Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us and we want you to be given the opportunity to understand how we use your personal information and to be confident that this information is safe and secure.

This privacy policy explains why we collect your information, how we use it, your rights and choices and the steps we take to keep it secure and confidential.

We keep our privacy policy under review and we recommend you check it regularly.  This privacy policy was last updated on 04 October 2020.

This privacy policy covers:

– How we use your information to provide Links Group services
– Why we share your information with the Equiom Group
– Why we share your information with other
– How we transfer your information to other countries
– How we use your information to contact you
– What happens to your information when we  on’t need to use it anymore
– How we keep your information secure
– Your rights in relation to your information
– How we use social media
– Your rights when you follow links to external websites
– The cookies we use and how you can control them
– How you can ask for more information, ask a question, or make a complaint.

Where we refer to Links Group we mean The Links Group Limited:

The Links Group Limited
Office 720 Ascon House
Al Muteena,
PO Box 49042
Dubai, UAE
Phone: +971 (0) 4 446 3900
Phone Toll Free: 800 54657
Email: dataprotection-linksgroup@equiomgroup.com 

Links Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Equiom Holdings Limited.

 

USING YOUR INFORMATION TO PROVIDE LINKS GROUP SERVICES
Links Group offers a varied range of services and we collect and hold personal information that identifies clients, intermediaries, suppliers and other third parties linked to our clients. The types and amount of information we collect differs depending on your relationship with us. By using our services you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We only collect the data we need in order to provide the services you have asked for, or that we need in order to fulfil our legal or regulatory obligations in relation to those services. If we need to collect additional information we will explain why we need it. You are not obliged to provide any of the information we ask you for, but if you choose not to we may be unable to provide you with services or respond to your enquiries.

The examples in this section are only an overview of the types of processing we carry out. If you would like a more in-depth list of our processing activities and our legal basis for processing, please contact the Group Data Protection Team.

When you enquire about our services and when you have appointed Links Group to provide services, your personal information may be used for:

– Responding to enquiries, offering services, and agreeing terms of business
– Communicating with you about the services you have asked us to provide and informing you of changes that affect those services
– Setting up and administering client companies
– Processing license applications, renewals, amendments and cancellations
– Preparing and submitting visa and work permit applications, amendments and cancellations
– Translation services.

There are times when we are under a legal obligation to collect your personal information, including for:

– Preventing financial crime and the funding of terrorism
– Identifying politically or commercially exposed persons, or those with a significant exposure to the media.

There are occasions when it is in our legitimate interests to collect and process your information, for example:

– Analysing details of the number of visits to our website and the pages visitors view allows us to update and improve it.  This allows us to refine the site and make your visits to our website more interesting and informative
– To make you aware of additional or new services that we feel could be of benefit to you and will complement the services we already provide.

SHARING YOUR INFORMATION WITH OTHER EQUIOM COMPANIES
The Links Group is an Equiom company and share your information with other Equiom companies where it is necessary in order for us to provide you with services or to allow our company boards to have full oversight of our operations.

To enable Equiom to operate on a global scale, some business functions have been amalgamated at group level to provide centres of excellence, allowing our expert staff to provide a high quality, streamlined service. These specialist functions include Group Risk Management, Data Protection, Finance, Marketing and Corporate Communications. In addition, some specialist services that support our business are also centralised, such as IT, Project Management, and Internal Audit.

Wherever possible, information provided for such Group functions is anonymised, for example, where statistical information is shared to meet group reporting and governance requirements. There are, however, times where we cannot provide the relevant services without using some personal information. In these cases access is only granted to employees who need it in order to provide those services, and the amount of information shared is limited to the minimum that will allow them to fulfil their functions.

 

SHARING YOUR INFORMATION WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS
In the usual course of our business, we use third party organisations to support the essential delivery of our services. Under these circumstances Links Group remains responsible for the security and privacy of your information and we regularly review all third parties’ security measures to ensure they meet the same standards you expect from us. All third party organisations operate under contracts that restrict their use of your personal information to providing the services we have employed them for.

The services they provide include:

– providing and supporting the IT systems in which your information is stored
– transportation and storage of information and confidential destruction
– managing events arranged by Links Group
– administering bulk email campaigns for information or marketing purposes.

We may also have an obligation to share some of your personal information with public authorities, such as:

– Government departments
– Regulatory authorities
– Law enforcement agencies.

In some cases, your personal information will be shared with organisations outside Links Group in order to obtain specialist or professional services that are necessary for the services we provide. These include:

– Your professional advisers, such as accountants, lawyers and agents
– Banks or other financial institutions
– Credit reference agencies who assist us in meeting our customer due diligence obligations.

These external organisations have their own legal obligation to comply with privacy and data protection legislation in the jurisdictions where they operate. They may also operate under a professional duty of confidentiality due to the type of service they provide and they have their own privacy policies that provide details about how they use your information. You can find out more about the organisations your data has been shared with by contacting the Group Data Protection Team.

 

TRANSFERRING YOUR INFORMATION TO OTHER COUNTRIES
We may share your personal information with third party organisations that are located outside the countries where the Links Group operates, including when we share information with other Equiom companies. These third party organisations are required to use your personal information strictly in accordance with data protection laws, including maintaining adequate security measures to protect such personal information.

If you would like more information please contact the Group Data Protection Team.

 

USING YOUR CONTACT DETAILS

From time to time, we will send you important notices about the products or services you have asked us to provide, changes to our policies or terms and conditions, or changes to laws or regulations that could affect the service we provide. This is important information that keeps you informed about the products or services you have asked us to provide.

We may also send you emails containing newsletters and articles, information about additional products or services provided by Links Group or other Equiom companies, or invitations to events we are organising, attending or sponsoring in line with the consent you have provided. You can opt-out of receiving these messages by contacting us here or by clicking on the unsubscribe link in those emails.

We never sell or lease your personal information or share it with other organisations outside the Links Group for marketing purposes.

 

STORING AND DELETING YOUR INFORMATION
The amount of time we keep your personal information will vary depending on your relationship with Links Group. In some circumstances, there is a legal or regulatory requirement to keep information for a specific amount of time, although this will be extended if there is ongoing legal action that overrides the normal retention period. Where there is no regulatory or legal requirement, we assess how long we reasonably need to keep your information in order to deal with ongoing queries.

When our relationship with you ends, there will be information we cannot delete immediately. Such information will be stored in our physical and/or electronic archives until we no longer have an obligation to keep them. At that point the information will be permanently deleted.

 

KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION SECURE
We take the security of personal information and confidential documents extremely seriously. Links Group complies with data protection legislation in the jurisdictions in which we operate and we have put in place appropriate safeguards to prevent unauthorised access or unlawful use of confidential information. We also employ a wide variety of technical and organisational security measures to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your information.

We restrict access to personal information to our employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us. They are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and they may be disciplined or their contract terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.

 

YOUR RIGHTS
Subject to some exceptions, you have the right to:

– know whether Links Group is processing your personal information
– request a copy of the personal information Links Group holds about you
– have any inaccuracies corrected or and have incomplete personal data completed
– have your personal data erased if it is no longer needed
– object to Links Group processing your data.

If you would like to exercise any of your rights please contact the Group Data Protection Team.

If you are in the European Union you have additional rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulation. You can find out more about those rights here.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA
Links Group uses a number of social media sites including Twitter and LinkedIn. We receive some information about you from these sites when you interact with us or access our social media content. The amount of information we receive is governed by your social media account privacy settings and the policies and procedures of each social media platform.

 

LINKS TO EXTERNAL SITES
The Links Group website contains links to other websites which we do not own or control. We are not responsible for the privacy of those sites, and we encourage you to review the privacy policies of each one when you visit external sites so that you understand how those other organisations collect or use your personal information.

 

COOKIES

A cookie is a file which is sent to your computer or other access device when you visit a website. The Links Group website uses cookies to analyse user activities which helps us to develop it and initiate improvements aimed at making your visits more simple and relevant. The cookies we use do not collect personal information and they are not used to identify individuals.

For full details of the cookies used by the Links Group, please see our Cookies Policy.

 

QUERIES AND COMPLAINTS
This privacy policy aims to give you an overview of the ways in which we process your personal information. If you would like more detail or have any queries, please contact us so that we can assist you.

We take any complaints we receive about the way we process your information very seriously and we would prefer that you contact the Group Data Protection Officer if you have any concerns.

If you are in the European Union you have the right to make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority in your location; their contact details can be found on their individual websites.

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