Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated
This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the rights you have over your data. It applies to our website, our web application, and any correspondence you have with us.
Who we are
Knownable (www.knownable.com) is a real-estate data intelligence platform for property professionals in Abu Dhabi. For the purposes of this policy, we act as the data controller of the personal data described below. If you have any question about how we handle your information, contact us at privacy@knownable.com.
What we collect
We collect the minimum personal data needed to run an account-based subscription service: account details, billing records (handled by our payment provider), usage analytics, and support correspondence. We do not collect more than that, and our free browser-based tools collect nothing at all.
In more detail:
- Account details. Your name, email address, company or brokerage name, and password (stored only as a salted hash, never in plain text). If you add team members, we hold their names and email addresses too.
- Billing information. Subscriptions are purchased and managed inside the application at hub.knownable.com, and payments are processed by our payment provider. Card numbers are entered directly into the payment provider's systems and never touch or reside on our servers. We retain only what we need for invoicing and accounting: the last four digits of your card, card brand, billing name, and transaction records.
- Usage analytics. We record how the platform is used — pages viewed, features run, searches performed — along with technical data such as IP address, browser type, and device category. We use this to keep the service reliable and to improve it.
- Support correspondence. If you email us or raise a support request, we keep the correspondence and any information you choose to include in it.
Free calculators run in your browser. Our free property calculators — rental yield and ROI, area price, Golden Visa eligibility, and mortgage affordability — compute entirely on your device from the values you enter. Those inputs are never sent to or stored on our servers, and no account is required to use them.
How we use your data
We use personal data for four purposes: delivering the service you signed up for, billing you correctly, improving the product, and sending transactional email. We do not use your data for anything unrelated to running the service.
- Service delivery. Authenticating your account, saving your settings and saved searches, and providing the features included in your plan.
- Billing. Processing subscription payments through our payment provider, issuing invoices, and handling refunds or disputes.
- Product improvement. Analysing aggregated usage patterns to understand which features work well and where the product falls short. Where practical, we use aggregated or de-identified data for this.
- Transactional email. Receipts, renewal notices, password resets, security alerts, and material changes to the service or this policy. These are operational messages, not marketing; any marketing email is opt-in and can be withdrawn at any time.
Legal bases and UAE data protection law
We process personal data in line with the UAE Personal Data Protection Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 (PDPL), and, where a customer or processing activity falls within the Abu Dhabi Global Market, the ADGM Data Protection Regulations. Our legal bases are contract performance, legitimate interests, legal obligation, and consent.
Specifically:
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Account creation and service delivery | Performance of our contract with you |
| Billing and invoicing | Performance of contract; legal obligation (accounting and tax rules) |
| Usage analytics and product improvement | Legitimate interests, balanced against your rights |
| Marketing email | Consent, which you may withdraw at any time |
| Responding to lawful requests from authorities | Legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have assessed that the processing is necessary and does not override your rights and freedoms. Where we rely on consent, refusing or withdrawing it does not affect your access to the core service.
Who we share data with
We share personal data only with the service providers (processors) needed to operate the platform, and we never sell personal data to anyone. Each processor is bound by a contract that restricts what it may do with your data.
Our processors fall into three categories:
- Payments: our payment provider, which processes card payments on our behalf and is responsible for card data under its own PCI DSS obligations.
- Hosting and infrastructure: the cloud providers that run our application and store our databases and backups.
- Analytics and support tooling: services we use to measure product usage and manage support requests.
We may also disclose data where the law requires it — for example, in response to a valid order from a UAE court or regulator — or as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger, in which case this policy would continue to apply to your data.
International transfers
Some of our processors store or process data outside the UAE. Where that happens, we transfer data only under safeguards consistent with the PDPL and, where applicable, the ADGM Data Protection Regulations — such as transfers to jurisdictions with adequate protection or contractual clauses that impose equivalent obligations on the recipient.
How long we keep data
We keep personal data only as long as we need it for the purposes above, then delete or anonymise it. As a rough guide: account data is kept while your account is active and deleted within 90 days of account closure; billing and invoice records are kept for the period required by UAE accounting and tax rules; support correspondence is kept for up to two years after the matter closes; and analytics data is retained in identifiable form for no longer than 24 months.
Security
We protect personal data with encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest, access controls that limit staff access to what their role requires, hashed password storage, and routine security reviews of our infrastructure and code. No system is immune to compromise, so if a breach ever affects your personal data and poses a risk to you, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as the PDPL requires.
Your rights
You have the right to access, correct, and delete your personal data, and to object to or restrict certain processing. To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@knownable.com from the address associated with your account.
Under the PDPL (and the ADGM regulations where they apply), you may:
- Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Correction — ask us to fix inaccurate or incomplete data. Most account details can also be edited directly in your settings.
- Deletion — ask us to delete your data, subject to records we must keep by law (for example, invoices).
- Objection and restriction — object to processing based on legitimate interests, or ask us to restrict processing while a dispute is resolved.
- Withdraw consent — for any processing based on consent, such as marketing email.
We respond to requests within the timeframes the law sets. If you are unhappy with our response, you may complain to the UAE Data Office or, for ADGM-scope matters, the ADGM Office of Data Protection.
Cookies and analytics
We use two kinds of cookies. Essential cookies are required for login sessions and security in the application and cannot be switched off. Analytics cookies help us understand how the site is used so we can improve it — these are set by Google Analytics, and they load only if you accept them in the cookie banner shown on your first visit. If you decline, no analytics cookies are set. We also use Vercel Web Analytics, which is cookieless and aggregate by design. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
You can change your choice at any time by clearing this site's cookies and storage in your browser, which brings the banner back, or by blocking cookies through your browser settings — though blocking essential cookies will prevent you from signing in.
Children
Our platform is a professional tool and is not directed at anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from minors; if you believe a minor has created an account, contact privacy@knownable.com and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the service or the law changes. The date at the top shows when it was last revised. For material changes — anything that meaningfully affects how your data is handled — we will notify account holders by email before the change takes effect.
Contact
For any privacy question, request, or complaint, email privacy@knownable.com. We aim to acknowledge every message within two working days.