Privacy notice

Who we are

Business Start Up Qatar, Doha, Qatar (in association with Shourouk Media, Level 18, Tornado Tower, West Bay, Doha). We decide how the personal data described here is used, and we are responsible for it.

The website is built and run for us by Acceleration AI (Doha, Qatar, commercial registration 228188). Acceleration AI handles this data only on our instructions, to run the site, its databases, the AI Guide and the admin.

Member directory fees are paid to Acceleration AI, which keeps the payment records it needs for its own accounts.

For privacy questions and requests, email solutions4@gmail.com or call +974 5034 3737.

What we collect and why

• Enquiries: when you send the contact form or a consultation enquiry, we receive your name, email and/or phone, your organisation, industry and company size if you give them, your subject and message, and the page you sent it from. To stop spam and duplicate sends, we also keep a scrambled code made from your IP address and browser. The code changes every day, and we don’t keep the IP address itself. We use these details to answer you. Our reason: your consent, which you give with the tick box. They are deleted from our database after 90 days. A copy also arrives as an email alert in our inbox, and we delete it after 90 days.
• Consultation bookings: your name, email, phone, company, company size, activity, the topic and time you chose, any notes, and the Fawran transfer reference you send us. We use them to hold your appointment, confirm your payment and run the consultation. Our reason: to provide the service you booked, and our legal duty to keep payment records. We keep booking details for 2 years after the appointment, and payment records for as long as Qatar’s accounting rules require. A copy of each booking also arrives as an email alert in our inbox, and we delete it after 90 days.
• Member listings: if you list your business, we receive your business profile and your contact name, email and phone. Your profile is public: anyone can see it, search engines can show it, and the AI Guide can suggest it to visitors looking for a business like yours. Your contact email and phone are never shown publicly. We also keep the reference and date of each Fawran payment, earlier versions of your profile when it is edited, and a scrambled code made from your IP address to stop spam applications. We use this information to review your application, publish and renew your listing, and contact you about it. Membership fees are paid to Acceleration AI. Our reason: your consent, which you give when you apply, and the membership you pay for. If your application is not approved, or the fee isn’t paid, we delete it after 6 months. When a listing ends, we take it offline straight away and delete the profile, its earlier versions and your contact details after 12 months. Payment records are kept for as long as accounting rules require. Please don’t put anyone’s health, religion, family or criminal-record details, or details of anyone under 18, in a profile.
• Messages to members: when you contact a listed member through this site, we receive your name, email, optional phone and your message, the consent you gave, and a scrambled code made from your IP address to stop spam. Business Start Up Qatar reads the message and passes it to the member. We never show you the member’s own email or phone. Once the member has your message, the member is responsible for how they use your details. Our reason: your consent, which you give with the tick box. We keep the message and the consent record for 12 months.
• The AI Guide: when you use the guide, your questions and its answers are sent to an AI service outside Qatar to produce the answer. The conversation is kept for up to 30 days so it can continue across pages and so we can check the quality of the answers. Guide usage events, such as a question being asked or a link being opened, are kept for 90 days. The guide answers from this website’s pages and makes no decisions about you. Please don’t enter sensitive personal information in the guide, such as health, religion or family matters, or passport or bank numbers. Our reason: you start each conversation, and we have a legitimate interest in checking that the guide’s answers are correct.
• Visit analytics: only if you choose “Allow analytics” in the banner, we record which pages are viewed, how long and how far they are read, your type of device and screen, your browser language, where you came from (for example Google, a social network, or a campaign link and its campaign tags), and your approximate country, region and city, which our hosting provider estimates from your IP address. We don’t keep your IP address, your precise location, or anything you type into forms or the guide. Visits are linked by a random identifier that lasts for one browsing session, not by your name or email. This data is deleted after 90 days. Our reason: your consent. You can change your choice at any time with the “Privacy choices” button. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as a “no”.

Who receives your data

• Business Start Up Qatar staff who handle enquiries, bookings, listings and messages, and Acceleration AI staff who run the site.
• A listed member, but only for a message you choose to send to that member.
• Anyone who visits the site, for the public part of a member profile.
• Service providers that run the site for us, each only for its own part: Vercel (website hosting; the site’s server functions run in the United States); Neon (database for bookings, members and messages); Supabase (database for enquiries, analytics and the AI Guide); FormSubmit (delivers enquiry, booking and member-directory alerts to our inbox); Google (our email inbox); and OpenRouter and the AI model provider it uses (OpenAI) for the guide, in the United States.
• Authorities, courts or our professional advisers, when the law requires it or to protect our legal rights.

We do not sell your personal data or share it for anyone’s advertising.

Data processed outside Qatar

Most of our service providers store or process data outside Qatar, including in the United States. We choose providers that commit by contract to keep data secure and to use it only to provide their service to us, and we send each one only what its part needs.

Keeping it safe

Only staff who need personal data can see it, and they have to sign in. Changes made in the admin are logged. Data is sent over encrypted connections and stored with providers that encrypt it. If a security breach could seriously harm you, we will tell you and the National Cyber Governance and Assurance Affairs as soon as we can, and within 72 hours of finding out.

Cookies and local storage

We don’t use advertising cookies or third-party tracking cookies. The site keeps a few small items in your browser:

• your analytics choice, until you change it or clear your browser;
• if you allow analytics, a random visit identifier that lasts for the browsing session;
• your AI Guide conversation, so it can continue across pages;
• while you fill in “List your business”, your unsent answers, until you close the tab.

You can clear all of these in your browser settings at any time.

Marketing

We don’t send marketing emails or messages unless you have agreed to receive them. Every marketing message says it is from Business Start Up Qatar, says it is marketing, and tells you how to stop it, and you can stop at any time. Messages about your booking, application or listing renewal are not marketing.

Children

This site is for adults. You must be 18 or over to send an enquiry, book a consultation, apply for a listing (including as a student) or message a member. If you think a child has sent us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

• tell you what personal data we hold about you, why, who receives it, where it is processed and how long we keep it, and give you a copy;
• correct it (please send something that shows the correct details);
• delete it, for example when we no longer need it or you withdraw your consent;
• stop using it, if you object because the use isn’t needed, goes beyond what is needed, or is unfair or unlawful;
• withdraw a consent you gave. This stops future use but doesn’t undo what was done before.

Members can also ask us at any time to change or remove their listing.

Email solutions4@gmail.com or use the contact page. We may ask you to confirm who you are, but only for what we need. We reply within 30 days. Requests are free. If we can’t do what you ask, for example because the law requires us to keep payment records, we will tell you why.

If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the National Cyber Governance and Assurance Affairs at the National Cyber Security Agency, the authority for Law No. 13 of 2016 (ncsa.gov.qa).

Changes

We will update this notice when what we collect, or who receives it, changes, and we will change the date below. If a change affects members or people who have booked, we will also email them. This notice is published in English and Arabic, and the Arabic version applies if they differ.