The main principles and general rules for the protection of personal data and data sharing

​The main principles and general rules for protecting personal data:


​​The Ministry of Commerce has an Information Privacy Protection Policy for the e-portal and for the relevant systems and their solutions. This policy is compatible with the legislation of users’ Personal Data Protection, and they are subject to the Personal Data Protection Law. This policy aims to define and specify the controls related to the privacy of personal identification information and all other sensitive information, taking into consideration the necessary protection. This is for the Ministry of Commerce customers and their saved information.

The MCI Portal takes the confidentiality of its users and visitors as a top priority, and the portal management makes every effort in order to provide high-quality services for those benefitting from it. Thus, the privacy and confidentiality, herein illustrated, are considered part of the usage terms and provisions of the MCI Portal and its provisions.

The Ministry of Commerce and investment (MCI) does not gather personal information about you when you visit its portal unless you specifically and knowingly opted to provide such information for us. And if you opted to provide such information, we would only use it to respond to your request for information or services in line with what is mentioned with regard to these policies. And by using the MCI Portal, that means you have complied with such a privacy and confidentiality policy.

Visitors and beneficiaries of the Portal should keep taking a look at the terms and principles of privacy and confidentiality every now and then, in order to be updated and informed of any modifications to them, bearing in mind that the Portal Administration is not to be liable to announce any updates applied to these terms and principles. And using the portal means that you have viewed and complied with these terms and principles and the continuous recurrent modifications applied to them.  

The Ministry of Commerce and investment is under no circumstances accountable for any direct, non-direct, accidental, consequential, or exceptional harm taking place from using or the inability to use the portal.

Security of the Personal Information:

- ​The Privacy and Confidentiality code has been prepared to help the visitors and users understand the nature of data gathered from them when they visit the Portal and how to deal with it.

- The Portal Administration takes the proper, appropriate procedures and measures in order to maintain the personal information which it has in a safe way guaranteeing its protection against loss or unlicensed access, or abuse, or unlicensed modification and disclosure. And among the most important measures applied at the MCI in order to protect the visitor's personal information are the following:

  •  Strict procedures and measures in order to protect the information security, and the technology used to shield from fraud and unlicensed access to our systems.
  •   Regular and periodical updating of protection procedures and regulations which meet or are more than standards.
  •   Our employees are qualified and trained to respect the confidentiality of our visitors' personal information.

Personal Information Gathering:

Once the user visits the MCI Portal, its server registers the internet protocol (IP) of the user, and the date, time of the visit, and the URL address of any website from which links you to the Portal.

Most websites, once visited, put a small file on the hard disc of visitor's computer (browser). This file is called Cookies; which are files are text files. These text files contain information availing the website which put it to retrieve it when necessity, during the user's forthcoming visit to the website. The saved information includes:

  1. Remembering username and password.
  2. Saving page settings in case this was available at the portal.
  3. Saving colors chosen by the user.
  4. Unavailability of voting more than once for the same user. 

- The visitor may not have to enter the password at every time they visit the website, as the system of the website will be able to detect it via cookie files. Or it could prevent the user from re-voting if they previously voted, and so forth. Accordingly, the MCI Portal is to use the information existing on the cookies files for technical purposes related to it, and this is when it is visited more than once. Also, the portal can change the information existing on cookie files or adding new information when you visit the MCI Portal.

- If you used a direct application or sent an email to us via the MCI Portal providing us with your personal information, we would share the necessary information with other bodies or departments; in order to serve you in a more effective way. And we will not share your personal information with non-governmental bodies unless it is licensed from concerned bodies to perform specific governmental services. Providing your personal information via the MCI Portal means that you fully agree to storing, treating, and using such information by the Saudi authorities. And we keep the right at all times to disclose any information for concerned bodies, when necessary, in order to abide by any law, system, or governmental request. 

- You are fully accountable for the validity and honesty of the information sent via this Portal.​​

Privacy Protection: 

To be able to help you protect your personal information, we recommend the following procedures:

  •  Contacting us immediately when you think that someone enabled to obtain your password or usage code, or any other confidential information.
  •  Refraining from giving confidential information via the telephone or the internet unless you know the identity of the one speaking to you.
  • Using safe browsing web when making dealings via the internet, along with closing the non-used applications on the internet and making sure that the virus protection program is always updated.
  • In case of having any inquiries or opinions on the privacy principles, you can communicate with us via the portal through the Contact Us Form at the Contact Us  page​.
  • To maintain your personal information, the electronic storage and sent personal information are secured through using the appropriate security technologies. 
  • This Portal contains links for websites or portals that may use ways to protect the information and its privacy differ from the ways we use; we are not responsible for the content, ways, privacies of these other websites. We advise you to refer to privacy notices of these websites. 

Email Sending: 

When you inquire or request information on a specific service, or in case of giving additional information using any of the communication means with the MCI whether electronic or non-electronic such as inquiring about our website, we use your email to reply to your inquiries. Also, it is possible to save your email and message, and our answer to it for quality monitoring purposes. We also could do that for legal and censoring purposes.


Main principles and general rules for data sharing:

  • We provide publishable data from its correct sources and we ensure that it is not duplicated or inconsistent with any other data.
  • We provide data for a justified practical goal aiming to achieve public interests without harming other entities 'activities, individuals' privacy, or environmental safety.
  • The authority to access data by properly qualified and trained persons
  • All information necessary for data exchange would be shared, including the requested data, the purpose of collecting it, means of transmission and methods of preserving such data, the controls used to protect it, and the mechanism for its disposal.
  • The security controls stipulated in the Data Sharing Agreement shall be applied.
  • Appropriate security controls are applied to protect and share data in a safe and reliable environment, in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations.
  • Ethical practices are applied during the data sharing process to ensure that it is used under fairness, integrity, honesty and respect.​​



Last Modified 08 Aug 2022
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