Legal
Privacy Policy
This policy explains what personal information Arkan Interiors collects, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and what you can ask us to do with it.
Last updated
1. Introduction
Arkan Interiors is an interior design, fit-out, joinery and custom furniture company based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. We have operated here since 2003 and we work across the Emirates and the wider Gulf.
This policy explains how we handle personal information that reaches us through this website or through the channels the website points you to. It applies to arkan-interiors.com and to enquiries that arrive by telephone, WhatsApp, email or social media.
We have written it in plain language deliberately. If anything here is unclear, ask us and we will explain it.
2. Definitions
Personal data means any information that identifies you or could identify you, either on its own or when combined with other information.
Processing means anything done with personal data: collecting it, storing it, using it, sharing it, or deleting it.
Controller means the party that decides why and how personal data is processed. For the data described here, that is Arkan Interiors.
Processor means a third party that handles data on our instructions, such as an email provider.
PDPL means UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data.
You means anyone who visits this website or contacts us.
3. Who we are and how to reach us
Arkan Interiors Al Najda Street, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Telephone and WhatsApp: +971 2 446 8800 Email: Info@arkan-interiors.com
Arkan Interiors is the name we trade under and the name to use when dealing with us. For completeness, and because a privacy policy should identify the entity responsible for your data, the registered entity behind it is Arkan Interior Furniture Trading.
We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer. Under the PDPL a DPO is required only where processing meets certain thresholds, such as large-scale processing of sensitive data or systematic monitoring. Our processing does not currently meet them. If that changes we will appoint one and say so here.
4. Scope
This policy covers:
- your use of this website
- enquiries you send us by telephone, WhatsApp, email or social media
- information you give us while we prepare a quotation or carry out a project
- applications for employment and approaches from suppliers
It does not cover other companies’ websites or platforms, including social media services and Google Maps, even where we link to them or embed them. Section 15 explains that boundary.
5. What this website does and does not collect
This section describes the website itself. Section 6 covers what happens when you contact us.
This website has no forms. There is no contact form, no quotation form, no careers form, no newsletter signup and no file upload anywhere on it. Nothing you type is submitted to us through these pages, because there is nothing to type into. Every enquiry route on the site is a telephone number, a WhatsApp link or an email address, all of which take you into your own device’s applications.
This website takes no payments. It is not a shop. We do not collect card details, bank details or any payment information through it, and no part of it is connected to a payment processor.
This website sets no cookies. We do not use cookies for analytics, advertising, personalisation or session tracking. We do not use local storage or session storage either. You will not see a cookie banner on this site because there is nothing to consent to.
This website runs no analytics of ours. There is no Google Analytics, no Meta Pixel, no heatmap tool and no comparable script that we have installed.
There is one qualification to that last point, and we would rather state it than leave it out. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, can insert its own web analytics script into pages automatically. A script tag of that kind is currently present in the page source. The site’s own Content Security Policy blocks it from loading, so it does not run and no analytics data is collected through it. We have chosen to disclose this because the tag is visible to anyone who looks at the page source, and because the position could change if that security policy were relaxed. If we ever enable analytics deliberately, we will update this policy before doing so.
Server logs. Our hosting provider records ordinary technical information when a page is requested, including the IP address, the time of the request, the page requested and the browser’s user agent string. This is standard for any website and is used to serve the site, to keep it available and to defend it against attack and abuse. We do not use these logs to build a profile of you or to identify you.
These logs are held by the hosting provider under its own retention schedule and terms, and we do not extract or analyse them.
6. What we collect when you contact us
We collect what you choose to tell us. In practice that usually means:
- your name
- your telephone number, email address or WhatsApp number, depending on how you reached us
- the address or location of the property, where a project is involved
- what you are asking for: photographs, floor plans, drawings, measurements, a description of the work
- anything else you decide to include in a message
For quotations and projects we may also hold correspondence, site notes, measurements, drawings and photographs of the space, and the commercial terms of the work.
If you apply for a job we will hold your CV and whatever you send with it. If you approach us as a supplier we will hold your company and contact details and the details of what you offer.
We do not ask for, and would rather not receive, information about health, religion, political views, biometrics or any other special category of data. Please do not send it. If it reaches us unnecessarily we will delete it.
6.1 WhatsApp
WhatsApp is our most-used enquiry channel. When you message us there, WhatsApp processes that conversation under its own terms and its own privacy policy, which we do not control. We hold the conversation in the account on our business device, and we treat it as we would any other correspondence.
6.2 Telephone
We take enquiries by telephone on the number above. We do not record calls. Nothing you say on the telephone is captured as audio. What we keep is whatever we write down afterwards, such as a callback number or a note of what you are asking for.
6.3 Email
This website does not collect email addresses. There is no form and no signup, so we never receive your address unless you choose to write to us yourself from your own email account.
If you do write to Info@arkan-interiors.com, the message is received and held in our business email system like any other correspondence, and is treated under section 12.
6.4 Social media
We maintain accounts on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Facebook. Comments and direct messages on those accounts are processed by those platforms under their own policies. We can see and reply to what you send us there, and we would ask you not to send project details or personal information through a public comment.
7. Why we use your information, and on what legal basis
The PDPL allows processing with your consent, and also allows it without consent in defined situations, including where processing is necessary to perform or prepare for a contract, to comply with a legal obligation, or to protect a legitimate interest that does not override your rights.
| What we do | Why | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Reply to your enquiry | Because you asked us to | Steps taken at your request before a contract |
| Prepare a quotation | To price the work accurately | Steps taken at your request before a contract |
| Carry out a project | To design, supply and install what was agreed | Performance of a contract |
| Keep project records after handover | To honour warranty obligations and answer later questions | Legitimate interest, and legal obligation for financial records |
| Keep accounting records | Tax and accounting duties in the UAE | Legal obligation |
| Assess a job application | To consider you for a role | Steps taken at your request before a contract |
| Deal with a supplier approach | To evaluate and manage supply | Legitimate interest |
| Keep the website available and secure | To run the site and resist abuse | Legitimate interest |
We do not sell personal data. We do not share it for anyone else’s marketing.
8. Photography of completed work
Much of our work is in private homes, and we treat it that way. Confidentiality is standard for us, and we do not photograph or publish any project without written permission.
Permission is given by signing a document. Clients sign a written authorisation covering photography during quoting, before the work starts, while it is under way, and after completion. It is signed before any photograph is taken. That agreement is between the client and Arkan Interiors directly, and it is not made, managed or recorded through this website. This website plays no part in it.
Where permission has been given, photographs may appear in our portfolio, on this website, on our social media accounts and in printed or digital marketing. We do not publish client names or addresses alongside project photography.
If you have signed a permission and later change your mind, tell us. We will stop using the photographs in anything new and will remove them from our own website and accounts within a reasonable period. We cannot always retrieve material that has already been printed, shared onward by others, or cached by a third party such as a search engine, and we will say so honestly rather than promise otherwise.
9. Material you send us
When you send us photographs, drawings, plans or measurements so that we can quote, we use them for that purpose and for the project that follows.
Sending us material does not transfer ownership of it. It stays yours. You are confirming that you are entitled to share it with us, which matters where drawings were prepared by another designer or architect who may hold rights in them.
We do not use client material in our marketing unless section 8 applies and permission has been given.
10. Who else sees your information
We keep the list short on purpose.
- Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, which serves this website and keeps technical logs as described in section 5.
- Our email, messaging and business software providers, who store correspondence and project records on our instructions.
- Subcontractors and suppliers, but only what they need to do their part of a job. A joiner needs a measurement and a delivery address. They do not need your correspondence with us.
- Professional advisers, such as accountants or lawyers, where there is a proper reason.
- Government or judicial authorities, where UAE law requires us to provide information.
No customer relationship management system is connected to this website. The site feeds nothing into a database, a marketing platform or a sales tool, because it collects nothing to feed them with.
We require anyone processing data on our behalf to protect it and to use it only for the purpose we gave it to them for.
11. Where your information is held
Our hosting provider operates a global network, and pages of this website are served from whichever location is nearest to the visitor. Technical logs of the kind described in section 5 may therefore be processed outside the United Arab Emirates.
The PDPL permits transfers of personal data outside the UAE where the receiving country provides an adequate level of protection, or where appropriate contractual safeguards are in place, or where one of the permitted exceptions applies. Where we use a provider that stores data abroad, we rely on the contractual terms offered by that provider.
Correspondence and project records are held in ordinary business software, some of which is operated by international providers and may store data outside the UAE. Where that is the case we rely on the contractual protections those providers offer. We do not transfer client information outside the UAE for any purpose of our own.
12. How long we keep it
We keep records for a long time, and we would rather explain why than pretend otherwise.
Interior work has a long tail. A client may come back after eight years wanting a matching piece, a repair to something we made, or the specification of a finish nobody wrote down anywhere else. A warranty question or a dispute can surface years after handover. Records that would be convenient to delete are often the only evidence of what was agreed and what was installed.
| Category | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Project records, drawings, specifications and correspondence | The working life of the relationship and for as long afterwards as they may be needed for warranty, repair, matching work or a dispute |
| Financial and accounting records | At least the minimum period required by UAE tax and accounting law, and longer where a matter remains open |
| Enquiries that do not become projects | Long enough to answer and to follow up |
| Job applications | The recruitment process, and afterwards only where the applicant agrees |
| Server logs | The period set by our hosting provider |
Long retention is not unlimited retention. We hold this information because there is a reason to hold it, not by default. Where a record no longer serves any of the purposes in section 7, it can be deleted, and you can ask us to delete it under section 14. Where the law requires us to keep something, we will keep it and tell you so.
13. Security
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information.
On the website itself, connections are encrypted with HTTPS and forced to stay encrypted, and the site is configured with a strict content security policy, restrictive permissions and other protective headers. The site holds no database of visitors, has no login and takes no payments, so there is no store of customer accounts or card data to be lost.
Internally, access to correspondence and project records is limited to the people who need it to do their work.
No system is perfectly secure, and we will not claim otherwise. If a breach occurs that is likely to prejudice your privacy or the confidentiality of your data, we will notify the UAE Data Office and affected individuals as the PDPL requires.
14. Your rights
Under the PDPL you may ask us to:
- tell you what we hold about you and how we are using it
- correct anything inaccurate or incomplete
- delete your data, where we are not required to keep it
- stop or restrict a particular use
- provide your data in a portable form, where that applies
- withdraw consent you previously gave, including permission to publish photography
- object to processing we are carrying out on the basis of legitimate interest
Write to Info@arkan-interiors.com and tell us what you want. We may need to confirm who you are before we act, which protects you as much as us. We will respond within a reasonable period and in any event within any period the PDPL requires.
There is no charge for a reasonable request. If a request is clearly excessive or repetitive we may explain why we cannot meet it in full.
If you believe we have mishandled your data, tell us first and give us the chance to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the UAE Data Office.
15. Other websites and embedded content
Our contact page embeds a Google Maps view showing where our showroom is. That map is loaded directly from Google, which means Google receives your IP address and may process it under its own privacy policy when the map loads. We embed it because a map is the clearest way to show people where to find us, and we would rather tell you it is there than let you discover it.
We also link to Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook and WhatsApp. Following any of those links takes you onto a service we do not control.
We are not responsible for how those companies handle your data. Read their policies if that matters to you.
16. Marketing
We do not operate a newsletter and there is no way to subscribe to anything on this website. We do not send bulk marketing email from it. If we contact you it is because you contacted us first, or because we are working together.
If we ever begin sending marketing messages, we will ask for your consent first and every message will carry a way to stop them.
17. Children
This website is aimed at people commissioning interior work and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect data about anyone under 18. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, tell us and we will delete it.
18. Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when what we do changes, and the date at the top will change with it. Where a change is significant we will say so on the page rather than leave you to spot the difference.
19. Governing law
This policy is governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates as applied in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The courts of Abu Dhabi have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from it.
20. Contact
Questions about this policy, or any request under section 14:
Arkan Interiors Al Najda Street, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Info@arkan-interiors.com +971 2 446 8800