Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Financial Services Development Council (The Council), Unit 502, 5/F, Nexus Building, No. 41 Connaught Road Central, Hong Kong is committed to ensuring that all personal data collected is processed in accordance with the requirements of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.  If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA), you have certain rights and protections under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This Privacy Policy applies to your use of (1) our website (www.fsdc.org.hk) (Website), (2) the services accessible through the Website, and (3) our products and services. 

If you are under the age of 18, please consult your parents or guardian on the content of this Privacy Policy before providing any information about you to us.

Personal data collected and held

We may collect personal data about you when you visit our Website, attend our functions, use our services, register with us or communicate with us by phone, email or other means of communication. Personal data is information that relates to an identified or identifiable natural person; and identifiable natural person is a person who can be identified directly or indirectly (e.g. by means of association). Such information may include your contact details (such as name, job title, company name, address, email address, telephone and fax numbers), professional or academic qualifications, a record of our contact with you and your areas of personal or professional interest.  Please note that if you do not provide us with certain information, we may not be able to provide you with certain services requested by you.

Under the terms and conditions of our cookie policy, and with your express consent (where necessary), we may collect other information about you when you visit our Website.  Such information may include technical information, such as your device’s IP address, login information, browser information, operating system and platform, and information about your visit (such as clickstream data, pages you viewed, length of visit and page interaction information).  Our Website uses the cookies, which are enumerated in our cookie policy. Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit our Website, and other similar technologies to help us recognise your device on subsequent visits.  Cookies allow us to gauge what information is most useful or of interest to you and allow us to deliver a better user experience.  Cookies, however, generally keep the identity of our individual website users anonymous.  You may block or remove cookies on your device in your browser settings.  However, please note that this may cause some functions on the Website to not work properly and we may not be able to provide certain services requested by you.

We may also collect information about you from other sources. The Council collaborates with third parties, such as its regional counterparts, government or quasi-government bodies, non-government organisations, private business partners, contractors and other service providers.  We may collect personal data from them, social media platforms as well as those whom you have authorised to do so. If you are in the EEA, we will only collect information about you from these sources with your express consent.

Purposes of collecting and keeping personal data

The purposes for which your personal data are kept, used and processed by the Council are:

• To provide you with products and services
• To provide you with information to facilitate you and your business to understand more about the Council and the financial services industry in Hong Kong
• To promote you and your business in the relevant business sectors
• To register you in events organised by the Council
• To send you communications, publications, newsletters and invitations from time to time as you may have selected or requested, or that we consider relevant or of interest to you and your areas of interest
  
  

You may choose not to receive marketing or promotional materials from us by writing to the Data Protection Officer (see below for contact details) and we will cease to do so, without charge. If applicable law requires that we receive your explicit consent before we send you certain types of marketing communications, such as direct marketing, we will only do so after receiving your explicit consent.  We will also only disclose your personal data to third parties for use in direct marketing after receiving your explicit consent.  You may withdraw such consent at any time.

We may also use your personal data for:

• allowing you to interact with our Website
• general administration, including recordkeeping and database administration;
• improving, troubleshooting, testing, implementing security measures, monitoring and administering our Website
• public relations, data analysis, evaluation, market research, research and statistical purposes, such as measuring the success of our campaigns
  
  

For any further processing of your personal data for other purposes, we will inform you separately and, if necessary, obtain your express consent.

If you are in the EEA, we will obtain your express consent (if necessary) before using your personal data for any of the above or other purposes.

Privacy of personal data

Your personal data collected will be kept confidential.  The Council will not divulge or sell personal data to external parties for their own purposes.  The Council may however provide your contact information to third parties to fulfil the purposes for which you provided such information:

• Agents, contractors and personnel who provide services to Financial Services Development Council or to whom we have outsourced services (for example, to administer the distribution of materials, conduct market research or process data on our behalf)
• Our professional advisers, including lawyers, accountants, tax advisors and auditors
• Companies, businesses and the Council’s clients who request referrals of service providers.

Security and retention of personal data

Only authorised persons shall have access to, custody of and the means of processing personal data that the Council collects.  The Council promotes a privacy-aware culture that respects and is sensitive to the rights of its external contacts.

Data captured on-line or via the Website is retained on the Council’s server. Storage on the Council server is secure in accordance with the requirements of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region which protect against unauthorised or accidental access, processing, erasure or other use.

The Council retains personal data for so long as such data is still required for the purposes for which such data is collected, but at least as long as this is required by applicable law (e.g. commercial and tax law regulations).

Access to and correction of personal data

You may request access to your personal data held by the Council pursuant to the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance or, if you are in the EEA, pursuant to GDPR. A fee may be charged (including photocopying, labour costs and other directly related costs) for dealing with a data access request made pursuant to the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. In addition, you may also request for correction of his personal data held by the Council if he considers that such data is inaccurate.

Under the Hong Kong Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, you have the right:

• to check whether we hold personal data about you and to access such data
• to require us to correct inaccurate data
• to ascertain our policies and practices in relation to personal data and the kind of personal held by us.
  
  

There may be situations where the Council is required to process your personal data in accordance with data protection laws in the European Union (EU), including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  If so, you have the right under the data protection laws in the EU:

• to request access to and rectification or erasure of your personal data
• to obtain restriction of processing or to object to processing of your personal data
• to object to processing based on your consent declaration (Art. 6 subsection 1 sentence 1a) or based on a justified interest of the Council
• to the right to data portability
• to lodge a complaint about the processing of your personal data with the competent local data protection authority 
  
  

If you wish to exercise one of the above-mentioned rights, cease marketing communications, and/or raise questions or complaints, please contact us at:

Personal Information Officer
Financial Services Development Council
Unit 502, 5/F, Nexxus Building,
No. 41 Connaught Road Central,
Hong Kong
Email: info@fsdc.org.hk

If there is any conflict between the Chinese and English versions of this Policy, the English version will prevail.