This is the main privacy policy for gdnonline.com and for certain services provided through these and other gdnonline.com websites and applications ("our sites") by gdnonline.com and North Star Technologies WLL ("GNM").

At GNM we collect different types of information about our users for four main reasons:

1. To provide personalised services unique to individual users.

2. To help us to monitor and improve the services we offer

3. To sell advertising space on the site. This helps us to keep the site free for people who visit it.

4. If we have permission from the user, to market services to them.

There may be other privacy policies that apply to certain services we provide. Please read these when you register or subscribe for these services on these sites.

Our principles

1 We do our very best to protect your privacy by using security technology appropriately. This means:

• we make sure that we have appropriate security measures to protect your information; and

• we make sure that when we ask another organisation to provide a service for us, they have appropriate security measures.

2 We will respect your privacy. You should receive marketing emails only from us and, if you agree, from other organisations we have carefully chosen. We will make sure it is clear when you can make these choices, for example, we have boxes you need to tick if you want to receive marketing. However, we may email you occasionally with information or questions about your registration, your subscription account or postings, for example, with reminders, warnings or copyright requests.

3. We will collect and use individual user details only if we have your permission or we have sensible business reasons for doing so, such as collecting enough information to manage subscriptions.

4 We will be clear in our dealings with you as to what information about you we will collect and how we will use it.

5 We will use personal information only for the purposes for which it was originally collected and we will make sure we delete it securely.

6 Our site is accessible via the internet. This means that people around the world who access our website can see anything you post on the website, for example, comments about an article.

How we use your information

What information do we collect?

We collect information on you:

• when you register or become a member of  gdnonline.com
• when you use the website
• when you advertise on the website
• through cookies
• if you choose to reveal information in postings, and
• when you subscribe to sales promotions and competitions.

Certain services that we provide may involve us collecting extra information (Membership, for example), such as where you are, so the service can be provided as designed. This may also apply to certain apps that you download, or which we provide.

Registration

The minimum information we need to register you is your name, email address and a password. We will ask you more questions for different services, including sales promotions. Unless we say otherwise, you have to answer all the registration questions.

We may also ask some other, voluntary questions during registration for certain services (for example, professional networks) so we can gain a clearer understanding of who you are. This also allows us to personalise services for you.

After you have registered, we may send you emails we think may interest you. At any time you can decide not to receive these emails and will be able to 'unsubscribe'

Logging in using social networking credentials

If you log-in to our sites using a Facebook log-in, you are granting permission to Facebook to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth and location which will then be used to form a gdnonline.com identity. You can also use your picture from Facebook as part of your profile. This will also allow us and Facebook to share your, networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Facebook account settings. If you remove the gdnonline.com app from your Facebook settings or mobile device, we will no longer have access to this information.

If you log-in to our sites using a Google log-in, you grant permission to Google to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth, sex and location which we will then use to form a gdnonline.com identity. You may use your picture from Google as part of your profile. This also allows us to share your networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Google account settings. If you remove the gdnonline.com from your Google settings, we will no longer have access to this information.

If you log-in to our sites using a twitter log-in, we receive your avatar (the small picture that appears next to your tweets) and twitter username.

Use of children's data

We do not knowingly collect or store any personal information about children under the age of 16.

Updating your personal information

We offer a 'My details' page (also known as Dashboard), where you can update your personal information at any time, and change your marketing preferences.

Who we share data with

Depending on where you live, your personal information may be shared with the gdnonline.com and affiliated companies wherever they  are based

We will not share your personal information with others for marketing purposes unless you have given us your permission. If we have your permission, we will share your information only with other organisations we have chosen carefully.

If you are a gdnonline.com member and attend an event organised by an event partner, data may be shared for event administration purposes.

We may make other organisations' services available, through our sites, although we are not necessarily operating these sites. We process any information which we collect when you access a service provided by another organisation under this privacy policy. Information these other organisations collect is governed by their own privacy policies.

We can access and release personal information to keep to relevant laws and government requests, to operate our systems properly and to protect both us and our users.

Any other organisations who access your information in the course of providing services on our behalf will be governed by strict contractual restrictions to make sure that they protect your information and keep to data-protection and privacy laws which apply. We may also independently audit these service providers to make sure that they meet our standards. We may use service providers to help us run these sites (or services available on the sites)

Some of our webpages use plug-ins from other organisations (such as the 'Facebook Recommend' function). These other organisations may use information about your visit to our websites on their pages. If you browse these pages while still also logged in to your account with us, information they collect may be connected to your account on their site. For more information on how these organisations use information, please read their privacy policies.

Use of Cookies

We use cookies for a number of reasons.

1 For statistical purposes to track how many users we have and how often they visit our websites. We collect information listing which of our pages are most frequently visited, and by which types of users and from which countries.

2 We use other organisations to collect anonymous user information, sometimes through cookies and web beacons,(information embedded in images which allow them to analyse how the website is being used and the number of visitors). 

3 We and other advertisers may use statistical cookies to track who has seen an advert and clicked on it. You can find more information on this in the online behavioural advertising section of this privacy policy.

4 Placing cookies on your computer means we can show you adverts that you might be interested in, and allows us to control the number of times you see them and measure how effective the ad campaign has been. Advertising helps us to keep the site free for you to use.

5 We may use 'Flash' cookies to store your preferences for your media player (for example, volume and so on). If we don't use them, you may not be able to watch some video content.

You can turn cookies off but if you do this, you may not be able to use all services on our websites and you might see more pop-ups and other advertising. This is because we won't be able to limit what you see by using cookies. However, you will still be able to see our editorial content.

6 We or other companies may use cookies to suggest and deliver content which we believe may interest you.

By using the sites you are agreeing to the use of cookies as described.

 

About our advertising

As you browse our sites, some of the cookies we place on your computer will be advertising cookies, so we can understand what sort of pages you are interested in. We can then display advertising on your browser that is based on these perceived interests. For instance if you have been reading a lot of food and drink articles, you may be shown more adverts for food and drink.

Advertising on mobile devices may require the collection and sharing of the unique device ID with companies who purchase advertising space on the mobile application.

Other Advertising

Our sites contain links to other websites from which we may earn revenue. Our articles are never influenced by advertisers or affiliates, nor are they written for the purpose of promoting a product, except when clearly branded as a 'sponsored by', 'brought to you by' or 'supported by' to represent sponsored content, advertisement features and foundation funded features respectively. 

Legal information and how to contact us

The data controller is the organisation responsible for protecting information and, in our case, is gdnonline.com North Star Technology WLL  PO Box 1100, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain.

If you would like access to or a copy of the personal information we hold about you, to request a correction, or have any questions about how we may use it or to make a complaint, please contact the Data Protection Manager at the address shown above. Or, email [email protected].

Complaints will be dealt with by the Data Protection Manager, and will be responded to within 30 days at the latest.

Changes to the privacy policy

Should we elect to change our privacy policy we will post the changes here. Where the changes are significant, we may also choose to email all our registered users with the new details. Where required by law, will we obtain your consent to make these changes.