This Privacy Policy explains how Hedge Consultancy Services Co. W.L.L ("HCS") collects, uses and protects personal data. HCS is a company registered in the Kingdom of Bahrain and is the data controller responsible for the personal data described in this policy. References to "HCS", "we", "us" and "our" mean Hedge Consultancy Services Co. W.L.L.
HCS is committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy. This policy describes how we collect, use, store, and protect information about you when you interact with our website or engage our services.
1. Data We Collect
We collect the following categories of personal data:
Contact information: name, email address, telephone number, company name, and job title. This is provided when you complete a contact form, register for an event, or correspond with us.
Usage data: information about how you interact with our website, including pages visited, time spent, browser type, and IP address. This data is collected automatically via cookies and analytics tools.
Engagement data: information provided in the course of a consulting engagement, which may include financial records, employee data, and commercially sensitive information as necessary for the delivery of our services.
Communication data: the content of emails, messages, and correspondence you send to us.
Recording data: audio and video recordings, transcripts, automatically generated summaries, and chat messages arising from consultations, workshops, advisory sessions and other meetings held by telephone or video conference.
2. How We Use Your Data
We use personal data for the following purposes:
To respond to enquiries and provide the consulting services you have requested.
To manage our business relationship with you, including billing, reporting, and communication.
To improve our website and services through analysis of usage patterns.
To comply with legal obligations, including regulatory reporting requirements applicable in Bahrain and other Gulf jurisdictions.
To send you relevant content, updates, and invitations where you have given consent or where we have a legitimate interest in doing so.
Quality assurance and service delivery: we record consultations, workshops and advisory sessions in order to maintain and review the quality of our services, to train our personnel, to produce accurate notes and deliverables for you, and to maintain a reliable record of what was discussed and agreed.
3. Recording of Meetings and Sessions
Consultations, workshops and advisory sessions delivered by HCS may be recorded for the purposes described above. Where a session is to be recorded, this will be stated in your booking confirmation.
You may ask us not to record a session. To do so, reply to your booking confirmation or contact us at contact@hcsbahrain.com before the session begins, or tell the facilitator at the start of the session. Declining to be recorded will not affect the service you receive, although we may in that case take written notes instead.
Recordings are stored in access controlled systems and are made available only to HCS personnel who require them for the purposes set out in this policy. Recordings are not sold, published, or used for marketing without your separate written consent.
4. Third Parties
We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties.
We may share data with:
Service providers: third-party vendors who process data on our behalf (e.g. cloud infrastructure, email delivery, analytics). All such vendors are bound by data processing agreements.
Legal and regulatory authorities: where required by law, court order, or regulatory obligation.
Professional advisers: including our own legal counsel and auditors, under obligations of confidentiality.
Recordings may be processed and stored by the video conferencing and transcription providers we use to deliver and record sessions. These providers act on our instructions and are bound by contractual obligations of confidentiality and data protection.
We will not share engagement data received in confidence without your express written consent, except as required by law.
5. Your Rights
Subject to applicable law, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:
Access: the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Correction: the right to request correction of inaccurate data.
Deletion: the right to request deletion of your data where we no longer have a lawful basis to retain it.
Objection: the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests.
Portability: the right to receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at contact@hcsbahrain.com.
6. Data Retention
We retain personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this policy, and in any case for no longer than required by applicable law.
Engagement data is retained for a minimum of seven years following completion of an engagement, in accordance with professional record-keeping obligations.
Website usage data is retained for a maximum of 26 months.
Recordings and their transcripts are retained for 12 months from the date of the session, after which they are deleted. Where a recording forms part of the record of a consulting engagement, the engagement data retention period set out above applies instead.
7. Data Security
We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, destruction, or alteration.
These measures include encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, regular security assessments, and staff training.
In the event of a data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the relevant supervisory authority in accordance with applicable law.
8. Contact Us
For questions about this Privacy Policy or to exercise your data rights, please contact:
Email: contact@hcsbahrain.com
Postal address: HCS, Muharraq, Kingdom of Bahrain