Introduction

Gulf Bank KSCP (“Gulf Bank”, “we, “our”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of the personal data we collect about end customers and users of our services (“you/your”).

The purpose of this privacy notice is to explain what personal data we collect about you when you use our website or when we provide our products and services to you. When we do this, we are the data controller.

Please read this privacy notice carefully as it provides important information about how we handle your personal information and your rights. If you have any questions about any aspect of this privacy notice you can contact us using the information provided below or by emailing us at personalBanking@gulfbank.com.kw. Please review this privacy notice regularly as we may make changes to it if our services or products change.

Personal Data Collected

• • We collect, use, and are responsible for some of your personal data. When we do so, we are subject to legal and regulatory requirements, such as the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) Cybersecurity Framework and the CBK Customer Protection Manual. We also follow industry best practice and international standards. The personal data we may collect includes (but is not limited to):

    • Name, age, date of birth, gender, nationality and marital status
    • Name of father, mother, spouse, nominee
    • Contact information, such as your home address, phone number and email address
    • Documentary data, such as your civil ID number, passport number, health insurance card number
    • Photo
    • Medical details and biometric data provided by you
    • Criminal background
    • Employer name
    • Monthly income and annual income
    • Pin code
    • Information related to the provision of our services, such as credit card number and expiry date, debit card number and expiry date, CVV number, bank account number, bank account holder’s name, bank account holder’s signature and customer ID number

Purposes of Personal Data Collection

• • We use your personal data so we can provide you with the best service, inform you about products and services you may be interested in, and to meet our legal obligations. When we do so, we will, in accordance with industry best practice and international standards, safeguard the security and confidentiality of your personal data, and limit the collection and use of such information to the minimum we require in order to fulfill these purposes.
    
    For example, we may use your personal data for the following purposes:

    • To check your identity and decide whether to approve your application for a product or service
    • If you apply for a credit product, to carry out a credit check to better understand your financial circumstances and repayment history
    • If you hold a credit product with us, to recover debt and exercise other rights we have under any agreement we have with you
    • To contact you by phone and provide you with information about our products or services, as well as customer support services. We may monitor or record any communications between you and us, including phone calls, to maintain appropriate records, check your instructions, analyze, assess and improve our services, and for training and quality control purposes
    • To send you marketing communications about new products, special offers or other information relating to our business which we think may be of interest to you by email or similar technology
    • To check your identity to protect against fraud, keep to financial-crime laws, international anti-money laundry, and anti-terrorist financing requirements, and to confirm that you are eligible to use our services. We also use it to help us better understand your financial circumstances and manage fraud risks related to your account
    • To manage our website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes), and to make sure that content from our website is presented in the most effective way for you and your device. For more information, please see our Cookies Policy
    • We may need to share personal data about you with other organizations (for example, fraud-prevention agencies) if this is necessary to meet our legal obligations or in connection with legal claims; or to help detect or prevent crime

Privacy Principles

• • When providing our products and services to you, your personal data shall be:

    • Processed lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner (lawfulness, fairness, and transparency)
    • Collected for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes shall not be considered to be incompatible with the initial purposes (purpose limitation)
    • Processed in a manner that ensures it is adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (data minimization)
    • Kept accurate and, where necessary, up to date; steps shall be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay (accuracy)
    • Kept in a form which permits your identification for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed; personal data may be stored for longer periods insofar as the personal data will be processed solely for archiving purposes to safeguard your rights and freedoms (storage limitation)
    • Where relevant, collected by obtaining your consent for the purpose specified (consent); and
    • Processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorized or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organizational measures (‘integrity and confidentiality’).

International Transfers of Personal Data

• We may send or store your personal data outside of Kuwait. For example, some of the third-party providers we use to support our services store your personal data outside of Kuwait. If we do transfer information outside Kuwait, we will do so in accordance with applicable legislation and will always ensure we have a data processing agreement in place with the organization that will process your data on our behalf.

How Long We Keep Your Data

• We will retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to provide you with our products and services and for a reasonable period thereafter to enable us to meet our contractual and legal obligations and to deal with complaints and claims.

• At the end of the retention period, your personal data will be securely deleted or anonymized, for example by aggregation with other data, so that it can be used in a non-identifiable way for statistical analysis and business planning.

How We Protect Your Data

• We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect data that we process from unauthorized disclosure, use, alteration, or destruction.

Your Rights and Options

• • You have the following rights in respect of your personal data:

    • You have the right of access to your personal data and can request copies of it and information about our processing of it.
    • If the personal data we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete, you can ask us to rectify or add to it.
    • Where we are using your personal data with your consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time.
    • You can ask us to restrict the use of your personal data if:
      • It is not accurate.
      • It has been used unlawfully but you do not want us to delete it.
      • We do not need it any-more, but you want us to keep it for use in legal claims; or
      • If you have already asked us to stop using your data but you are waiting to receive confirmation from us as to whether we can comply with your request.
    • In some circumstances you can compel us to erase your personal data.

• You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.
  If you wish to exercise your rights, please contact us at personalBanking@gulfbank.com.kw

Cookie Policy

• Cookies are small text files which a website may put on your computer or mobile device when you first visit a site or page. The cookie will help the website, or another website, to recognize your device the next time you visit. Web beacons or other similar files can also do the same thing. We use the term” Cookies” in this policy to refer to all files that collect information in this way.

• There are many functions cookies serve. For example, they can help us to remember your username and preferences, analyze how well our website is performing, or even allow us to recommend content we believe will be most relevant to you.

• Certain cookies contain personal information. for example, if you click to "remember me" when logging in, a cookie will store your username. Most cookies won't collect information that identifies you, and will instead collect more general information such as how users arrive at and use our websites, or a user's general location.

Contact Us

• If you have any questions, or wish to exercise any of your rights, then you can contact: Gulf Bank, P.O. Box 3200, Safat 13032, Kuwait
  Alternatively, you can email us at personalBanking@gulfbank.com.kw.