Privacy Policy

Updated 3rd March

This website is operated by Hong Kong Academy (HKA) whose registered address is 33 Wai Man Road, Sai Kung, Hong Kong. (“We”) are committed to protecting and preserving the privacy of our visitors when visiting our site or communicating electronically with us.

This policy sets out how we process any personal data we collect from you or that you provide to us through our website. We confirm that we will keep your information secure and that we will comply fully with all applicable Hong Kong legislation and regulations. Please read the following carefully to understand what happens to personal data that you choose to provide to us, or that we collect from you when you visit this site. By visiting , you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

HKA Personal Information Statement

1. HKA is committed to complying with the requirements of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, Hong Kong. In doing so, it will be ensured that HKA staff, and any parties who are assigned by HKA to handle the information, will comply with the strictest standards of security and confidentiality.
2. HKA may also disclose some of the data to third parties such as agencies (including the Hong Kong government), service providers and contractors (whether within or outside Hong Kong) appointed by HKA to undertake some of its academic and administrative functions. Otherwise set out above, HKA will not disclose any personal data to any third parties without prior written consent.
3. Under the Ordinance, users have the right to request access to and correction of their personal data held. Should you wish to access your personal information held by HKA, please send your request by email to privacy@hkacademy.edu.hk.

Types of Information We May Collect From You

We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal information about individuals who visit and use our website:

Information you supply to us. You may supply us with information about you by filling in forms on our website. This includes information you provide when you submit a contact/enquiry form including:
(pledge form, transcript request form, university visit request form, alumni network contact form, personalised tour form, Early Childhood open house registration form, Secondary School day time open house registration form, Secondary School evening open house registration form).

The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address and phone number,and/or the name, date of birth, current school and current school grade of your children.

Information our website automatically collects about you. With regard to each of your visits to our website we may automatically collect information including the following:

- Technical information, including a truncated and anonymised version of your Internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, operating system and platform;
- To ensure our site runs smoothly, we collect basic usage data, including the pages you visit, how long you stay, and how you arrived at our site (including date and time). We also monitor technical performance, such as page load speeds, click patterns, and any download errors you might encounter.

This information allows us to optimise site performance and tailor our content to your needs. Additionally, we use these insights to deliver more relevant advertising and prevent you from seeing the same ads repeatedly. 

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see below:

1. What is a Cookie?
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.

2. How to Manage Your Consent
When you first visit our site, a box will appear reminding you to accept or decline cookies. You can change your preferences at any time by adjusting your browser settings to refuse all or some cookies.

3. The Cookies We Use
We use the following categories of cookies to ensure our site works effectively:
- Strictly Necessary Cookies: These are required for the operation of our website (e.g., logging into secure areas).
- Analytical & Performance Cookies: These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and see how they move around our site. We collect:
          i) Pages visited and duration of stay.
          ii) How you reached the site (including date/time).
          iii) Page response times and download errors.
- Functionality Cookies: These recognize you when you return to our site so we can personalize our content for you (e.g., your choice of language or region).
- Targeting & Advertising Cookies: These record your visit, the pages you have visited, and the links you have followed. We use this to:
          i) Make our website and advertising more relevant to your interests.
          ii) Prevent the same advertisement from continuously reappearing.
          iii) Track documents downloaded and specific clicks.

4. Third-Party Cookies
Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These are likely to be analytical or targeting cookies.

5. How to Block Cookies
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies), you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

Disclosure of Your Information

Any information you provide to us will either be emailed directly to us or may be stored on a secure server at, or administered by, Hong Kong Academy.

We do not rent, sell or share personal information about you with other people or non-affiliated companies.

We will use all reasonable efforts to ensure that your personal data is not disclosed to regional/national institutions and authorities, unless required by law or other regulations.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Retention of Information

Hong Kong Academy will retain your personal data collected for a period no longer than necessary for the fulfillment of the purposes for which it is or is to be used. Different retention periods apply to the various kinds of personal data collected and held by Hong Kong Academy. The above is subject to any legal, statutory, regulatory or accounting requirements.

Third Party Links

Our website may contain links to external sites and embedded content (such as videos, images, or articles). Please be aware of how your data is handled in these instances:
- External Links: If you follow a link to a third-party website, please note that these sites have their own privacy policies. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for their practices. We strongly recommend checking these policies before submitting any personal data to external websites.
- Embedded Content: Content from other websites embedded on our pages behaves exactly as if you had visited that external site directly. These platforms may collect data about you, use cookies, and embed additional third-party tracking to monitor your interaction with that content—especially if you have an account and are logged into that website.

Your Rights - Access to Your Personal Data

You have the right to ensure that your personal data is being processed lawfully (“Subject Access Right”). Your subject access right can be exercised in accordance with data protection laws and regulations. Any subject access request must be made in writing to privacy@hkacademy.edu.hk. We will provide your personal data to you within the statutory time frames. To enable us to trace any of your personal data that we may be holding, we may need to request further information from you.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to privacy@hkacademy.edu.hk.