This website is an electronic publication of and a service provided by Publishers Representatives Limited (a company incorporated in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) (hereinafter referred to as "PRL"), a subsidiary of Global Sources Ltd. (Global Sources Ltd. and its subsidiaries (including PRL) being hereinafter collectively referred to as “Global Sources” or the “Global Sources Group”).

This Privacy Policy describes and gives you clear and comprehensive information about the data that we collect from you, and provides an explanation of how and why we collect, use and manage that data. Please note that it is voluntary for you to provide your personal data to us, but in the event that you do not provide such personal data, we may not be able to provide you with our products or services.

It also describes your data protection rights. Depending on the applicable data protection laws, you have the right to object to some of the processing which we carry out. More information about your rights, and how to exercise them, is set out in the “What Rights do you Have?” section.

For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679) in the European Economic Area (“GDPR”), the GDPR as applicable as part of UK domestic law (“UK GDPR”), and the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“PDPO”), the data controller, or data user, as defined under applicable data privacy laws, is PRL (see Contact Details). PRL is based in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and is responsible for data collected in relation to websites and tradeshows managed by Global Sources. You should be aware that although PRL is the main controller of your personal data, other Global Sources Group entities can also be the controller of your personal data in some circumstances (please see more information in the Contact Details section below).

We may make changes to this Policy from time to time in order to keep it up to date and compliant with legal requirements. Please refer to the "Last Updated" date at the bottom of this page to see when this Policy was last revised. We may also notify you about significant changes by email, using the address you last provided or by posting an alert which will be displayed when you access our systems.

The primary point of contact for all issues arising from this Policy, including requests to exercise data subject rights, is our Data Protection Officer (“DPO”). If you have a complaint or concern about how we use your personal data, please contact us in the first instance and we will attempt to resolve the issue as soon as possible. The DPO can be contacted by:

• Email at dpo@globalsources.com

Alternatively, you may contact our Customer Services Department

• Email at service@globalsources.com
• Phone (852) 8121 2000, (86) 755 8282 7391

The main controller of your personal data is PRL with its contact details above. In addition, your information is also controlled by other Global Sources Group entities if you (i) register to and attend a trade show organised by such companies or (ii) visit their website. The list of relevant entities and their contact details can be found in the table below:

You also have a right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority in the country or region that you reside in, the country of your place of work, or where an alleged infringement of applicable data protection laws took place.

• A list of EU Regulators may be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm.
• A list of authorities participating in the Global Privacy Enforcement Network may be found here: https://www.privacyenforcement.net/authorities-listings
• If you are located in the UK, you may lodge your complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (“ICO”): https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
• If you are located in Hong Kong, you may lodge your complaint with us or to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong: https://www.pcpd.org.hk/english/complaints/how_complaint/complaint/complaint.html

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy notices and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these notices. Please check these notices before you submit any personal data to these websites.

We collect your data in a variety of ways:

At Trade Shows, Roadshows, Seminars and Conferences

• Registration Forms

  • We ask visitors to register their attendance by completing a form which we then enter into our systems.

• Check-In updates

  • We ask visitors to update/complete data retrieved from previous registrations held in our system.

• Business Cards

  • We scan and store details of visitors’ business cards.

• Booth Visit History

  • Exhibitors use the Global Sources Supplier App to scan visitors’ badges when visitors call at their booths. Visit data is then uploaded to our servers.

Through Website Forms

• Registration & Inquiry Forms

  • We ask visitors to our online sites to register in order to personalize and use the site’s messaging functions. We support both a full and a “lite” registration mode that captures minimal data. Additionally, we have a self-registration function for suppliers who wish to register as an advertiser on our site.

• Subscription Forms

  • We capture details of site visitors’ subscriptions and preferences to services such as Notifications, Product/Supplier Alerts and eMagazines.

• Direct Order Forms

  • We capture details of sample and direct orders placed by visitors to advertisers on the site.

• MATCH Service

  • We capture basic details of buyers interested in applying for our MATCH service.

Call Center Activities

• Telemarketing

  • We periodically contact people and seek information for market surveys and research questionnaires or to qualify prospects for our services or those of our advertiser community, e.g., to qualify potential:

    • visitors to our shows and/or online sites, or

    • advertisers/exhibitors to our shows and/or online sites

• Customer Service

  • Online users, and Trade Show visitors and potential advertisers contact us for enquiries, complaints, suggestions or feedback through our Customer Service Team via online chat system, hotline, fax or email.

  • Additionally, there are small numbers of potential advertisers who call in. Their details are qualified and entered into our systems.

Systems Tracking Functions

We use Cookies and other related technologies on our sites. The provisions in our Cookie Policy apply and complement this Privacy Policy.

Other Sources

We collect data from other sources, such as public databases, joint marketing partners, conference organisers, exhibitors, sponsors, supplier verification service providers and other third parties including third party software applications and social media platforms. The data collected through these third party sources will be combined with information we collect through our services where this is necessary to help manage our relationship with you.

The personal data we collect include:

• Contact and Communication Details

  • This includes your name, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, and social media contact details.

• Business Details

  • Job title, role, company name, and company demographics, i.e., number of employees, turnover, etc. Please note that contact details typically are work related since our mission is to facilitate B2B trade.

• Preferences

  • Marketing preferences (e.g. those inferred from subscriptions to product/supplier alerts, eMagazines, Trade Show news and online behavioural data or those indicated by you) We collect those preferences with your consent where required under applicable laws).

  • Display and language preferences

• Communications

  • Details of calls/messaging made between:

    • Customer service team members and visitors and advertisers/exhibitors

    • Sales Team members and advertisers/exhibitors or prospects

    • Advertisers/exhibitors and online visitors sent through Message Center, e.g., RFI, RFQ, RFS.

    • Advertisers/Exhibitors and online visitors sent though Tencent chat facility

• Request & Order Activities

  • What sample requests or other orders placed between advertisers and site visitors

• Bookings & Subscriptions

  • What seminars/events booked at Trade Shows

  • What eMagazines subscribed to

• Device and Log Information

  • The internet domain and IP address from where you access our websites and apps.

  • The type of browser software and operating system used to access our websites and apps.

  • The date and time you access our websites and apps

  • If you linked into our websites and apps from another website, the address of that website (referrer URL), and:

    • The pages you enter, visit and exit our websites and apps from

    • Your account log-in/online identifier

    • Unique device identifiers (such as the address of the device's wireless network interface (MAC Address), or mobile phone number used by the device)

• Online Behavioural Data

  • We use Cookies and other tracking technologies to capture activity on our sites, such as:

    • Session frequency

    • Search terms used

    • Pages visited and how they were accessed (for path analysis)

    • Products /suppliers inquired on or profiles viewed

    • Whitepapers downloaded

    • Apps downloaded

    • Products saved and suppliers followed

    • Products ordered

    • Products / suppliers shared through social media

  • While this information itself does not hold personal identifiers, it may be linked to profile data and used for behavioural profiling (see our Cookie Policy for further details about cookies).

• Offline Behavioural Data

  • Trade shows, exhibitions, and conferences visitors attended

  • Exhibitors visited (captured through Global Sources Buyer App)

  • Summits/seminars/events attended

We will only use your personal data for the purposes and legal bases set out in the table below. In some instances, we will request that you provide data to us directly. If you do not provide the data that we request, or prohibit us from collecting such data, we may not be able to provide the requested products and services.

Depending on the applicable data privacy laws, there are instances where we have a legitimate interest to use your personal data. Our legitimate interest will vary depending on what we are using your personal data for, and we explain above what the interest is and how it relates to the processing operations that we are carrying out. Where we process personal data on the basis of a legitimate interest, then – as required by EU/UK data protection law – we have carried out a balancing test to document our interests, to consider what the impact of the processing will be on individuals and to determine whether individuals interests outweigh our interests in the processing taking place. You can obtain more information about this balancing test by using the contact details above.

We will retain your personal data for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy. When your personal data is no longer required, we will ensure it is either securely deleted or stored in a way which means it can no longer be used to identify you.

In some circumstances we may retain your personal data for longer periods of time, for example, where we are required to do so to meet legal, regulatory, tax or accounting requirements or in the event of any complaint or challenge, or if we reasonably believe there is a possibility of legal action relating to your personal data or dealings. Under normal circumstances this should not exceed 7 years from the date of the last engagement with you. You have the right to request additional information regarding the retention periods of your personal data. Please contact the DPO for further details.

We may share your personal data with third parties, to help manage our business and deliver services as outlined below:

• Other Global Sources Group entities (for example, where those companies process it on our behalf to provide products and services to you or for various internal operational, marketing and analytics purposes).

• Service providers, who perform functions on our behalf such as fulfilling orders, who help manage our IT and back office systems, delivering packages, sending postal mail and email, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing and advertising assistance, providing search results and links (including paid listings and links), and providing customer services.

• Advertisers, for purposes such as providing you with relevant product information and promotional content based on your preferences and interactions with us.

• Sponsors, to provide you with information about sponsored events, products, and services that may be of interest to you.

• Exhibitors, to provide you with relevant details about their products and services, and to facilitate your interactions with them at events and trade shows.

• Data protection authorities, regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies, in Hong Kong, the EU, the UK and around the world.

• Other third parties, for the purpose of detecting, preventing or otherwise addressing fraud, security or technical issues, protecting against harm to the rights, property or safety of our users or the public.

• We may disclose or transfer your data to a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of the Global Sources Group’s business, assets or stock (including any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

We may use your personal data to send you direct marketing communications about our products and services or our related services according to your preferences either with your consent as may be required by applicable data privacy laws or because we have a legitimate interest to do so, including our latest product announcements and upcoming events. This may be in the form of emails, SMS, telephone calls or targeted online advertisement. We limit direct marketing to a reasonable proportionate level, and to send you communications which we think will be interesting and relevant to you, based on the information we have about you.

You have choices when it comes to how we use your data and we want to ensure you have the information to make the choices that are right for you.

If you no longer want to receive marketing-related emails, SMS, or printed materials, you may opt out by following the instructions in any such emails, SMS or printed materials you receive from us.

Based on information we have collected about you and your viewing habits and analytics about performance of our content, offers and ad, we personalize the content, offers and ads made available to you to make your experience more relevant.

This constitutes profiling: We segment visitors by applying selection criteria and business rules using software code (and algorithms) to process relevant data semi-automatically to produce personalized content recommendations, e.g., recommended products which appear in marketing emails or online when you visit our sites. If you wish to opt-out of receiving personalized content, please contact the Customer Services Team or our DPO.

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a location outside Hong Kong, the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom (UK). It may also be processed by staff operating outside Hong Kong, the EEA or the UK who work for us or one of our service providers. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely, in accordance with this privacy notice. For transfers outside of the EEA or the UK, we will only transfer your personal data to other countries that are either:

• Recognized by the European Union or the UK government as providing an adequate level of data and legal protection

• Or by ensuring that transfers to other Non-EU counties are protected by appropriate contractual commitments.

You have the right to request more information about the safeguards we have put in place. Please contact the DPO.

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. Depending on the applicable data protection laws, you have the right to request:

• Access to Your Data

  • You can ask us to:

    • Confirm whether we are processing your personal data

    • Give you a copy of that data

    • Provide you with other information about your personal data, such as what data we have, what we use it for, who we disclose it to, whether we transfer it abroad and how we protect it, how long we keep it for, what rights you have, how you can make a complaint, where we got your data from and whether we have carried out automated decision making or profiling, to the extent that information has not already been provided to you in this notice.

• Rectification

  • You can ask us to rectify inaccurate or incomplete personal data in our files. We may seek to verify the accuracy of the data before rectifying it.

• Erasure (Right to be Forgotten)

  • You can ask us to erase your personal data, but only where:

    • It is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected; or

    • You have withdrawn your consent (where the data processing was based on consent); or

    • It follows a successful right to object; or

    • It has been processed unlawfully.

    • It has to be erased to comply with a legal obligation.

  • We are not required to comply with your request to erase your personal information if the processing of your personal information is necessary:

    • For compliance with a legal obligation; or

    • For the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

  • In the context of marketing, please note that we will maintain a suppression list if you have opted out from receiving marketing content to ensure that you do not receive any further communications.

• Restriction

  • You can ask us to restrict (i.e. keep but not use) your personal data, but only where:

    • Its accuracy is contested, to allow us to verify its accuracy; or

    • The processing is unlawful, but you do not want it erased; or

    • It is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, but we still need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or

    • You have exercised the right to object, and verification of overriding grounds is pending.

  • We can continue to use your personal data following a request for restriction, where:

    • We have your consent; or

    • To establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or

    • To protect the rights of another natural or legal person.

• Objection

  • You can object to us processing your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interests,. Once you have objected, we have an opportunity to demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate interests which override your rights, however, this does not apply as far as the objection refers to the use of personal data for direct marketing purposes.

• Data Portability

  • You can ask us to provide your personal data to you in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or you can ask to have it 'ported' directly to another data controller, but in each case only where:

    • The processing is based on your consent or the performance of a contract with you; and

    • The processing is carried out by automated means.

• Withdraw Consent

  • Wherever we rely on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. We may however have other legal grounds for processing your data for other purposes, such as those set out above.

• Information about any automated processing

  • e.g. segmentation or profiling using your data. You can ask not to be subject to such processing.

If you are located in Hong Kong, please note that, under the PDPO, you are only entitled to the right of access, right to rectification and to withdraw your consent in accordance with the provisions of the PDPO.

To exercise your rights, you can contact us as set out above. Please note the following if you do wish to exercise these rights:

• Verification of identity

  • We take the confidentiality of all records containing personal data seriously and reserve the right to ask you for proof of your identity if you make a request.

• Fees

  • We will not ask for a fee to exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data, unless your request for access to information is unfounded, repetitive or excessive, in which case we will charge a reasonable amount in the circumstances.

• Exemptions/Limitations

  • Local laws, including in the EU member states or the UK, provide for additional limitations or exemptions, in particular to the right of access, whereby personal data can be withheld from you in certain circumstances, for example where it is subject to legal privilege or where the request would reveal personal data about another person.

You also have the right to complain to your supervisory authority (see 'Contact Details').

Last updated date: Sep. 3, 2025