Privacy Policy
1.About this policy
Maarefah Management FZCO (“Maarefah”, “we”, “us”) respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect when you visit our website, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over it.
It applies to maarefah-management.com and maarefah-management.org, and to enquiries you send us through those sites.
This policy does not cover event registration. If you register as a delegate, speaker, sponsor or exhibitor for one of our conferences or training programmes, a separate privacy notice is provided at the point of registration and governs that information. Registration is handled on our registration platform, not on this website.
2.Who we are and how to reach us
Maarefah Management FZCO is the data controller for the information described in this policy. We organise conferences, exhibitions and accredited training programmes across the Middle East and North Africa. Where your enquiry concerns an event in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it may be handled by our Riyadh office.
Maarefah Management FZCO
Office 1602, Mazaya Business Avenue AA1, Jumeirah Lakes Towers
P.O. Box 939513, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Telephone: +971 4 361 9616
Email: [email protected]
If you have a question about this policy, or you want to exercise any of the rights in section 11, write to us at the email address above and mark your message for the attention of our privacy contact.
3.The information we collect
3.1 Information you give us
When you complete an enquiry, appointment or partnership form, or contact us by email or telephone, we collect:
- your name;
- your email address and telephone number;
- your organisation, job title and country, where you provide them;
- the content of your message or enquiry, including which event or service it concerns;
- any documents you choose to attach.
3.2 Information you send us about a job
If you apply through our careers page, we collect the details and documents you submit in support of your application. We use them only to consider you for the role you applied for and, where you have agreed, to contact you about future openings. We do not share them outside Maarefah except with a service provider helping us manage recruitment. You can ask us to delete your application at any time.
3.3 Information we collect automatically
When you browse the site, our hosting, security and analytics providers record technical information, including:
- your IP address and the approximate location derived from it;
- your browser type, operating system, language and device type;
- the pages you view, the time and duration of your visit, and the site or search term that referred you;
- errors and security events, such as blocked requests.
3.4 Information we do not want
Please do not send us health information, government identity numbers, payment card details or other sensitive information through the website’s enquiry forms. They are not intended for it. If you send such information anyway, we will delete it unless we need it for the purpose you sent it for.
4.Cookies and similar technologies
A cookie is a small file placed on your device. We use cookies and similar technologies for three purposes.
| Type | What it does | Set without consent? |
|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Makes the site work — page delivery, security, load balancing, remembering your cookie choice, and preventing abuse of our forms. | Yes. The site cannot function without these. |
| Analytics | Tells us which pages and events attract interest, so we can improve the site and our programme. | No. Only with your consent. |
| Marketing | Measures the performance of our campaigns and, where used, shows you our event advertising on other platforms. | No. Only with your consent. |
These cookies are set by our website and customer-relationship platform, our content delivery and security provider, and our hosting provider. The providers are named in section 7.
When you first visit, a banner asks for your choice. Rejecting cookies prevents non-essential cookies from loading. You can change your mind at any time by clearing this site’s cookies in your browser, which makes the banner appear again on your next visit, and you can block or delete cookies through your browser settings at any point. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may stop parts of the site working. If you would like a list of the individual cookies in use, ask us and we will provide it.
5.Why we use your information, and our legal basis
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Answering your enquiry and taking the steps you have asked us to take | Necessary to take steps at your request with a view to entering into a contract, or our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us |
| Sending you information about our conferences, training programmes and services | Your consent, which you may withdraw at any time |
| Considering a job application you send us | Necessary to take steps at your request with a view to entering into a contract of employment |
| Operating, securing and improving the website | Our legitimate interest in a functioning, secure site; your consent for analytics and marketing cookies |
| Keeping records, and meeting accounting, tax, audit and regulatory obligations | Compliance with a legal obligation |
| Establishing, exercising or defending legal claims | Our legitimate interest, and compliance with legal process |
We do not make decisions about you by automated means alone, and we do not use the website’s data to build behavioural profiles of individuals.
6.Marketing
We send event and programme updates only to people who have asked to receive them or who have an existing relationship with us and have not objected. Every message carries a one-click unsubscribe. You can also withdraw at any time using the contact details in section 2. Withdrawing marketing consent does not affect any other processing described in this policy.
7.Who we share your information with
We share personal information only as set out below.
- Service providers acting on our instructions. Our website, enquiry forms, customer-relationship records and marketing email are provided by HighLevel, through its LeadConnector platform. Content delivery and website security are provided by Cloudflare. Media and file hosting run on Google Cloud. Each is bound by contract to process personal data only on our instructions and to keep it secure.
- Our own offices and group entities, where your enquiry concerns an event they deliver.
- Professional advisers — lawyers, auditors and insurers — where they need the information to advise us.
- Authorities and regulators, where we are required by law to disclose, or where disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or someone’s safety.
- A buyer or successor, if we reorganise or transfer part of our business, subject to equivalent protection.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not pass it to sponsors or exhibitors. Individual contact details submitted through this website are not given to sponsors, exhibitors, media partners or other commercial partners. Where we report participation to a sponsor, we report in aggregate and do not identify individuals.
8.Transfers outside the UAE and Saudi Arabia
Some of our service providers store and process data outside the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including in the United States and the European Union. Where we transfer personal information across borders we do so only on a ground permitted by the applicable law, and we require each provider to protect the information to a standard equivalent to the protection it has here. That protection is set out in our written agreement with each provider, which restricts them to processing on our instructions, obliges them to maintain appropriate security, and requires them to notify us of any breach.
You may ask us for details of the safeguards that apply to a particular transfer.
9.How long we keep your information
We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it, and then delete or anonymise it.
- Enquiries that do not lead to a relationship: up to 24 months from your last contact with us.
- Job applications: up to 12 months from the close of the role, unless you ask us to delete them sooner or you agree to us keeping them longer.
- Marketing contacts: until you unsubscribe, after which we keep a minimal suppression record so that we do not contact you again.
- Records we are required to keep by law, such as accounting records: for the period the relevant law requires.
- Website technical and security logs: for a short period only, and no longer than we need for security monitoring and troubleshooting.
10.How we protect your information
We use encryption in transit, access controls that limit personal data to staff who need it, and providers who maintain recognised security standards. We keep our systems patched and review access periodically. No website can be completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach occurs that is likely to harm you or your rights, we will notify you and the relevant regulator as the law requires.
11.Your rights
Under the UAE Personal Data Protection Law you have the right to be informed about how we use your data, to obtain access to it and receive a copy in a structured format, to have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected, to ask us to delete it, to restrict or object to processing in defined circumstances, to have it transferred to another controller where technically feasible, and to withdraw consent where our processing rests on consent.
If you are in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Personal Data Protection Law gives you the right to be informed, to access your data and obtain a copy of it, to request correction, completion or updating, and to request its destruction where it is no longer needed.
These rights are not absolute. Where a law requires us to keep information, or where a request would affect someone else’s rights, we may not be able to act on it in full. We will always tell you why.
How to exercise a right
Write to us using the contact details in section 2 and tell us what you want. We may ask you to confirm your identity first, so that we do not disclose your information to someone else. We will respond as quickly as we can and in any event within 30 days of confirming your identity. If your request is complex and we need longer, we will tell you within that period and explain why. There is no charge for a reasonable request.
If you are not satisfied
Please raise it with us first — most issues are quickest to fix directly. You may also complain to the UAE Data Office, the federal data protection regulator in the United Arab Emirates, or to the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) in respect of processing subject to Saudi law.
12.Children
This website is aimed at professionals and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18 through this site. If you believe a child has given us their information, contact us and we will delete it.
13.Other websites and social media
Our site links to other organisations’ websites, including venue sites, event registration pages and our LinkedIn page. Once you follow a link, that organisation’s own privacy policy applies. We are not responsible for how they handle your information, so please read their policies.
14.Changes to this policy
We update this policy when our practices or the law change. The date at the top shows when it was last revised, and that version is the one that applies. Where a change materially affects how we use your information we will draw attention to it on the website. If you would like a copy of an earlier version, ask us and we will send it to you.
15.Governing law
This policy is governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates, in particular Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 concerning the Protection of Personal Data, which took effect on 2 January 2022, together with any implementing regulations issued under it. Where we process the personal data of individuals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Personal Data Protection Law (Royal Decree No. M/19 of 2021, as amended) and its implementing regulations also apply.
