Privacy Policy
DEFINITIONS
“Client” means a recipient of our services, who may be an individual, or an employee, director, officer, trustee, beneficiary, or representative of an institutional or intermediary client of CHAINBLOX.
“CHAINBLOX”,“we” or “us”means Blocksquared Ltd with its registered office at 2A Ilia Venezi Street, Office 302, Strovolos Park, Nicosia – 2042, Cyprus or any of its subsidiaries, affiliates or under common ownership entities. Together these are referred to as the CHAINBLOX Group.
“CHAINBLOX Websites” means the website/s operated by CHAINBLOX.
“CHAINBLOX Products and Services”means the products and services that we offer to our Clients.
“Personal Data”means any data which relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data or from that data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, CHAINBLOX (or its representatives or service providers). In addition to factual information such as a name or address, it could include an expression of opinion about or an indication of intention in respect of an individual.
“You”means each individual to whom this notice is addressed, who may be:
- a Client or prospective Client of ours;
- a visitor to the CHAINBLOX website; or
- an employee, director, officer or representative of another organisation with which we have a business relationship.
“Virtual Asset Service Provider” is any natural or legal person who is not covered elsewhere under the Recommendations and as a business conduct one or more of the following activities or operations for or on behalf of another natural or legal person:
- Exchange between virtual assets and fiat currencies;
- Exchange between one or more forms of virtual assets;
- Transfer of virtual assets; and
- Safekeeping and/or administration of virtual assets or instruments enabling control over virtual assets;
- Participation in and provision of financial services related to an issuer’s offer and/or sale of a virtual asset.
1. BACKGROUND
(1.1) CHAINBLOX collects and uses certain Personal Data. CHAINBLOX is responsible for ensuring that it uses that Personal Data in compliance with data protection laws.
(1.2) At CHAINBLOX, we respect your privacy and we are committed to keeping your Personal Data secure.
(1.3) This Privacy Policy is directed to individuals whose Personal Data we handle in the course of carrying on our commercial activities. Those individuals could be Clients or prospective Clients or their representatives, agents or appointees, or an employee, director, officer or representative of another organisation with which we have a business relationship. This Privacy Policy is also directed to visitors to our website/s.
2. OVERVIEW OF CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH WE HANDLE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
(2.1) CHAINBLOX gathers information about you in the following ways:
- Information we receive in the course of providing products or services to you. This may be provided directly from you or from other parties, such as, for example, providers of ‘know your client’ and anti-money laundering services which we sometimes use to help us meet our legal obligations.
- Information we receive as part of your interest in our products or services. This is only provided by you and includes enquiries and other activities you perform while visiting our premises, participating in informative events and using CHAINBLOX Websites. Details of how we handle the information we receive through CHAINBLOX Websites are set out in paragraph 10 of this Privacy Policy.
We may combine the personal and other data we collect directly from you with information collected from or about you in other contexts, such as from our Web Sites or obtained from third parties.
3. THE TYPES OF PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT
(3.1) Many of the products or services offered by CHAINBLOX require us to obtain and process Personal Data, such as:
- Information that you provide to CHAINBLOX This includes information about you that you provide to us. The nature of our relationship with you will determine the kind of Personal Data we might ask for. Such information may include:
- basic Personal Data such as first name; family name; national insurance number; email address; phone number; address (including city postcode and country); occupation and job title; bank details; ID documentation; date of birth; life events and family information;
sensitive Personal Data, which may be included in information we handle about your nationality, place of birth, health related information, disability status, or details of political affiliations, or records of criminal offences and court proceedings.
- basic Personal Data such as first name; family name; national insurance number; email address; phone number; address (including city postcode and country); occupation and job title; bank details; ID documentation; date of birth; life events and family information;
- Information that we collect or generate about you.This may include:
- files that we may produce as a record of our relationship with our Clients and prospective Clients, including contact history; and
- any Personal Data that you provide during telephone and email communications with us which we may monitor and record in order to resolve complaints, improve our service and in order to comply with our legal and regulatory requirements; or
- any Personal Data that we obtain in relation to your use of CHAINBLOX Websites (but this will be limited to the situations where users make themselves known by establishing a secure, authenticated session).
- files that we may produce as a record of our relationship with our Clients and prospective Clients, including contact history; and
- Information we obtain from other sources. Some of this personal data may be sensitive and may include:
- information from publicly available sources, including third party agencies such as credit reference agencies; fraud prevention agencies; law enforcement agencies; public databases, registers and records such as Companies House and the FCA Register; and other publicly accessible sources;
- information provided to us by independent financial advisors (IFAs), other professional advisers, product providers, events organisers, other agents and/or representatives, industry databases and other business intelligence tools CHAINBLOX subscribes to; and
- information obtained from sanctions checking and background screening service providers.
- information from publicly available sources, including third party agencies such as credit reference agencies; fraud prevention agencies; law enforcement agencies; public databases, registers and records such as Companies House and the FCA Register; and other publicly accessible sources;
4. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
(4.1) Your Personal Data may be stored and processed by us in the following ways and for the following purposes:
- to allow Clients and prospective Clients to use and access CHAINBLOX Products and Services;
- to assess Client and prospective Client applications or contracts for CHAINBLOX Products and Services;
- to set up / on-board prospective Clients to use CHAINBLOX Products and Services;
- to keep our records up to date;
- to monitor IT systems in order to protect against cyber threats or malicious activity including abuse and misuse;
- to protect our premises from unauthorised access or use, or any unlawful activity
- to administer or maintain IT systems in order to uphold standards of service;
- for ongoing review and improvement of the information provided on CHAINBLOX Websites to make them user friendly and prevent potential disruptions or cyber-attacks;
- to understand feedback on CHAINBLOX Products and Services and to help provide more information on the use of those products and services quickly and easily;
- to communicate with and better understand the interests of Clients and prospective Clients in order to provide services or targeted information about CHAINBLOX and other CHAINBLOX Products and Services;
- to effectively manage and strengthen Client and prospective Client relationships, understand Client and prospective Client needs and interests and learn more about our Clients and prospective Clients in order to develop, improve and manage the products and services we can offer;
- for the management and administration of our business;
- in order to comply with and in order to assess compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, and internal policies and procedures; or
- for the administration and maintenance of databases storing your Personal Data.
(4.2) When we use your Personal Data, we comply with applicable law. The law allows or requires us to use your Personal Data for a variety of reasons. These include instances where:
- we are performing our contractual obligations;
- we have legal obligations that we have to discharge;
- we may need to do so in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights or those of our Clients or for the purpose of legal proceedings;
- we have obtained your consent;
- the use of your Personal Data as described is necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as:
- allowing us to effectively and efficiently manage and administer the operation of our business;
- maintaining compliance with internal policies and procedures;
- enabling quick and easy access to information on CHAINBLOX Products and Services.
- allowing us to effectively and efficiently manage and administer the operation of our business;
(4.3) Within CHAINBLOX, your Personal Data is accessed only by personnel of CHAINBLOX that have a need to access it for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
5. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES
(5.1) We may share your Personal Data within the CHAINBLOX Group for the purposes described above.
(5.2) We may also share your Personal Data outside of the CHAINBLOX Group as further described below:
- with business partners of ours where they are contractually obliged to comply with appropriate data protection obligations;
- with representatives, agents, custodians, intermediaries and/or other third-party product or service providers appointed by the Client or prospective Client (such as accountants, professional advisors, custody service providers and product providers);
- with third party agents and contractors for the purposes of them providing services both to us (for example, CHAINBLOX’s accountants, professional advisors, forensics and intelligence investigators, IT, cyber security and communications providers) and to Clients or prospective Clients. These third parties will be subject to appropriate data protection obligations;
- with any VASP depository, stock exchange, clearing or settlement system, counterparties, dealers and others where disclosure of your Personal Data is reasonably intended for the purpose of effecting, managing or reporting transactions or establishing a relationship with a view to such transactions;
- where you are a joint account or portfolio holder (or otherwise one of multiple persons holding an account or portfolio), we may disclose your Personal Data to the other joint account or portfolio holder or other person;
- to the extent required by law or regulation, for example if we are under a duty to disclose your Personal Data in order to comply with any legal obligation (including, without limitation, in order to comply with tax reporting requirements and disclosures to regulators, auditors or public authorities), or to establish, exercise or defend its legal rights; and
- if we sell any part of our business or our assets, in which case we may need to disclose your Personal Data to the prospective buyer for due diligence purposes.
6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF PERSONAL DATA
(6.1) CHAINBLOX maintains Clients, business operations and relationships around the world. As a result, we collect and transfer Personal Data within companies of the CHAINBLOX Group on a global basis. That means that we may transfer your Personal Data to locations outside of your country.
(6.2) Where we transfer your Personal Data to another country, we ensure that it will be protected and transferred in a manner consistent with legal requirements. In relation to data transferred outside of the European Economic Area (the “EEA”), for example this may be done in one of the following ways:
- the country to which we send your Personal Data is approved by the European Commission as offering an adequate level of protection for Personal Data;
- the recipient signed up to a contract based on “model contractual clauses” approved by the European Commission, obliging it to protect your Personal Data;
- where the recipient is located in the US, it might be a certified member of the EU-US Privacy Shield scheme; or
- in some limited circumstances the law may permit us to otherwise transfer your Personal Data outside the EEA.
(6.3) You can obtain more details of the protection given to your Personal Data when it is transferred outside the EEA by contacting us as described in paragraph 12 below.
7. HOW WE SAFEGUARD YOUR PERSONAL DATA
(7.1) Data is a critical business asset and must be protected appropriate to its risk as well as its importance or value.
We ensure safe processing operations by operating and maintaining physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to guard your non-public personal information and we restrict access only to authorised personnel. The effectiveness of these safeguards is periodically tested.
We have extensive controls and mechanisms in place designed to detect, respond and recover in case of adverse events that may arise.
8. HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL DATA
(8.1) The length of time for which we hold your Personal Data will vary as determined by the following criteria:
- the purpose for which we are using it (as further described in this Privacy Policy at paragraph 4.1) – we will need to keep the data for as long as is necessary for that purpose; and
- our legal obligations – laws or regulation may set a minimum period for which we have to keep your Personal Data.
9. YOUR RIGHTS
(9.1) In all the above cases in which we collect, use or store your Personal Data, you may have the following rights and, in most cases, you can exercise them free of charge. These rights include:
- the right to obtain information regarding the processing of your Personal Data and access to the Personal Data which we hold about you;
- the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your Personal Data at any time. Please note, however, that we may still be entitled to process your Personal Data if we have another legitimate reason for doing so. For example, we may need to retain your Personal Data to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation;
- in some circumstances, the right to receive some Personal Data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or request that we transmit such data to a third party where this is technically feasible. Please note that this right only applies to Personal Data that you have provided directly to CHAINBLOX;
- the right to request that we rectify your Personal Data if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
- the right to request that we erase your Personal Data in certain circumstances. Please note that there may be circumstances where you ask us to erase your Personal Data but we are required or entitled to retain it;
- the right to object to, or request that we restrict, our processing of your Personal Data in certain circumstances. Again, there may be circumstances where you object to, or ask us to restrict, our processing of your Personal Data but we are required or entitled to refuse that request; and
- the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection regulator if you think that any of your rights have been infringed by us.
(9.2) You can exercise your rights by contacting us using the details provided at paragraph 12 below.
10. CHAINBLOX WEBSITES AND OTHER WEBSITES
(10.1) If you use a CHAINBLOX Website, we may collect technical information through the use of cookies. The type of information collected varies by category of cookies as explained in our Cookie Notice.
(10.2) If you use a CHAINBLOX Website and follow a link from it to another website (including a website operated by CHAINBLOX), different privacy policies may apply. Prior to submitting any Personal Data to a website you should read the privacy policy applicable to that website.
11. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
(11.1) Any changes we make to our Privacy Policy in the future will be posted on this website and where appropriate, notified to you by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our Privacy Policy.
12. QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS
(12.1) If you have any questions or concerns about CHAINBLOXs’ handling of your Personal Data, or about this Privacy Policy, or to exercise any of your rights, please contact us at the address below.
To exercise your right to withdraw consent to receive electronic marketing communications at any time, please follow “unsubscribe” instructions found in such marketing materials.
Blocksquared Ltd
2A Ilia Venezi Street, Office 302,
Strovolos Park, Nicosia – 2042,
Cyprus
Email: [email protected]
We are usually able to resolve privacy questions or concerns promptly and effectively. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you may escalate concerns directly to your local courts or Data Protection Supervisory Authority competent for your jurisdiction.
If you raise a concern, we may:
- request additional details from you regarding your concerns and personal data limited to what is necessary for the purpose of authenticating you;
- engage or consult with other parties in order to investigate and resolve your issue (and these parties will receive and process information about you); and/or
- keep records of your request and any resolution of your issue,
in each case in accordance with our data protection and other legal obligations.