(Last updated on 28 January 2022)
This privacy policy describes how The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel Limited (“HKRITA”), a company limited by guarantee incorporated in Hong Kong, collects, uses, discloses and processes your personal data. In this privacy policy, “personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, and an “identifiable natural person” is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly.
HKRITA is committed to meet the requirements of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486 of the Laws of Hong Kong) (the “PDPO”) and (where applicable) the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”) of the European Union.
Information collected by HKRITA
HKRITA collects the following types of information from you:
Personal identification information and contact information: This may include your name, company name and job title (if applicable), personal address, company address (if applicable), telephone number, fax number, email address and (in the case of student members) name of your institution and student number;
Information provided or submitted by you and/or collected by HKRITA when you participate in HKRITA’s research projects or transact with HKRITA: This may include information which is provided by you to HKRITA and/or collected by HKRITA when you participate in HKRITA’s research projects or place your orders for goods and/or services, including your gender, your age, your body measurements and data (such as your height and the shape and contours of your body), your choices and preferences and the results of the research and/or test(s) in which you take part;
Membership information: This may include information about your HKRITA membership, history of your transaction(s) with HKRITA as a member and any other information provided by or collected from you relating to your HKRITA membership;
Payment information: HKRITA collects payment information required to process your applications and requests, such as membership applications , enrolments to HKRITA’s events and activities and your orders for goods and/or services;
Information provided or submitted by you when you interact with HKRITA: This may include, for instance, information contained in application forms and any other forms submitted by you to HKRITA, your responses to HKRITA’s surveys and market research activities, your feedback and comments, photographs and video footages taken at events organised and/or promoted by HKRITA and any other information which you may provide via other forms of interaction with HKRITA;
Information about your device: Information about the device would be collected when you access HKRITA’s websites. For instance, if you access HKRITA’s websites using a computer, the date and time you accessed HKRITA’s websites, the Internet protocol (IP) address, the type and version of its operating system and the type and the version of the browser of your computer would be collected. If you access HKRITA’s websites using a mobile device (such as a smartphone or a tablet), in addition to the aforesaid information, information about your mobile device, such as your device’s identifier may be collected; and
Information about your use of HKRITA’s website: HKRITA may collect information about your use of its website, including the HKRITA websites you visit, the actions (if any) you take on such websites, the number of visits, search keywords used and search results, error and crash statistics and history and traffic data (such as time, duration and date of access).
HKRITA may combine the information collected about you from different sources, both online and offline, in order to provide better user experiences. For instance, HKRITA may combine such information to create a personal client profile about you in order to provide personalised contents to you.
If you provide HKRITA with any personal data relating to a third party (e.g. information of spouse, children, parents, employees and/or authorised representatives), by submitting such information to HKRITA, you represent to HKRITA that you have obtained the consent of the third party to your providing HKRITA with their personal data for the respective purposes.
HKRITA does not knowingly collect or process personal data from children under the age of 16 except where HKRITA has the consent of the parents or guardians.
It is voluntary for you to supply your personal data to HKRITA, but you may not be able to use HKRITA’s services or acquire our products if you do not supply your personal data. HKRITA may not be able to process your application (including any application for membership), subscription or order for goods and/or services (as applicable) if you do not supply the personal data required on the relevant application/subscription/order forms.
Sources of Personal Data
HKRITA collects information about you in the following ways:
you directly provide your information to HKRITA when you interact with HKRITA, for instance, when you register for membership and/or events organised by HKRITA, or when you respond to HKRITA’s surveys and market research activities or provide HKRITA with your feedback and comments; and/or
as described in paragraph 3 below, HKRITA may use technologies that automatically collect information about you and your device when you access and/or use HKRITA’s websites, view HKRITA’s advertisements or use HKRITA’s products and/or services.
Cookies Policy
HKRITA may collect information about you using online identifiers such as cookies and other tracking technologies. By using HKRITA’s website, you consent to HKRITA’s use of cookies and other tracking technologies in accordance with this paragraph 3. If you do not agree to such use of cookies and other tracking technologies, you should adjust the settings of your browser accordingly, or cease to use HKRITA’s website.
If you choose not to accept cookies from HKRITA’s website or disable them, you may not be able to use or access some of the services or features which require these cookies to function.
Cookies
Cookies are used by HKRITA for the following purposes:
First-party cookies: First-party cookies are created by the website the visitor is visiting. By default, first-party cookies are allowed in every web browser. If first-party cookies are disabled, a website may not keep track of the visitor’s activity as he/she moves from page to page. For example, the visitor would not be able to purchase multiple items online in the same transaction because each time he/she adds something to the cart from another page on the website, such new items would be treated as a new order;
Third-party cookies: Third-party cookies in a website are managed by third parties other than the owner of the website. Such cookies may be used to support analytical, advertising or social media functions provided by these third parties to the visitors and/or the owner of the website (as applicable). The collection, use and processing of your information collected by such third parties would be subject to their own cookies and privacy policies;
Session cookies Session cookies are stored only temporarily during a browsing session and are deleted from the visitor’s device when he/she closes the browser (although there may be a small delay in some instances before expiration, such as mobile browsing). Session cookies may be used to support the functionalities of a website and to understand visitors’ use of the website;
Persistent cookies Persistent cookies are not deleted when the visitor closes the browser. Such cookies are saved on the visitor’s device for a fixed period of time depending on the lifetime of the specific cookie, unless the visitor deletes them. Each time the visitor visits the website using the same device, the server that sets the cookie will recognise the persistent cookies saved on his/her device. Persistent cookies may be used by a website to store a visitor’s preferences, to record how often a visitor visits the website, to analyse how such visitor’s use of the website may vary over time and to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising efforts;
Strictly Necessary Cookies Such cookies are required for the operation of HKRITA’s website. Such cookies are essential to enable you to visit and use certain features of HKRITA’s website, which may include accessing secure areas (if any) of the website, setting your privacy preferences and filling in forms. HKRITA may also use such cookies to ensure that the website is operating correctly and/or to remember your information across webpages within HKRITA’s website with a view to reducing re-entering. Without such cookies, you may not be able to use certain features of the website;
Performance Cookies Such cookies collect information about how visitors use HKRITA’s website. Information so collected is aggregated for anonymous reporting. Such cookies allow HKRITA to count the number of visitors and to analyse how visitors move around the website when they are using it, which pages visited most often, etc. HKRITA uses such information to monitor site performance, count page visits, identify technical errors, analyse how visitors reach the website, measure the effectiveness of advertising (including emails HKRITA sends to you) in order to improve the website and investigate any technical problems of the website;
Functionality Cookies Such cookies are used to identify you when you return to our website and to remember choices you made in order to provide more personal features and personalised content to improve your experience. For instance, a functional cookie may be used to remember your settings, such as language, display or content preferences. Some Functional Cookies are essential for viewing maps or videos on our site. HKRITA also use functionality cookies to track user visit data anonymously, but it may be possible to match the data so collected with your personal data if you have provided your personal data to us through a registration profile, which may be used to provide personalised content to you. If functional cookies are disabled, certain functions of the website may not work as intended and the usability of the system or service may also be impaired; and
Targeting or Advertising Cookies Based on your interests and visit patterns, these cookies allow HKRITA and third-party advertisers to deliver the most relevant products, offers, and advertisements on HKRITA’s website and third-party websites (such as search engines, social media sites, or through email and other message platforms). For example, Advertising Cookies may help to (A) select advertisements that are based on your interests, including those expressed or inferred by visits to HKRITA’s website or other third-party websites and online services or (B) prevent the same advertisement from continuously reappearing for you. Advertising Cookies also include Social Plug-In Cookies, which are used to share contents from HKRITA’s website on social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. These cookies are usually set by the social networking provider to enable smooth and seamless sharing of contents.
Cookies may be managed as follows:
you may decide whether to accept or decline all or some of the cookies by modifying the settings of your browser;
you may choose to have your browser warn you each time a cookie is being sent, so that you may review each cookie and decide whether to accept or decline such cookie; and
you may delete any cookies that may be stored in the cookie folder of your browser.
Each browser may vary, so you may have to use the “Help” function of your browser and follow the relevant instructions in order to manage your cookies settings and the stored cookies (if any). Please be reminded that if you use multiple devices and/or browsers, you should adjust the settings on each device and browser that you use.
Other tracking technologies
The following tracking technologies may also be used in HKRITA’s website:
Embedded Scripts:
An embedded script is a programming code that is designed to collect information about a visitor’s interactions with online services, such as links clicked. The code is temporarily downloaded to the visitor’s device and is active only when you are connected to the online service.
Embedded scripts are generally associated with the use of Third Party Cookies. A visitor may opt-out of a third party marketing vendor’s use of cookies by visiting the advertising opt-out page of such third party marketing vendor.
Local Storage (such as device or HTML5 local storage and caching):
HTML5 uses the local storage of the device that accesses the online services. The online services may record information in local storage and read it when it is needed.
You may block or delete HTML5 local storage functionality by adjusting your browser’s settings. However, without HTML5, you may not be able to take advantage of all of the features of the online services on HKRITA’s website.
Analytics, Advertising, Social Media and other Tools
Third parties may also collect information via HKRITA’s websites via cookies, third party plug-ins and widgets, which may, for instance, support analytics, advertising, social media or other functions provided by these third parties to the visitors and/or HKRITA (as applicable). The collection, use and processing of your information collected by such third parties would be subject to their own cookies and privacy policies. The third party analytics, advertising, social media and other tools which may be used on this website include:
Analytics
HKRITA uses Google Analytics to understand how HKRITA’s media campaigns work and how visitors interact with HKRITA’s website, in order to improve the user experience. You may opt out Google Analytics by downloading and installing the relevant “Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on” for your browser. Please refer to “Google Analytics”, “Google Analytics Opt out tool” and “How Google Uses Cookies”.
HKRITA also uses Webtrends cookies to record which webpages you visit on and how you navigate through the website. It is used to build up a profile of a visitor’s website usage to establish common surfing patterns and to recognize returning visitors from information that is not personal data. Please refer to “Webtrends Cookie Policy” and “Opting out of Tracking Cookies”.
Advertising
This website may contain cookies and other tracking technologies relating to the following third party advertisers:
Bing Ads (please refer to Microsoft Privacy Policy & Microsoft Privacy Dashboard);
DoubleClick, including Double Click Ad Exchange, Double Click Bid Manager, Double Click Floodlight (please refer to How DoubleClick Uses Cookies and How Google Uses Cookies);
Google AdWords Conversion & Google Dynamic Remarketing (please refer to How Google Uses Cookies); and
Yahoo Analytics & Yahoo Dot Tag (please refer to Oath Cookies & Similar Technologies and Oath Analytics)
Social Media
HKRITA uses the Facebook pixel to understand what actions people take on its website, in order to generate audience lists using Facebook Custom Audience that are used to target advertisements to those audiences. Please refer to “Facebook Pixel” and “Facebook: Control the Ads you See”.
HKRITA uses the LinkedIn Insight Tag to track conversions, retarget website visitors, and unlock additional insights about members and interact with the advertisement campaigns HKRITA runs on LinkedIn. Please refer to “LinkedIn Conversion Tracking” and “LinkedIn Cookie Policy”.
HKRITA embeds videos or inserts links to videos from YouTube (a Google Company) on its website. As a result, when you visit a page with content embedded from or linked to YouTube, you may be presented with cookies from YouTube. Please refer to “How Google Uses Cookies”.
Third Party Tools
HKRITA uses the Google Tag Manager to update tags and code snippets on a website or mobile app, such as those intended for traffic analysis and marketing optimisation.
Purposes and Legal Basis for the Collection, Use, Disclosure and Processing of Personal Data
The legal basis for the collection, use, disclosure and processing of your personal data may be broadly classified into the following categories:
Your consent: where you have consented to our use of your personal data. You may withdraw your consent to the use of your personal data by contacting us;
Fulfilling contractual obligations: where processing of your personal data is necessary for the performance of our contract with you or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with us;
Legal obligation: where processing of your personal data is necessary for compliance with HKRITA’s legal obligation; and
HKRITA’s legitimate interests: where our use of your personal data is necessary for HKRITA’s legitimate interests. HKRITA will only rely on this basis if it considers that such legitimate interests are not overridden by any interests or fundamental rights and freedoms that you may have, or any prejudice that you may suffer, from the relevant use of your personal data.
The purposes of HKRITA’s use of your personal data, the types of information so used and the legal bases for such use are summarised as follows:
Purpose of use
Type of information used
Legal bases for use
(a)
To provide HKRITA’s products and/or services, organise events and manage your membership, event registration and e-newsletter subscription
Your personal contact information, membership information, payment information and information contained in your orders (such as body measurements and data, choices and preferences)
Your consent
Fulfilling contractual obligations
HKRITA’s legitimate interests (to provide its products and services)
(b)
To conduct research and development activities
Your name, your personal contact information and information provided by you when you participate in HKRITA’s research projects
Your consent
HKRITA’s legitimate interests (to conduct research and development activities)
(c)
To send you promotions as well as marketing and advertising materials for direct marketing purposes (please also refer to paragraph 6 below)
Your personal contact information and your preferences
Your consent
(d)
To customise the advertisements shown or sent to you
Information of your device, your page views and your preferences and other information collected using cookies
Your consent
(e)
To conduct surveys, market research, profiling and statistical analysis and other market development activities
Your contact information, information provided to us in your responses to surveys, your feedback and comments, transaction and browsing history relating to your membership
Your consent
HKRITA’s legitimate interests (to enhance its products and services)
(f)
To verify your payments and prevent fraud
Your payment information
Your consent
Fulfilling contractual obligations
HKRITA’s legitimate interests (to verify payments and to prevent fraud)
(g)
To send you information about any administrative changes, updates and/or amendments to HKRITA’s policies, terms and conditions
Your contact information and membership information
Your consent
Fulfilling contractual obligations
HKRITA’s legitimate interests (to notify you about changes that may affect you)
(h)
To respond to or follow up on your enquiries, requests and/or complaints
Your contact information and information provided in your enquiries, requests and/or complaints
Your consent
HKRITA’s legitimate interests (to manage customers’ enquiries, requests and/or complaints
(i)
To report possible criminal acts to a competent authority
Legitimate interests (report possible criminal acts to a competent authority)
(j)
To comply with any applicable laws and regulations or to assist in law enforcement and/or investigations by any governmental or regulatory authority
Legal obligations
Transfer of Personal Data to Third Parties
Your information (including your personal data) may be disclosed, for one or more of the purposes listed in paragraph 4.2 above, to the following third parties (whether located in or outside Hong Kong):
agents, contractors or third party service providers (“Service Providers”) who provide administrative and/or operational services to HKRITA, such as information technology, training, market research, administration of HKRITA’s website, distribution of magazines or other communications to you about HKRITA’s products, services or events, as well as storage and archival services;
vendors or any third-party business partners who offer or sponsor events, products and/or services of HKRITA;
banks and its respective service providers;
HKRITA’s professional advisors, including its auditors and lawyers;
relevant government regulators or authority or law enforcement agency to comply with any laws or rules and regulations imposed by any governmental authority; and
any other party to whom you authorise HKRITA to disclose your personal data.
Your personal data held by HKRITA may be transferred to jurisdictions that offer lower protection of personal data than that provided in your jurisdiction. In particular, HKRITA may transfer your personal data to Service Provider(s) in jurisdictions outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and Hong Kong. Such transfer, if subject to the GDPR, would be made (a) to a country recognised by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection, (b) with appropriate safeguards in accordance with the GDPR, or (c) with your explicit consent.
Use of Personal Data in Direct Marketing and Provision of Personal Data for Use in Direct Marketing
HKRITA intends to use your personal data in direct marketing and HKRITA may not so use your personal data unless it has received your consent for that purpose. In this connection, please note that:
your name, company name and job title (if applicable), personal address, company address (if applicable), phone and fax number, email address and your preferences held by HKRITA from time to time may be used by HKRITA in direct marketing;
the classes of services and subjects that may be marketed using your personal data include:
research and development services relating to textile, clothing, leather, apparel and/or footwear;
promotion and/or solicitation services for research and development technologies or products relating to textile, clothing, leather, apparel and/or footwear for commercialisation;
promotion and/or solicitation services for research and development support and/or funding programs on textile, clothing, leather, apparel and/or footwear for project development; and
fashion and textile design, textile management, quality management, chemical engineering, machinery, electronics, marketing, merchandising, fashion retailing, trading, information technology and logistics services relating to textile, clothing, leather, apparel and/or footwear; and
he services and subjects referred to in paragraph 6.1(b) above may be provided by any one or more of the following parties:
HKRITA; and
any sub-contractor authorised by HKRITA that provides any of the services listed in paragraph 6.1(b)(ii) above;
HKRITA may provide your personal data listed in paragraph 6.1(a) above to the following classes of persons:
Service Providers (such as printers and mailing houses) engaged by HKRITA for use by them in marketing the services and subjects set out in paragraph 6.1(b) above that are provided by HKRITA; and
the classes of persons listed in paragraph 6.1(c)(ii) above for use by them in marketing the services and subjects set out in paragraph 6.1(b) above that are provided by them.
In so doing, your information may be transferred to places outside Hong Kong.
Please contact HKRITA at the address specified in paragraph 9 below if you wish to opt out of HKRITA’s direct marketing communications.
Retention of Personal Data
We will retain your personal data collected for as long as it is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it is collected or other purposes directly related thereto, unless such personal data is required to be retained to comply with any applicable legal, regulatory or contractual obligations. By way of example only, generally HKRITA will retain its members’ personal data for as long as such persons’ membership remain effective, and personal data relating to any transaction with HKRITA or the business of HKRITA shall be retained for such period as may be required for compliance with the legal requirements imposed on HKRITA.
Generally, your personal data contained in any research data collected by HKRITA when you participate in its research project may be anonymised, pseudonymised (that is, processed by replacing any information which can identify you with a unique code or key) and/or aggregated, after the research project has been completed or at such earlier time as HKRITA may consider that it is no longer necessary to identify you for the purpose of the research project. Upon completion of anonymisation, pseudonymisation and/or aggregation (as applicable), you would no longer be identified or identifiable from the information so processed and such information would no longer constitute your personal data.
Your rights
Your rights under the PDPO:
You may request to access or correct your personal data held by HKRITA in accordance with the PDPO.
If you wish to access or correct your personal information held by HKRITA, please write to the Director, Corporate Services of HKRITA at the address specified in paragraph 9 below.
Data access request may also be made by completing and returning the Data Access Request Form to HKRITA at the address specified in paragraph 9 below.
HKRITA may impose a fee for the processing of any data access request.
If you are a data subject in the EEA:
In addition to the rights set forth in paragraph 8.1 above, your rights under the GDPR include the following rights:
the right to access: You have the right to obtain from HKRITA a confirmation as to whether or not your personal data is being processed by HKRITA and if the confirmation is in the affirmative, request to access your personal data processed by HKRITA;
the right to rectification: You have the right to request that HKRITA rectify or complete any of your personal data held by HKRITA that is incorrect or incomplete (as applicable);
the right to erasure: You have the right to request that HKRITA erase your personal data in certain circumstances prescribed by the GDPR, such as where HKRITA no longer needs the personal data for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, provided that such personal data is not necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
the right to restrict processing: You have the right to request that HKRITA restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances prescribed by the GDPR, such as where (A) you contest the accuracy of such personal data (in which case the restriction of processing would be for a period enabling HKRITA to verify the accuracy of such personal data), (B) such processing is unlawful and you oppose to the erasure of the relevant personal data, or (C) HKRITA no longer needs the personal data for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy but you require such personal data for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
the right to data portability: You have the right to request that HKRITA provide your personal data which you have provided to HKRITA in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to transmit such data to another data controller without hindrance from HKRITA;
the right to object to processing: You have the right to object to HKRITA’s processing of your personal data which is on the basis of legitimate interests, unless HKRITA demonstrates compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
the right to withdraw your consent: If HKRITA’s processing of your personal data is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw such consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of the processing of your personal data based on consent before such withdrawal; and
the right to lodge a complaint to the relevant supervisory authority.
If you wish to exercise any of your rights under the GDPR, please write to the Director, Corporate Services of HKRITA at the address specified in paragraph 9 below.
Contact Information
If you wish to exercise any rights you have under the PDPO and (where applicable) the GDPR, please write to the Director, Corporate Services of HKRITA at:
The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel Limited
R906-08, Shirley Chan Building
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Kowloon, Hong KongLinks to Third Party Websites
For the avoidance of doubt, this Privacy Policy only applies to HKRITA’s website. HKRITA may provide links to websites of other companies or organisations and/or their group companies (each a "Third Party Website"). HKRITA does not control any Third Party Website and accordingly, this Privacy Policy does not apply to any Third Party Website. HKRITA shall not be liable in any way for the privacy policies of the Third Party Websites and any collection, use and/or processing of your personal data by any Third Party Websites when you access them via the links on HKRITA’s website.
Language
If there is any inconsistency between the English and Chinese versions of this Privacy Policy, the English version shall prevail.