for visiting our website.

 

We, Hong Kong Startup Council (“HKSC”), pledge to meet fully the requirements of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. In doing so, we will ensure compliance by our staff with the strictest standards of security and confidentiality.

 

We understand that you care about the security of your privacy. It is therefore our prime concern to secure your privacy so that you may enjoy visiting our website without any worry. This Privacy Policy Statement tells you about what information we would collect from you, what we would do about them and our security policy.

 

Personal Data Collection and Use

Generally speaking, we do not collect any personal data from you and no registration is required to gain access to any information provided by our website.

 

Like many other websites, we record your visit automatically through cookies, which are some small data structures sent to your computer to record your visit to our website and identify you during your future visits. These cookies may be saved permanently in your computer but they are usually harmless. You may disable these cookies but this may affect your browsing of our website. The types of data collected by us include browser type and version, operating system, IP address and domain name of the server. This information collected from you will only be used to compile general statistics in relation to the number of visitors to and the usage of our website. No personal data will be collected unless you explicitly provide that information to us.

 

However, personal data may be collected from you on a voluntary basis for some particular purposes or services. The purposes for collecting your personal data which may include your name, telephone number, address, email address, fax number, etc., are set out in the respective screens on our website which invite you to provide your data. Refusal to supply personal data may result in HKSC being unable to process your request.

 

Where personal data is provided by you, we may occasionally send you some promotional materials regarding our services, activities or products. If you do not wish to receive further promotional materials from us, please e-mail to us at startup@fhki.org.hk or write to us at Hong Kong Startup Council, 31/F, Billion Plaza, 8 Cheung Yue Street, Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

 

When you send us e-mail to make any enquiries, complaints or feedback, we will record your personal data so as to carry out further actions.

 

Security of Personal Data

 

We do take the security of your privacy seriously. Our general policy is not to disclose any personal data to any third parties except as required by law or with your prior consent. All personal data you provided to us are secured on our website with restricted access by authorized personnel only. Our online ordering process uses SSL protocol link for data transmission so as to protect your personal data which may be of security concerns to you. We also remind our staff of our Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure their strict compliance.

 

Disclosure and Sharing of Personal Data

 

Our general policy is to keep all personal data confidential except as permitted or required by law.

 

Personal data provided will be used for specified purposes stated by us when collecting such data including without limitation processing of enrolment application, statistical purposes and other related matters. We may provide these personal data to persons authorised to process information in relation to those specified purposes only.

 

We do not share any personal data about you with other companies or organizations without your prior consent. However, information may be disclosed incidental to or in the course of our operation to the following parties:

 

1. any personnel, agent, adviser, auditor, contractor or service provider who provide services and advice to us in connection with our operation;
2. any personnel, contractor, service provider or technician who help to design, set up and maintain our website;
3. any business partner of any event that you have registered; and/or
4. any person to whom we are required to make disclosure under any law applicable in or outside Hong Kong.

 

You should also note that as we have no control over any act of any third party, the privacy protection stated in this Privacy Policy Statement does not apply to the information which has been disclosed to any third party incidental to or in the course of our operation or in providing our services. We assume no responsibilities on the privacy protection against such third parties.

 

Data Retention

Personal data you provided to us will be retained for such period as may be necessary for the carrying out of the purposes referred to in this Privacy Policy Statement.

 

Personal Data Access and Correction

Under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, you are entitled to be informed by us whether we hold your personal data, to have access to such data and to correct such data if they are inaccurate.

 

Any such data access request has to be made in writing and sent to us by mail to: Hong Kong Startup Council, 31/F, Billion Plaza, 8 Cheung Yue Street, Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong, or by e-mail to: startup@fhki.org.hk

 

A reasonable fee may be charged for all data access or related requests.

 

Hyperlinks

This Privacy Policy Statement only applies to our website. If you click on any advertisement or hyperlink linking to another website, you will leave our website for another location. We will not be responsible for the privacy and security practices or the content of such websites and you should always check the privacy policy of all websites you click in.

 

Updates

We reserve the right to revise, change or modify this Privacy Policy Statement from time to time at our sole discretion by updating this Privacy Policy Statement, posting or inserting notices located on particular pages at our website to that effect. Please visit this page from time to time to review any amendments to the above Privacy Policy Statement and their effect on your use of our website. Your continued use of our website implies your acceptance to such amendments.

 

Applicable Law

This Privacy Policy Statement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

 

English Version and Chinese Translation

This Privacy Policy Statement is written in English with a Chinese translation. If there is any discrepancy or conflict between the English version and its Chinese translation, the English version prevails.

 

EU PRIVACY POLICY STATEMENT

This Privacy Policy applies if you are based in a Member State of European Union during your interactions with us.

 

Data Collection and Use

Your personal data may be collected by us on a voluntary basis when you visit our website, attend our events, use our services, register or communicate with us.

 

The categories of personal data that we may collect, process and use include:

 

1. your personal information, contact details such as your name, gender, age, phone number, fax number, correspondence address and email address;
2. your interests, preferences, opinions and feedback;
3. your responses to market surveys and contests conducted by us; and
4. details of your visits to our website and other information collected through cookies and other tracking technology including information that you look at. We may also collect information about you that is publicly available online, including your social media profiles.

 

We may not collect, process and use your sensitive Personal Data unless your explicit consent has been granted to us.

 

Your personal data may be processed and/or used by us for the following main purposes:

1. to provide our information and services to you;
2. to respond to your inquiries;
3. to mail communications, publications, invitations and such like as you may select, request or as we may consider to be relevant to you;
4. for general market research; and
5. for registration or enrollment of events and courses organized by us or our business partners.

 

The legal basis for our use of your personal data are:

1. consent: where you have consented to our use of your personal data. You may withdraw your consent to our use of your personal data at any time by contacting us;
2. contract performance: where we are required to collect and handle your personal data to provide you with services that we have contractually agreed to provide to you;
3. legal obligation: where we need to use your personal data to comply with our legal obligations;
4. vital interests: where we need to process your personal data to protect the vital interests of you or another natural person;
5. public interest: where we need to process your personal data in order to carry out a task that is in the public interest; and/or
6. legitimate interests: where we have a legitimate interest in using your personal data or information and such purpose is not outweighed by any interests that you may have, or any prejudice that you may suffer, from the relevant use of your personal data.

 

Marketing

We may use your personal data for marketing and promotional purposes. We may communicate marketing and promotions to you by post, telephone or online (including email, mobile device or online banner advertisement) and, as appropriate and where required, we may ask you for your consent, or otherwise provide you with the opportunity to choose not to receive marketing, at the time we collect your data.

 

We will provide an option to unsubscribe or opt out of further communication on any direct marketing communication sent to you at no charge. You may also opt out by contacting us via mail to: Hong Kong Startup Council, 31/F, Billion Plaza, 8 Cheung Yue Street, Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong, or by e-mail to: startup@fhki.org.hk.

 

Data Security

We maintain reasonable safeguard measures to protect your personal data in accordance with the requirements of data protection legislation. All personal data collected by us is stored on secure servers with restricted access by authorized personnel only.

 

Data Sharing

We keep all personal data confidential except as permitted or required by law. We do not share or disclose any of your personal data with other companies or organizations without your prior consent. However, certain information may be disclosed incidental to or in the course of our operation to the following parties:

 

1. any personnel, agent, adviser, auditor, contractor, or service provider who provide services and advice to us in connection with our operation;
2. any personnel, contactor, service provider or technician who help to design, set up and maintain our website;
3. any business partner of any event that you have registered; and/or
4. any person to whom we are required to make disclosure under any law applicable in or outside Hong Kong.

 

Data Retention

Our retention period for personal data are based on business needs and legal requirements. We may retain your personal data for as long as is necessary for the processing purpose(s) for which it was collected and any other permitted and related purpose. Where personal data is no longer needed, we will either irreversibly anonymize the data (in which case we may further retain and use the anonymized data) or securely destroy the data.

 

Your Rights

You have the right to:

 

1. access your personal data and have it corrected, amended or deleted (subject to a reasonable charge);
2. withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data at any time;
3. receive a copy of your personal data and transit such to others;
4. object to our processing of your personal data;
5. lodge a complaint about the processing of your personal data with your local data protection authority; and
6. instruct us to restrict the processing of your personal data pending our investigation and/or verification of your claim.

 

Contacting us

For any data access and correction request or exercise of your rights, please send to us by mail to: Hong Kong Startup Council, 31/F, Billion Plaza, 8 Cheung Yue Street, Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong, or by e-mail to: startup@fhki.org.hk.