Global Advantage – Privacy Policy

Global Advantage is committed to protecting the privacy of its users and we therefore ask that you please read our Privacy Policy before providing us with any information about you or any other person.

This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who enquire about using the services of Global Advantage.  The policy also explains how we use that information, the conditions under which we may disclose information to others and how we keep personal information secure.

When using the term “personal data” “personal information” or simply “your information” in our Privacy Policy, we mean information that relates to you and allows us to identify you, either directly or in combination with other information that we may hold.

Global Advantage is the shortened name for Global Advantage Lifestyle Solutions Limited and operates the website www.residencyoptions.com.  This company is incorporated in Gibraltar with registration number 122124 and it is the data controller of any personal data you provide for the purposes of relevant legislation.

Our business is to provide a gateway into a network of professionals to help expatriates with their tax planning, retirement planning, financial planning, estate planning and wealth management requirements.

Any questions regarding our Privacy Policy should be sent to:

Privacy Manager
Global Advantage Lifestyle Solutions Ltd
Suite 4.3.02, Block 4
Eurotowers
Gibraltar GX11 1AA. 

Questions can also be sent by email to: [email protected]

We collect information about you when you:

• use our website forms to enquire about services
• register to receive one of our newsletters
• call our office to enquire about our services
• download one of our ‘Guides’
• enter into a formal business relationship with Global Advantage

Monitoring

Please note that if you communicate with us electronically, including by e-mail and telephone, this communication may be monitored and/or recorded to protect the interests of our business and our customers.  This includes for the purposes of maintaining customer/service quality standards, detection of and/or prevention of crime and to ensure we comply with legal obligations.

The personal information we collect might include your name, address and email address, and information about your lifestyle and finances to provide you find the most appropriate solutions.

We may also ask you to provide evidence of your identity such as asking for a copy of your passport and proof of residence.

We use personal information about you in connection with the following purposes:

Provision of services:

• to understand your needs and thereafter match you with the best business partner introduction;
• to meet a legal or regulatory obligation;

Service improvements:

• to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you;
• to administer our site and for internal business administration and operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
• to notify you about changes to our service;
• as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;

Direct Marketing:

• to provide you with information about other services we offer that are similar to those that you already have or have enquired about;
• to provide you with other marketing material such as our Newsletter.

If you do not want your personal information to be used for marketing purposes, please contact us on the above details.

Where you are an existing client, we will rely on our legitimate interests as the lawful basis for processing your personal information. To this end, it may be necessary to process your information so we can directly market in our legitimate interest. In addition, we consider it reasonable for you to expect you may receive marketing material from us in the same methods we normally communicate with you (e.g. via email) and that there is no disproportionate impact to your individual privacy rights in this case

Automated decision-making

We do not use automated-decision making methods (including profiling).

Decisions as to how your data is processed are therefore based on your instructions to us under any agreement we may have with you, or on our initiative in order to fulfil our agreement with you or to comply with our legal obligations (and on an occasional basis, to further our legitimate interests as outlined in this Privacy Policy).  This means decisions are not made by robots or computers, and therefore not ‘automated’.  However, certain third parties may use certain automated decision-making tools or software. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of others and will take reasonable steps to bring such automated decision-making to your attention, but you are encouraged to become familiar with the privacy practices of any third parties you enter into any agreements with.

We retain your information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which we process the information as set out in this Privacy Policy. Records can be held on a variety of media (electronic) and formats.

Retention periods are determined based on the type of record, the nature of the record and activity and the legal or regulatory requirements that apply to those records.

However, we may retain your personal data for a longer period of time where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person or where we have a legitimate interest to do so. 

The EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “EU GDPR”) governed data protection law within Gibraltar from 25^th May 2018 up to and including 31^st December 2020. The EU GDPR was however superseded by the Gibraltar General Data Protection Regulation (the “Gibraltar GDPR”) following the UK’s, and consequently Gibraltar’s, exit from the EU and the end of the Brexit transition period (i.e. as of 1^st January 2021).

Whilst largely the same, as of 1^st January 2021, Gibraltar’s data protection law consists of both the Gibraltar GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2004 (the “DPA”).

Through the Gibraltar GDPR and the DPA, Gibraltar maintains the data protection standards that applied prior to 1^st January 2021, when the EU GDPR and the EU Law Enforcement Directive 2016/680 were in force.

You have certain rights under applicable legislation, and in particular under the Gibraltar GDPR and the DPA.  You can find out more about the GDPR and your rights by accessing

https://www.gibraltarlaws.gov.gi/legislations/regulation-eu-2016679-5582

Right Information and access

You have a right to be informed about the processing of your personal data (and if you did not give it to us, information as to the source) and this Privacy Policy intends to provide the information. Of course, if you have any further questions you can contact us on the above details.

Right to rectification

You have the right to have any inaccurate personal information about you rectified and to have any incomplete personal information about you completed. You may also request that we restrict the processing of that information.

The accuracy of your information is important to us. If you do not want us to use your Personal Information in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy, or need to advise us of any changes to your personal information, or would like any more information about the way in which we collect and use your Personal Information, please contact us at the above details.

Right to erasure (right to be ‘forgotten’)

You have the general right to request the erasure of your personal information in the following circumstances:

• the personal information is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected;
• you withdraw your consent to consent-based processing and no other legal justification for processing applies;
• you object to processing for direct marketing purposes;
• we unlawfully processed your personal information; and
• erasure is required to comply with a legal obligation that applies to us.

We will proceed to comply with an erasure request without delay unless continued retention is necessary for:

• Exercising the right of freedom of expression and information;
• Complying with a legal obligation under Gibraltar or other applicable law;
• The performance of a task carried out in the public interest;
• Archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes, or statistical purposes, under certain circumstances; and/or
• The establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

Right to restrict processing and right to object to processing

You have a right to restrict processing of your personal information, such as where:

• you contest the accuracy of the personal information;
• where processing is unlawful you may request, instead of requesting erasure, that we restrict the use of the unlawfully processed personal information;
• we no longer need to process your personal information but need to retain your information for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

You also have the right to object to processing of your personal information under certain circumstances, such as where the processing is based on your consent and you withdraw that consent. This may impact the services we can provide and we will explain this to you if you decide to exercise this right.

Right to data portability

Where the legal basis for our processing is your consent or the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract, you have a right to receive the personal information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or ask us to send it to another person.

Right to freedom from automated decision-making

As explained above, we do not use automated decision-making, but where any automated decision-making takes place, you have the right in this case to express your point of view and to contest the decision, as well as request that decisions based on automated processing concerning you or significantly affecting you and based on your personal data are made by natural persons, not only by computers.

Right to object to direct marketing (‘opting out’)

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us.

We will not contact you for marketing purposes unless:

• you have a business relationship with us, and we rely on our legitimate interests as the lawful basis for processing (as described above)
• you have otherwise given your prior consent (such as when you download one of our guides)

You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us on the above details. On each and every marketing communication, we will always provide the option for you to exercise your right to object to the processing of your personal data for marketing purposes (known as ‘opting-out’) by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ button on our marketing emails or choosing a similar opt-out option on any forms we use to collect your data. You may also opt-out at any time by contacting us on the below details.

Please note that any administrative or service-related communications (to offer our services, or notify you of an update to this Privacy Policy or applicable terms of business, etc.) will solely be directed at our clients or business partners, and such communications generally do not offer an option to unsubscribe as they are necessary to provide the services requested. Therefore, please be aware that your ability to opt-out from receiving marketing and promotional materials does not change our right to contact you regarding your use of our website or as part of a contractual relationship we may have with you.

Right to request access

You also have a right to access information we hold about you. We are happy to provide you with details of your Personal Information that we hold or process. To protect our customers’ personal information, we follow strict storage and disclosure procedures, which mean that we will require proof of identity from you prior to disclosing such information. You can exercise this right at any time by contacting us on the above details.

Right to withdraw consent

Where the legal basis for processing your personal information is your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us on the above details.

Raising a complaint about how we have handled your personal data

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact us as set out above and we will then investigate the matter.

Right to lodge a complaint with a relevant supervisory authority

If we have not responded to you within a reasonable time or if you feel that your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you are entitled to make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner under the GDPR, which is presently the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority (GRA). You may contact the GRA on the below details:

Gibraltar Data Protection Commissioner
Gibraltar Regulatory Authority
2nd Floor, Eurotowers 4
1 Europort Road
Gibraltar
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (+350) 200 74636

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in the country of your habitual residence, place of work, or the place where you allege an infringement of one or more of your rights has taken place, if that is based in the EEA.

We may pass your information to our Business Partners, administration centres, third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf, or to enable us to obtain a quote for you or provide you with other related services.

These third parties may include:

• global mobility specialists, wealth managers, investment advisers, real estate agents, credit brokers and other professional service providers.

When we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.

We work closely with various third-party product and service providers to bring you a range of global mobility solutions and other ancillary professional services. When you enquire about  one or more of these services, the relevant third-party provider will use your details to carry out their obligations arising from any contracts you have entered into with them. These third-party providers will share your information with us which we will use in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We may transfer your personal information to a third party if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation. However, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

Transferring your information outside of the European Economic Area
As part of the services offered to you by Global Advantage, the information which you provide to us will be transferred to countries inside and outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”).

If we transfer your information outside of the EEA, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Policy. This may require us to take certain additional steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place if that third country is not deemed to offer an adequate level of protection for your privacy rights, which may include use of contractual safeguards to allow you to be able to enforce your rights and ensure these are preserved. In certain circumstances, we may need to ask you for your explicit consent to such transfers, and will always do so in writing and giving you full information about why we need your consent and your right to withdraw that consent at any time (together with the consequences of withdrawal).

At Global Advantage, we take our responsibility to look after your personal information and privacy seriously. In today’s world, we have all seen a growing trend in cybercrime and security breaches.

If we become aware that a personal data breach has occurred and is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of our clients or Partners, we will inform them without undue delay.

We will always interact with you in a safe, secure and consistent manner

To keep your information secure and to protect our clients from fraud, Global Advantage will only interact with you in the following ways. If in doubt, call us or email us at: [email protected]

When interacting with you, we will: 

• communicate by means of e-mail.
• and/or by telephone communication

We will not: 

• Ask you for any password over the phone.
• Send you an unsolicited email with links to input confidential information
• Ask you for payment or credit card details by email or telephone

Physical controls – As well as protecting your digital information, Global Advantage will not hold any personal information about you in physical paper form.

Logical controls – Global Advantage uses technical security measures to make sure our systems where we store and use personal information are protected from unauthorised access. Tools such as authentication controls, antivirus, firewalls, malware detection and back-up procedures are used.  

Privacy Protections for Children Using the Internet
Protecting children’s privacy is important to us. For that reason, we do not collect or maintain information on our website from those we actually know are under the age of 16, nor is any part of our website targeted to attract anyone under 16. We request that all visitors to our website who are under 16 not disclose or provide any personal data and discontinue use of our website.

Hyperlinks
We may provide hyperlinks from this website to web sites of other organisations or associated companies. Please note that Global Advantage will not be liable for the contents of linked web sites or any transactions carried out with organisations operating those web sites. The privacy policies of others may differ significantly from our Privacy Policy. Therefore, we encourage you to read the privacy statement/policy of each and every website that collects personal data.

Review of this Privacy Policy
We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. Where we do so, we will notify those who have a business relationship with us or who are subscribed to our emailing lists directly of the changes, and include a ‘Last updated’ date. We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy whenever you access or use our website to stay informed about our information practices and the choices available to you. If you do not agree to the revised Privacy Policy, you should discontinue your use of this website.