1. Who we are

This website, altheajacobs.com, is operated by Althea & Jacobs FZ LLC, trading as Althea & Jacobs Legal Consultants (“we”, “us” or “our”), a legal consultancy licensed in the United Arab Emirates, with its office at Office No. 18, 22nd Floor, Tower Plaza Hotel, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai.

We are the controller of the personal information described in this policy, which means we decide how and why it is used. If you have any question about this policy or your information, you can contact us at info@altheajacobs.com.

This policy covers our website, our enquiry forms, and the ways you contact us by phone, WhatsApp or email. If you become a client, our engagement letter may give further details about how we handle information in your matter.

2. Information we collect

Information you give us

• Enquiries. When you fill in a form on our website, you give us your name, your phone or WhatsApp number and a short description of your situation. If you email, call or message us on WhatsApp, we receive your contact details and whatever you choose to tell us.
• Consultations and client matters. If you consult us or instruct us, we collect the information and documents needed for your matter, such as identification documents, contracts, correspondence, court papers and company records.
• Business contacts. If you work for a client, a supplier or another party in a matter, we may hold your name, job title and contact details.

Sensitive information

Some legal matters involve sensitive personal information, such as details of criminal proceedings, family or personal status matters, or health. We only collect and use this information where it is needed for your matter, and we treat it with extra care. We do so with your explicit consent, or where the PDPL otherwise allows it, for example where it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Information collected automatically

When you use our website, we and our analytics and advertising partners collect information about your device and how you use the site, such as the pages you visit, how you arrived, your approximate location, your browser and device type, and whether you clicked a call, WhatsApp or form button. Analytics and advertising tools only run if you accept them. Section 4 explains this in detail.

Information from other sources

In the course of a matter, we may receive information about you from other parties, courts and authorities, public registers such as company and trademark registers, or the person who referred you to us.

3. How and why we use your information

Under the PDPL, we use your personal information with your consent, or where the law allows us to use it without consent, for example where it is necessary to perform a contract with you or take steps you ask for before entering into one, to comply with a legal obligation, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing.

4. Cookies, analytics and advertising pixels

Cookies are small files stored on your device when you visit a website. Pixels and tags are small pieces of code that send information about your visit to the provider that runs them. We use them in three ways:

• Strictly necessary. These keep the website working and remember your cookie choices. They don’t need your consent.
• Analytics. Google Analytics helps us understand how visitors use our website, for example which pages are read and which buttons are clicked, so we can improve it.
• Advertising. The Meta Pixel (from Facebook and Instagram) lets us measure our adverts and show relevant adverts to people who have visited our website.

Analytics and advertising cookies only run after you accept them in our cookie banner, and you can change your choice at any time through the cookie settings link on our website.

Maps and other embedded content

Our contact page shows a Google Map. When the map loads, Google may set its own cookies and collect information about your visit, under Google’s privacy policy. Messages you send us on WhatsApp are also handled by WhatsApp under its own terms.

How to control cookies

• Use the cookie settings link on our website to accept or reject analytics and advertising cookies.
• Use your browser settings to block or delete cookies, although some parts of the website may then not work properly.
• Install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
• Manage the adverts you see in your Facebook ad preferences and Google’s My Ad Center.

5. Who we share your information with

We keep what you tell us about your matter confidential, and we only share personal information where it is needed and permitted by law:

• The people who help us act for you, such as our UAE National Advocates and Associates who appear at court hearings, court-approved legal translators, experts and other professional advisers, with your knowledge where your matter requires it.
• Courts, authorities and other parties in your matter, as part of providing our services.
• Service providers who support our business, such as our website host, email and IT providers, and the analytics and advertising providers described in section 4. They may only use your information to provide their service to us.
• Regulators, law enforcement and other authorities where the law requires us to share information.
• A buyer or successor if our business is reorganised or transferred, subject to the same protections.

6. Transfers outside the UAE

Some of our service providers, including Google and Meta, process information on servers outside the UAE. Some matters, such as enforcing a UAE judgment in India or protecting a trademark in other countries, also require us to send information to advisers or authorities abroad. Where we transfer personal information outside the UAE, we do so in line with the cross-border transfer rules of the PDPL, for example where the destination has adequate data protection, where the transfer is necessary for your matter or for legal claims, or with your consent.

7. How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, or as long as the law requires:

• Enquiries that do not lead to an engagement: up to 2 years after our last contact with you.
• Client files: for the duration of the matter and generally for 5 years after it closes, or longer where the law or our professional obligations require it.
• Google Analytics data: up to 14 months.
• Advertising data: held by Meta under its own retention policies.

When information is no longer needed, we delete it securely or anonymise it.

8. How we protect your information

We use technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, misuse and unauthorised access, including access controls, password protection, and limiting access to people who need it for their work. No website or email system is completely secure, so please avoid sending highly sensitive documents through the website form. We’ll tell you the safest way to send them when we speak.

9. Your rights

Under the PDPL, you have the right to:

• Be informed and get access to the personal information we hold about you, why we use it and who we share it with.
• Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Ask us to delete your information where we no longer need it or you have withdrawn your consent.
• Restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances.
• Object to or stop processing, including for direct marketing.
• Receive your information in a structured, machine-readable format, or have it sent to another provider, where this applies.
• Withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting anything we did before you withdrew it.

Some rights are limited where we must keep information to comply with the law, to establish or defend legal claims, or to protect legal confidentiality and the rights of others. If that applies, we’ll explain why.

To use any of these rights, email info@altheajacobs.com. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we aim to respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the UAE’s federal data protection authority.

10. Marketing messages

We only send you legal updates or marketing messages by email or WhatsApp if you have agreed to receive them. You can opt out at any time by replying “stop”, using the unsubscribe link, or emailing us.

11. Children

Our website is not intended for children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information through it. Where a matter involves a child, such as a personal status case, we only handle the child’s information as needed for that matter and with the consent of a parent or guardian, or as the law allows.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example when the law changes or we start using a new tool. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated, and we’ll tell clients directly about significant changes.

13. Contact us