Privacy & Cookie Policy

Fong Chow International (HK) Co., Ltd., incorporated in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is responsible for the processing described in this policy. For customers served from North America, our United States affiliate in Irvine, California acts alongside it. In this policy “we”, “us” and “our” mean those entities.

Where we handle personal data we act as the controller — the equivalent of “data user” under Hong Kong's Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, “business” under California law, and “personal information processor” under the PRC Personal Information Protection Law. Where we process data on a customer's instructions, for example under a private-label or fulfillment program, that customer is the controller and its own privacy practices also apply.

1.1 Laws that apply

We apply the Hong Kong PDPO as our baseline, and additionally the EU and UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended, and the PRC PIPL where those laws apply to the individual concerned. Sections 11 to 13 set out the additional rights that follow from them.

1.2 Updates to this policy

We update this policy as our practices or the law change, and record the date at the top of the page. Where a change materially affects an active business contact, we notify them by email.

1.3 Third-party links

Our site links to third-party sites and services. Clicking a link may allow that third party to collect data about you. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their privacy practices.

2.1 Categories we collect

We collect only what we need to answer an inquiry, quote a project, ship an order and support the equipment afterwards.

• Identifier data — name, job title, company name, and any account username.
• Contact data — work email address, telephone number, and shipping and billing addresses.
• Inquiry and project data — the content of your message, application details, site conditions, models of interest, volumes and timelines.
• Commercial data — quotations, purchase orders, order acknowledgements, packing lists, shipping and customs documents, invoices, payment references, warranty claims and service history.
• Compliance data — information required for restricted-party and sanctions screening, know-your-customer checks on new accounts, and any license or end-use documentation.
• Financial data — bank details where we need to pay you, and payment records where you pay us. We do not store full card numbers.
• Communication preferences — whether you have asked to receive product and stock updates, and in what form.
• Technical and usage data — IP address, browser and device type, referring page, pages and documents viewed, and the date and time of your visit.

2.2 When we collect it

Most data comes directly from you. Some comes from third parties and public sources, principally for compliance screening and for identifying distributors.

2.3 Aggregated data

We read our hosting provider’s server logs in aggregate to understand which product pages and documents are requested, and to investigate errors and abuse. Aggregated data cannot identify you and is not treated as personal data.

2.4 When you must provide data

We need certain data to quote, ship, invoice and support an order, and to meet customs, tax and export-control obligations. If it is not provided we may be unable to proceed with the inquiry or the order, and we will say so at the time.

• Performance of a contract — preparing quotations, processing and shipping orders, invoicing, and providing parts, warranty and technical support.
• Legitimate interests — responding to business inquiries, managing distributor and supplier relationships, improving our product pages and documentation, securing our systems, and sending product and stock updates to existing business contacts. Where we rely on legitimate interests we have assessed that your rights and freedoms do not override them, and we will explain that assessment on request.
• Legal obligation — tax and accounting records, customs and import documentation, export-control and sanctions screening, product-safety and recall obligations, and responding to lawful requests from authorities.
• Consent — marketing to contacts with no existing relationship with us. You may withdraw consent at any time; withdrawal does not affect processing already carried out. We set no cookies that require consent — see section 4.

3.1 Marketing

Product, stock and documentation updates go only to business contacts who asked for them or who have an existing commercial relationship with us. Every message carries an unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing does not stop service messages about an open order, a shipment or a warranty claim.

3.2 Automated decisions

We do not make decisions about you by automated means alone. Compliance screening produces flags that are reviewed by a person before any account is refused.

This site does not use cookies. It is a set of static pages: we run no analytics, no advertising or retargeting networks, no social or chat embeds, and no cross-site behavioural profiling, and we do not sell or share personal data for cross-context behavioural advertising. Nothing is written to your device — no cookies, no pixels, no local storage — so there is no cookie banner and nothing for you to consent to or switch off.

What we do see is what any web server sees: your IP address, the pages you request, the time of the request, and your browser and device type, recorded in our hosting provider’s logs. We use those logs to keep the site available and secure and to understand which pages are used. They are held for a short period and are not combined with any other record of you.

If we later add analytics or any other technology that stores data on your device, we will update this policy and ask for your consent before it is set. Until then, blocking cookies in your browser changes nothing about how this site works.

We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for third-party marketing. We disclose it only to parties who need it to complete work for you, each bound to use it only for that purpose.

• Our own offices — the Hong Kong company and the United States affiliate, so that one team can follow an inquiry through to delivery.
• Manufacturing and quality partners — factories and inspection partners handling your order, a warranty claim or a corrective action.
• Logistics providers — freight forwarders, carriers, warehouses and customs brokers, who require consignee details to move and clear a shipment.
• Financial providers — banks, payment processors and credit insurers.
• Authorized distributors — where we pass an inquiry to the distributor serving your territory, we tell you when we do so.
• Testing and certification bodies — where a certificate, test report or registration is needed for your market.
• Professional advisers and service providers — auditors, lawyers, insurers, and IT, hosting and analytics providers acting on our instructions.
• Authorities — where required by law, court order or a competent regulator, or to establish or defend legal claims.
• Business transfers — in a sale, merger or reorganization, data may pass to the acquiring party, which remains bound by this policy until it notifies you otherwise.

We are an international trading business. Data may be transferred between Hong Kong, mainland China, the United States and the market in which you operate, and may be accessed by our offices and partners in those locations.

Where data leaves a jurisdiction that restricts transfers, we put appropriate safeguards in place — an adequacy decision where one exists, otherwise standard contractual clauses, the PRC standard contract, or another approved mechanism — and transfer only the minimum needed for the purpose. Copies of the relevant terms are available on request.

Access to customer data is limited to staff and partners with a business need, controlled by individual accounts and multi-factor authentication, and transmitted over encrypted connections. Partners are held to comparable measures by contract.

No transmission over the internet is completely secure. If a breach affects your data we will notify you and the relevant regulator where the law requires it.

We keep personal data only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected for, plus any period required for legal, tax, customs or audit reasons. Indicative periods:

9.1 What you can ask for

Subject to the law that applies to you, you may ask us to confirm what data we hold about you and give you a copy; correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete; delete data we no longer need; restrict or object to processing; port data to another provider; withdraw a consent; or stop marketing to you. Under the Hong Kong PDPO the core rights are access and correction; sections 11 to 13 add the rights available under the GDPR, California law and the PIPL.

9.2 How to exercise them

Write to info@fong-chow.com marked for the attention of the Privacy desk, or to our Hong Kong office by post. Requests are handled by a named person, not a queue.

9.3 What we may need from you

We will ask for enough information to verify your identity and to locate the records concerned. This is a security measure, and we process that information only for the purpose of answering your request.

9.4 Fees and timing

There is no fee, unless a request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive, in which case we may charge a reasonable fee or decline it. We aim to respond within 30 days. If a request is complex we will tell you and keep you updated.

Privacy inquiries, requests and complaints: info@fong-chow.com, attention Privacy desk, or by post to 2/F, Two Harbourfront, 22 Tak Fung Street, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

We would rather resolve a concern directly, so please raise it with us first. If you are not satisfied you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong, or to the supervisory authority where you live or work.

The GDPR gives you the rights listed in section 9.1, including the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests and the right to data portability for data you provided to us electronically. You may lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority or, in the United Kingdom, with the Information Commissioner's Office.

We do not require a representative in the Union or the United Kingdom for the limited processing described here. If that position changes we will name one in this section.

Under the CCPA as amended you have the right to know the categories of personal information we collect, the sources, the purposes and the categories of recipients — set out in sections 2, 3 and 5 above; to receive a copy of the specific information we hold; to have it corrected; to have it deleted, subject to legal exceptions; and to limit the use of sensitive personal information.

We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is no opt-out to exercise. We collect sensitive personal information only where you provide financial details for payment, and use it solely for that purpose. We will not treat you differently for exercising any of these rights.

Where we process your personal information while you are in the PRC, the PIPL applies. We rely on your consent, on the necessity of concluding or performing a contract with you, on the performance of statutory duties, or on information you have made public.

The PIPL gives you the right to know and decide about the processing, to restrict or refuse it, to access and copy your information, to request its transfer to another processor, to have it corrected or deleted, and to ask us to explain our processing rules. Where we transfer personal information outside the PRC we do so with the required safeguards and consents in place. Contact us using section 10.