Privacy Policy for Academic Knowledge Hub Users in Hong Kong
How HKCyberU collects, stores, shares, and removes the information of visitors to our academic knowledge hub.
Last updated: 12 June 2024
Introduction
HKCyberU operates an academic knowledge hub serving postgraduate programmes, knowledge management research, and technology management communities across Hong Kong and beyond. This policy explains what we gather when you use the site, why we hold it, and the steps you can take to review or delete it.
We wrote this document in plain language on purpose. Privacy notices that bury their meaning in legal scaffolding do not serve readers, and they do not serve us either. If something here is unclear, our Contact HKCyberU page lists the channels for raising a question.
The policy applies to every page under our domain, including programme overviews, conference listings, and resource libraries. It does not govern third-party sites we link to, each of which maintains its own practices.
Uses of Collected Information
We use the information we hold for three purposes, and we try not to stretch beyond them.
The first is improving how the site works. When we can see which programme pages load slowly or where navigation stalls, we fix those points. The second is measurement: aggregate analytics tell us whether a new conference page reaches its intended audience or sits unread.
The third is correspondence. If you send a question through a contact form, we use the details you provide to answer you. That is the whole scope of it. We do not build marketing profiles from inquiry messages, and we do not sell contact details to anyone.
External Services
Running a knowledge hub means relying on services we do not build ourselves. We group them into three categories so you can see where data may travel.
Analytics platforms
We use a web analytics platform to understand visit patterns in aggregate. Additional analytics tooling may be introduced as the site grows; when that happens, this section will name the change before the tool goes live.
Advertising networks
The site does not currently display advertising. We are evaluating a future integration with one or more ad networks, which would involve advertising cookies described below. No such network receives your data today.
Hosting and content delivery
Our pages are served through commercial hosting and a content delivery network that caches assets closer to your location. These providers process technical request data, such as your IP address, as a necessary part of delivering pages to your browser.
Information We Collect
Some data arrives automatically; some you choose to give us.
Every request to a web server generates a technical log. Ours record the IP address making the request, the browser and device type, and the pages visited. This is standard operational data that helps us diagnose errors and detect abuse.
Beyond that, collection depends on your actions. When you complete a contact submission, we receive the name, email, and message you enter. When you provide subscription inputs to follow a programme or conference, we store the address you supply and your stated preference. If you never fill in a form, we never hold those fields.
Cookies and Tracking
Cookies are small files a site stores in your browser. We use them in distinct categories, and each carries a different justification.
Strictly necessary
These manage consent choices and maintain your session as you move between pages. The site cannot function correctly without them, so they are not optional.
Analytics
These record visit patterns and performance signals in aggregate. They help us see which resources earn attention and which pages need attention themselves.
Advertising
Reserved for future use. Should we adopt ad personalisation, these cookies would support it. They are not active at present.
You control most of this from your browser. Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies, and many offer a setting to refuse third-party cookies specifically. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may break parts of the site. Our Cookie Policy sets out the full detail.
Your Rights and Choices
If we hold information about you, you can act on it.
You have the right to access what we hold and to ask for a copy. You have the right to request erasure of personal data we are not legally required to keep. You can also opt out of analytics and, in future, advertising tracking, either through our consent controls or your browser settings.
To exercise any of these, write to us through the Contact HKCyberU page and state which right you wish to use. We may need to confirm your identity before releasing or deleting records, simply to ensure a request comes from the person it concerns.
Storage, Retention, and Deletion
We keep information only as long as it serves a purpose. Technical logs are retained for a limited operational window and then cleared. Contact and subscription details remain until you ask us to remove them or until they no longer serve the reason you gave them.
When a deletion request reaches us, we remove the relevant records from active systems and schedule them for clearance from backups on the next routine cycle. Where law requires us to retain certain records, we will tell you that and explain the timeline rather than delete prematurely.
Privacy practice in an academic setting evolves alongside the platforms we depend on, so the specifics above reflect our current arrangements rather than a fixed permanent state.
Policy Changes
This policy will change as the site adds services or as Hong Kong data practice shifts. When we make a material update, we revise the date at the top of this page and, where the change affects how we handle your data, note it on the page.
We encourage you to check back when you submit new information. Continued use of the hub after an update signals that you have read the current version.