Horology Forum Privacy Notice

Privacy Notice- Horology Forum 2022

1. Introduction
Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons LLC, a company incorporated under the laws of the United Arab Emirates with registered office at P.O Box 2123 (“Company", "we" or “us” or “Seddiqi”) organizes the Horology Forum (“Event”) as part of the events leading up to the Dubai Watch Week (“DWW”). We take your privacy seriously and are committed to safeguarding your personal information at Seddiqi. We value you and respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this Notice.
This Privacy Notice (“Privacy Notice” or “Notice”) covers the data that Seddiqi may collect or receive from you in relation to the Event. This Notice outlines what our purpose and practices are for collecting, processing, using, maintaining, retaining, protecting, and disclosing your information.

1.1 Personal information you give us
We primarily collect personal information with your permission or consent, or due to commercial reasons, such as, collecting information to process your request for Event registration or to supply you with services. We only collect the minimum amount of information required to conduct operational activities in relation to the Event. The personal information we collect on or through our platforms in relation to the Event may include:

• Information that you provide by filling and submitting the registration form for the Event. This may include information provided at the time of registering for the Event and/or subscribing for newsletters. The information that you provide to us may include personal information such as your name, email address, and contact number. 
• Records and copies of your correspondence (including e-mails), when you contact us with any queries or requests relating to the Event.
• Information that you provide when you share/ contact us about the Event via social media, web chats, ‘WhatsApp’ chat, or through direct calls to our customer service team for general enquiries, registration complaints, request for any assistance/services. The personal information may include your name, email address, contact number, and call recordings (in case you call our customer service team).
• Information obtained through any system operated for security, safety, and access management (CCTV, access right system) when you attend the Event.
• Information about your use and navigation of our Event website such as: the URL used to access the Event website, browser type, computer’s IP address, information about pages you visit, which are collected by cookies or other tracking technologies. To view our Cookie Policy, click here. Please click here to set or change your cookie preferences. 
• Information you may provide to us when we support you with travel and/or accommodation for the Event which include name, email address, phone number, country of residence, travel/ accommodation preferences. In case you are travelling from outside the state of New York for the Event, we would require additional personal information such as passport, visa details, and/or government issued IDs. 
• In the event you have any special requests, we may need to collect additional personal information, which may also include sensitive information, to process and fulfill such requests. For example: if you would like to inform us about any food allergies, we would use and retain this information to help us tailor our cuisines to your needs and to help us remember your preferences; or if you require any special assistance such as accessible parking, wheelchair assistance, etc., we may collect and retain this personal information to facilitate your request and be more proactive in the future.
• Information collected from our brand representatives, sponsors, performers, event management personnel and suppliers/ third party agents of Event which includes personal information related to such third parties contact person(s) such as name, email address, phone number, position, and data strictly linked to the services and activities in connection to the Event.
• The Event will be covered by various media (press, radio, and television notably); consequently, photographs or video will be taken at the Event which may cover you during your visit to the Event. Such media shall be utilized to create awareness, provide updates, general marketing/ advertisement with regards to the Event on both online and offline platforms.
• If you choose to attend private panels/interviews/ conferences/activities during the Event, we will collect/take photographs and video/voice recordings to cover the Event in general, consequently this may cover you when you participate/ subscribe/visit the Event. 
• Horology Forum is a non-commercial event; however, our partner brands and affiliates may have certain products on display at the Event. If you make enquiries or indicate interest in the displayed products, the brand’s representative may collect your personal information at the Event, which may include name, email ID, or other contact details, in order to send further communication to you regarding the products. 
• Information you supply to us via online or offline surveys, competitions, or product registration.
• Medical and health information of accidents and injuries occurring in the Event premises as well as accident records and other relevant information as may be required by Law with regards to accidents or security incidents at the Event.

1.2 Other information we collect
When you visit the Event webpage, we may also collect other information that does not directly reveal your individual identity or directly relate to you as an individual. For more information, please refer to the Cookie Notice to understand the personal information collected and how it is processed using Cookies and similar tracking technologies.

1.3 Information we receive from others
We might receive information about you from your social network (friends/ colleagues) as well who may register you for the Event on your behalf. In the event you do not wish to participate or receive any communication related to the Event, you may unsubscribe or opt-out by following the instructions provided in “How to Opt-out?” section.

2. What are the sources of your personal information?
The sources of your personal information collected may include the following:

• Event website: This is the website we created for you that is operated by us and our authorized third-party vendors for Event registration and to manage schedules, for subscribing to newsletters, for personalization, and maintenance of the Event Website.
• Emails, text messaging services, and other electronic messages: These are the electronic text-based interaction between you and Seddiqi.
• Seddiqi customer service: Any communication between you and our customer service center and representatives (e.g., phone, email etc.).
• Data from other sources: These include social media networks, business representatives, Seddiqi promotional partners, public sources, and data received from other brands.
• CCTV cameras: Security footage (image and video) from CCTV cameras placed across the Event.

This Notice does not apply to the following information collected:

• Personal information shared by you to the press/ media/ social media enthusiasts or other third parties for any interviews/ interactions that are not arranged/ managed by Seddiqi;
• It is possible that you may share personal information directly to the brands/ partners/ presenters/ facilitators/ sponsors/ suppliers and Seddiqi may not be involved in processing such information. In such cases, Seddiqi will not be responsible for the personal information that will be directly shared by you to the brands/ partners/ presenters/ facilitators/ sponsors/ suppliers during the Event. In case you have any queries in relation to the brands/ partners/ presenters/ facilitators/ sponsors/ suppliers’ data protection policies, we urge you contact the respective brands/ partners/ presenters/ facilitators/ sponsors/ suppliers to obtain clarity around the same;
• through any other means, including any other website operated by any third party; or
• by any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to the Event website.

3. Why do we collect and how we use your personal information?
We use personal information for several legitimate purposes, including providing and improving our services, managing the Event, administering our relationship with you and our business:

3.1 To facilitate Horology Forum registrations:
We will collect and process personal information when you register for the Event to manage registrations and facilitate your entry to the Event premises when you attend the Event and to fulfil our contractual obligations towards you. In light of the recent pandemic and pursuant to local laws, we may be required to verify your COVID-19 vaccination status and/ or RT–PCR test results prior to permitting you into the Event premises for reasons of public interest in the area of public health and to ensure compliance with local laws.

3.2 To manage Event Schedules:
Our Event website includes an event scheduler that will allow individuals registered for the Event to subscribe/ register for activities and manage schedules. Your personal information will be collected and processed to ensure accurate information and timely notification of Event schedules are made available to you. We also require processing your personal information to fulfil our contractual obligations towards you to facilitate your entry and participation for the activities that you have registered.

3.3 To personalize content on the Event website 
Based on your specified cookie preferences, we may leverage cookies and other tracking technologies to process your personal information to personalize the content of our Event website to better align with your interests. For more details around use of cookies and other tracking technologies, please refer to our Cookie Notice available here. 

3.4 To provide you with information about DWW events and manage newsletter subscription:
In the event you subscribe to our newsletter while visiting the Event website, we may send you newsletters through email campaigns to keep you posted on key updates and events related to DWW and Horology Forum. If you want to stop receiving newsletters, you may unsubscribe or opt-out by following the instructions provided in “How to Opt-out?” section.

3.5 To help connect you with our strategic partners/ brand representatives:
Our strategic partners and brands play a key role in making the Event a success and our key objective to build awareness and help you find unique products/ services provided by Seddiqi, our partners and brands that best suit your interests. In lieu of our shared objective, we may share certain minimal personal information (such as name, email ID) to the relevant brand representatives, where you have expressed interest in products/ services provided by a specific brand. You may always choose to “Opt-out” if needed by following the instructions provided in “How to Opt-out?” section.

3.6 To maintain security within the Event spaces managed by us and keep the public safe:
We may need to process your personal information obtained through any system operated for security, safety, and access management (CCTV, access rights system, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)) when you visit the Event. Security footage may include access logs, image, video, audio, license plates, etc. from any of the security systems placed across the Event facilities. We collect and process such information pursuant to our legitimate business interest to maintain security, ensure public safety, and compliance with local laws and regulations.

3.7 When we take photographs/ videos at the Event
We process Event videos/photos (including any other personal information that you provide to us in connection with the photos/videos) for the documentation of our DWW events. In addition, we process such videos/photos—especially through publication and usage—for press and advertising purposes in various media (in particular, print (e.g., brochures) and online (websites, newsletter, social media, etc.)). This includes the publication, use, and processing for the purpose of press news and public relations, editorial reporting as well as for advertising and marketing purposes in connection with the Event, interviews and the trade shows, conferences, and other events we organize. We process such personal information pursuant to our legitimate business interests in the documentation of our events, to create awareness around the event, and in connection to the above-mentioned purposes. In case we wish to publish and use footage from you on which you are clearly identifiable for press and advertising purposes, we will request your consent. It is important to note that the Event would host personnel from the press, media, and social media enthusiasts and they would also record interviews/videos/photographs during the Event. While these are authorized, reputed, and professional firms, Seddiqi may not be able to control how they collect and process your personal information. If you wish not to be partaken or avoid being recorded, please inform the relevant personnel accordingly.

3.8 To comply with legal requirements and exercise or defend legal claims:
We may need to process and retain your personal information to comply with legal requirements to which we are subject (for example in relation to licensing, health, and safety). It is in our legitimate interests to process personal information for the purposes of exercising and defending legal claims. Processing personal information may also be necessary to ensure compliance with the relevant legal and regulatory obligations.

3.9 To comply with health and safety obligations:
We may be required to process your medical information or any other health related information in the event of an accident or injury at the Event premises. It is our legitimate interest for the management of accidents and injuries occurring in the Event facilities. This information would also be required for the improvement of the accident prevention system (including fire protection and prevention against foreseeable natural and technological risks). It could also possibly be required for legal purposes or to prepare for and defend against legal claims.

3.10 To manage and administer the Event:
We collect and use the personal information provided by you when register for the Event. The information may include name, email ID, and contact details. We use the personal information to comply with our contractual obligations to you and to ensure we can successfully admit you into the Event and any activities you have signed up for at the Event. We may also collect and use personal information of event management representatives to plan and conduct events within the Event premises. We collect and use the personal information to maintain contact, co-ordinate support, and to obtain necessary local clearance to manage and administer the Event.

3.11 To respond to any queries made by you:
We would need to collect and use the following personal information: name, email address, phone number, and details of your enquiry. In certain cases, your enquiry may relate to a specific service request, for example: requesting a ‘Airport Pickup service’. For such requests, we need to use your personal information to help us respond to your request and to fulfil our contractual obligations under the requested service. Additionally, when you call our customer service centre, we would maintain a record of the communications, including call recordings, in pursuit of our legitimate business interest to monitor and improve the quality of our guest support.

3.12 To facilitate any special request related to travel and lodging we receive from you:
In the event you have any special requests, we would need to collect additional personal information which may also include sensitive information. For example:
if you require our assistance with applying for travel visa, we would collect additional information such as photograph and passport details;
if you would like to inform us about any food allergies, we would use and retain this information to help us tailor our cuisines to your needs and to help us remember your preferences; or
if you require any special assistance such as accessible parking, wheelchair assistance, etc., we may collect and retain this personal information to facilitate your request and be more proactive in the future.
We shall only collect and use your personal information (especially sensitive information) based on your explicit consent and solely for the purposes mentioned above.

3.13 To manage sponsorships and partnerships:
We collect/ process personal information from our customers and business partners in order to manage sponsorships and partnerships. We would collect personal information such as name, designation, email ID, and contact details for correspondence and to facilitate sponsorships, sales, marketing, and advertisements to fulfil our contractual obligations towards you (as a representative of our customer and/or business partner) and pursuant to our legitimate interest to establish working relationships with the company you represent.

3.14 To manage business relationships with promoters and performing companies ("Event Related Parties")
We would collect personal information such as name, contact details, passport/ visa copy of the personnel (representing the Event Related Parties) who would be hosting, performing, and/or supporting the execution of the Event. We collect/ process this personal information to provide the personnel (representing the Event Related Parties) access to the facility, provide necessary support to conduct the Event as per scheduled timeslots, to help protect the health and safety of the personnel (representing the Event Related Parties) should an adverse health incident take place, to provide any visa assistance (where required) and to manage any payments or transactions.

3.15 To comply with any opt-out or do not disturb requests we receive from you:
We understand that you may not want us to contact you with any offers, promotions, or details of our products and services. In the event you opt-out, we may be required to maintain information such as name, email ID/contact number and the subscription(s) that you have opted out of to ensure compliance with your requests. Also, in the future, if you wish to hear from us, you may at any time, contact us to opt-in and we would be happy to keep you posted about the Event and relevant offers, promotions, and/ or details of our products and services.

4. How to opt out?

1. Email: You can click on the unsubscribe link provided in the email you receive from us or from any third party.
2. SMS: you can follow the instruction provided in the messages you receive from us.
3. Privacy Team Notice: you may write to [email protected] regarding the specific processing activity(s) that you would like to opt out. Our Privacy Office will get in touch with you to facilitate the request accordingly.
4. Contact us: You may contact us using the details provided in Section - ‘How do you contact us?’.
   You have the right to object to certain processing and, where we have asked for your consent to process your personal information, to withdraw this consent. Where we process your personal information because we have a legitimate interest in doing so, you also have a right to object to this. These rights may be limited in some situations – for example, where we can demonstrate that we have a legal requirement or contractual obligations to process your personal information.

5. Who might we share this information with?
We may disclose personal information that we collect, or you provide as described in this Privacy Notice:

• We may share your personal information with members of Seddiqi, including subsidiaries, affiliates and holding companies, to effectively manage the Event (including registrations), enable provision of requested services, understand your preferences, send you information about upcoming DWW events that may be of interest to you, if you opt in to receive our newsletter, and conduct the other activities described in this Privacy Notice. Seddiqi Holding and its group companies are located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and in certain cases, other countries outside the United States of America (USA). In the event you require more information on this, please feel free to write to us at [email protected] and our Data Privacy Office would be happy to assist you with the same.
• We may use carefully selected third parties to perform services on our behalf or to assist us with the provision of services to you. For example, we may engage third party agency to facilitate travel and accommodation requests, event management service providers to plan and coordinate the Event, cloud service providers to facilitate website hosting, IT service providers to maintain the Event website, and other third parties to support security services, brand promotions, marketing, advertising, communications, event performances, public relations, to store the data, to personalize and optimize our service, to analyze and enhance data (including data about users' interactions with our services), and to provide legal, accounting, insurance, audit and /other professional services. While providing such services, these third parties may have access to your personal information.
• We may share your personal information with selected business brands to enable your communication with the brand if you have shown active interest in relation to their products/ offerings.
• For press and public relations, editorial reporting, advertising, and marketing purposes, the videos/photos taken at events may be sent to journalists, media companies, press and photo agencies, including to platforms within and outside the USA, and published by us. For the fulfillment of orders, we also commission service providers to produce DWW media/photographs.
• Personal information may be provided to government officials, regulators, and law enforcement agencies upon request to comply with any court order, law, or legal process.
• We may share to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all the Company's assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by the Company about our Event website users is among the assets transferred.
• It is possible that you may share personal information directly to the brands/ partners/ sponsors/ suppliers, thus, Seddiqi will not be responsible for the personal information that will be directly shared by you to the brand during the Event. In case you have any queries in relation to the brand’s data protection policies, we urge you contact the respective brand’s representative to obtain clarity around the same.

Personal information shared with third parties are obligated by contractual agreement to ensure they exercise the same care when handling personal information as we do ourselves.

6. Data Storage
The personal information that we collect from you through our Event website and over emails (“Online Channels”) are stored at a destination within the European Union (EU) through our authorized cloud service providers. Considering that the venue for the Event is in New York, personal information collected during the Event (apart from online collection through the Event website or “Offline Channels”) is transferred to, and stored at, a destination within the European Union (EU). Such information may also be processed by staff operating in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who works for us or for one of our strategic partners/brands and third-party vendors.

7. International Transfers
Information we collect may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the UAE where one or more of our affiliated group companies or third-party service providers are located or maintain facilities. Some of these third parties will use cloud-based storage solutions. While other territories may not have the same standards of data protection as those within your home country, we will continue to protect the personal information we transfer in accordance with this Privacy Notice. We will take all steps that are reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Notice and applicable data protection laws, including, where relevant, entering standard contractual clauses (or equivalent measures) with the party receiving the personal information. We carry out such transfers to facilitate your registration for the Event, the performance of our contract, to provide your requested services, and in pursuit of our legitimate business interests of helping us serve you better. We have implemented adequate safeguards to protect and secure the information involved in such transfers. Where we transfer personal information outside of USA, we either transfer personal information to countries/ territories that provide an adequate level of protection (as determined by the relevant Regulatory Authority) or we have appropriate safeguards in place. Appropriate safeguards to cover these transfers are in the form of standard contractual/data protection clauses. If you would like more information on protection measures and transfer mechanisms, please contact us using the details provided in Section - ‘How do you contact us?’.

8. Data Retention
We don’t keep your personal information for any longer than is required for the legitimate purposes of the processing or to comply with the law. As we collect data for many different purposes, there is not a single retention period for all data. We carefully assess the length of time to retain data according to the processing purpose and to comply with our legal obligations. When data is no longer required for the purposes of the processing, it is securely removed from our systems. We will only keep your personal information for as long as is reasonably necessary taking into consideration our need to answer queries or resolve complaints received from you, any other purpose outlined above, or to comply with legal requirements under applicable law(s). This means that we may retain your personal information for a reasonable period, for example, till the end of the Event. CCTV footage is held for a period of 31 days before being deleted unless legitimate access is required (for example by the police). In certain cases, we may retain your personal information for a longer period where extended retention periods are required by law or regulation and to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights. We will ensure that your personal information is disposed in a secure manner when it’s no longer needed. For more information on where and how long your personal information is stored, and for more information on your rights of erasure and portability, please contact us using the details provided in Section - ‘How do you contact us?’.

9. Data Security
Your personal information security is of utmost importance to us. We take utmost care to ensure secure transmission of your personal information from your computer, and other electronic devices to our servers. We use industry security standards to safeguard the confidentiality of your information (e.g., firewalls, encryption etc.) and to make sure that your personal information is secure with us.
We have implemented and maintained appropriate technical and organizational security measures, policies, and procedures to protect your personal information from accidental loss, unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers behind firewalls. All payment transactions are encrypted. Some of the measures we take include:

• Imposing confidentiality obligations on our staff and service providers, both contractually and through established controls;
• Restriction of access to your personal information to employees and third parties strictly on a need-to-know basis, such as to respond to your enquiry or request;
• Using secure communication channels for transmitting personal information; and
• Employing adequate administrative and technical controls to secure personal information. 

10. What are your rights?
Depending on the jurisdiction, certain privacy laws allow you to exercise rights that have been provisioned to the residents of such jurisdiction to provide control over your information. If you wish to exercise any of the rights provisioned to you (noted below), we may ask you for additional information to verify your identity for security purposes, before disclosing personal information to you. In the event we require additional time due to the complexity of the request, we shall promptly inform you of the same. We reserve the right to charge a fee, where permitted by law, for example, if your request is found to be manifestly unfounded, excessive, or for repetitive requests.
If you would like to exercise any of the below rights, you may send the request to us at
[email protected]. We shall aim to comply with all requests within reasonable time in-line with applicable laws. We may not always be able to fully address your request, for example,

• if it would impact the confidentiality we owe to others, or
• if we are legally entitled to deal with the request in a different way, or
• if your request involves deletion of information that are required to comply with the legal requirements.

Section below, provides the data privacy rights you have in relation to your personal information:

The right to access
You have the right to obtain confirmation as to whether we process personal information about you, receive a copy of your personal information held by us, and obtain certain other information about how and why we process your personal information (like the information provided in this privacy statement).

The right to rectification
You have the right to request for your personal information to be amended or rectified where it is inaccurate (for example, if you change your name or address) and to have incomplete personal information completed.

The right to restrict processing
You have the right to restrict our processing of your personal information in the following cases:

• Temporarily for a period when you have contested the accuracy of the personal information;
• Temporarily for a period when you have objected for the legitimate interest identified by us;
• Your personal information have been unlawfully processed and you request the restriction of processing instead of deletion; and/or
• Your personal information is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected and processed but the personal information is required by you to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims;

We may continue to use your personal information following a request for restriction, where:

• we have your consent; or
• to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims; or
• to protect the rights of another natural or legal person.

The right to erasure (also known as 'the right to be forgotten')
You have the right to request that we delete your personal information in the following cases:

• The personal information are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected and processed;
• Our lawful basis for processing is consent, you withdraw consent and we have no other lawful basis for the processing;
• Our lawful basis for processing is that the processing is necessary for a legitimate interest pursued by us, you object to our processing, and we do not have overriding legitimate grounds;
• You object to our processing for direct marketing purposes;
• Your personal information has been unlawfully processed; and
• Your personal information must be erased to comply with a legal obligation which we are subject.

We are not required to comply with your request to erase personal information if the processing of your personal information is necessary:

• For compliance with a legal obligation; or
• For the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

The right to object:
You have the right to object to our processing of your personal information if our lawful basis for processing is that the processing is necessary for a legitimate interest pursued by us; and our processing for direct marketing purposes.

The right to data portability: 
You have the right to receive your personal information provided to us and have the right to send the data to another organization (or ask us to do so if technically feasible) where our lawful basis for processing the personal information is consent or necessity for the performance of our contract with you and the processing is carried out by automated means.

The right to withdraw consent at any time (where processing is based on consent)
Where we process personal information based on consent, individuals have a right to withdraw consent at any time. You can withdraw your consent by following the instructions provided in “How to Opt-out” section.

The right to object:
The right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority. You can lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in your country of residence or jurisdiction in which an alleged infringement of data protection law occurred. 
We sincerely hope that you will never need to, but you may, at any time, discuss your concerns with us by contacting us in one of the ways mentioned in Section 12 - ‘How do you contact us?’. We will closely review and ensure timely response to any complaints we receive.

11. Children’s Privacy
We do not knowingly solicit or collect personal information from children under the age of 18, without prior verifiable parental consent. If we learn that a child under the age of 18 has submitted personal information without parental consent, then we will take all reasonable measures to delete such information from its databases and to not use such information for any purpose (except where necessary to protect the safety of the child or others as required or allowed by law). If you become aware of any data we have collected from children under 18, you may contact us by emailing us at [email protected].

12. Updates on Notice
This Notice may change from time to time. To stay abreast on our data handling and Privacy Notices, check the Notice periodically for updates.

13. How do you contact us?
In case of any queries related to this Notice, you can contact our Data Privacy Office, email us at
[email protected]