Information Security Policy

Scope

Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) respects the privacy of our users and highly values their trust in us. In this privacy statement, we explain how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your information when you visit ADDED’s website or application. The policy, however, might change at any time and for any reason.

ADDED will send a notification informing you about the updated policy. Additionally, we advise you to periodically check and review this page to stay informed of any updates. Using our website and/or application, or continuing to use it, means you accept and adhere to our Privacy Policy.

Information Security

We recognize the value of Information, its resources, and its statutory obligations to protect them against corruption or loss. Therefore, ADDED is committed towards securing the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of information for the day-to-day business and technical operations. ADDED has taken several steps to safeguard the integrity of its data and prevent unauthorized access to information it maintains, including but not limited to auditing, authentication, encryption, and monitoring. Subsequently, ADDED ensures the privacy of the entity, customers, stakeholders, partners, and employees’ information by protecting it against unauthorized access, disclosure, and loss. The policy of ADDED to prohibit unauthorized access, disclosure, duplication, modification, diversion, destruction, loss, misuse, or theft of this information. In addition, it is the policy of ADDED to protect information belonging to external parties that have been entrusted to ADDED in a manner consistent with its sensitivity as well as in accordance with all applicable agreements.

Supporting the above, ADDED is committed to the following principles:

• Ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its information, information systems, and supporting infrastructure.
• Take the necessary action to ensure that suitable controls and resources are in place to fulfill the identified information security objectives and all applicable requirements.
• Maintain effective Information Security Management System through the implementation of the appropriate policies, procedures, and controls.
• Ensure that these policies, procedures, and supporting documentation will be subject to a review process and appropriate ongoing development to ensure continual improvement.
• Ensure the integration of the information security requirements into ADDED’s business processes.
• Promote awareness amongst internal and external parties by sharing knowledge and responsibility.

Ensure compliance with all of UAE governments laws and regulatory requirements.

Data Collection

When you browse, read, or download information from this website, we automatically gather and store certain information about your visit. This information used for statistical purposes only and covers:

• Your IP address and geolocation to identify the country you are accessing from. 
  
• Personal identifying information such as name and contact details (if voluntarily provided). 
  
• The name of the top-level domain from which you accessed the Internet (example: .ae, .com). 
• The type of browser you use. 
• The date and time, you accessed the site. 
• The pages you accessed.  
• The documents you have downloaded. 
• The previous internet address from which you came directly to the site.

We do not sell, exchange, or otherwise distribute the data collected for commercial or marketing purposes. We, occasionally, conduct online customer surveys to get your feedback. We use the survey data for research and to improve our services. The participation in those surveys are optional.

Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

You may browse and access information contained within our website without providing any personal information (information from which your identity is apparent or can be reasonably ascertained). If you voluntarily provide personal information (e.g. for you to be granted access privileges to ADDED website or for your account on it, or through contact forms), the information is saved and logged, if necessary, on our servers for the purpose of logging and tracking services. The information may be shared with other government entities in UAE. In addition, may be used to communicate to you the status of your service transactions and/or to assess your input to improve the content on ADDED’s website. ADDED will not sell, exchange, or otherwise distribute the collected data for commercial or marketing purposes.

Cookies

Our websites use “persistent cookies” for any personalized content. Personalized content is the content from the website, which is delivered to a browser after a user has logged in once. Cookies are text files or entries in larger files utilized to distinguish between visitors to a website and to track information during multiple visits to a website.

The use of cookies is a standard practice among internet portals and websites. Most Internet web browsers may be customized to reject cookies (allowing the user to accept, reject, or to delete cookies). Rejecting and/or removing cookies, however, may lead to the loss of functionality on pages requiring cookies to function fully.

We use cookies on the website to:

• Help you navigate our website. 
• Facilitate the sign-up and sign-in process for our services. 
• Personalize your experience. 
• Improve our website. 
• External Links.

Links to Other Websites

Some links on the Site lead to websites that are not operated by the Department of Economic Development. The Department of Economic Development is not responsible for these websites, nor does it review or control their content. The Department of Economic Development provides these links to users for convenience only. These links are not an endorsement of products, services, or information and do not imply an association between the Department of Economic Development and the operators of the linked website. When you select a link to an outside website, you are subject to the terms and conditions of the owner/sponsors of that outside website.