1. Introduction
Gulf Vetwork FZC (“we,” “us,” “our”) operates UAE-Vetwork (the “Service”), which includes a platform designed to connect veterans and emergency services professionals (“Users,” “you”) with potential employers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the broader Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, as well as paid career advisory services (“Career Services”). This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, your rights regarding your data, and how to contact us.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your data transparently and securely.
2. Data Controller & Contact Information
- Legal Entity: Gulf Vetwork FZC
- Registered Address: Business Centre, Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone, Sharjah, UAE
- Privacy Inquiries & Data Subject Requests: contactus@uae-vetwork.com
For inquiries or requests related to your personal data, please contact us at the email above. We aim to respond within 30 days.
3. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
This Privacy Policy and our data processing activities are primarily governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates. Any disputes arising out of or in connection with this Policy will first be attempted to be resolved through good faith negotiation. If unresolved after 30 days, the dispute shall be referred to and finally resolved by binding arbitration under the rules of the Sharjah International Commercial Arbitration Centre (Tahkeem) in Sharjah, UAE.
4. Rights for Users in the UK and European Economic Area (EEA)
Notwithstanding the governing law clause above, if you are located in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, you have specific rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) respectively. These rights may include:
- Right of Access: To request copies of your personal data.
- Right to Rectification: To request correction of inaccurate data or completion of incomplete data.
- Right to Erasure (‘Right to be Forgotten’): To request deletion of your personal data under certain conditions.
- Right to Restrict Processing: To request the limitation of how we use your data under certain conditions.
- Right to Data Portability: To request transfer of your data to another organisation, or to you, under certain conditions.
- Right to Object: To object to our processing of your data under certain conditions (e.g., for direct marketing, or processing based on legitimate interests).
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at contactus@uae-vetwork.com. We will handle your request in accordance with applicable data protection laws. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.
5. Information We Collect
We collect the following categories of personal data:
5.1. Account & Identity Data (Platform Users): Provided during registration and profile setup for the free platform, including first name, last name, primary email address, contact email address, contact mobile number, country of residence, Clerk User ID, and the timestamp of your acceptance of our policies (policy_accepted_at).
5.2. Professional & Profile Data (Platform Users): Information you provide for your platform profile, including:
- Service Background: Branch of service, years of service, key appointments, deployments, discharge date/status, whether still serving. We collect details like key appointments and deployments as this information is considered essential by our recruitment team to effectively assess suitability for specialized roles, particularly within the security sector.
- Career Preferences: Desired job types, preferred employment type, salary expectations, location preferences.
- Visa Status: Current UAE visa type, estimated time to relocate.
- Uploaded Documents (Profile): CV, cover letters, certificates, or other professional documents you choose to upload to your general profile.
- Referral Information: If referred via an external code.
5.3. Career Services Data (Paid Services): If you purchase our paid Career Services, we collect:
- Order Information: Product ID purchased, Stripe checkout ID, Stripe payment intent ID, Stripe customer ID, your name and email as provided to Stripe for payment, amount paid, currency, payment status, and Stripe receipt URL. We do not directly collect or store your full credit card numbers; this is handled by Stripe.
- Service Requirements Data: Information and documents you submit via the service requirements form for a specific Career Service. This may include updated or specific versions of your CV or cover letter, LinkedIn profile URLs, answers to specific questions (
text_values), and any other files or information necessary to fulfill the purchased service. This also includes the timestamp of your form submission (form_submitted_at) and your explicit consent if the service may involve a third-party fulfiller.
5.4. Marketing Preferences: Your choice regarding receiving marketing communications (marketing_opt_in status) and associated consent/withdrawal timestamps.
5.5. Technical Data: We use necessary session cookies via Clerk for authentication. We do not currently use analytics or advertising cookies that require separate consent (if we introduce these, we will seek your explicit opt-in consent). We may log standard technical information (IP address, browser type, access times) for security and troubleshooting.
6. How We Use Your Data
We use your personal data for the following purposes:
6.1. For Platform Services (Free):
- To create and manage your account, allow you to build your profile, and upload documents.
- To enable our internal recruitment team to review your profile for potential matches with employer job opportunities.
- To share your profile with specific potential employers only after receiving your explicit consent for each specific instance.
6.2. For Paid Career Services:
- To process your orders and payments for Career Services via Stripe.
- To collect the necessary information and documents from you to fulfill the specific Career Service you purchased (e.g., review your CV, prepare for an interview).
- To deliver the Career Service, which may involve our internal team or, with your explicit consent, sharing relevant service request data with vetted third-party career service professionals contracted by us.
- To communicate with you about your order, service status, and service delivery.
6.3. General Purposes (Applicable to All Users):
- To communicate essential service-related messages (e.g., account verification, security notices, policy updates), and respond to your support requests.
- To improve the Service, troubleshoot issues, analyze usage (typically aggregated/anonymized), and develop new features.
- To ensure security and protect against fraud, abuse, and security incidents.
- To comply with legal and regulatory obligations.
- For marketing (newsletters, job alerts, etc.), only if you explicitly opt-in.
7. Legal Bases for Processing (GDPR/UK GDPR Context)
We rely on the following legal bases to process your personal data:
- Performance of Contract:
- Processing necessary to provide the free platform Service you requested (profile creation, review by our team as pre-contractual steps).
- Processing necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations when you purchase a paid Career Service (e.g., processing your payment, using your submitted documents to perform the CV review).
- Consent:
- For sharing your platform profile with specific potential employers.
- For sharing your Career Service request data (e.g., CV, form inputs) with vetted third-party service fulfillers, if applicable to the service and explicitly consented to by you on the service requirements form.
- For sending optional marketing communications.
- For any future use of non-essential cookies or tracking technologies (e.g., analytics).
- Legitimate Interests: For purposes like securing the platform, preventing fraud, improving our services through internal analysis, operating our business, and communicating important service updates, provided these interests are not overridden by your fundamental rights and freedoms.
- Legal Obligation: Processing necessary to comply with applicable laws (e.g., financial record-keeping for orders).
8. Marketing Communications
We will only send you marketing communications (newsletters, job alerts, event updates, etc.) if you have explicitly consented to receive them. You provide this consent by actively enabling the option in the “User Preferences” section of your user dashboard. You can withdraw your consent at any time by disabling the option in your dashboard or by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in any marketing email we send.
9. Data Sharing and Third Parties
We do not sell your personal data. We share your data only in the following circumstances and with the following categories of third parties:
- With Potential Employers (Platform Service): As described, your platform profile and documents will only be shared with a specific employer after obtaining your explicit consent for that specific share.
- With Third-Party Service Fulfillers (Paid Career Services): If you purchase a Career Service, and you provide explicit consent on the service requirements form, we may share the data you submitted for that specific service (e.g., your CV, cover letter, LinkedIn URL, form inputs) with trusted and vetted third-party career service professionals (e.g., freelance CV writers, career coaches). These professionals are contracted by us solely to assist in delivering the service you purchased and are bound by data processing agreements (DPAs) and confidentiality obligations requiring them to protect your data.
- With Service Providers (Data Processors): We use third-party companies to perform essential functions for our Service, such as:
- Clerk: User authentication and account management.
- UploadThing: Secure storage for your uploaded files.
- Supabase: Hosting our PostgreSQL database infrastructure.
- Netlify: Hosting our website frontend and potentially backend functions.
- Stripe: Processing payments for Career Services. Stripe processes your payment details directly; we do not store your full credit card information. You should review Stripe's Privacy Policy.
- Svix: Webhook delivery for system integrations.
- Arcjet: Security platform services.
- For Legal Reasons: If required by law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Gulf Vetwork FZC, our users, or the public.
- In Case of Business Transfer: If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, your data may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to confidentiality agreements and notification as required by law.
10. International Data Transfers
Your personal data may be processed in countries outside of your country of residence, including the UAE and locations where our service providers operate (e.g., USA for Clerk/UploadThing/Stripe, various global locations for Supabase/Netlify/Arcjet, and potentially locations of third-party service fulfillers if you consent to their involvement). When we transfer data subject to GDPR/UK GDPR outside the UK/EEA, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by relevant authorities, adequacy decisions, or other valid transfer mechanisms, to ensure your data receives adequate protection. You should review the privacy policies of our key processors (linked where available or findable on their websites) for details on their data locations and transfer mechanisms.
11. Data Security
We implement technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, or alteration. These include using TLS/HTTPS encryption, relying on our service providers for encryption at rest, implementing role-based access controls, and regularly reviewing our security practices. However, no system is 100% secure.
12. Data Retention
Platform Profile Data: We retain your platform profile data (Sections 5.1, 5.2) for as long as you maintain an active account with us and wish to be considered for potential roles via the free platform.
Career Services Data:
- Order Information (Section 5.3, first bullet): Data related to your orders (customer name, email, payment identifiers, amount paid) will be retained for as long as your account is active and for a further period as required by applicable UAE law for financial record-keeping and auditing purposes (typically 5-7 years after the transaction, even if your main account is deleted earlier).
- Service Requirements Data (Section 5.3, second bullet): Information and documents submitted for a specific Career Service will be retained for as long as your account is active to allow you to reference past services and for us to manage service delivery and address any follow-up queries. If you delete your main account, this associated service request data will also be deleted, subject to backup cycles.
Account Deletion: You can delete your platform account at any time via your user profile (managed by Clerk) or by contacting us. Upon deletion, your platform profile data and associated Career Service requirements data (except for order information subject to longer legal retention) will be removed or anonymized from active systems within 30 days, subject to backup persistence (typically up to 90 days).
13. Your Rights and Choices
You have rights regarding your personal data (as detailed in Section 4 for UK/EEA users, and potentially under other applicable laws). To exercise any rights (access, correction, deletion, etc.), please email contactus@uae-vetwork.com.
- Identity Verification: We will verify your identity before processing your request, typically by requiring the request to originate from the email address associated with your account. We reserve the right to request additional information if necessary.
- Marketing Opt-Out: Via your dashboard or unsubscribe links.
- Account Deletion: Via the Clerk interface or by contacting us.
- Withdrawal of Consent for Sharing (Career Services): If you have consented to sharing your data with a third-party service fulfiller for a Career Service and wish to withdraw that consent, please contact us immediately. Note that withdrawing consent may impact our ability to complete or deliver the service if work is reliant on that sharing.
14. Children's Privacy
The Service is intended for individuals aged 18 years or older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 18.
15. Sensitive Personal Data
We request that you do not submit sensitive personal data (also known as "special categories of personal data" under GDPR) through your profile, uploaded documents, or service request forms, unless it is strictly necessary and directly relevant for the roles you are seeking or the service purchased. You are responsible for the data you choose to provide.
16. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the revised version here with a new "Last updated" date. For material changes that significantly affect your rights or how we handle your data, we will provide more prominent notice (e.g., via email or in-app notification) at least 30 days before they take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of the revised Policy constitutes your acceptance.
17. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at: contactus@uae-vetwork.com.