Privacy Policy

The Chinese-Italian Cultural Society Limited (the “Society”, “we” and “us” as the case may be) has a strong commitment to provide quality service to its members and to protect and respect the privacy data that the Society collects from its members, non-members and other users of its services.

If you are one of these persons, to ensure you can make informed decisions and feel confident about sharing your personal data, we provide this privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”), which describes what personal data we collect, how we will use that data and how we keep your data safe. For additional information on how we use cookies, please refer to our Cookie Policy.

If you have a question that is not answered here, or if you would like more information about how we collect, use and store your personal data, you can contact us at any time by emailing us at info@thecics.org.

We may need to make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. All changes will be included in the latest Privacy Policy published by the Society. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will be effective upon its publication. Please refer to the below section “Amendments to this Privacy Policy” for more information in this regard.

Please note that the terms used in this Privacy Policy, if defined under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, Cap 486 (“PDPO”), shall have the meanings attributed to them in the PDPO.

Purpose of the Privacy Policy

The Society may collect and use your personal data to administer its business and to offer various related products and/or services that may be of interest to you (“Services”).

As mentioned above, this Privacy Policy applies to the processing of your personal data and sets out the purposes for which your personal data are collected by the Society, how your personal data may be used following collection, including but not limited to the Services and what you are agreeing to with respect to the Society’s use of your personal data, to whom your personal data will be transferred, and your rights under the PDPO.

Personal Data we collect and how we use it

The Society may collect your personal data when you become a member, when you use our premises, when you attend our event, when you use our website, when we offer you our Services, submit any comments or feedback to us, when you are required to verify your identity with us, or during any other dealings with us (all collectively the “Channels”)

Personal data held by us includes, but is not limited to, information such as common personal data (e.g. name, surname, date of birth, place of birth, gender, nationality, contact data: e-mail address, telephone number, password, WeChat/WhatsApp/social media account(s), residence/domicile, delivery and/or billing address, age group, occupation, education and profession, personal interests etc.) which were collected from you directly and also information such as payment details, purchase data payment records, marketing preferences, lifestyle data, your use of our Services and/or Channels (including web browsing data, IP address) that were gathered during the course of your dealings with us.

Once you provide us with your personal data you are not anonymous to us.

When you use our online Channels, we may use cookies and will record your visit. The web server makes a record of your visit that includes, inter alia, your IP addresses (and domain names), the types and configurations of browsers, language settings, geo-locations, operating systems, previous sites visited, and time/durations and the pages visited (visitor data). We use your personal data for the purpose of maintaining and improving our Channels.

Purpose for Collection of Personal Data

We will collect and hold your personal data for, inter alia, the following main purposes:

for the provision of the Services by the Society and/or our service providers, who are engaged by us to assist in providing you with our Services and related activities (e.g. administrative and accounting activities, organisation and management of events, tailored services etc.);
for the use and improvement of our Channels, to send you service messages or other non-marketing communications, for carrying out your instructions or responding to your enquiry;
hosting and managing events;
customer service, general enquiries, research, market and statistical analysis/surveys for a better understanding of your needs, as well as designing or improving our Services;
to maintain, update and/ or process records of activities you have entered;
to communicate with you;
if you are a member or you gave us your consent, for direct marketing activities, including but not limited to: postal marketing, email and SMS marketing, online personalised advertising, social media remarketing, social media insight, designing products and services for you and marketing products or services in which the Society may be involved;
for profiling purposes, i.e. to analyse your personal data (e.g. geographical origin, gender, etc.), preferences and personal interests and creating your profile
business administration and legal compliance in Hong Kong and/or other relevant jurisdictions, including any disclosure or notification requirements to which we or other classes of data recipients are subject.
for forming part of our customer database necessary for the operation of the Services; and/or
for observing any legal, governmental or regulatory requirements of Hong Kong or other relevant jurisdictions, including any disclosure.

You are not required to provide the personal data requested. However, if you choose not to provide such data, we may not be able to provide certain Services to you.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, or for a directly related purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you, and we will use it for such purpose, subject to your prior voluntary and explicit consent.

Methods of processing personal data

The processing of personal data will take place with the use of paper-based and digital methods. For marketing and profiling purposes, the processing will take place in automated and telematic form (e-mail, WhatsApp, WeChat, text messages, automated call systems without operator) and/or traditional (paper media, ordinary mail or non-automated telephone communication).

Accuracy

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal data collected is accurate. However, we expect you to use your best efforts to provide us with accurate personal data and/or to update any changes in your personal data.

Personal Data Transfer and Disclosure

Unless instructed to the contrary upon collection of your personal data and/or upon receiving subsequent notice from you, we shall share your personal data for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, with our service providers and/or third parties, including but not limited to:

banks, credit card companies, payment platforms which are offering payment services to us for facilitating the Services that you have received and/or other payment providers;
agents, service providers (including but not limited to IT services providers, delivery, logistic and courier service providers), merchants (including but not limited to service providers, mailing houses, telecommunication companies, call centres and data processing companies);
third party, organisation and/or partnership who assist us in the operation, organisation, administration and/or promotion of events and the Services;
professional services firms, such as auditors, insurers, lawyers and accountants;
law enforcement and/or other government and regulatory agencies or third parties as may be required; and/or
social media and other online platforms, including but not limited to WeChat, WhatsApp, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

Please note that the foregoing is by way of example only and is not, nor should be intended, to be an exhaustive list, and there may be circumstances where we need to share personal data with other third parties to operate our Channels and/or to provide you the Services.

Transfer of Personal Data outside of Hong Kong.

Where necessary, to operate our online Channels and to otherwise deliver you the Services, we may transfer personal data outside Hong Kong.

When transferring your personal data outside Hong Kong, we will comply with our legal and regulatory obligations about your personal data, including having a lawful basis for transferring personal data and putting appropriate safeguards in place to ensure an adequate level of protection for your personal data.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure the security of your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Although we are in Hong Kong, and we do not have an establishment in the European Union (“EU”), if you are located in the EU and the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) is deemed by relevant authorities to apply to your personal data, which you have provided to us, you also, in addition to the rights set out in this Privacy Policy, have the following rights:

To lodge a complaint about our processing of your personal data with your local data protection authority;
To request erasure of your personal data, provided it is no longer required for the purpose for which we collected it;
To restrict the processing of your personal data in those circumstances specified within the GDPR; and
To be provided with a copy of your personal data held by us.

Retention of Personal Data

Your personal data will only be retained for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, unless contrary to any applicable statutory requirement or unless the retention is otherwise permitted or required by laws, rules and/or regulations.

Direct Marketing

If you are a member of the Society or if you have given us your consent, we collect and process your personal data for direct marketing activities.

We will use your name and contact details (such as telephone number, email address, WeChat/WhatsApp number, social media account(s), and/or correspondence address) and the other personal data mentioned above for marketing purposes, i.e. to send newsletters and commercial communications relating to our Services through various communication means such as direct mail, email, telephone, SMS, WeChat/WhatsApp messages, newsletter, brochure and leaflets, and/or to invite you to exclusive events and/or to carry out surveys.

Photo and Video-taking

During our programmes and events, our staff may take pictures and/or video of you and may publish them (with or without captions which may also include personal data) on our Channels for marketing or promotional purposes.

Right to access and correct your information

You have the right to:

know whether we hold any of your personal data and, if so, access and check the same;
full control and ability to correct or edit your personal data at any time;
request us to delete or remove your personal data in some circumstances; and
request us to block or suppress the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.

You may wish to contact us via e-mail to: info@cics.org.hk or via post at: Room 505, Peter Building, 58-62 Queen's Road Central, Central, Hong Kong.

We will, upon being satisfied of the authenticity and validity of your request, make every endeavour to comply with and respond to your request.

Confidentiality and Security of your Personal Data

We are committed to keeping your personal data secure, and we will take reasonable precautions to protect your personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and/ or alteration.

Amendments to this Privacy Policy

We may amend this Privacy Policy, at our sole and absolute discretion, from time to time. All changes will be included in the latest Privacy Policy published on our Channels. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective upon its publication. By continuing to use our Channels and/or Services after such amendment, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by the amended Privacy Policy.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

Our online Channels use certain cookies, web beacons, pixel tags, log files and other technologies. Please see our Cookie Policy to find out more about the cookies and other similar technologies we use.

Fraudulent e-mails

Please note that the Society will never send you an e-mail requesting your credit card number or passport, personal identity card or Hong Kong ID. If you receive any suspicious e-mails that looks like it is from the Society but asks you for the above information it is a fraudulent e-mail, or “phishing”. We recommend that you do not reply to the e-mail or click onto any links or pop-up messages and report the same to the competent local authorities.

Unsecure communication

You should always bear in mind that all online communications are insecure and there is always an inherent risk in using the same. You should always be aware of this when requesting information or sending forms to us by online communication. We recommend that you do not include any sensitive information when using online communication.