PRIVACY POLICY

“Gene Discovery Company Limited” is a genetic testing service provider. We respect personal data privacy and are committed to full implementation of and compliance with the data protection principles and all relevant provisions of the Hong Kong Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap.486) (“Ordinance”). We shall ensure that our staff handling personal data will comply with the legally required standards of security and confidentiality.

I. PERSONAL DATA COLLECTION
We shall at all times fully observe the Ordinance in collecting, maintaining and using your personal data. In particular, we shall follow the following principles, unless otherwise required, permitted by law or agreed by you:
1. Collection
We will collect personal data from you for lawful purposes relating to:
  • subscription to our testing service;
  • specimen and report identification;
  • generation of testing results;
  • internal improvement work including but not limited to R&D and quality control;
  • provision of our services or products to you;
  • facilitating your access to the information and services in our application and website (the “Platform”).
We will take practical steps to ensure that your personal data are and remain accurate, but your assistance may be required to enable us to know if there is any change.
2. Use
Your personal data will be used for the purposes specified herein, including those set out in paragraph 1(a) above;
We will not be using your personal data for other purposes without your consent.
3. Storage
We will take practical steps to ensure that your personal data will be securely retained for your future use.
We will take practical steps to ensure that your personal data will be protected against unauthorized or accidental access, processing or erasure.
4. Security
We will take all practical steps to ensure that your personal data are protected against unauthorized and accidental access and loss.
We may from time to time engage one or more data processers, whether within or outside Hong Kong, to process your personal data on our behalf, but we will take practical steps to ensure that your personal data will be protected against unauthorized or accidental access, processing or erasure.
5. Access
  • You have the right to access and correct your personal data held by us. Your request for access or correction will be dealt with in accordance with the Ordinance.
  • Your personal data is classified as confidential and can only be disclosed by us in the manner specified herein or where we are permitted by the Ordinance or otherwise legally compelled to do so.
  • You are not obliged to provide the personal data that we have requested, but you may be unable to access some of the information or services on this Platform and we may be otherwise unable to provide some or all of our services or products to you or to respond to any queries you may have without your personal data.
II. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION
When you make registration with us for purposes such as enquiries of and appointment for our service, you will be required to give us your personal data (such as your name, surname, phone number and email). We may also collect payment related information (such as credit card details) and other personal information that we believe to be relevant to the provision of our service to you.
The Platform and our servers may automatically collect data about your internet address when you visit our website. Like most web servers, we store your IP address in a log file when you visit the Platform. Your IP address is used to help identify you and to gather demographic information about our customers, members and users as a whole. Our server may also record the date, time and referring page that linked you to us (e.g. another website or a search engine); the pages you visit on the website; the website you visit, if any, after the Platform; other information about the type of web browser, computer, related software and settings you are using; any search terms you have entered on the Platform or a referral site; and other web usage activities and data logged by our servers. We use this information for internal system administration, to help diagnose problems with our servers, and to administer our services. This information is for internal use only and will not be given out.
We may use cookies in some areas of the Platform. Cookies are small pieces of information that we store on your computer’s browser or hard drive. Such information does not contain your name or address information or any information that will enable us to contact you via telephone, e-mail or any other means. The information stored is to enable the Platform to function correctly and give you additional features and benefits such as automatic log in. Most browsers give you the option of preventing cookies from being stored on your computer, though doing so may cause you to lose some of the benefits of the Platform.
III. USE OF INFORMATION
Your personal data may be used for:
  • verifying your identity.
  • processing of your request to use our testing and any other related services.
  • matching (as defined in the Ordinance) your personal data with other data collected for other purposes and from other sources including third parties in relation to the provision of services
  • marketing and advertising of any services to you by us, related companies, agents, contractors and third-party suppliers upon your consent in accordance with the prevailing requirements in the Ordinance
  • prevention, detection or investigation of crime
  • disclosure as permitted or required by law
  • any other purposes as may be agreed to between you and us, including the purposes set out in any application or terms and conditions for the supply of specific services.

Your personal data may be transferred to, stored, processed or otherwise

administered by our group members and/or third-party agents, contractors or service providers who provide administrative, telecommunications, computer and other data mining and processing services to us. You may object to the above possible uses by giving us a prior notice in the manner set out in “Contact Us” section. After receiving such notice from you, we will cease to use your information in the said manner.
Your personal data, including identification information and contact details, collected may be used for our administrative, research, statistical, marketing, audit and prescribed purposes as permitted by us and the law from time to time. We shall reveal personal information to any external organization only if required by law or with your prior consent. However, your personal data may also be consolidated with other data and used in aggregate form for research and marketing purposes, and in such circumstances individual data shall not be revealed. Such data may be used by other companies under contractual activities with us for the abovementioned purposes.
Your personal data supplied to us such as email addresses may be used for communication and promotion. You may object to the above possible uses by giving us a prior notice in the manner set out in “Contact Us” section. After receiving such notice from you, we will cease to use your information in the said manner.
IV. DISCLOSURE AND SHARING OF INFORMATION
Your personal data held by us will be kept confidential by all reasonable steps, but we may, where such disclosure or transfer is necessary to satisfy the purpose, or directly related purpose, for which the data was collected provide such information or copies to the following relevant parties:
  • member companies within our group
  • authorized personnel including contractors, consultants and lawyers for performing various business functions;
  • •government bodies and other regulators as required under the law or pursuant to any regulatory arrangements between us and the relevant government body or regulator;
  • any person under a duty of confidentiality to us and who has undertaken to keep such information confidential, provided that such person has a legitimate right to such information;
  • any person to whom we are required to make disclosure under any law applicable in Hong Kong.
Your personal data may also be disclosed to any person or persons pursuant to any statutory or contractual obligations or as required by court of law, provided such person or persons are able to prove the required right or authority to access such information. In addition, personal data may be disclosed under any of the circumstances described in Part VIII of the Ordinance in which the concerned personal data are exempt from the provisions of Data Protection Principle 3 of the Ordinance.
In accordance with the requirements of the Ordinance, we will honor a customer’s request not to use his or her personal data for the purposes of direct marketing. Upon customer’s consent, we may use his or her personal data for direct marketing and any other directly related purposes. For the avoidance of doubt, this consent is separate from and independent of customer’s services registered with us. Accordingly, it can be withdrawn at any time in the manner specified in “Contact Us” section below without reference to the duration of the services, and will survive the termination or expiration of customer’s service contracts.
We will do our best to ensure compliance with the Ordinance by providing guidelines to and monitoring compliance of the relevant parties listed above. However, we cannot control how third parties use your personal information and assumes no responsibility for the privacy protection provided by such third parties.
V. RETENTION OF INFORMATION
We will destroy any personal data it may hold in accordance with its internal policy. Generally speaking, our policies cover the following principles:
  • personal data will only be retained for as long as is necessary to fulfil the original or directly related purposes for which it was collected, in normal circumstances, it will be retained for 7 years, unless the personal data is also retained to satisfy any applicable statutory or contractual obligations;
  • personal data are purged from our electronic, manual and other filing systems in accordance with specific schedules based on the above criteria and our internal procedures.
VI. TRANSFER OF INFORMATION OUTSIDE OF HONG KONG
At times it may be necessary and prudent for us to transfer certain personal data to places outside of Hong Kong in order to carry out the purposes, or directly related purposes, for which the personal data were collected. Where such a transfer is performed, it will be done in compliance with the requirements of the Ordinance.
VII. CONTACT US
Under the Ordinance, individuals have the right to request access to and correction of their personal data. It is also our intention to keep your personal information on our records accurate and up-to-date.
We could also delete certain personal information held by us should you wish us to do so but this may affect your use of the Platform and/ or our services to you.
Should you wish to access, correct or delete your personal information held by us or enquire about our privacy policy and practice, please contact us by post or email to:
Gene Discovery Company Limited
Address: Unit 7B, 10 Knutsford Terrace, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowlow, Hong Kong
Email: info@i-genix.com
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