COOKIE NOTICE
Cookie Notice: This website uses cookies to improve functionality and performance. By using this
website without changing your browser settings, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with
our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
TERMS OF USE
This page (together with the documents referred to on it) provides you with the terms and conditions
on which you may make use of the website, whether as a visitor or a registered user. Please read
these terms and conditions of use carefully before you start to use the site. By using the website, you
indicate that you accept and agree to abide by these terms and conditions of use. If you do not agree
to these terms and conditions of use, please refrain from using the website.
APPLICABLE LAWS
The main privacy laws that are applicable to Us in so far as You are concerned, are as follows:
The Maltese Data Protection Act (Chapter 440 of the Laws of Malta) as well as the various subsidiary
legislation issued under the same (as may be amended from time to time) – the ‘DPA’;
The Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the
protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of Personal Data and on the free
movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (as
may be amended from time to time)– the ‘GDPR’.
All the above referred to together as the “Data Protection Laws”
PROHIBITED USES
You may only use this website for lawful/legal purposes.
You are not to use the website:
In any way that breaches any applicable law or regulation;
In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;
In any way which may infringe our rights or the rights of third parties;
To post, transmit or disseminate any information on or via the Website which is obscene,
defamatory or in any way harmful;
To obtain or attempt to obtain unauthorised access to the Website;
To alter, deface or interfere with the Website in any way;
To knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan
horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs
or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software
or hardware;
To attempt to gain unauthorized access to any portion or feature of the services, or any other
systems or networks connected to the services or to any Government of Malta server, or to any
of the services offered on or through the website, by hacking, password “mining” or any other
illegitimate means;
To probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the website, including the services or any
network connected to the website, nor breach the security or authentication measures on the
website, including the services or any network connected to the website, including the services;
To reverse look-up, trace or seek to trace the source of any information on any other user of or
visitor to the website, or any other customer of the Government of Malta, including any service
account not owned by you or exploit the website or any service or information made available or
offered by or through the website, in any way where the purpose is to reveal any information,
including but not limited to personal identification or information, other than your own
information, as provided for by the website or any service provided through the website;
To forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any
message or transmittal you send to the Government of Malta on or through the website or any
service offered on or through the website. You may not pretend that you are, or that you
represent, someone else, or impersonate any other person or entity unless authorised;
We reserve the right to disclose your personal information to any competent law enforcement
authorities in the event of a breach of the preceding paragraph.
You also agree:
A. Not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of the website in contravention of the
provisions of these terms and conditions.
B. Not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
1) any part of the website and its subpages
2) any equipment or network on which the website is stored/hosted
3) any software used in the provision of the website
4) any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.
C. Not to use any “page-scrape”, “robot”, “spider” or other automatic device, program, algorithm
or methodology, or any similar or equivalent manual process, to access, acquire, copy or monitor
any portion of the services or any content provided through this website, or in any way
reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the services or any
content, to obtain or attempt to obtain any materials, documents or information through any
means not purposely made available through the website.
We reserve the right to bar any such activity.
D. Not to use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper
working of the website.
PRIVACY POLICY
We are committed to protect our visitors’ and/or user’s privacy and we will not collect any personal
information about you as a visitor unless you provide it voluntarily.
Pursuant to the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and the Data Protection
Act (Cap 586), we have a legal duty to respect and protect any personal information we collect from
you and we will abide by such duty. We take all safeguards necessary to prevent unauthorised access
and we do not pass on your details collected from you as a visitor and/or user, to any third party
unless you give us your consent to do so or as authorised by law.
WHAT IS PERSONAL DATA?
“PERSONAL DATA” means any information that identifies You as an individual or that relates to an
identifiable individual.
Whenever it is not possible or feasible for Us to make use of anonymous and/or anonymised data (in
a manner that does not identify any Users of the Site or customers of Our services), We are
nevertheless committed to protecting Your privacy and the security of Your Personal Data at all times.
We collect Personal Data in various ways both digitally via the Site (either when You choose to
provide us with certain data (mainly our ‘contact us’ page) or in some cases, automatically or from
third parties) as well as non-digitally (for example when You provide us with documents for our
review and/or advice).
HOW AND WHY WE COLLECT PERSONAL DATA?
As a general rule, We do not collect any Personal Data, that is, information that identifies You as an
individual other than that which We need to be able to assist You in Our capacity as professionals OR
Personal Data that You choose to provide to Us such as the data (including Contact Details and
Registration Data) You provide when registering with Our Site (where this is available), when
contacting Us with enquiries relating to Our services, when subscribing to any service offered by Us or
via Our Site, such as any newsletters as may be issued by Us from time to time.
Unless otherwise specified and subject to various controls, as a general rule, We only collect Personal
Data (from You or elsewhere) that We:
Need to be able to provide You with the professional services You request from Us
Are legally required to collect/use and to keep for a predetermined period of time
Believe to be necessary for Our legitimate interests
For a detailed description of the reasons why we process specific categories of personal data as
well as the corresponding legal ground(s) for doing so, please see the ‘What We Use Your
Personal Data For (Purpose of Processing)’ below.
How do we process personal data?
IP address and location
The web server keeps limited logs about IP addresses or the location of your computer on the
Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We do not use IP address logs to
track your session or your behaviour on our site.
Contact us/Feedback
The use of this website’s online facilities, you as the data subject may be required to provide your
contact details for contact purposes. All information and any personal data that may decide to
provide us in the contact us/feedback form shall be processed only for the strict purpose of
responding to your enquiry.
SPECIAL NOTE ON CONSENT
For the avoidance of all doubt, We would like to point out that in those limited cases where We may
not be able to or choose not to rely on another legal ground (for example, Our legitimate interests),
We will process Your Personal Data on the basis of Your consent.
In those cases where We process on the basis of Your consent (which We will never presume but
which We shall have obtained in a clear and manifest manner from You), YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO
WITHDRAW YOUR CONSENT AT ANY TIME and this, in the same manner as You shall have provided it
to Us.
Should You exercise Your right to withdraw Your consent at any time (by writing to Us at the physical
or email address below), We will determine whether at that stage an alternative legal basis exists for
processing Your Personal Data (for example, on the basis of a legal obligation to which We are
subject) where We would be legally authorised (or even obliged) to process Your Personal Data
without needing Your consent and if so, notify You accordingly.
When We ask for such Personal Data, You may always decline, however should You decline to provide
Us with necessary data that We require to provide requested services, We may not necessarily be
able to provide You with such services (especially if consent is the only legal ground that is available to
Us).
Just to clarify, consent is not the only ground that permits Us to process Your Personal Data. In the
last preceding section above We pointed out the various grounds that We typically rely on when
processing various categories of Your Personal Data for specific purposes.
Your rights
As an individual you may exercise your right to access the data held about you, therefore if you have
any queries in relation to this matter, if we hold any, please contact us by submitting your request to
the appropriate data controller through the contact us page within the website.
You also have the right to request the blocking or erasure of data.
Other information
This site uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to ensure secure transmission of your personal data. You
should be able to see the padlock symbol in the status bar of browser’s address field. The URL
address will also start with a https:// depicting a secure web-page. SSL applies encryption between
two points such as your PC and the connecting server. Any data transmitted during the session will be
encrypted or scrambled and then decrypted or unscrambled at the receiving end. This will ascertain
that data cannot be read during transmission.
If there are any changes to this privacy policy, we will update this page accordingly. It is therefore in
your own interest to check the “Privacy Policy” page any time you access our web site so as to be
aware of any changes which may occur from time to time.
Please forward any comments or suggestions that you may have and which may contribute to a
better quality of service, they will be greatly appreciated.
COOKIE POLICY
What is a cookie?
A cookie which is also known as browser cookies or tracking cookies is a small piece of encrypted text
files, located in the browser directory. All cookies are set with expiry dates which determine how long
they reside on your browser. They are used by web developers to help users navigate their websites
efficiently and perform certain functions. Generally, cookies can be removed automatically after the
lapse of the expiry date or else can be deleted manually by the user. Computer Cookies are created
not just by the website the user is browsing but also by other websites that run ads, widgets, or other
elements on the page being loaded. For Managing cookies for different browsers see
https://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/
Which types of cookies does this website utilizes?
Session cookies: these are temporary cookies which are used to give you access to the content of this
website. They are also used by the server to store information about user page activities so users can
easily pick up where they left off on the server’s pages. By default, web pages really don’t have any
‘memory’. Cookies tell the server what pages to show the user so the user doesn’t have to remember
or start navigating the site all over again. These types of cookies expire and are deleted as soon as you
close the browser.
Cookies act as a sort of “bookmark” within the site. Similarly, cookies can store ordering information
needed to make shopping carts work instead of forcing the user to remember all the items the user
put in the shopping cart.
Limited third party cookies: these cookies are set by entities other than this Office and may be
temporary or persistent. The use of third party cookies on this website are restricted and only allowed
for the purpose of social sharing (allows you to share our articles through the various social media
networks) and when we embed content on the pages of this website from other third party websites.
Cookie security and privacy issues
Cookies are NOT viruses. Cookies use a plain text format. They are not compiled pieces of code so
they cannot be executed nor are they self-executing. Accordingly, they cannot make copies of
themselves and spread to other networks to execute and replicate again.
Since they cannot perform these functions, they fall outside the standard virus definition.
New Laws for the use of cookies and other technologies that store online user information.
On May 26th 2011, new rules governing the use of cookies by websites comes into force in Europe.
Rather than the “Opt out” option for website visitors, websites will need to specifically gain the
consent of their visitor and they must “Opt In” to be able to store cookies on their computer or other
devices.
What does the new law say?
The new requirement is essentially that cookies can only be placed on machines where the user or
subscriber has given their consent.
- Subject to paragraph (4), a person shall not store or gain access to information stored, in the
terminal equipment of a subscriber or user unless the requirements of paragraph (2) are met. - The requirements are that the subscriber or user of that terminal equipment–
a) is provided with clear and comprehensive information about the purposes of the storage
of, or access to, that information; and
b) has given his or her consent. - Where an electronic communications network is used by the same person to store or access
information in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user on more than one occasion, it is
sufficient for the purposes of this regulation that the requirements of paragraph (2) are met in
respect of the initial use.
a) “(3A) For the purposes of paragraph (2), consent may be signified by a subscriber who
amends or sets controls on the internet browser which the subscriber uses or by using
another application or programme to signify consent. - Paragraph (1) shall not apply to the technical storage of, or access to, information–
a) for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic
communications network; or
b) where such storage or access is strictly necessary for the provision of an information
society service requested by the subscriber or user.
More information on the new changes can be found here
http://ec.europa.eu/ipg/basics/legal/cookies/index_en.htm
Most browsers have built in privacy settings that provide differing levels of cookie acceptance,
expiration time, and disposal after a user has visited a particular site. Backing up your computer can
give you the peace of mind that your files are safe.
How can I delete or disable cookies?
If your browser is NOT configured, by default, to block all or certain cookies, you may manually
configure your browser to either reject all cookies or control which cookies are set on your device
through this website. You may find all the necessary information on how to make the necessary
configuration settings by visiting the following site: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/
Disabling the cookies of this website might affect your browsing experience.