Collection and processing of personal data

1. Data Protection at ista

ista Middle East FZE, a company registered in the United Arab Emirates with company number DAFZ\390 whose registered office is at Unit 204, Cayan Business Centre, Tecom C, Al Sufouh Third, Dubai, UAE, and email address infome@ista.com (“ista”, “us”, “we”, or “our), is the owner and operator of the www.ista.ae website (the "Website").

This page informs you and the other users of the Website (hereinafter referred to as the “User”, “Users”, “you”, “your”, or “yours”) of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use our Website, or when you use ista’s services, and the choices you have associated with that data.

By using the Website or using our services (Billing or Metering, etc.), submitting your data and accepting our terms and conditions, you agree to the collection and processing of your data in accordance with this policy. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy (the “Privacy Policy”), the terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions

The protection of your personal data is very important to ista.

ista complies with the legal data protection regulations and does everything to keep your data (whether you be a landlord, or a customer/tenant, or a user of the ista Website in any other capacity) and your customer’s/tenant‘s data (if applicable) confidential. All personal data is collected, processed and used in accordance with the provisions of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Federal Decree Law no. 45 of 2021 on Personal Data Protection (the “PDP”) and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) and only for the purposes of contract processing, fulfillment of our legal obligations, and/or for improving our advice and support of the customers as well as the demand-oriented product design. By submitting your Information and accepting our terms and conditions, you specifically agree to our processing of your personal data for the herein-mentioned purposes.

All service providers of ista dealing with the processing of personal data also comply with the provisions of the GDPR in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR and article 8 PDP. Compliance is monitored by our data protection officer.

2. Collection and processing of personal data

Each time a user accesses the ista Website and each time a file is accessed, data about that activity is stored in a log file. This data is not related to a person; so ista cannot trace back which user has retrieved what data.

In detail, the following data record is saved for each call:

• Name of the file

• Date and time of access

• Amount of data transferred

• Message whether the call was successful

• Anonymous IP-Address

• If necessary, operating system and browser software on your computer

• As well as the website from which you visited the ista Website

Personal user profiles cannot be created.

The above-mentioned data is evaluated for statistical purposes only.

Personal data will only be collected if you give it to ista on your own - for example, when registering for a survey or conducting a contract with ista. A transmission of your data to third parties does not take place, unless ista is legally obliged to do so. Insofar as external service providers come into contact with your personal data, ista has ensured that they comply with the provisions of data protection laws through legal, technical and organizational measures as well as regular checks.

Should you have entered into a billing or metering services agreement with ista, you hereby covenant and undertake:

• to provide ista in good time the personal data and all the information and documentation relevant to the billing or metering services; and
• to promptly bring to ista’s attention any change in your personal data or any matter which may affect ista’s ability to perform the billing/metering services object of this agreement.

Should you have entered into a billing or metering services agreement with ista, you hereby warrant to ista that:

• the data shared with ista is true, complete, accurate, up to date and free of any errors and is in sufficient order to enable ista to provide the billing/metering services; and
• the use by ista of any of your data in accordance with the billing or metering services agreement shall not infringe the Intellectual Property Rights or any other right of a third party

3. Cookies:

ista uses so-called cookies on the ista Website to recognize multiple use of the offer by the same user/internet connection owner. Cookies are small text files that your internet browser stores on your computer. They serve to optimize ista's internet presence and offers. The cookies are usually so-called "session cookies", which are deleted after the end of your visit.

In some cases, however, these cookies provide information in order to automatically recognize you. This recognition is based on the IP address stored in the cookies. The information obtained in this way serves to optimize ista's offers and to make it easier for you to access the ista Website.

You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser; however, ista points out that in this case you may not be able to use the full functionality of the ista website.

The cookies used on the ista Website are classified into different categories:

a. Strictly necessary cookies (mandatory)

These cookies are essential for the ista Website to function properly. They may include, for example, cookies that collect session ID and authentication data, cookies that make it possible to personalize the interface of the ista Website (for example, for the choice of the language or presentation of a service) or some audience measurement and/or certain analytics cookies. This category also includes cookies that allow us to comply with our legal obligations, including ensuring a safe online environment (for example by detecting repeated login failures in order to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing your account).

b. Web Analytics (subject to your consent, except in some circumstances)

This Website uses Matomo, an open source software for the statistical evaluation of user access. Matomo uses "cookies", which are text files that are stored on your computer and serve to analyse the use of the Website or Website optimization. For this purpose, the usage information generated by the cookie is transmitted to the server of ista. The IP address is anonymized immediately after processing and prior to its storage. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this Website will not be disclosed to third parties.
These cookies may be exempt from consent when they are strictly necessary for the functioning of the Website in accordance with the precedent paragraph (a).
Otherwise, they are subject to consent in accordance with the present paragraph.

c. Google Tag Manager (mandatory)

Google Tag Manager is a solution that we can use to manage “website tags” using an interface (allowing us, for example, to incorporate Google Analytics and other Google marketing services into our online offering). The tag manager itself (which implements the tags) does not process any personal data relating to users. With regard to the processing of users' personal data, we refer users to the following information on the Google services. Use policy:  https://www.google.com/intl/de/tagmanager/use-policy.html

d. Remarketing activities and cookies (subject to your consent)

This Website uses the remarketing or "similar target group" function of Google Inc. (1Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland; „Google“).

This feature allows you to view interest-based ads on Google Display Network web pages. For this purpose, a cookie is stored in your browser when you visit a Website. This serves to recognize you as a visitor to the website and to determine visits and usage data.

According to Google's own information, server logs are stored in which parts of the IP address and cookie information are partially deleted after 9 to 18 months. For more information, please visit http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/.

An example of a server log is provided by Google at the following link:

https://policies.google.com/privacy/key-terms?hl=gb#toc-terms-server-logs

4. How can you manage cookies?

To see the different categories of cookies that we use on the Platform and configure your choices, you can consult the cookie management module accessible at the top & the bottom of the page. You can modify at any time your preferences, withdraw or give again your consent at any time.

Please note that the use of strictly necessary cookies for the proper functioning of the ista Website does not require your consent. This is why the option "strictly necessary cookies" is pre-checked in our cookie management tool and is not optional.

By refusing certain types of cookies (preference cookies for example), we will not be able to optimize your user experience on our Website and some parts may not function properly.

By default, we save your cookie choices on a device for a maximum of 13 months. If you change your mind about the preferences you have expressed regarding cookies, you can update your choices at any time, by following this link. We will ask you to make a choice again every 6 months.

Furthermore, there are several ways in which cookies can be deactivated in the browser to exclude your own browser from remarketing.

Google provides the option of downloading a browser plug-in that permanently deactivates these cookies under the following link: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin

You can also make settings in your browser to deactivate the installation of cookies.

If you wish to object to tracking, you can do so by adjusting your browser settings regarding cookie installations. You can find information on this under the following links:

Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences

Internet Explorer: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies

Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en-GB

Safari: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201265 

Third-party providers may also disable browser cookies. The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) offers the possibility to implement an opt-out for your own browser. Information can be found on the following page: optout.networkadvertising.org.

This Website uses the conversion tracking of "Google-Adwords", a Google service.

When you visit Google pages, Google stores cookies. You can deactivate or leave this storage activated. If the cookie is still activated and you visit certain websites on the Website, Google and ista can recognize that you have clicked on an ad placed by ista and have thus been forwarded to an ista page.

The information collected is used by Google to generate statistics for Adwords customers. These statistics include information about the number of users who clicked on ads and were redirected to pages that were tagged with a conversion tracking tag.

You can find Google's privacy policy here: https://policies.google.com/privacy

This function can be deactivated here.

DISABLE GOOGLE MAPS AND GOOGLE ADDRESS AUTOCOMPLETE FOR THIS WEBSITE

5. Googlemaps and Google Address Autocomplete

Several contact and order forms are available for contacting ista. In this context, ista asks for your address for processing the request. To support address entry, ista uses the Google Address Autocomplete function from Google.

6. Usercentrics

Use of the Usercentrics Consent Management Platform
We use the Usercentrics Consent Management Platform to comply with the statutory provision pursuant to Article 7, para. 1 GDPR, and article 6 of the PDP. The operator is Usercentrics GmbH, Rosental 4, 80331 Munich. The Usercentrics Consent Management Platform collects Logfile data, user agent (device, browser type, browser language, browser version, resolution) and consent data (consent yes/no, timestamp, data extent, data attributes, ControllerID, ProcessorID, consentID) by means of a Javascript. This JavaScript permits Usercentrics GmbH to inform the user about specific tags and web technologies on our Website and to obtain, manage and document the user's consent. The legal basis for data processing is Article 6, para. 1, letter c) GDPR, and Article 4, para. 10 PDP, since we are legally obliged to prove consent (pursuant to Article 7, para 1 GDPR and article 6 PDP). Our aim is to know and implement our users' preferences as well as to document these legally in a secure manner. The data are deleted as soon as they are no longer required for our documentation and there are no legal obligations to retain records.

You can permanently disable the execution of JavaScript at any time by selecting the relevant settings in your browser, which would also prevent Usercentrics from executing JavaScript.

For further details on Usercentrics data protection policy go to: https://usercentrics.com/privacy-policy/

You can select your privacy settings here: