Privacy Policy

We, Mates Asia Digital Marketing Agency (collectively, «Mates Asia», «us», or «we»), understand that your privacy is important to you. We are committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your personal data. This privacy notice describes how we handle and protect your personal data (the «Privacy Notice») when we collect it through Mates Asia’s websites, applications, and digital assets (collectively, our «Sites») and through our externally facing business activities, such as service offerings, events, surveys, and communications. We interact with you and collect data from you for use by and on behalf of Mates Asia (i.e., when Mates Asia is acting as a Data Controller or similar term under applicable privacy law, including the GDPR). Depending upon the nature of your relationship with Mates Asia, additional or different privacy notices may apply to you (e.g., if you are an employee of Mates Asia). If you are an employee of a Mates Asia client or a service provider, we may receive your personal data from your employer. Our use of your personal data is governed by our agreement with your employer. You are not required to share your personal data with us, but failing to do so may result in Mates Asia being unable to properly provide you with our full range of services or a good user experience with our solutions, websites, services, or newsletters. Please see our Terms of Use for more information about other terms and policies applicable to the use of our Sites.

Data Controller
How do we collect your personal data?
Why and how are we using your personal data?
What do we not do when we collect and process your personal data?
Who has access to your personal data? Data recipients and international data transfers.
Security
How long do we keep your personal data?
Data collection from children
What are your data protection rights, and how can you exercise them? 9.1. Your data protection rights. 9.2. How do you exercise your data protection rights? 9.3. How to unsubscribe to Mates Asia newsletters and alerts?

1. Data Controller

When Mates Asia collects and processes your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Notice, we do so as authorized under applicable data privacy laws, whether as a Data Controller or joint controller (similar terms may be used under applicable law), which means that we determine and are responsible for how your personal data is collected, used, protected, disclosed, and disposed of.

The main Data Controller is Mates Asia Digital Marketing Agency.

2. How do we collect your personal data?

Mates Asia collects personal data in the course of our business activities directly from you and from third parties:

Direct Collection:

Mates Asia collects personal data about you in the course of our routine business activities:

When you interact with our Sites, including when you manage your cookie preferences, as described in our Cookie Notice (if applicable).
When you create or log into a user profile on our Sites.
When you register to receive Mates Asia newsletters and alerts and when you interact with those communications.
When you sign up for and participate in Mates Asia conferences, webinars, and events.
When you participate in public content posting areas, such as discussion forums, and Mates Asia social media sites.
When you participate in a survey or panel discussion conducted by Mates Asia.
When you interact with Mates Asia or its employees on its Sites, by email, or telephone, to ask a question, request information, or otherwise seek a response from Mates Asia (e.g., when submitting a project inquiry).

Collection from Third Parties:

Mates Asia may also receive personal data about you from third parties, including service providers and data vendors in the course of our business activities. This data consists primarily of publicly available business information (name, job title, company) compiled from business websites and professional social media platforms. We also acquire deidentified datasets from certain service providers that we maintain in deidentified form.

Sensitive Personal Data:

We may also collect Sensitive Personal Data directly from you, for instance, when you provide information to permit us to accommodate your specific request at an event (e.g., dietary or accessibility requirements). We use sensitive personal data only with your explicit consent unless another legal basis exists.

We may combine personal data that we receive directly from you with personal data that we receive from third parties, provided such collection and use is consistent with this Privacy Notice and the purposes described in Section 3 below.

3. Why and how are we using your personal data?

Mates Asia uses your personal data for different purposes. The table below summarizes the purposes for which we process your personal data, the categories of personal data that we use for each purpose, and the Legal Grounds on which each data processing activity is based, in line with GDPR requirements.

Purpose for Processing	Categories of Personal Data	Legal Basis for Use (GDPR)	Data Access
Managing Client/Business Relationships	Name, Email, Location, Job Title, Company/Employer, Contact details.	Legitimate Interest for the provision of contracted services (e.g., proposals, invoicing, communication).	Mates Asia subsidiaries and affiliates and third-party service providers (as per Section 5).
Account Creation & Personalized Content	User ID, Password, Name, Email.	Consent, provided when creating a user profile.	Mates Asia subsidiaries and affiliates and third-party service providers (as per Section 5).
Newsletters and Alerts	Name, Email address, Job Title.	Consent (Opt-in) when signing up, or Legitimate Interest for existing clients/business contacts.	Mates Asia subsidiaries and affiliates and third-party service providers (as per Section 5).
Conferences and Events	Name, Email, Job Title, Employer, Dietary/Health information (if provided for accommodation).	Legitimate Interest to provision access and manage the event; Consent where required for health-related data.	Mates Asia subsidiaries and affiliates and third-party service providers (as per Section 5).
Benchmarking and Analytics	Specific business information, Location, Behavioral data, Website/App usage data.	Legitimate Interest in conducting research and analytics as part of our digital marketing business.	Mates Asia subsidiaries and affiliates and third-party service providers (as per Section 5).
Maintain and Provide Mates Asia Services	Access data, Email, Name, Preferences on website/app use, etc.	Legitimate Interest in promoting, protecting, and delivering our services, and maintaining client relationships.	Mates Asia subsidiaries and affiliates and third-party service providers (as per Section 5).
Legal Compliance and Actions	Data will depend upon specific legal requirement.	Compliance with Legal Obligations (e.g., tax, legal reporting) and Legitimate Interestfor legal defense, fraud prevention.	Mates Asia subsidiaries and affiliates and legal advisors (as per Section 5).
Website Security and Improvement	Aggregated data on browsing patterns, technical data (device type, IP address).	Legitimate Interest to ensure security, improve functionality, and protect users’ data and our business.	Mates Asia subsidiaries and affiliates and third-party service providers (as per Section 5).
Aggregation and Anonymization	Personal data, as identified for other purposes.	Legitimate Interest for the provision of our services (research, statistical analysis) and to protect your privacy.	See Section 4 below.
Marketing Communications (Opt-in)	Name, Email address, Title, Company.	Consent when signing up for newsletters, events, and similar activities.	Mates Asia subsidiaries and affiliates and third-party service providers (as per Section 5).

Whenever the legal ground is our Legitimate Interest, Mates Asia only processes your personal data after assessing the adequacy, proportionality, and legitimacy of the data-processing activity.

If you have provided Consent as a legal basis for processing and subsequently withdraw it, we may not be able to properly provide you with our full range of services or a good user experience.

Mates Asia does not use automated decision-making to make decisions that have a legal impact on you or that significantly affect your rights and liberties. All automated processing activities are conducted with appropriate human supervision and review.

Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: Mates Asia may use first- and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies to manage our Sites and services and to collect analytics about how you use them. You have options regarding our use of cookies. Please refer to our Cookie Notice for more details and to manage your choices.

4. What do we not do when we collect and process your personal data?

We do not acquire, use, or allow others to use deidentified data with the intent of identifying or reidentifying individuals. When we receive deidentified data or transform personal data that we have collected into deidentified data, we make the following commitments:

Mates Asia will maintain deidentified data in deidentified form.
Mates Asia will not attempt to identify or reidentify specific individuals within a deidentified dataset or otherwise use deidentified data to attempt to associate specific individuals with individual characteristics and will not permit any entity or individual acting on Mates Asia’s behalf to do so.
We require any recipient of a deidentified dataset (service provider or client) to agree to maintain the deidentified data in its deidentified form and not attempt to identify or reidentify specific individuals within the deidentified dataset.

5. Who has access to your personal data? Data recipients and international data transfers

Personal data collected may be transferred and made available to Mates Asia entities, service providers, and third parties as necessary to accomplish the specific business purposes described in Section 3 above and to comply with applicable law.

Your data may be accessed by and transferred to the following categories of data recipients:

Mates Asia’s subsidiaries and affiliates and personnel across our global organization.
Mates Asia’s service providers and their personnel (e.g., CRM platforms, cloud hosting providers, email service providers) who process data on our behalf.
Mates Asia’s legal and professional advisors.
Third parties in specific circumstances:
- If we are required to do so by law or legal process.
- To law enforcement authorities or other government officials pursuant to a lawful request.
- When necessary to protect the vital interests of a person, prevent fraud, or enforce our agreements.
- To a successor or different business entity in the event of a merger, sale, or other transfer of all or any portion of our business.

International Data Transfers

To protect personal data that is transferred internationally (e.g., outside the European Economic Area — EEA), Mates Asia complies with all applicable data transfer laws, including incorporating required data transfer mechanisms, such as Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), into our agreements with Mates Asia affiliates, service providers, and third parties where required under GDPR.

6. Security

Mates Asia protects and safeguards your personal data globally in accordance with applicable law and this Privacy Notice. We use generally accepted standards of technical and operational security to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction. Only authorized personnel of Mates Asia and our service providers are permitted to access personal data, and they are required to treat this information as confidential. Despite these precautions, Mates Asia cannot guarantee that unauthorized persons will not obtain access to your personal data.

7. How long do we keep your personal data?

Mates Asia keeps your personal data only as long as necessary to accomplish the business purposes for which it was collected, to meet our legal or contractual obligations, and in compliance with Mates Asia’s data-retention policy.

If you request that we delete your personal data, Mates Asia will comply with applicable law and will make reasonable attempts to delete all instances of the personal data, subject to our right to keep a copy of such data for legal or contractual obligations.

8. Data collection from children

Mates Asia does not intentionally use its Sites and business content to collect or maintain personal data from individuals under the age of 16. If any of our business activities involve collecting personal data from individuals under the age of 16, we would only do so with the required legal consent from the parent or guardian and in accordance with applicable law.

9. What are your data protection rights, and how can you exercise them?

9.1. Your data protection rights (Under GDPR).

Subject to applicable law, you have the following rights with regard to the personal data that we collect about you:

Right of Access: To request information about the personal data we hold about you and receive a copy.
Right to Rectification: To request that we correct or otherwise amend your personal data if it is not correct or incomplete.
Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): To request the deletion of your personal data.
Right to Restriction of Processing: To request that we cease or restrict the processing of your personal data under certain conditions.
Right to Data Portability: To receive a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to transmit that data to another controller.
Right to Object: To object to the processing of your personal data based on Legitimate Interests.
Right to Withdraw Consent: To withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal data where consent was the legal basis for processing.
Right to Lodge a Complaint: To lodge a complaint with your supervisory Data Protection Authority (DPA).

9.2. How do you exercise your data protection rights?

You can exercise your data protection rights by emailing your request to our dedicated team:

Email: ask@mates-asia.com

Upon receipt of your request, we will acknowledge it and provide you with information about the next steps and the timing required by applicable law. To help protect your privacy, we may take reasonable steps to verify your identity before acting on certain rights.

9.3. How to unsubscribe to Mates Asia newsletters and alerts?

If you receive Mates Asia newsletters, alerts, or invitations via email and would prefer not to receive future email communications from us, you may unsubscribe by:

Clicking on the «Unsubscribe» link in an email you have received from us.
Emailing us at ask@mates-asia.com