Privacy Policy
Last Updated On 05-Nov-2024 Effective Date 05-Nov-2025
Privacy Notice
Your privacy is important to us. This privacy statement explains the personal data we process, how we process it, and for what reasons.
Introduction
We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Notice (this āPrivacy Noticeā) governs the processing of your Personal Data by the Department of Economy and Tourism and its affiliates (collectively referred to as āDETā). It explains how we process your Personal Data and applies to the Personal Data that you provide us directly, or which we may obtain from other sources. Please read the following carefully to understand how we process your Personal Data.
References to "our", "us" or "we" within this Privacy Notice are to DET.
Who We Are
DET is an entity established pursuant to Law No. 20 of 2021 having its principal office at P.O. Box 594, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. DET is the principal authority for the economic development of Dubai to be the global centre for business, investment and tourism. DET is also responsible for the licensing of all commercial activity in Dubai. Find out more about DET.
Data Controller
DET acts as the Data Controller of your Personal Data. If you follow a link to a service provided by another government department, agency or other third parties, that organisation will:
- Be the Data Controller
- Be responsible for processing any data you share with them
- Publish and manage their own privacy notice with details of how to contact them
Definitions
- Processing: This means anything that is done to or with Personal Data (including simply collecting, storing or deleting the Personal Data).
- Personal Data: Any information which you provide to us which directly or indirectly personally identifies you, such as your name, email address, or other data which can be reasonably linked to you, such as information we associate with any accounts you may hold with DET.
- Sensitive Personal Data: Information about your race, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, health and genetics, biometrics (where used for identification purposes), and criminal convictions.
- Data Controller: A person, company, or other body that determines the purpose and means of the processing of Personal Data.
- Widget: A mini programme on a web page that delivers information, such as news items or weather reports, while the rest of the web page remains as is. Widgets include search boxes, weather guides, pop-up windows and drop-down lists or a link to a different webpage.
What We Collect From You
We process different categories of Personal Data to enable us to provide services to you, and as further described below:
- Contact details such as your address, email address or telephone number.
- Identification data such as your name, date of birth, age, gender, nationality, country or emirate of residence, your national ID or Emirates ID, biodata, interests or occupation.
- Web data such as cookies, IP address, social media profile and website visitor interaction data.
- Sensitive Personal Data such as your photograph on your Emirates ID or Passport copy or health and medical data including dietary preferences and restrictions.
(i) For Which Purposes We Use Your Personal Data and the Legal Basis to Do So
| Purpose for Processing | Category of Personal Data | Legal Basis |
|---|---|---|
| To allow you to access government services and make transactions | Contact details, identification data, Sensitive Personal Data | To perform a task in the public interest In the exercise of our functions as a government department |
| To include your event/activity in the Dubai Calendar | Contact details, identification data | To perform a task in the public interest In the exercise of our functions as a government department |
| To process your registration to initiatives such as Dubai Can, etc. | Contact details, identification data | To perform a task in the public interest In the exercise of our functions as a government department |
| To respond to your enquiry about studying in Dubai | Contact details, identification data | To perform a task in the public interest In the exercise of our functions as a government department |
| To respond to your enquiry about starting a business in Dubai | Contact details, identification data | To perform a task in the public interest In the exercise of our functions as a government department |
| To enable account creation and subsequent logins on our websites | Contact details, identification data, web data | To perform a task in the public interest In the exercise of our functions as a government department |
| To register your subscription to receive updates about events, contests, etc. via multiple channels such as email, phone and WhatsApp (referred to as āMarketingā). | Contact details, identification data | Consent |
| To verify your identity when you are the winner of a contest or promotion | Contact details, identification data, web data, Sensitive Personal Data | Consent |
| To conduct our Customer Happiness Survey or any other survey | Contact details, identification data | To perform a task in the public interest In the exercise of our functions as a government department |
| To reach out to you to inform you about an event, festival, promotion or competition | Contact details, identification data | Consent |
| To connect with you as a business owner on the āBUILD BUSINESS IN DUBAIā chatbot | Contact details, identification data, web data | Consent |
| To process your interaction with us for enquiries, feedback or complaints via the DET Customer Happiness WhatsApp channel | Contact details, identification data | To perform a task in the public interest In the exercise of our functions as a government department |
| To process your engagement on our social media platforms | Web data, contact details | Consent |
| To process your Personal Data that we receive from third parties | Contact details, identification data | Consent |
| To effectively manage our websites by monitoring use, identifying security threats, and improving performance | Web data | Consent |
| To enable us to organise trips for you, for example, processing Sensitive Personal Data such as dietary preferences and restrictions | Sensitive Personal Data | Consent |
(ii) Direct Marketing
Marketing
Where you have provided your consent, we (or permitted third parties) may contact you for direct marketing purposes via post, telephone, email, SMS/MMS, or social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, X or WhatsApp. This marketing may relate to informing you about upcoming events, competitions, schemes, initiatives and promotions or other opportunities that are similar to those that you have already used or enquired about.
How to unsubscribe from receiving marketing communication?
If you no longer wish to receive marketing communication from us you may unsubscribe by following the unsubscribe link in our email communications or by requesting us to delete your Personal Data by sending an email to: privacy@dubaidet.ae.
Social Media Features and Widgets
Our websites include links to the social media channels of DET such as Facebook, X, Instagram, or YouTube and access to Widgets that run on our website. These links may collect your Personal Data such as your IP address, by placing a cookie. Your interactions with social media channels and Widgets are governed by the privacy notices of these social media platforms and providers of such Widgets. Our websites may also provide you the possibility of chatting by WhatsApp. Below are the links to their privacy notices:
Google Analytics
Google Analytics processes information about:
- the pages you visit on www.visitdubai.com;
- how long you spend on each www.visitdubai.com page;
- how you got to the site;
- what you click on while youāre visiting the site.
We make sure you cannot be directly identified by Google Analytics data. We do this by using Google Analyticsā IP address anonymisation feature and by removing any other Personal Data from the titles or URLs of the pages you visit.
We will not combine analytics information with other data sets in a way that would directly identify who you are.
Brightcove
Brightcove processes the following information about you:
- your IP address;
- the videos you view on www.visitdubai.com;
- your engagement with the videos on each www.visitdubai.com page;
- the duration of viewing of each video on the site.
We will not combine analytics information with other data sets in a way that would directly identify who you are.
When Do We Collect Your Personal Data From Third Parties?
We may also collect your Personal Data from third parties including:
- Social media accounts (such as Facebook, Google and X) that you have used to log in to our website;
- Organisers or co-organisers of events, schemes or initiatives as well as service providers assisting us in organising such events, schemes or initiatives;
-
Our contractors and business partners that:
- we work with to organise events, competitions, promotions and festivals;
- provide us marketing services and conduct online and offline campaigns.
How Long Do We Keep Your Personal Data?
We will retain your Personal Data for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice. When assessing these periods, we carefully examine our need to collect Personal Data at all times and if we establish a relevant need, we only retain it for the shortest possible period to serve the purpose of collection unless a longer retention period is required by contractual obligation or law.
Who Do We Share Your Personal Data With?
The Personal Data we collect may be shared with other government departments, agencies and public bodies. Where necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Notice, we shall disclose your Personal Data to certain third-parties, vendors and service providers (such as our hosting partner) as described below. Whenever we share your Personal Data, we will always make sure this takes place in compliance with applicable privacy laws and in accordance with this Privacy Notice.
With Selected Third Parties
When we process your Personal Data, we might also share your Personal Data with selected third parties. These third parties will also be subject to data protection laws and will only process your Personal Data in compliance with our Privacy Notice and under appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
- Airlines,
- Hotels,
- Banks & financial institutions,
- Government departments & law enforcement agencies,
- Free Trade Zones,
- Tourist attractions,
- Tour operators and event organisers,
- Organisations running competitions on our behalf, for example newspapers and websites,
- Organisations sending you information about offers, upcoming events or attractions,
- Organisations and service providers that DET collaborates with in order to arrange and deliver programmes, competitions, and other initiatives.
With Other Governmental Bodies
When we process your Personal Data, we might also share your Personal Data with selected third parties. These third parties will also be subject to data protection laws and will only process your Personal Data in compliance with our Privacy Notice and under appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
Profiling
Where we have your consent to do so, we will use your Personal Data to evaluate certain personal aspects about you, such as to analyse or predict aspects concerning your personal preferences and interests. We undertake profiling to only help tailor our marketing to you.
Where We Store/Transfer Your Personal Data
All Personal Data that we collect from you is stored in Dubai, UAE.
Security of Personal Data
We will take all reasonable steps to protect the Personal Data that we hold from misuse, loss, or unauthorised access, including by means of firewalls, password access and secure servers. In particular, we review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorised access to our systems, and restrict access to Personal Data to our employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us, and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.
Your Rights
Under certain circumstances, you have a number of rights with regard to your Personal Data that we must comply with. The rights you have are:
- The right to be informed
- The right to access
- The right to rectification
- The right to erasure
- The right to restrict processing
- The right to object to processing
- The right to not be subject to automated decision making
- The right to complain to a supervisory authority
- The right to withdraw consent
Contacting Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or our privacy practices, including any requests to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us at privacy@dubaidet.ae.
If you have any general enquiries, complaints or suggestions, please contact us at info@dubaidet.ae.
Compliance and Cooperation with Regulatory Authorities
We regularly review our compliance with our Privacy Notice. When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up. We work with the regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the processing of Personal Data.
Changes to this Privacy Notice
We keep this Privacy Notice under regular review. In the future, we may revise or amend this Privacy Notice at any time by amending this page. You are also encouraged to review this Privacy Notice from time to time for updates.
This Privacy Notice should be read together with our Terms of Use and any other documents referred to in it.