Privacy Notice | Projects.cy

Projects.cy recognises the importance of protecting your privacy and keeping your personal information safe.

This Privacy Notice describes how Projects.cy ("we", "our" or "us") collects and processes personal information about you as a visitor, client, or Professional (see relevant definitions in our Terms and Conditions. By visiting Projects.cy and making any use of its services you understand and agree to this Privacy Policy, as well as to our Terms and Conditions. In case you do not agree, whether in whole or in part, please cease and desist from using our Website and services.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully, together with our Terms and Conditions. By visiting Projects.cy and making any use of its services you understand and agree to this Privacy Policy, as well as to our Terms and Conditions. In case you do not agree, whether in whole or in part, please cease and desist from using our Website and services.

The collection and processing of personal data by Projects.cy is governed by the legal framework that applies in relation to the processing of personal data in the EU and Cyprus, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation "GDPR" (2016/679/EU).

1. DATA CONTROLLER

Projects.cy belongs to, and is operated by, Lakemont Ltd (Reg. HE443852) which is the data controller in respect of the processing of your personal information. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, or you want to exercise any of your legal rights as a data subject, please email us at support@projects.cy or write to us at Ierou Loxou 22, 3082 Limasol, Cyprus.

2. THE INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT

Projects.cy collects personal information about visitors who visit its Website and from Clients and Professionals that use the Website and make use of its services. We do not process special categories of data (e.g, health, race, religion). Moreover, we do not collect or process personal data of persons under 18 years old.

We set out below the types and sources of the data that we collect about you.

▪ Information we collect directly from you

Clients	Professionals
Personal and contact details (i.e., name/surname, email, telephone number, address, profession (if applicable), company name (if applicable))	Personal and contact details (i.e., name/surname, email, telephone number, address, company details (if applicable))
Website Username and password	Website Username and password
Communications (e.g. personal data that may be provided in the context of communicating with us or with Clients via the Website, telephone, email, when posting comments, questions, providing answers or reviews or feedback)	Communications (e.g personal data that may be provided in the context of communicating with us or with Clients via the Website, telephone, email, when posting comments, questions, providing answers or reviews or feedback)
Project Data (e.g, personal data that you may provide in the context of the information you provide about your project and of the documents and drawings/plans you upload).	Proof of ID, related Licenses and Qualifications/Registrations (e.g, ID, tax/vat registration number, certificates of incorporation, of registration as contractor, or other pertinent certificates)
	Transaction/Invoicing details (e.g, billing address). We do not obtain or hold debit/credit card details.

▪ Information we collect through your use of our Website/Services

Clients	Professionals
Technical information collected from your computer or mobile device e.g. your IP address, browser type, operating system, traffic source; information about your usage of our Websites, services and apps
Cookies stored on your browser (e.g, technical, statistical, functionality, performance and advertising cookies). See our Cookies policy here.

▪ Information we may collect from other sources

Clients	Professionals
Publicly available information (e.g, from public records found in the public domain/databases)
Information from Professionals (e.g, feedback, reviews)	Information from Clients (e.g, feedback/reviews)
Information from government authorities (where legally obliged or allowed)

We may also collect data on visitors who navigate our Website, using technologies such as cookies. You can see our Cookies policy here. You can also make choices with respect to the cookies that we use, e.g, allowing only essential cookies.

You as Clients and Professionals accept that the information, content, and material that you submit or post or communicate to Projects.cy or to other Clients or Professionals (e.g, about your identity, building projects, Professional licenses, qualifications) is truthful, accurate, complete, not dishonest or misleading. Moreover, you represent and warrant that you possess all the requisite permits and consents from any natural or legal persons whose information or material you enter or post on Projects.cy (such as when an architect posts his client’s building project on Projects.cy).

You accept that it is your responsibility to keep this information updated using your Projects.cy account.

You moreover understand and accept that Projects.cy may delete, amend, or complement the information you provide (e.g, following cross-checks using legitimately obtained third party information).

3. OUR USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND THE LEGAL BASES FOR PROCESSING

We use your personal information for the following purposes:

Use/Purpose	Legal Basis
Identifying and registering you at Projects.cy as Client or Professional, creating your account, signing-in.	Creation and Performance of a contract, consent
Operating our Website and providing our services to you (e.g, posting your projects, launching your tenders, sending notifications about new project tenders, status of ongoing tenders, providing support	Performance of a contract
Assessing/analysing your experience with our Website, its services and functions, and refining and improving the services we provide to you	Legitimate interest
Promoting/marketing to you our services and offerings and communicating other pertinent information	Legitimate interest, Consent
Preventing/detecting fraud or illegal activity (e.g, fake accounts, banned users) or infringement of our Terms of use.	Legitimate interest
Complying with obligations imposed on us by law (i.e, tax law)	Legal Obligations

Wherever we process your personal data for reasons other than for entering a contract with you or for executing a contract with you (and in the absence of processing reasons stemming i.e, from obligations imposed by law or from our legitimate interests) we carry out such processing based on your consent. You have the legal right to withdraw your consent at any time, and this will result in the termination of any consent-based processing by us of your personal data. For instance, you may withhold or withdraw your consent with respect to receiving marketing communications from us.

You may close your account with us by writing to us as indicated in clause 1, or if available, through a dedicated account function at our Website.

We may anonymise your personal information in such a way that you may not be re-identified by us or any other party. We may use this anonymised information for any other purpose.

4. SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES

We may share your personal information with third parties under the following circumstances:

Sharing with Professionals (if you are a Client): we do not publicise or make available on our Website any of your personal data in the context of launching an invitation to tender for your building project. Only where an eligible building contractor purchases your project’s tender documents (limited to max 7 contractors) to provide you with a tender, do we provide him with your personal details. These are limited to your name/surname, username, email, telephone number, and project postal address.
Sharing with Clients (if you are a Professional): we do not make any of your personal data publicly visible on our Website. Only where you purchase a project’s tender documents to provide a tender, do we provide certain personal information about you to the Client (the project owner or his representative, i.e his architect). These are limited to personal/business & contact details (e.g, name/surname, business name, email, telephone number, postal address).
To service providers and business partners: We may share your personal information with our service providers and business partners, for example back-up and server hosting providers, IT software and maintenance providers, payment services providers, our lawyers and accountants, data analytics and advertising partners such as Google or Meta.
Where this is legitimately required by laws/regulations, by the courts, the police, or other competent authorities, or where we believe is necessary to protect our rights or defend ourselves against any claims.
In the context of a transaction: We may share your personal information with potential transaction partners, service providers, advisors, and other third parties in connection with the consideration, negotiation, or completion of a corporate transaction in which we are acquired by or merged with another company or we sell or transfer all or a portion of our assets or business.

In case we share data with third parties (e.g, server hosts and databases) that are located outside the European Union, we shall make every effort to ensure a level of protection that is similar to that in the EU by, inter alia, using the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses for data transfers between EU and non-EU countries. Note that Projects.cy does not sell or rent your personal data to any third parties.

5. INFORMATION SECURITY AND STORAGE

We implement physical, technical, and organisational security measures designed to safeguard the personal information we process through our Website and services. These measures are aimed at protecting your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access and against all other unlawful forms of processing. However, no system or measure is infallible, so we cannot, and do not, guarantee the security of your information.

We retain your personal information for as long as we have a relationship with you; indicatively for as long as you maintain an account with us. We may retain your personal data even after our relationship comes to an end as a result of termination/deletion of your account by you or by us. This is only in case there is an appropriate legal basis, such as complying with our legal obligations (e.g, retaining data/records for tax purposes), exercising our legitimate interests (i.e to prevent/detect fraudulent or illegal activity against us, such as fake/banned accounts) or protecting our rights and exercising or defending against legal claims.

6. LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Our Website may include links to third-party websites. This privacy policy does not apply to those websites and therefore, if you decide to click on such links and visit these websites, you need to read their privacy policy. These links are provided for your information only and do not under any circumstances constitute endorsement or approval by us of such sites or their content. You understand and accept that using such links is on your own responsibility.

7. YOUR RIGHTS AS A DATA SUBJECT

As a data subject you have the following rights under GDPR:

Right of Access: You have the right to be informed about whether or not your personal data is being processed by us and, if so, the types of data processed, the legal basis and purpose of the processing, third party recipients, the data retention period and also the rights mentioned in the remainder of this section.
Right to Rectification: You have the right to request correction of any personal data we hold about you that is incorrect or incomplete or outdated.
Right to Restrict Processing: You have this conditional right to request that we hold your data but not use it.
Right to Erasure: You have the right to request that we erase personal data that we hold about you. This right is subject to certain conditions, such as the absence of a legal obligation to maintain the data.
Right to Data Portability: You have the right to request that we transfer your personal data directly to you or to another organisation in a structured machine-readable format.
Right to Object: You have the right, under certain conditions, to object to us processing your personal data.
Right to Lodge Complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint to the competent authority which in Cyprus is the Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection (see www.dataprotection.gov.cy).

If you have any questions, or you want to exercise any of your legal rights as a data subject, please email us at support@projects.cy or write to us at Ierou Loxou 22 3082, Limasol, Cyprus. Where you have provided your consent to any use of your personal information, you can withdraw this consent at any time. Please note that we may require additional information from you to confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your Personal Data and to exercise any of the rights mentioned in this section.

We try to respond to your requests within one month from the date of receipt. It may take longer in case of particularly complex or multiple requests.

8. CHANGES TO THE POLICY

We may modify or update this Privacy Notice from time to time, therefore we recommend that you regularly check our privacy policy webpage. The date that you can see at the top of the first page of the policy is the last amendment date. By continuing to use our Website after the date of the revised Privacy Policy, you understand and agree to the revised Policy.