Privacy Policy

Important information and who we are

Alshaya Group (hereafter referred to as “we”, “our”, “us”, “Alshaya” or “organization”) are firmly committed to protecting your privacy.

This Privacy Notice has been created to demonstrate our company’s commitment to keep personal data private and secure. It explains who we are, how we collect, share, and use personal data about you, and how you can exercise your data privacy rights or communicate to us for redressal of your data privacy-related queries or concerns.

This Privacy Notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from), including any data you provide through this website when you sign up to our newsletter, take part in a survey, download any Alshaya publication, take part in a competition, or use any of our mobile applications. However, if you are submitting information through our recruitment solution linked to this website, please see our separate Job Applicant Privacy Notice.

It is important that you read this Privacy Notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This Privacy Notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

This website is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

Data controller

M.H. Alshaya Co. W.L.L. is a Kuwaiti company that acts as parent company of other legal entities under Alshaya (hereinafter “Alshaya Group”). This Privacy Notice is issued on behalf of the Alshaya Group, so when we mention “Alshaya”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Notice, we are referring to the relevant company in the Alshaya Group responsible for processing your data.

In this Privacy Notice “You” or “Your” refers to the data subject (customers, employees, website visitors or contingent workers) whose personal data is processed by us.

M.H. Alshaya Co. W.L.L. is the data controller and responsible for this website. Alshaya’s Data Protection Officer is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Privacy Notice. If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer using the details set out below.

Contact details

• Full name of legal entity: M.H. Alshaya Co. W.L.L. (trading as Alshaya).
• Postal address: Burj Alshaya, Al Soor Street, Al Mirgab, PO Box 181, Safat 13002, State of Kuwait.
• Phone: +965 2224 2000.
• Data Protection Officer: Vicente Pomares Arias.
• Email address: dpo@alshaya.com

Third-party links

This website includes links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy notices/statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

The personal data we collect about you

Personal Data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). We collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

• Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, title, date of birth.
• Contact Data includes address, email address, telephone number and company details.
• Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
• Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
• Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
• Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.
• Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data is derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, or genetic data. We only process certain special categories of data such as health information, biometric data, or criminal convictions and offences where we are lawfully permitted to do so and only for limited purposes such as fraud or loss prevention and for security purposes in our stores and premises.

How do we collect your personal data?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including through:

Direct interactions

You normally give us your identity and contact data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise. This includes sharing of personal data for the following purposes:

• Records of your interactions with us such as emails and other correspondence and your instructions to us.
• Providing your feedback.
• By filling in forms.
• By sharing your personal data such as a resume for recruitment purposes.
• By interacting with us on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Automated technologies or interactions

• Log Files. Log information is data about your use of the service, such as IP address, browser type, referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamps, and related data, which is stored in log files.
• Cookies. A cookie is a small data file transferred to your computer (or other device) when it is used to access our service. Cookies are used for many purposes, including to enable certain features of our service, remember your preferences, better understand how you interact with our service, provide advertising on and off the service, and monitor usage by visitors and online traffic routing. You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie.

Third parties or publicly available resources

We receive personal data about you from various third parties, including:

• Analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU; and
• Advertising networks based inside and outside the EU.

How we use your personal data

Consent

When you give us your consent, for example, to access your contacts on your phone or allow us access to your location. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. To withdraw your consent, go to the Privacy Settings in our mobile application or your Android or iOS app settings, or contact us at dpo@alshaya.com.

Performance of a contract

When we need to execute a contract with you to which you are a party, or to take steps at your request before entering such a contract, by accepting applicable terms and conditions or specific related terms relating to other services offered by us. Where we need to collect personal data under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform our services under the contract. In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have with us, but we will notify you if this is the case.

Legal or regulatory obligation

When we need to collect personal data by law. If you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform our services under the contract with you, in which case we will notify you.

Legitimate interests

Legitimate interest means the broader stake that Alshaya has in the processing, or the benefit that we derive from the processing, of your personal data. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we make sure that we consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests.

We rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data in relation to sending third-party direct marketing communications for the purpose of targeting advertising campaigns via email and/or SMS. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us using the contact details above.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and the legal bases we rely on to do so.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact the Data Protection Officer using the contact details provided in this Privacy Notice.

Alshaya mobile applications

Aura is the Alshaya loyalty program (“Program”) accessible via the Aura mobile application and/or Aura card and website. This Program is purposed to promote and increase our retail business lines’ sales; support continuing engagement by incentivizing customers to increase the frequency of their visits across Alshaya’s retail brands portfolio; and ultimately expand the customer database that will be the basis for personalized marketing activities. Any resident or national of a country in which Alshaya operates the Program can join it free of charge by downloading the Aura application and completing enrolment, or via www.aura-mena.com.

The following information is collected when you use our application, such as when you create an account, join the loyalty program, or submit online forms through our websites or mobile applications:

• User’s first and last name
• Phone number
• E-mail
• Currency
• Country
• User’s language preference
• Title
• Password

The above personal data is strictly needed for our app functionality. Certain optional information based on your choice is also shared through the application, including your date of birth, gender, nationality, advanced analytics information such as location data, diagnostic and usage data, user interactions, and location-based information (such as through GPS, Bluetooth-enabled iBeacons, or other location-based technology) to enhance the user experience so that you can order ahead, receive directions, and see what is available at nearby stores.

Marketing

We are committed to providing you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We will get your consent before sending third-party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to receive third-party marketing communications at any time by contacting us.

We will use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers are relevant for you (we call this marketing).

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased goods or services through any of the sites operated by Alshaya, or if you provided us with your details when you entered a competition or registered for a promotion and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us. Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data processed by us because of a product/service purchase, product/service experience or other transactions.

Disclosures of your personal data

We will share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out above.

Internal third parties

Disclosure to companies in the Alshaya Group based inside the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (“MENAT”) is required for us:

• to provide you access to our services and products offered to you,
• to comply with our legal obligations,
• to enforce our user agreement,
• to facilitate our marketing and advertising activities, or
• to prevent, detect, mitigate, and investigate fraudulent or illegal activities related to our services.

We and our affiliates may share some or all of your personal data with another business entity should we plan to merge with, or be acquired by, that business entity, or as part of a re-organization, amalgamation or restructuring of business. Should such a transaction occur, that other business entity will be required to follow this Privacy Notice with respect to your personal data.

External third parties

Disclosures may be made to other companies based in the MENAT or outside it, the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or outside it:

• Service providers acting as processors who provide IT, system administration services, marketing services and/or communication services.
• Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
• Revenue authorities, regulators and other authorities who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
• We will disclose personal and sensitive personal data to government agencies or other authorized law enforcement agencies.
• If required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process.

To prevent any misuse of your personal data by franchisors and third-party vendors, we sign Data Processing Agreements ensuring that they do not use your personal data other than for the purposes for which it was shared. Some of our external third parties are based outside the EEA, so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA. Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring appropriate safeguards are implemented. For more information about specific transfer mechanisms, please refer to our contact details above.

International transfers

We share your personal data within the Alshaya Group. This will involve transferring your data outside the jurisdiction where we obtained your personal data. We ensure your personal data is protected by requiring all our group companies to follow the same rules when processing your personal data (our “binding corporate rules”).

• We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data.
• Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the supervisory authorities which give personal data the same protection it has in your country of origin.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of your country.

Automated decision-making

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making.

Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed. The personal data you have entered on HTML pages (contact forms) and that is stored by us is transmitted to Alshaya in encrypted form (TLS – Transport Layer Security) via the public data network.

• Server to server: TLSv1.2, HTTPS, SODBC, JDBC over TLS, LDAP over TLS, WS-Security, XML Encryption, JSSE.
• Desktop to application: TLSv1.2, SSHv2.
• File transfer: SFTP, FTPS, SSHv2, IPsec, SCP.
• Email: S/MIME, PGP, Iron Port, TLSv1.2.

In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties strictly needed under the provisions made within a service agreement signed with them. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality and a duty to comply with data protection procedures.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected or actual personal data breach. We will notify you and any applicable authority of a personal data breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data, whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our Retention Schedule.

Your rights

Under certain circumstances, you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
• Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. Note, however, that we are not always able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
• Request restriction of processing of your personal data, for example where you want us to establish the data’s accuracy, where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it, where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, or where you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide your personal data, to you or a third party you have chosen, in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent.
• Lodge a complaint with the correspondent supervisory authority if you contend that there has been a breach of your rights. Before that, we would appreciate the opportunity to first address your concerns by directing an inquiry to us at our email address below.

These rights can be exercised by writing to us at dpo@alshaya.com

We will need to request specific information from you, if needed, to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate data subject requests within the timelines specified in the applicable data privacy regulations. Occasionally it can take us longer if your request is particularly complex or you have made several requests. In this case, we shall notify you and keep you updated.

Children

We do not intend for our websites, Alshaya applications or online services to be used by anyone under the age of 13; however, we cannot prevent certain users, including children, from fraudulently representing their age in order to gain access to the site or an app. If you are a parent or guardian and believe we have collected information about your child, please contact us immediately using the contact details in this Privacy Notice.

Definitions

• Applicable Laws – the applicable relevant country laws and any other instruments having the force of law as they are issued and enforced from time to time.
• Children – any natural person who has not attained the specified age (of majority) as per applicable laws and regulations.
• Contingent workers – any non-permanent workers including agents, consultants, independent contractors, sub-contractors, temporary workers, professional advisors, interns, and those affiliated with third parties.
• Data Controller or Controlling Entity – any natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.
• Data Processing Agreement – a legally binding document entered into between controller and processor/third-party vendors in writing or in electronic form.
• Data Processor or Processing Entity – any natural or legal person, public authority, agency, or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller.
• Data Protection Authority or Competent Authority – an independent public authority which is established by applicable law.
• Data Protection Officer – an individual appointed by Alshaya for managing organizational data protection and overseeing compliance with applicable data privacy regulation.
• Data Subject or Personal Data Owner or Natural Person – an identified or identifiable living natural person.
• Personal Data – any information relating to a data subject who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that data subject.
• Processing – any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure, or destruction.
• Special Category of Personal Data or Sensitive Personal Data – data that reveals your racial or ethnic origin, religious, political, or philosophical beliefs or trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data for the purposes of unique identification, or data concerning your health / sex life.

Changes to this privacy notice

We will update this Privacy Notice from time to time in response to emerging legal, technical, contractual, regulatory, or business developments. When we update our Privacy Notice, we shall take appropriate measures to inform you, consistent with the significance of the changes we make.

By using our websites/apps where this Privacy Notice is visible, you signify your acknowledgement and acceptance of this statement, and you are encouraged to contact us at dpo@alshaya.com if you have any questions about it.