Privacy Policy
Last updated: November 2023
- We care about your privacy
We care about protecting and respecting your privacy. In order to serve you better and provide you with the best customer experience, we need to collect some personal data about you. This Privacy Policy will help you understand how we collect and use your personal data, who we share your personal data with, and how you can control the way your personal data is collected and used by us.
If you access or use our website (http://www.wellcome.com.hk) (which we will refer to as “Site” or “Wellcome online store” in this Privacy Policy) as a visitor/guest, or register for an account in our Site (“User Account”), or use the Wellcome WhatsApp service provided and operated by Wellcome (“Wellcome WhatsApp”), then this Privacy Policy is deemed to be agreed by you and will apply to you. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please stop using our Site and Wellcome WhatsApp, and do not register for a User Account.
Sometimes, we may send you a new notice to explain how we may use your personal data in specific situations, and will always give you the choice to opt out of such uses.
- Who are we?
Wellcome online store is owned and operated by The Dairy Farm Company, Limited trading as Wellcome (“Wellcome”, “we”, “us” and “our”), the data user. Personal data we collect about you will be used in line with this Privacy Policy.
- How do we collect data?
Your personal data will either be provided by you, collected by us, or any affiliates of DFI Retail Group Holdings Limited (“DFI Holdings”), or captured automatically when you access or use our Site, or use Wellcome WhatsApp. For example, we collect your personal data when you complete your User Account application, when you purchase a product, when you send us emails or when you browse our Site, or when you use Wellcome WhatsApp.
- Are you over 18?
Our Site and Wellcome WhatsApp is only intended for people over the age of 18. If you are under the age of 18, please do not use our Site and Wellcome WhatsApp, or apply for a User Account.
- What information do we collect about you?
It may be necessary for you to provide us with certain personal data in order for you to use our Site and Wellcome WhatsApp. We will let you know when such data is essential; if you do not provide such data, we may not be able to provide you with our products or services. All other personal data is up to you to provide or not, as you prefer.
a. Your User Account
If you register for a User Account on our Site (“Member”), some of the personal data we may collect about you includes:
- your full name, month of birth, email address, telephone number, shipping address, username and password;
- your User Account status and activities relating to your User Account;
- your transaction history or payment details when you purchase anything from our Site (including the product or service purchased, the date of purchase, date of delivery, any refunds or exchanges, shipping address, payment preferences, the cardholder's name, credit card number, expiry date and billing information);
- if you are a member of any loyalty or rewards programme operated by us or any members of the DFI Holdings ("Rewards Programme"), information about your membership number, any rewards you redeem or points that you accumulate regarding purchases made via our Site, and your points balance; and
- your shopping preferences, including brand preferences and the types of products and services you may be interested in.
b. When you visit our Site either as a Member or visitor/guest
We may use online tracking technology such as cookies, pixel tags, web beacons and other similar technologies to automatically collect information about:
- your visits to our Site, such as your browsing history, how long you stay on our Site, and how often you visit;
- your location information as provided by your mobile or other device when you interact with our Site, including your IP address and general geographic location; and the device that you use to browse our Site (e.g. your device ID, operating system, type of device, browser type and version, other system activity, and third party sites you were using before interacting with our Site).
You have the right to disable any of these online tracking technologies. To learn more about how we use the above data, please see the section below on Online tracking technology.
c. Other information
We also collect some of your personal data whenever we communicate with you (e.g. email content, contact information, etc.), or when you complete any voluntary surveys and questionnaires we may send you from time to time (e.g. your demographic information and feedback).
d. When you use Wellcome WhatsApp
If you register to use Wellcome WhatsApp, some of the personal data we may collect about you includes your salutation, name, telephone number.
- How do we use your information?
We will only use your personal data for the purposes set out below.
a. Account administration
To help administer and maintain your User Account, including:
- creating and updating your User Account;
- verifying your identity;
- creating a single profile about you, including combining your information with any other personal data already held by us or any members of the DFI Holdings;
- providing you with a log-in ID for your User Account to access our Site;
- maintaining, updating, administering and processing a record of your activities on our Site, including any purchases or orders made by you through our Site for any products or services ("Orders") and any points or rewards in relation to any Rewards Programme;
- completing transactions, including processing or facilitating payments;
- sending you updates about new features and benefits relating to our Site; and
- enabling features that allow you to personalise your User Account on our Site, such as bookmarking your favourite products or brands.
b. Wellcome WhatsApp
To provide, improve and analyse Wellcome WhatsApp.
c. Customer support
To assist you when you contact us, such as responding to and investigating any of your questions or concerns, and monitoring and improving our customer support services, and to assist you with any delivery, refunds or exchanges for any Orders.
d. Marketing
To provide you with marketing and promotional materials (“Marketing Communications”), if you choose to receive them. Please see the section on Direct Marketing below for more information.
e. Personalisation
To create personalised Marketing Communications tailored to your interests and preferences, and to provide you with the best possible customer experience in relation to our Site and your User Account. We may also use data analytics tools to determine whether our or any DFI Holdings members’ offers, advertisements and promotions are effective, as well as to determine whether you may be interested in new products or services, or to customise the content and types of offers, products, services and rewards that we present to you.
f. Optimisation and improvements
We may use your personal data to understand and improve our Site or our operations, or our DFI Holdings members’ operations, through various means, such as the use of analytics tools, research, surveys and feedback forms. This will enable us and our DFI Holdings members to enhance services or products, develop new features and benefits, and assess and amend business, marketing and strategic operations and plans.
g. Legal and administration purposes
We may use your personal data to investigate or handle any incidents, claims or disputes, or as otherwise required by law or requested by any law enforcement or regulatory authorities, courts or other governmental agencies.
We may also use your personal data in relation to any legal proceedings concerning you.
h. Online Purchase
To administer, process and manage your Orders, including any delivery, arrangement for collection, refunds or exchanges.
- Who do we share your information with?
To protect your privacy, we will endeavour to only share with third parties data which has either been aggregated and anonymised or which otherwise does not contain your name or contact details. However, there may be limited circumstances where we will share data (which may include your personal data) with third parties who may or may not be located overseas, as detailed in this section. By using our Site and Wellcome WhatsApp, or applying for a User Account, you agree to allow us to share your personal data with third parties and to the cross-border transfer of your personal data in accordance with this section. Regardless of where we store or process your personal data, we are committed to protecting it and will take reasonable steps to safeguard it in accordance with this Privacy Policy and all applicable laws.
a. DFI Holdings
Your personal data may be transferred to any DFI Holdings members for any of the purposes we have set out above. However, we will not provide your personal data to any DFI Holdings member in order for them to send you marketing materials regarding their own products and services, unless we obtain your prior consent.
b. Service providers
Your personal data may be shared with our or any DFI Holdings members' service providers (including agents and contractors) who process personal data on our behalf to help us administer and operate our Site and Wellcome WhatsApp, to fulfil, administer and process your Orders, to conduct data analytics, to help aggregate and anonymise the personal data, or to carry out any of the purposes set out above. These may include IT vendors, back-office and front-end or ancillary service providers, marketing agencies, data management and analytics service providers, and customer contact services. Our service providers may contact you on our behalf or on behalf of our DFI Holdings members, for any of the purposes set out above.
We only use trustworthy service providers, who are under a duty of confidentiality to us and/or member of the DFI Holdings, and are only permitted to use your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
c. Professional advisors and assignees
When necessary, we may share your personal data with our professional advisors, including lawyers, accountants, financial advisors and insurers. Your personal data may also be shared with third parties in connection with any merger, acquisition, consolidation, restructuring, sale of assets, financing or any other similar scenarios involving the transfer of some or all of our business assets.
d. Government and regulatory authorities
This Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (“Hong Kong”). We strive to handle your personal data in accordance with any data privacy laws that we believe apply to us. Your personal data may be shared with regulatory authorities, courts and other governmental agencies to comply with any legal or regulatory requirements, orders or requests. Any dispute concerning the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy, shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Hong Kong.
- Aggregated and anonymised data
Aggregated or anonymised data that does not include any personally identifiable information, may be used by us, any members of the DFI Holdings or other third parties for various purposes, including enabling them to better understand customer needs or to improve and adapt their operations, products and services, or for the purposes of industry benchmarking, machine learning, research or analytics.
- Direct Marketing
If you have opted to receive offers and promotions from us, we may use your personal data to:
- use your name, address, telephone number and email address and other relevant contact information to send you direct Marketing Communications in connection with the latest news, events, updates, contests, promotions, offers, products, services and rewards offered by us or any members of the DFI Holdings, which relate to our Site, Wellcome WhatsApp, Reward Programmes, retail, clothing, accessories, cosmetics, beauty, healthcare and wellness, personal care, toiletries and medical, baby care, maternity care, insurance, financial, music, sports, lucky draws and contests, food, beverages, dining, travel, transportation, banking, electronics, home, household, textiles, telecommunications, groceries, office and business supplies, technology, outdoor furniture and accessories, furniture, lighting, décor, home accessories, media, e-commerce platforms and facilitators, and publications;
- analyse your preferences, online behaviour and transactional history in order to gain insights, so that we can customise the content and types of news, events, updates, contests, promotions, offers, products, services and rewards that we present to you via our Site, Wellcome WhatsApp, our direct marketing communications, social media or other communication means; and
- in conjunction with any seasonal events, lucky draws and contests or other promotional activities.
We may send you direct Marketing Communications and market research invitations by email, through your User Account, when you access the Site, or through online banner advertisements, post, telephone, SMS or WhatsApp Messenger.
Before providing you with direct marketing communications, we will always ask for your consent and cannot do so without your consent. You can choose at any time not to receive any direct Marketing Communications from us. Please see the section on Your rights below.
- Can DFI Holdings members send you marketing materials?
If you have agreed to receive Marketing Communications from us, members of the DFI Holdings may occasionally act as our service providers and send Marketing Communications on our behalf. However, we will not provide your personal data to the members of the DFI Holdings for them to send you marketing materials regarding their own products or services, unless you allow this.
If any members of the DFI Holdings wish to send you any marketing materials regarding their own products and services directly, then they must obtain your separate consent for this. We are not involved in any marketing done directly by any members of the DFI Holdings that concerns any Reward Programmes, or products or services offered or provided by them. If you agree to receive any marketing materials from any members of the DFI Holdings, then please carefully read our respective member of the DFI Holdings’ own privacy policies.
- How do we keep your information secure?
We take the confidentiality and security of your information seriously. We take all reasonable steps, including the implementation of technical and physical security measures, to ensure that all your personal data held by us is kept secure and safe from any loss or unauthorised disclosure, use and modification. All transactions under the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy are based on the encryption of data exchanged between you and us on our secure Site.
- How long do we keep your data for?
We will keep your personal data only for so long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless the law requires us to keep it for a longer period. Once we no longer need your personal data, we will either irreversibly anonymise or securely delete it on our servers.
- Your rights
a. Access and correction
You have the right to access and correct your personal data held by us, at any time, by sending an email to our Data Protection Officer at personaldata@dairy-farm.com.hk. In order to ensure that your personal data is kept as accurate as possible, please notify us at the email address above of any changes to your personal data.
b. Opt-out of direct marketing
At any time, you can ask us to stop using your personal data to send you direct Marketing Communications, or you can customise how you would like to receive direct Marketing Communications from us. You can exercise your rights to do this by:
- changing your settings on your User Account; or
- following the unsubscribe instructions in the Marketing Communications we send to you.
We will stop using your personal data to send you Marketing Communications in accordance with your request. However, we may still send you non-promotional communications such as information concerning the administration of your User Account, and may use non-personally identifiable information collected via cookies and other tracking technology to display marketing information via online advertising banners on websites and apps visited by you.
We are not involved or responsible for any marketing materials sent directly by our DFI Holdings members that concern any Reward Programmes, or products or services offered or provided by them. If you would like to stop receiving any marketing materials from our DFI Holdings members, then please contact them directly in order to unsubscribe from their mailing lists.
- Online tracking technology
Cookies are small text files that are stored on your browser or device by websites, applications, online media and advertisements when you visit a website.
We use cookies and other similar identification technologies such as web beacons and pixel tags on our Site, emails and online advertisements for various purposes, including verifying users; remembering user preferences and settings to enhance your experience when you return to our Site; delivering relevant content and advertisements based on your preferences, location and usage patterns; monitoring, evaluating and optimising the operation of our Site; tracking and measuring the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns; and analysing traffic on our Site and the websites of our DFI Holdings members.
You can exercise your right to choose whether or not to accept cookies by adjusting your browser settings to modify your cookie preferences. Most browsers are set to accept cookies by default, but you are free to remove or block all browser cookies. However, if you turn off your cookies, some of our services may not function properly and you will not be able to receive the most efficient and personalised experience.
- Links to other sites
Our Site and messages sent through Wellcome WhatsApp may contain links to other third party websites and applications, including those of our DFI Holdings members (“Third Party Sites”). We do not own or control, and are not responsible for the privacy practices of those Third Party Sites. We encourage you to remain alert if you follow any links to leave our Site, and to review the privacy policies of those Third Party Sites so that you are aware of how your personal data may be collected and used by such third parties.
- How do we manage updates to this policy?
From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy to reflect new technologies, regulatory requirements or any other changes that may be necessary. We will notify you of any updates in accordance with your preference settings and, where required by law, obtain your consent. We will inform you by emailing you at the email address you provided us, and/or by posting a notice of these changes on our Site.
- How to contact us
If you have any questions or comments concerning this Privacy Policy, you can contact our Data Protection Officer at personaldata@dairy-farm.com.hk.
Personal Information Collection Statement
Wellcome WhatsApp Terms and Conditions