This Privacy Notice is effective as of 24 March 2023
The Dubai International Financial Centre Courts (the “DIFC Courts”) is a platform for delivering legal excellence in the Middle East. We provide a suite of services, including not limited to, dispute resolution, wills registration, practitioner registration, wills draftsman, Pro Bono, and digital vault, tejouri (“Website Services”) which are available to corporate entities and individuals in the Dubai International Financial Centre DIFC and beyond.
The DIFC Courts collects, uses, and shares personal data of its service users and others which is important for its operational services to permit it to carry out various ancillary activities. In doing so, the DIFC Courts is subject to the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Data Protection Law No. 5 of 2020 (DP Law 2020).
The DIFC Courts is committed to safeguarding the privacy of the personal data of service users that it collects, uses, and shares in accordance with DP Law 2020. We take our legal, professional, and ethical duties and obligations to protect personal data seriously. We have a robust information security management programme in place. Further, we have achieved ISO27001 certification for our technical and organisational security controls across a broad spectrum of systems and processes. These measures are monitored, reviewed, and regularly enhanced in order to meet our professional responsibilities and the needs of our service users.
By virtue of the transparency requirements of Articles 9 and 10 of DP Law 2020, this Privacy Notice is formulated to describe how and why the DIFC Courts processes the personal data of service users i.e., any individual located anywhere in the world who access or use DIFC Courts’ Website Services, our app, or who provide their personal data to us for other reasons (Data Subjects). The Data Controller in relation to your personal data is: DIFC Courts, Level 3, Precinct Building 5 (South), The Gate District, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Information you give us
This Privacy Notice applies to personal data you provide us when making use of our Website Services. You may do this by filling in forms on our website or app, or by corresponding with us by telephone, email or any other digital or electronic form. For example, it includes information you provide when you:
(a) contact us to submit court claims
(b) register a will
(c) register as a practitioner or wills draftsman
(d) request for a Pro Bono service
(e) accessing tejouri service
(f) register for newsletters or other subscription services
(g) download and register to use the app
(h) share data via the app's social media functions
(i) report a problem with the app, or any of our Website Services.
If you contact us, we will, at least, keep an electronic record of such correspondence, including personal data shared at that time, in order to reply or process it as per your request. The personal data you give us may include your name, gender, home address, email address and phone number, certain device information, username, password, occupation, employer address, nationality, photograph, and other information you choose to provide.
Information we collect about you and your device
Each time you use our Website Services or app, in addition to any information you provide us as part of our services (e.g., information about your will or legal dispute) we may and often will automatically collect the following information:
(a) technical information, including the type of mobile device you use, a unique device identifier (for example, mobile network information, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile browser you use, device token, device type, time zone setting (“Device Information”);
(b) details of your use of our Website Services or app including, but not limited to, traffic data, weblogs and other communication data, and the resources that you access (“Log Information”);
(c) location information if the Website Services or app uses GPS technology to determine your current location. If you wish to use the feature, you may be asked to opt-in to your data being used for this purpose.
If you do not intend to share certain personal data with us or do not intend for the DIFC Courts to use or share it for certain purposes (to the extent possible and in accordance with applicable laws and information in this notice), you may change your preferences at any time. Where applicable, please check with your device provider's instructions for further information about how to do this.
Other information we may collect through your use of the Website Services or the app
When you use any Website Services or the app, we may collect personal data including demographic information, for example information that you submit, or that we collect, which may include, but is not limited to, date of birth, nationality, current residence, gender, username, mobile network information, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile browser you use, time zone setting, device location, IP address, SMS data, transaction information, business activities and services / distribution locations, browsing history information, searching history information, and registration history information (“Demographic Information”).
We may use personal data provided to us through the Data Subject or collected from the Data Subject to:
(a) provide, maintain, and improve our app and Website Services, including, for example, to facilitate payments, send receipts, provide products and services you request (and send related information about them), develop new features that will enhance your user experience and our efficiency, provide customer support to users, authenticate users, and send administrative messages, whether information-only or required by applicable law;
(b) perform internal regulatory, administrative, and operational requirements, including, for example, to prevent fraud or abuse of our Website Services; to troubleshoot software bugs and operational problems; to conduct permitted data analysis, testing, and research; to ensure you and DIFC Courts are complying with internal or external legal requirements, including those that necessitate use of digital systems; and to monitor usage and activity trends;
(c) send you communications we think will be of interest to you based on your previous interactions with us, including information about products, services, promotions, news, and DIFC Courts events, where permissible under DIFC Laws and guidance, and according to any other applicable laws; and to process contest, sweepstake, or other promotion entries and fulfill any related awards;
(d) notify you about changes to this Privacy Notice, or our app and Website Services;
(e) allow you to participate in any interactive features of our app or Website Services;
(f) keep our app and Website Services safe and secure; or
(g) personalise and improve the Website Services, including to provide or recommend features, content, social connections, referrals, and advertisements, in accordance with your preferences, to the extent permissible by law.
The lawful basis upon which we process the personal data will be subject to the Website Service that you were using. Typically, this will include where:
(a) you, as a service user, have given consent;
(b) processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the service user is a party, or in order to take steps at the request of the service user prior to entering into such contract;
(c) processing is necessary for compliance with applicable law that the DIFC Courts is subject to;
(d) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out by the DIFC Courts in the interests of the DIFC or in exercise of DIFC Courts powers and functions; or
(e) processing is necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interests.
We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure your personal data is processed fairly and lawfully, in accordance with the DP Law 2020, other applicable laws and this Privacy Notice. By submitting your personal data (including log, device and / or demographic information), we expect all users to understand that such transfer, storing or processing in order for the DIFC Courts to perform its general administrative functions is necessary and will be done in a proportionate, lawful manner, including but not limited to responding to enquiries you raise via the app or Website Services, oversight of the business entities registered in the DIFC’s jurisdiction and maintaining contacts for future informational or promotional activities. Unless otherwise notified, the DIFC Courts does not ordinarily rely solely on automated decision making when processing your personal data.
In order to conduct our operations and fulfil our regulatory obligations, we must transfer the personal data described in this Privacy Notice to and from, and process and store it in, the United Arab Emirates (where applicable or required) with processors in other countries, some of which may have less protective privacy laws than those where you may reside. In all such cases, and generally for any processing operations, we take appropriate security measures to protect your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Notice. The DIFC Courts is ISO 27001 certified, and all information security policies are strictly enforced. For further details, please refer to section 7 below.
To preserve the integrity of our databases, to carry out on-going Website Services or provide the app on behalf of all users, for research, analytics, and statistics purposes and to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, the DIFC Courts may retain personal data submitted by you for a reasonable length of time, unless otherwise prescribed by applicable law.
The DIFC Courts is not responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide and will modify or update your personal data in our databases when you provide updated information or ad-hoc upon your request, as further outlined below. We will erase or put beyond active use your personal data upon request, unless we are required to retain it in accordance with DP Law of 2020 or other applicable laws or to perform agreed services, in which case we align with applicable principles such as purpose specification and data minimisation.
If it is not disproportionate or prejudicial, and required beyond this Privacy Notice, we will contact you to inform you that we are processing their personal data.
By accessing or using the app or Website Services to which this Privacy Notice applies, we can reasonably expect that you understand that all information submitted through the app or Website Services or otherwise to the DIFC Courts may be used by us to support these processing operations, in accordance with applicable laws and its policies.
We may share personal data which we collect about you as described in this Privacy Notice or as described at the time of collection or sharing, including as follows:
(a) with third parties to provide you with a service that you requested; or
(b) with third parties with whom you choose to let us share your personal data.
Other types of data sharing
We may share your personal data in the following circumstances:
(a) with DIFC Courts subsidiaries and affiliated entities, to the extent permissible by law;
(b) with vendors, consultants, marketing and advertising partners, and other service providers who need access to such personal data to carry out work on our behalf or to perform a contract we enter with them;
(c) if we otherwise notify you and you provide your affirmative opt-in to share your data, where needed;
(d) in response to a request for information by a competent authority or government entities if we determine that such disclosure is in accordance with, or is otherwise required by any applicable law, regulation, or legal process;
(e) with law enforcement officials, government entities or authorities, or other third parties as required by applicable law; and
(f) with third parties in an aggregated and/or anonymised or pseudonymised form that cannot reasonably be used to identify you.
Government data sharing
In some circumstances, we are legally obliged to share information with public authorities, including the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts, or law enforcement. For example, we may be required to provide information related to a court order or where we must cooperate with supervisory authorities in handling complaints or investigations. In any scenario, we’ll attempt to satisfy ourselves that we have a lawful basis on which to share the information, document our decision making, and satisfy ourselves we have a legal basis on which to share the information.
We may also share information in the event of the non-payment including of a monetary penalty or court ordered costs. If the debt remains outstanding after the specified timeframe for payment, no payment plan is in place or an agreed payment plan is not being adhered to, we may initiate formal proceedings to recover the full amount of the unpaid penalty.
As a result, the DIFC Courts will share personal data with the litigation and recovery specialists it instructs to allow them to identify assets, if any, and undertake recovery action through the courts.
Marketing and preferences
The DIFC Courts supports your legal rights to opt-in or subsequently opt-out of receiving communications from us and our partners. You have the option to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing and communications purposes and to remove it from our database, to not receive future communications or to no longer receive our app or Website Services.
You may change your preferences at any time.
Please note that we may continue to send you transactional or service-related emails despite your desire to not receive promotional or marketing email messages. Additionally, please note that if you elect to opt-out of or unsubscribe from receiving promotional or other similar emails or messaging from one of our Website Services or the app, you may continue to receive promotional emails from our other websites, providers, or other, non-affiliated marketers whose services you may have accessed via the DIFC Courts Website Services or app.
Finally, while we may remove your individual contact information from our professional contacts database, please be aware that if such information is in a different, third party's marketing directory through your request or election, you will need to request erasure with such third party directly.
Access to and correction of your personal information
The DP Law 2020 provides certain rights to you in relation to your personal data. These include the rights to:
(a) Request details about the personal data that we process, and obtain a copy of the data that we hold about you (to the extent this is not in breach of a legal obligation of professional secrecy to which we are subject in relation to service user data entrusted to us and that would, therefore, prevent us from informing the relevant data subjects);
(b) Correct or update your personal data subject to the above;
(c) Port personal data that you have provided to us, in machine readable format, to another supplier;
(d) Erase the data that we hold about you in some cases;
(e) Restrict or object to its processing in some cases;
(f) Object to processing:
(i) based on grounds relating to the individual’s particular situation, where the processing is based on the legitimate interest of the DIFC Courts or our service users;
(ii) where personal data is being processed for direct marketing purposes; or
(iii) where any decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, produces legal consequences concerning you or other seriously impactful consequences and to require such decision to be reviewed manually.
(g) Not to be discriminated against in pricing and services for exercising any of your rights;
(h) Where consent is the basis for processing your personal data, you may decline to give us your consent, or to withdraw consent to the processing at any time. Please note this may make it impossible for us to provide effective services.
These rights are not absolute and are subject to various conditions prescribed under DP Law 2020 and its regulations.
In some cases, the exercise of these rights (erasure, objection, restriction, or the withholding or withdrawing of consent to processing) may be impracticable to comply for the purposes of achieving our lawful obligations and functions or provide effective services. In these circumstances, we will have the right of non-compliance with any request.
If you wish to exercise any of the above rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer:
Ruksana, Registrar
Level 3, Precinct Building 5 (South), The Gate District, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
(a) Email: dataprotection@difccourts.ae
(b) Telephone: +971 4 427 3333
If you are unhappy with our response, you may make a complaint to the DIFC Commissioner of Data Protection’s Office:
Dubai International Financial Centre Authority
Level 14, The Gate Building, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
commissioner@dp.difc.ae
+971 4 362 2222
The DIFC Courts makes every effort to ensure that your personal data is secure on its database. The DIFC Courts is dedicated to maintaining its data protection and security policies, periodically reviewing them, and making sure that the DIFC Courts employees are aware of our data protection and security practices. Regrettably, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be absolutely secure. As a result, the DIFC Courts cannot warrant or guarantee the security of any personal data you transmit to us, and you may do so at your own risk.
The DIFC Courts has established policies and procedures for securely managing information and protecting personal data against unauthorised access. We continually assess our data privacy, information management and security practices. We do this in the following ways:
(a) Establishing policies and procedures for securely managing information;
(b) Limiting employee access to viewing only necessary information to perform his or her duties;
(c) Protecting against unauthorised access to personal data by using data encryption, authentication, and virus detection technology, as required;
(d) Requiring service providers with whom we do business to comply with relevant data privacy legal and regulatory requirements;
(e) Monitoring our websites through recognised online privacy and security organisations;
(f) Engaging in regular third-party audits of our policies and practices; and
(g) Conducting background checks on employees and providing training to our employees.
If you have any further questions about our security and processing activities, please contact the DIFC Courts team or refer to our Terms of Use. To the extent permitted by applicable law, the DIFC Courts excludes liability for any loss, destruction, unlawful transmission, or access of personal data by a third party through unlawful means. The DIFC Courts also exclude liability where any such loss, destruction or unlawful transmission or access was not the fault of the DIFC Courts.
A cookie is a small text file that is unique to the web browser on your computer or mobile device, which is used to retain user preferences, and enhance browsing experience ("cookie"). The DIFC Courts uses cookies to track overall site usage and enables us to provide a better user experience. We do not use cookies to “see” other data on your computer or determine your email address.
Types of cookies we drop, and the information collected using them include, but are not necessarily limited to:
Essential
Google Tag Manager - helps make tag management simple, easy, and reliable by allowing marketers and webmasters to deploy website tags all in one place.
Site analytics
Google analytics - gives website owners the digital analytics tools needed to analyse data from all touchpoints in one place, for a deeper understanding of the customer experience.
Customer interaction
N/A
Advertising
DoubleClick - a subsidiary of Google which develops and provides Internet ad serving services.
Twitter Advertising - enables website owners to track and measure the actions users take after viewing or engaging with ads on Twitter.
Facebook advertising - lets website owners measure, optimise, and build audiences for advertising campaigns.
LinkedIn analytics - enables website owners to promote their company updates to targeted audiences on desktop, mobile, and tablet.
Most browsers accept and maintain cookies by default. The DIFC Data Protection Law requires that DIFC Courts entities set such collection methods to collect the bare minimum, necessary cookies in order to operate the relevant website or app. Check the ‘Help’ or ‘Settings’ menu of your browser to learn how to change your Cookie preferences. You can choose to alter Cookies settings related to the use of our Website Services, but this may limit your ability to access certain areas of the Website.
Alternatively, you may wish to visit an independent source of information, www.aboutcookies.org which contain comprehensive information on how to alter settings or delete cookies from your computer as well as more general information about cookies. For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual or network operator for advice.
The DIFC Courts may change this Privacy Notice from time-to-time and without notice. If we make significant changes in the way we treat your personal data, or to the Privacy Notice, we will endeavour to provide you with a notice through the app or Website Services, or by some other means, such as email. Your continued use of the app or Website Services after such notice will constitute your acknowledgment of those changes. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Notice for the latest information on our privacy practices. We provide links to it through:
(a) The app or Website Services
(b) Referencing it in our Terms of Use
(c) Incorporating it into our contracts, agreements, and other documents as necessary or appropriate.
If you have any questions, comments and requests related to this Privacy Notice, or if you have any complaints related to how the DIFC Courts processes your personal data, please contact:
Ruksana Ellahi, Legal Counsel & Data Protection Officer
Level 3, Precinct Building 5 (South), The Gate District, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Dubai, United Arab Emirates
dataprotection@difccourts.ae
Tel: +971 4 427 3333
Should you wish to contact the DIFC Commissioner of Data Protection’s Office:
Dubai International Financial Centre Authority
Level 14, The Gate Building, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
commissioner@dp.difc.ae
+971 4 362 2222
