Privacy Policy Statement

Hong Kong Housing Society (“we” or “Housing Society”) respects your legal rights of privacy when collecting, storing, using and transmitting personal data. Throughout this statement, the meaning of the term “personal data” is defined in the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap 486) (the “Ordinance”). Please read the following carefully to understand our policy and practice regarding how your personal data will be treated. This statement may from time to time be revised or otherwise changed where we deem necessary.

The Personal Data Privacy Officer of Housing Society is responsible for the overall coordination, monitoring and review of our compliance with the requirements of the Ordinance. The Personal Data Privacy Officer shall be assisted by the Data Protection Officer(s) of respective divisions who will be responsible for the compliance with the Housing Society’s privacy policy and the implementation of privacy protection measures in their respective areas of operations.

Housing Society is committed to protecting the privacy, confidentiality and security of the personal information we hold by complying with the requirements of the Ordinance. In doing so, we will ensure compliance by our staff with the strictest standards of security and confidentiality. Housing Society undertakes to:

• collect adequate, but not excessive, personal data by lawful and fair means only for lawful purposes related to the Housing Society’s functions or activities;
• take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that the personal data collected or retained are accurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are to be used;
• take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that the personal data are not kept longer than is necessary for the purposes for which they are to be used;
• use the personal data collected only for purposes for which the data were to be used at the time of collection, unless the individual concerned has given express consent for a change of use or such use is permitted by law;
• take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that personal data are protected against unauthorised or accidental access, processing, erasure or other use;
• take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that a person can be informed of the kinds of personal data that the Housing Society holds and the purposes for which the data are to be used; and
• permit persons to access and correct personal data of which they are the data subjects and process any such access/correction requests in a manner permitted or required by law.

1. Kinds of Personal Data Collected and Held

   Housing Society collects and holds the following broad categories of personal data in discharge of our business and functions:-

   • residents/ applicants/customers data;
   • contractors/consultants/business associates/working partners data;
   • employment-related personal data;
   • Housing Society members’ data; and
   • data collected from the corporate website (www.hkhs.com) and other sub-websites of Housing Society, including but not limited to The Tanner Hill Website (www.thetannerhill.hkhs.com), Joyous Circle (www.tth-joyouscircle.hkhs.com) and Website for Elderly Services (www.hkhselderly.com) (the “Websites”).

   Type of personal data collected by Housing Society may include:-

   • Your personal information and contact information such as your name, telephone number, address, email address, fax number, gender, date of birth, identity card number;
   • Your business information such as company name and business title;
   • Your credit card information such as name of cardholder, card number and expiry date;
   • Your account details, including account numbers, or user accounts;
   • Your source(s) of income;
   • Your schooling and employment details for tenancy management;
   • Your immigration record for tenancy management; and
   • Your health condition for the implementation of Ageing-In-Place Scheme.

   You are not obliged to supply the personal data, but if you do not, your application or request may not be processed and/or our services or features (whichever applicable) may not be available to you.

2. Purpose of Collection and Use of Personal Data

   Personal data collected from you may be used by Housing Society for:-

   • tenancy/operation management;
   • processing of housing units/housing schemes/loan schemes/subsidy scheme/building certification scheme/Building Rehabilitation Assistance Schemes applications;
   • health assessment data;
   • data matching procedure;
   • organizing and delivering promotional, educational and training activities;
   • conducting customer, product and service surveys;
   • acquisition of services;
   • subscription of publications;
   • administration of office functions, security, and activities;
   • recruitment and human resource management purposes, relating to such matters as employees’ appointment, employment benefits, termination, performance appraisal and discipline;
   • providing corporate secretariat and members’ services;
   • following up and processing of your application for any services;
   • marketing of products, services and/or facilities of Housing Society;
   • provisioning of customers services;
   • following up and handling your complaints and enquiries;
   • making such disclosures as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations;
   • any other purposes directly related to the purpose for which the personal data were originally collected; and
   • any other purposes which have been agreed by or notified to you.

   If you are a minor, you must ask your parents or guardian before providing any personal data to us.

3. Collection of Information when You Visit the Website and Use of Cookies
   • Housing Society will record visits to the Websites without collecting any personal identifiable information of users. Such general statistics are collected for the compilation of statistical reports and the diagnosis of problems concerning computer systems to help us improve the Websites.
   • Cookies are used to save user preferences on their computers. No personally identifiable information would be collected and saved. Users may opt for not accepting cookies by changing browser settings or removing them afterwards. Under such circumstances, user preferences could not be saved and user experience may be affected.
   • When you visit the Websites, your internet protocol address will be identified and logged automatically in our server log files, along with the browser type and the pages that you viewed. Server logs are used to compile statistics on the usage levels of the Websites without collecting any personal identifiable information of users.
   • For different purposes and at different times you may be invited to provide personal data to us through the Websites on a voluntary basis. Personal information may include name, e-mail address, telephone number, fax number and mailing address. We will specify the collection purpose and intended usage of your data when you are invited to provide such information and advise you how you may request access to or correction of the personal data provided.
   • The Websites may contain links to other websites and pages. By activating a link, such as for example by clicking on the banner of an advertiser or hyperlink linking to other website(s), you leave the Website and Housing Society does not exercise control over any personal data or any other information you give to any other entity after you have left the Website. Access to and use of such other websites is at your own risk and you are advised to refer to the privacy policies of those other locations (if any).
4. Disclosure

   Housing Society will take all practicable steps to keep your personal data confidential but for any one or more purposes named in paragraph 2 above, we may transfer/assign your personal data or exchange such data with any of the following parties irrespective of whether such parties are located inside or outside Hong Kong:

   • any agent, contractor or third party service provider who provides administrative, telecommunications, computer and other services to us with respect to the operation of our business; or
   • any person to whom we are under an obligation to make disclosure under the requirement of any law binding on us or for the purposes of any guidelines or codes of practice issued by regulatory or other authorities with which we are reasonably expected to comply.

   Unless expressly stated in this statement or with prior consent, personal data collected from you will not be disclosed to any third party other than the above named parties.

5. Security

   Except as mentioned in paragraph 4 above, your personal data, however stored, will be accessed only by our employees or contractors who are authorized to do and under a duty of confidentiality to us. Such authorized personnel or contractors designated to handle personal data will be instructed to do so only in accordance with this statement.

6. Retention of Personal Data

   Unless there is a mandatory legal requirement for us to keep your personal data for a specific period, Housing Society will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes specified above for which the personal data were originally collected. We will periodically redact, purge, anonymize or destroy unnecessary personal data in our system in accordance with our internal procedures.

7. Data Access / Correction Requests

   Requests for access to and correction of personal data held by the Housing Society can be made in writing addressing to:

   Personal Data Privacy Officer
   Hong Kong Housing Society Operations Headquarters
   (marked confidential)
   8/F, 1063 King's Road
   Quarry Bay
   Hong Kong

   When handling a data access or correction request, Housing Society will check the identity of the requester to ensure that he/she is the person legally entitled to make the data access or correction request.

   Housing Society is required to respond to your requests within 40 days and we will endeavor to do so wherever possible, but we may charge you a reasonable fee for doing so. A reasonable charge will be levied to cover the costs for data access or correction or any additional copy requested. The charge is subject to revision from time to time.