The Core Securities Company Limited

Terms of Use

These Terms of Use were last modified on August 19, 2022.

Terms of Use and your acceptance of them. Read before continuing.

The Core Securities Company Limited and all of its subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively, “TCS”, “We” or “us”) are pleased to provide you with the information, content, tools, products and services on all TCS’s web sites and mobile applications, including but not limited to, TCS’s online account opening platform and MySmartAdvisor (collectively, the “TCS Sites”) (the term “TCS Sites” refers to all TCS’s web sites and mobile applications, as well as the content on each of them) subject to and in accordance with the following terms and conditions (collectively, the “Terms of Use”). These Terms of Use cover multiple web sites and mobile applications, in which some Terms of Use may refer to items that are available only on certain TCS Sites. These Terms of Use also include some important disclosures and information related to certain products and services. Your use of the TCS Sites is subject to these Terms of Use.

User Agreement

These Terms of Use are a binding agreement between you and TCS. By using or accessing the TCS Sites, you accept and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use. Your use of the TCS Sites is governed by the version of the Terms of Use in effect on the date each TCS Site is accessed by you. TCS may modify these Terms of Use at any time and without prior notice. You should review the most current version of these Terms of Use by visiting a TCS Site and clicking on the Terms of Use hyperlink located at the bottom of the page. These Terms of Use are in addition to any other agreements between you and TCS, including any customer or account agreements, and any other agreements that govern your use of information, content, tools, products and services available on and through the TCS Sites.

Supplemental terms and conditions or documents that may be posted on the TCS Sites from time to time are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference. TCS reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to make changes or modifications to these Terms of Use at any time and for any reason. TCS will alert you about any changes by updating the “Last updated” date of these Terms of Use, and you waive any right to receive specific notice of each such change. It is your responsibility to periodically review these Terms of Use to stay informed of updates. You will be subject to, and will be deemed to have been made aware of and to have accepted, the changes in any revised Terms of Use by your continued use of any of the TCS Sites after the date such revised Terms of Use are posted.

Scope

The information provided on the TCS Sites is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person in any jurisdiction where such distribution or use would be contrary to law or regulation. The TCS Sites should not be considered as communicating any invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity or any offer to buy or sell any securities or other instruments outside Hong Kong.

The TCS Sites are intended only for your personal, non-commercial use, unless you and TCS have agreed otherwise in writing. 

The TCS Sites are intended for users who are at least eighteen (18) years old. Persons under the age of eighteen (18) are not permitted to use or register for the TCS Sites.

Registration Information and Privacy

When you register for the services provided by TCS, including, without limitation, using and completing TCS’s online account opening services, TCS may ask you to provide certain identifying information (collectively “Registration”). You agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself. You also agree not to impersonate any person or entity, misrepresent any affiliation with another person, entity or association, use false headers or otherwise conceal your identity from TCS for any purpose. TCS agrees to treat with care the information you entrust to TCS, in accordance with the disclosures TCS gives during the applicable Registration process and in our Privacy Policy. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current, incomplete, insufficient or misleading, TCS reserves the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of any or all of the TCS Sites (or any portion thereof). For the full content of the “Registration Information and Privacy”, please refer to the “Privacy Policy”.

For your protection and the protection of other users and clients of the TCS Sites, TCS asks you not to share your registration information (including passwords, user names, screen names and any other security information) with any other person for the purpose of facilitating their access and unauthorized use of the services provided by TCS. If you do share this information with anyone, TCS will consider their activities to have been authorized by you. You alone are responsible for all transactions initiated, messages posted, statements made, or acts or omissions that occur within any services provided by TCS through the use of your Registration information.

Please confirm that you have read below before clicking “I consent to and will abide by the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use” to continue the registration, and/or by continuing with the use of TCS’ online services.

Consent to User Agreement

The User Agreement, other online agreements and the TCS Sites include important disclosures and regulatory information that are associated with the services provided by TCS. From time to time, TCS may ask you to review other important disclosures or agreements about the services provided by TCS.

When you click “I consent to and will abide by the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use” to continue the registration, or when you continue with the use of TCS’ online services, you will be consenting to electronic delivery of the User Agreement in HTML format or otherwise, and also affirming the following:

• You understand and intend that the User Agreement is a legally binding agreement and the equivalent of a signed, written contract;
• You represent and warrant that: (1) all information (registration or otherwise) you submit are true, accurate, current, complete and not misleading; (2) you will maintain the accuracy of such information and promptly update such information (registration or otherwise) as necessary; (3) you have the legal capacity and you agree to comply with these Terms of Use; (4) you are at least eighteen (18) years old; (5) you will not access the TCS Sites through automated or non-human means, whether through a bot, script, or otherwise; (6) you will not use the TCS Sites for any illegal or unauthorized purpose; and (7) your use of the TCS Sites will not violate any applicable law or regulation;
• You will use the services provided by TCS and the TCS Sites generally, in a manner consistent with applicable laws and regulations and in accordance with the Terms of Use and conditions of the User Agreement and any other applicable rules, guidelines or other conditions that govern the use of a particular service provided by TCS as they may be amended by TCS from time to time; and
• You understand, accept, and have received the User Agreement and its Terms of Use and conditions, and acknowledge and demonstrate that you can access the User Agreement on the TCS Sites.

If you do not agree with the Terms of Use and conditions in the User Agreement, please select “Cancel” below and you will exit the registration process. You should be aware, however, that the use of any service provided by TCS, including the TCS Sites, is subject to the Terms of Use and conditions of the User Agreement. This Agreement will always be available for your review via the TCS Sites. If you click “I consent to and will abide by the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use” we will create an electronic record of your agreement and you will be able to continue with the registration process. Please carefully review the following Terms of Use and conditions of the User Agreement.

The TCS Sites are primarily intended for those who access it from or within Hong Kong. Because of this, TCS cannot guarantee that the TCS Sites or the information thereon complies with laws or regulations of other jurisdictions, or is appropriate for use, in other places. You are wholly responsible for use of the TCS Sites by any person using your computer and you must ensure that any such person complies with these Terms of Use and conditions of the User Agreement. 

Consent to Electronic Records, Communications and Signatures

You agree to accept all communications from TCS regarding use of TCS’s services at the addresses you provide during Registration. Please promptly update any changes to your registration information with TCS. TCS is entitled to rely on the e-mail address and mail address that you last provided. You agree to waive all claims resulting from failure to receive communications because of changes in your e-mail or mail address. From time to time, TCS would like to send you information about our products and services. If you register with TCS, you are granting TCS permission to communicate with you by e-mail. You can opt not to receive such information from TCS in the future by following the instructions in any e-mail that TCS sends to you.

In connection with your evaluation of potential investments, your decision to invest and your monitoring of your investments made, you consent and agree to the use of electronic media and electronic transmission for the delivery and review of any and all applicable investment information, including without limitation mutual fund products and related information and updates, prospectuses, annual and interim financial reports or other materials or communications relating to such investment information.

You agree to be bound by any affirmation, assent, or agreement you transmit through the services you access by computer or other electronic device, including internet, telephonic and wireless devices, including but not limited to any consent you give to receive communications from TCS solely through electronic transmission. You agree that, when in the future you click on an “I agree,” “I consent”, “I accept” or other similarly worded “button” or entry field with your mouse, keystroke or other device, your agreement or consent will be legally binding and enforceable and is legally effective as your handwritten signature.

Revision and Relation to Other Agreements or Disclosures

TCS may revise the User Agreement at any time, and you agree to be bound by further revision. It is your responsibility to visit the TCS Sites periodically to review the most current terms and conditions. If you have additional account(s) with TCS, your client relationship with TCS is also governed by such account agreement(s). If there is any conflict between (1) the User Agreement and (2) your client agreement(s) with TCS, then your client agreement(s) will govern. TCS may also offer other services from time to time that are governed by different or additional terms and conditions. The services provided by TCS are subject to any disclosure or disclaimers found within the services provided by TCS.

Limited licence and restrictions on use

TCS grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive and non-transferable licence to view, store, bookmark, download, and print the pages within the TCS Sites solely for your personal, informational, and non-commercial use or as expressly authorized by TCS in writing. You are responsible for obtaining and maintaining all equipment, services, and other materials that you need to access the TCS Sites. TCS reserves all rights not expressly granted in these Terms of Use. Except as otherwise stated in these Terms of Use or as expressly authorized by TCS in writing, you may not (or enable others to):

• Modify, copy, screen capture, distribute, forward, transmit, post, display, perform, reproduce, publish, broadcast, license, create derivative works from, transfer, sell, or exploit any reports, data, information, content, software, RSS and podcast feeds, products, services, or other materials on, generated by or obtained from the TCS Sites, whether through links or otherwise (collectively, “Materials”);
• Redeliver any page, text, image, or Materials on the TCS Sites using “framing” or other technology;
• Engage in any conduct that could damage, disable, or overburden (i) the TCS Sites, (ii) any Materials or services provided through the TCS Sites, or (iii) any systems, networks, servers, or accounts related to the TCS Sites, including without limitation, using devices or software that provide repeated automated access to the TCS Sites, other than those made generally available by TCS;
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any Materials, services, systems, networks, servers, or accounts related to the TCS Sites or attempt to gain unauthorized access to Materials, services, systems, networks, servers, or accounts connected or associated with the TCS Sites through hacking, password or data mining, or any other means of circumventing any access-limiting, user authentication or security device of any Materials, services, systems, networks, servers, or accounts related to the TCS Sites;
• Modify, copy, obscure, remove, or display TCS’s name, logo, trademarks, text, notices, or images without TCS’s express written permission; or
• Include the term “TCS” or any TCS trademark or executive’s name, or any variation of the foregoing, as a meta-tag, hidden textual element, or any other indicator that creates an impression of affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement by TCS.

User information, data, content and licence grant

To use our services, you will need to register through the TCS Sites. When you register for and use our services, the information you provide to us during the registration and your use will help us in offering our services. You agree that you are solely responsible for all information, data, content, text, photographs, graphics, images, videos, messages, comments, quotations, files, documents, and any other materials that you submit, upload, post, e-mail, transmit, or otherwise make available via the TCS Sites (“User Content”). By submitting, uploading, posting, e-mailing, or transmitting User Content to the TCS Sites, you represent and warrant that either you own all right, title, and interest in and to the User Content or have express permission from the owner to copy and use such User Content for all purposes related to the TCS Sites. TCS does not control and is not responsible for the User Content uploaded via the TCS Sites, and TCS neither guarantees the accuracy, quality, or appropriateness of nor endorses any User Content submitted to the TCS Sites.

You agree not to use the TCS Sites to:

• submit, upload, post, e-mail, transmit, or otherwise make available any User Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, menacing, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, pornographic, obscene, offensive, blasphemous, libelous, unlawful, invasive of another’s privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable;
• submit, upload, post, e-mail, transmit, or otherwise make available any User Content that personally attacks or is derogatory against TCS as an entity, TCS employees, any TCS products or services, or any TCS Materials;
• harm minors in any way, including, but not limited to, submitting, uploading, posting, e-mailing, transmitting, or otherwise making available content that violates child pornography laws, child sexual exploitation laws, or laws prohibiting the depiction of minors engaged in sexual conduct;
• impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
• forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any User Content transmitted through the TCS Sites;
• submit, upload, post, e-mail, transmit, or otherwise make available any User Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or contractual or fiduciary relationships or obligations;
• submit, upload, post, e-mail, transmit, or otherwise make available any User Content that infringes, violates, or misappropriates any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other intellectual property or proprietary right or any moral right of any party;
• submit, upload, post, e-mail, transmit, or otherwise make available any personal information or specific account details about yourself or any person or entity;
• submit, upload, post, e-mail, transmit, or otherwise make available any advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of solicitation;
• submit, upload, post, e-mail, transmit, or otherwise make available any material that contains viruses or any other computer code, files, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment; or
• intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national, or international laws, rules, regulations, decrees, acts, orders, directives, legislation, bills, or statutes.

You grant TCS and its affiliates, subsidiaries, directors, officers, employees, agents, licensors, and vendors a perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, fully-paid up, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable right and licence to use, store, modify, adapt, translate, publish, display, broadcast, perform, disclose, distribute, sell, reproduce, and create derivative works from any User Content, in whole or in part, in any medium or technology throughout the world, including any inventions, concepts, techniques, know-how, ideas, or expressions of ideas arising out of or based on the User Content, for any purpose in TCS’s sole discretion, without the requirement of any permission from or compensation or notice, and without liability, to you or any third party. TCS shall exclusively own all right, title, and interest in and to any derivative works or inventions created by or on behalf of TCS that incorporate or otherwise make use of any User Content, without the requirement of any permission from or compensation or notice, and without liability, to you or any third party.

Except as set forth in our Privacy Policy, none of the User Content that you submit, upload, post, e-mail, or transmit or otherwise make available via the TCS Sites shall be subject to any confidentiality obligations by TCS and its affiliates, subsidiaries, directors, officers, employees, agents, licensors, and vendors. Except as may be provided by laws in Hong Kong, TCS shall not be liable in any way for any User Content or for the use or disclosure of any User Content.

You acknowledge that TCS and/or its vendors may or may not (but are not obligated to) monitor User Content, but that TCS shall have the right in its sole discretion to monitor, post, move, refuse, or remove any User Content, in whole or in part, for any reason whatsoever, without notice and without liability.

Your account

Certain parts of the TCS Sites may be protected by passwords or require a login. Further, for authentication purposes, certain features on the TCS Sites may require you to answer a designated security question. You agree to provide TCS with current, complete, and accurate information about you as prompted by the applicable registration process and agree to regularly update this information to maintain its completeness and accuracy. You agree to use the TCS Sites to access only those accounts on which you are authorized to act, and you agree to use your own user names, logins, passwords, and security questions and answers when accessing accounts on which you are authorized to act. You agree not to obtain or attempt to obtain unauthorized access to such parts of or features on the TCS Sites, or to any other protected Materials or information, through any means not intentionally made available to you by TCS.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any account information, user names, logins, passwords, and security questions and answers that you use to access any page or feature on the TCS Sites, and for logging off of your account and any protected areas of the TCS Sites. Further, you are fully responsible for all activities occurring under your accounts, user names, logins, passwords, and security questions and answers that result from your negligence, carelessness, misconduct, or failure to use or maintain appropriate security measures. If you become aware of any suspicious or unauthorized conduct concerning your accounts, user names, logins, passwords, or security questions and answers, you agree to contact TCS immediately. TCS will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this paragraph.

Products and services provided to you through the TCS Sites may involve the electronic transmission, including via any e-mail address you provide, of information that you may consider to be personal financial information or promotional and marketing materials, and you consent to such transmission.

Data, information, and content

The Materials on the TCS Sites are for information, education, and, as the case may be, certain commercial purposes only. Although TCS may provide data, information, and content relating to investment approaches and opportunities to buy or sell securities and/or mutual funds, you should not construe any such information or other content available through the TCS Sites as investment, legal or tax advice. You alone will bear the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any Materials on the TCS Sites before making any decisions based on such Materials. In exchange for using such Materials, you agree not to hold TCS or its third-party information providers liable for any possible claim for damages arising from any decision you make based on the Materials made available to you through the TCS Sites. By providing access to other websites, neither TCS nor any of its affiliates is recommending the purchase or sale of the securities issued by any company, nor are they endorsing services provided by any website’s sponsoring organization.

Agreement With Information Providers Regarding Market Data

The securities prices, quotations, research, ratings, news and other information provided on the TCS Sites are provided by third party sources that include, but are not limited to, the Bloomberg Finance L.P., Morningstar Asia Limited, Shenzhen Securities Information Co., Ltd., HKEX Information Services Limited, Nasdaq, Inc., and China Investment Information Services Limited. and their respective affiliates, agents and others, including persons or entities that act as data processors on behalf of the foregoing (collectively, “Information Providers”). By using the TCS Sites, you acknowledge and agree that:

(1) securities prices, quotations, research, ratings, news and other information received from Information Providers (“Market Data”) are solely for your individual use and you will not re-transmit, distribute, re-sell, re-license, reproduce, copy, publish, broadcast, port, route, store in databases or furnish Market Data to any other person or entity, except to other officers, partners or employees if you are an entity;

(2) the Market Data is and shall remain the property of the respective Information Providers or of the market on which a reported transaction took place or a reported quotation was entered;

(3) at any time, Information Providers may discontinue disseminating any category of Market Data, may change or eliminate any transmission method and may change transmission speeds or signal characteristics, and you shall not hold the Information Providers liable for any resulting liability, loss or damages that may arise therefrom;

(4) your agreements set forth herein and the disclaimers of warranty and disclaimers of liability set forth below are for the express benefit of the Information Providers as third party beneficiaries and they may enforce these provisions against you;

(5) no modifications of any Market Data shall be made;

(6) the accessible Market Data shall not be used in conjunction with any machine learning, neural network, deep learning, predictive analytics or other artificial intelligence computer or software program;

(7) in no event may the Market Data be used to create, or be used in conjunction with, a model, algorithm, or process that is designed to predict trades for or within an individual portfolio, fund or other investment vehicle;

(8) the use of crawlers, bots and spiders to programmatically search, extract or download Market Data is strictly prohibited; and

(9) the Market Data shall not be used as part of a general mailing or to create a competitive product or service.

These Terms of Use shall remain in effect as to the Information Providers for so long as you have the ability to receive Market Data through the TCS Sites as contemplated hereby. In addition, TCS may terminate your access to Market Data at any time. You understand that TCS is obligated to terminate access to the TCS Sites as to the provision of any or all of the Market Data pursuant to this paragraph upon notice to that effect from any of the Information Providers. The forgoing provisions regarding the proprietary nature of Market Data, third party beneficiary enforcement by the Information Providers and the disclaimer of liability and disclaimer of warranty by the Information Providers survive termination of your access to Market Data. These Terms of Use supersede and replace any previous agreement that may exist between you and the Information Providers insofar as the superseded agreement pertains to the Market Data provided to you through the TCS Sites.

Mobile Application Licence

User Licence

If you access the TCS Sites via a mobile application, then we grant you a revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable and limited right to install and use the mobile application on wireless electronic devices owned or controlled by you, and to access and use the mobile application on such devices strictly in accordance with the applicable end user licence agreement for such mobile application and these Terms of Use. You shall not: (1) decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, attempt to derive the source code of, or decrypt the application; (2) make any modification, adaptation, improvement, enhancement, translation, or derivative work from the application; (3) violate any applicable laws, rules, or regulations in connection with your access or use of the application; (4) remove, alter, or obscure any proprietary notice (including any notice of copyright or trademark) posted by us or the licensors of the application; (5) use the application for any revenue generating endeavour, commercial enterprise, or other purpose for which it is not designed or intended; (6) make the application available over a network or other environment permitting access or use by multiple devices or users at the same time; (7) use the application for creating a product, service, or software that is, directly or indirectly, competitive with or in any way a substitute for the application; (8) use the application to send automated queries to any website or to send any unsolicited commercial e-mail; or (9) use any proprietary information or any of our interfaces or our other intellectual property in the design, development, manufacture, licensing, or distribution of any applications, accessories, or devices for use with the application.

Apple and Android Devices

The following terms apply when you use a mobile application obtained from either the Apple Store or Google Play (each an “App Distributor”) to access the TCS Sites: (1) the licence granted to you for our mobile application is limited to a non-transferable licence to use the application on a device that utilizes the Apple iOS or Android operating systems, as applicable, and in accordance with the usage rules set forth in the applicable App Distributor’s terms of service; (2) we are responsible for providing any maintenance and support services with respect to the mobile application as specified in the terms and conditions of this mobile application licence contained in these Terms of Use or as otherwise required under applicable law, and you acknowledge that each App Distributor has no obligation whatsoever to furnish any maintenance and support services with respect to the mobile application; (3) in the event of any failure of the mobile application to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify the applicable App Distributor, and the App Distributor, in accordance with its terms and policies, may refund the purchase price, if any, paid for the mobile application, and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the App Distributor will have no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the mobile application; (4) you represent and warrant that (i) you are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. government embargo, or that has been designated by the U.S. government as a “terrorist supporting” country and (ii) you are not listed on any U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties; (5) you must comply with applicable third-party terms of agreement when using the mobile application, e.g., if you have a Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) application (including, but not limited to, Skype and WeTalk), then you must not be in violation of their wireless data service agreement when using the mobile application; and (6) you acknowledge and agree that the App Distributors are third-party beneficiaries of the terms and conditions in this mobile application licence contained in these Terms of Use, and that each App Distributor will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce the terms and conditions in this mobile application licence contained in these Terms of Use against you as a third-party beneficiary thereof.

Online Account Opening

To use the Online Account Opening client service, you must provide the required account opening information and submit such information for our account review. Should you need to leave the account opening process prior to completing, you authorize us to save your data so that you can come back and continue where you have left off. If you abandon the process, you will inform us, and we will delete your data. If we do not hear from you, we will hold your data for a reasonable period of time before we deem it to be abandoned. We will review, assess and verify your completed application to ensure that all information is correct. In the event that we accept your application, a member of our account opening team will contact you. In the event that we cannot accept your application, we will delete your data. You acknowledge that we may not accept your application if you reside in a country where our services are not available, including without limitation, the European Union.

MySmartAdvisor

Mobile Brokerage Service

To use the MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service, you must open a brokerage account with TCS (either online through the TCS Sites or by completing and submitting a paper application) and have an email address or a mobile phone or wireless device with internet access. You will also need to download the MySmartAdvisor mobile device application. There is no charge for using the MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service, but you may be charged access fees depending on your service plan and are subject to the standard fees associated with TCS brokerage transactions and stock quotations. Check with your mobile service provider for details on specific fees and charges. Additionally, current TCS online brokerage scheduled fees apply and are amended from time to time. See http://www.tcsec.com/ENHome/Payfor TCS brokerage transaction fees and quotation fees. You authorize us to automatically charge your account for all such fees reasonably incurred in connection with the MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service. In the future, we may add to or enhance the features of the MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage application. By using such added or enhanced features, you agree to pay for them in accordance with the fee schedule.

MySmartAdvisor Mobile Brokerage Service Limitations.

• Neither we nor our service providers can always foresee or anticipate technical or other difficulties related to MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service. These difficulties may result in loss of data, personalization settings or other MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service interruptions. Neither we nor any of our service providers assumes responsibility for any disclosure of account information to third parties, the timeliness, deletion, mis-delivery or failure to store any user data, communications or personalization settings in connection with your use of MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service.
• Neither we nor any of our service providers assumes responsibility for the operation, security, functionality or availability of any mobile or wireless device or mobile network which you utilize to access MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service.
• You agree to exercise caution when utilizing the MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service application on your mobile phone or wireless device and to use good judgment, limit use to yourself, and use discretion when obtaining or transmitting information.
• Information about activity is generally synchronized between the MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service software and our TCS Sites. Transfer and payment information available via the MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service software may differ from the information that is available directly through our TCS Sites. Information available directly through our TCS Sites may not be available via the MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service software, may be described using different terminology, or may be more current than the information available via the MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service software, including, but not limited to, account balance information. The method of entering instructions via the MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service software also may differ from the method of entering instructions through our TCS Sites. We are not responsible for such differences, whether or not attributable to your use of the MySmartAdvisor mobile brokerage service software. Additionally, you agree that neither we nor our service providers will be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

The MySmartAdvisor mobile application is also subject to an end user license agreement which you will need to agree to in order to download and use the application.

Employee Stock Option Plan Portal

The Employee Stock Option Plan Portal (the “ESOP Portal”) is an online equity plan administration and support service.

You understand and agree that the services provided to you through the ESOP Portal is based on the contractual relationship between TCS and your company. Under the relevant contractual arrangement between TCS and your company, TCS shall act in accordance with instructions given by your company. Hence, all your applications submitted via ESOP Portal shall be executed only after such application has been endorsed by your company. If the agreement between TCS and your company terminates, the services provided to you through the ESOP Portal will also be terminated. Additionally, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate the services at any time without notice if any of the following circumstances occur: (a) the information provided by you is untrue, inaccurate, incomplete or misleading; or (b) you breach any provision of these Terms of Use.

We provide you with access to and use of the ESOP Portal subject to your compliance with these Terms of Use and other applicable agreement(s) with you and to which you are otherwise a party or the subject of such agreement(s) in connection with the products and services of the ESOP Portal and/or the use thereof. You represent and warrant that (a) you are at least 18 years old; (b) you have the right, capacity and authorization necessary to legally bind yourself to these Terms of Use; (c) you have read and agree to the terms of the Privacy Policy, (d) you will comply with all treaties, laws, rules and regulations applicable to your use of the ESOP Portal, (e) any information you submit to the ESOP Portal is true, correct and complete, and (f) any financial, payment and/or banking information you supply is correct. You acknowledge and agree that the ESOP Portal and related products and services may not always be available in your time zone or geographic location and, further, may not always be available due to system maintenance or internet service disruptions. By using the ESOP Portal, you confirm your agreement to the Terms of Use and agreement to the following terms and conditions. In the event of any conflict between either your agreement or any applicable terms of use and the following terms, the terms below will govern your use of and access to the ESOP Portal. Your use of the products or services on the ESOP Portal may be governed by different or additional terms and conditions which accompany such products or services.

TCS reserves the right to change these Terms of Use from time to time at its sole discretion. You should visit this page to review the then current terms and conditions to which you are bound for each visit. It is your responsibility to check these Terms of Use periodically for any changes. Your continued use of the ESOP Portal following the posting of changes will be deemed as you have accepted and agreed to the changes.

Through the ESOP Portal, you may have access to various programs, software and web-based tools, and other materials now and in the future, including but not limited to reports, notifications and other publications (the “Relevant Materials”).

You may not use, download or copy any content on the ESOP Portal unless: (i) you use the content solely for personal, informational and non-commercial purposes; (ii) appropriate trademark and copyright symbol(s) are added/preserved on the Relevant Materials, as applicable; and (iii) no modifications are made to the content other than as provided for herein. These rights granted to you constitute a license and not a transfer of title. TCS reserves the right to revoke the authorization to view, download and print the content available on the ESOP Portal at any time, and any such use shall be discontinued immediately upon written notice from TCS. Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved by TCS.

TCS recognizes your right to have access to and a copy of your personal information provided by you on the ESOP Portal and provides a means for you to obtain an export of such personal information through the ESOP Portal. Please contact: support@mysmartadvisor.comfor additional information on how to obtain a copy of your personal information.

You agree that you will not access or use the ESOP Portal in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, impair, or otherwise result in unauthorized access to or interference with, the proper functioning of any TCS accounts, systems, or networks. For example, you may not use any software routines commonly known as robots, spiders, scrapers, or any other automated means, to access the ESOP Portal or any other TCS accounts, systems, or networks.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, the information contained in the Relevant Materials is the confidential proprietary information of TCS or its licensors or customers. You may not use, disclose, reproduce, transmit, or otherwise copy in any form or by any means the information contained in the Relevant Materials for any purpose, other than to support your authorized use of the ESOP Portal or other TCS products and/or cloud services, for which you have a current agreement, without the prior written permission of TCS. TCS will take reasonable measures to keep third parties from obtaining unauthorized access to service requests that you submit using the ESOP Portal; however, TCS does not guarantee that third parties will not have access to any information, comments, feedback, or materials that you submit to TCS through or in association with the ESOP Portal.

You hereby agree to fully indemnify and save TCS and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, employees, agents, partners and licensors from any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses which may arise from (i) the use or inability to use of the ESOP Portal or from its breach of any of these Terms of Use; (ii) unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data; (iii) statements or conduct of any third party in connection with the services; (iv) (a) any goods, data, information or services purchased or obtained; or (b) messages received; or (c) transactions entered into, through or from the services; or (v) any other matter relating to the services.

You expressly understand and agree that the data and information in relation to the services is provided by your company so that you shall take responsibility to negotiate with your company and bear the risks and any inadvertence, mistakes, errors and faults involved in the equity award new grant, grant registration and the signature of the grant agreement (including electronic signature), such as the wrong type of grant, the wrong grant price and the wrong grant amount (collectively, “Inadvertence”). TCS shall not be liable for any of the risks and of any Inadvertence.

YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINTAINING AND BACKING UP ALL INFORMATION, DATA, TEXT OR OTHER MATERIALS (COLLECTIVELY “CUSTOMER DATA”) AND SOFTWARE STORED ON YOUR DEVICE AND STORAGE MEDIA IN CONNECTION WTH YOUR USE OF THE ESOP PORTAL. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT TCS HAS NO RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE AT ANY TIME FOR ANY LOSS OR CORRUPTION OF CUSTOMER DATA, SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE THAT MAY ARISE OUT OF THE ESOP PORTAL. 

THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES CONTAINED IN THE ESOP PORTAL MAY BE OUT OF DATE OR INCLUDE OMISSIONS, INACCURACIES OR OTHER ERRORS. THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES CONTAINED IN THE ESOP PORTAL, INCLUDING THE RELEVANT MATERIALS, ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY. TCS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE INFORMATION IN THE RELEVANT MATERIALS IS UP TO DATE OR ERROR-FREE, NOR DOES IT PROVIDE ANY OTHER WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED IN LAW, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE RELEVANT MATERIALS ARE NOT A PROGRAM OR DOCUMENTATION UNDER THE TERMS OF YOUR AGREEMENT(S) WITH TCS.

IN NO EVENT SHALL TCS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA OR USE, INCURRED BY YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION IN CONTRACT OR TORT, ARISING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO, OR USE OF, THE ESOP PORTAL OR ANY OTHER HYPERLINKED WEB SITE.

TCS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MAKE CHANGES OR UPDATES TO THE ESOP PORTAL, THE RELEVANT MATERIALS, AND/OR THE PRODUCTS OR PROGRAMS DESCRIBED IN THE ESOP PORTAL AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE.

The ESOP Portal also can be accessed through the MySmartAdvisor mobile application or through the TCS Sites. When you accessing the ESOP Portal through the MySmartAdvisor service, it is also subject to the Terms of Use applicable to the MySmartAdvisor service.

Mutual funds

You could lose money by investing in a money market fund. Although the fund may seek to maintain stable net asset value or aim at capital preservation, it cannot guarantee it will do so, nor will be able to achieve its investment objectives. TCS and its affiliates, the fund’s sponsor, have no legal obligation to provide financial support to money market funds and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the fund(s) at any time.

Before investing, consider the funds’ investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Contact TCS for a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus containing these information, and read it carefully.

International use

Because of the global nature of the internet, you agree to comply with all local rules with respect to your account and your online conduct, including all laws, rules, codes, and regulations of the country in which you reside and the country from which you access the TCS Sites, including without limitation, all laws, rules, codes, regulations, decrees, acts, orders, directives, legislations, bills, and statutes pertaining to tax, contracts, intellectual property, securities, e-commerce, technology, computers, fraud, and privacy. In addition, you agree to comply with all applicable laws, rules, codes, and regulations regarding the transmission of technical data exported from Hong Kong.

Each investment product and service referred to on the TCS Sites is intended to be made available only to eligible investors. The TCS Sites will not be considered a solicitation for or offering of any investment product or service to any person in any jurisdiction where such solicitation or offering would be illegal.

Consent to data transfer

You hereby consent to TCS’s collection, use, processing, storage, transfer, and disclosure of all the information you provided to TCS and any other financial information in relation to your financial accounts to third parties, including relevant tax authorities or other government authorities, which may be located outside of the country of your residence.

Third-party content

Data and other materials appearing on the TCS Sites that are provided by third parties which are reasonably considered by TCS to be obtained from reliable sources, but TCS cannot guarantee and is not responsible for their accuracy, timeliness, completeness, or suitability for use. TCS is not responsible for, and does not prepare, edit, or endorse, the content, advertising, products, or other materials on or available from any website owned or operated by a third party that is linked to the TCS Sites via hyperlink. The fact that TCS has provided a link to a third party’s website does not constitute an implicit or explicit endorsement, authorization, sponsorship, or affiliation by TCS with respect to such website, its owners, providers, or services. You will use any such third-party content at your own risk and you agree that TCS is not liable for any loss or damage that you may suffer by using third-party websites or any content, advertising, products, or other materials in connection therewith.

Timeliness of content

All content on the TCS Sites is presented only as of the date published or indicated, and may be superseded by subsequent market events or for other reasons. In addition, you are responsible for setting the cache settings on your browser to ensure you are receiving the most recent data.

Management of TCS Sites

TCS reserves the right, but not the obligation, to: (1) monitor the TCS Sites for violations of these Terms of Use; (2) take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in our sole discretion, violates the law or these Terms of Use, including, without limitation, reporting such user to law enforcement authorities; (3) in our sole discretion and without limitation, refuse, restrict access to, limit the availability of, or disable (to the extent technologically feasible) any of your User Content or any portion thereof; (4) in our sole discretion and without limitation, notice, or liability, to remove from the TCS Sites or otherwise disable all files and content that are excessive in size or are in any way burdensome to our systems; and (5) otherwise manage the TCS Sites in a manner designed to protect our rights and property and to facilitate the proper functioning of the TCS Sites.

Termination

The rights granted to you herein terminate immediately upon any violation by you of these Terms of Use. TCS, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to temporarily or permanently terminate your access to and use of the TCS Sites at any time and for any reason whatsoever, without notice or liability. TCS will not be liable to you and/or any third party for any termination of your access to or use of the TCS Sites.

Warranty disclaimers

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT:

YOUR USE OF THE TCS SITES IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, TCS AND ITS AFFILIATES, SUBSIDIARIES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, LICENSORS, AND ANY THIRD-PARTY INFORMATION PROVIDERS AND VENDORS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ALL WARRANTIES REGARDING SECURITY, CURRENCY, CORRECTNESS, QUALITY, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, RELIABILITY, PERFORMANCE, TIMELINESS, OR CONTINUED AVAILABILITY, WITH RESPECT TO (I) THE TCS SITES; (II) ANY MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE TCS SITES; (III) USE OF THE TCS SITES, MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES; AND (IV) THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE TCS SITES, MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES.

FURTHER, TCS AND ITS AFFILIATES, SUBSIDIARIES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, LICENSORS, AND ANY THIRD-PARTY INFORMATION PROVIDERS AND VENDORS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ANY DELAYS OR ERRORS IN THE TRANSMISSION OR DELIVERY OF ANY MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES AVAILABLE THROUGH THE TCS SITES.

EXCEPT AS PROVIDED BY LAW, NEITHER TCS NOR ITS THIRD-PARTY INFORMATION PROVIDERS AND VENDORS HAS ANY RESPONSIBILITY TO MAINTAIN THE MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES OFFERED ON THE TCS SITES OR TO SUPPLY CORRECTIONS, UPDATES, OR RELEASES FOR THE SAME.

TO THE EXTENT ANY JURISDICTION DOES NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, SOME OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS, AND YOU MAY HAVE OTHER RIGHTS, WHICH VARY FROM JURISDICTION TO JURISDICTION.

Liability and indemnity

ANY MATERIALS DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE TCS SITES ARE DONE AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR OTHER EQUIPMENT, OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM SUCH DOWNLOAD.

NEITHER TCS NOR ITS AFFILIATES, SUBSIDIARIES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, LICENSORS, OR ANY THIRD-PARTY INFORMATION PROVIDERS AND VENDORS WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, INCOME, GOODWILL, USE, DATA, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, OR DAMAGES CAUSED BY THEFT, UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS, SYSTEMS FAILURE, OR COMMUNICATIONS LINE FAILURE, OR THE COST OF PROCURING SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, CAUSED BY THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE TCS SITES, MATERIALS OR ANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES PROVIDED HEREIN, OR ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE TCS SITES, EVEN IF TCS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME JURSIDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. TO THE EXTENT THAT A JURISDICTION DOES NOT PERMIT THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AS SET FORTH HEREIN, THE LIABILITY OF TCS AND ITS AFFILIATES, SUBSIDIARIES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, LICENSORS, AND ANY THIRD-PARTY INFORMATION PROVIDERS AND VENDORS IS LIMITED TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless TCS, its subsidiaries and affiliates, and each of its and their officers, directors, employees, and agents, from and against all claims, demands, liabilities, damages, losses, or expenses, including attorney’s fees and costs, arising out of or related to your improper access to or use of the TCS Sites, or any violation by you of these Terms of Use.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Liability Regarding Information Providers and Market Data

THE MARKET DATA ACCESSIBLE THROUGH THE TCS SITES IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND THERE MAY BE DELAYS, OMISSIONS OR INACCURACIES IN SUCH DATA. TCS, THE INFORMATION PROVIDERS, AND THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES AND AGENTS CANNOT AND DO NOT GUARANTEE THE ACCURACY, SEQUENCE, COMPLETENESS, CURRENTNESS, TIMELINESS, MERCHANT-ABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THE MARKET DATA MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE TCS SITES AND HEREBY DISCLAIM ANY SUCH EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES. NEITHER TCS, THE INFORMATION PROVIDERS, NOR THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES AND AGENTS SHALL BE LIABLE TO YOU OR TO ANYONE ELSE FOR ANY LOSS OR INJURY WHETHER OR NOT CAUSED IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY THEIR NEGLIGENCE OR OMISSION IN PROCURING, COMPILING, INTERPRETING, EDITING, WRITING, REPORTING, OR DELIVERING ANY MARKET DATA THROUGH THE TCS SITES OR BY ANY FORCE MAJEURE OR ANY CAUSE BEYOND THEIR REASONABLE CONTROL. IN NO EVENT WILL TCS, THE INFORMATION PROVIDERS, OR THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANYONE ELSE FOR ANY DECISION MADE OR ACTION TAKEN BY YOU IN RELIANCE UPON SUCH MARKET DATA OR FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR SIMILAR DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOST PROFITS, TRADING LOSSES, DAMAGES RESULTING FROM INCONVENIENCE, OR LOSS OF USE OF THE TCS SITES, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

WITH RESPECT TO CHINA INVESTMENT INFORMATION SERVICES LIMITED, ITS HOLDING COMPANIES AND/OR ANY SUBSIDIARY OF SUCH HOLDING COMPANIES AND/OR ITS THIRD PARTY CONTENT PROVIDER(S) ENDEAVOR TO ENSURE THE ACCURACY AND RELIABILITY OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BUT DO NOT GUARANTEE ITS SUITABILITY, AVAILABILITY, SERVICE LEVEL, TIMELINESS, ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY AND ACCEPT NO LIABILITY (WHETHER IN TORT OR CONTRACT OR OTHERWISE) FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE ARISING FROM ANY INTERRUPTION, DEFECT, ERROR, DELAY, INACCURACIES OR OMISSIONS.

WITH RESPECT TO HKEX INFORMATION SERVICES LIMITED, ITS HOLDING COMPANIES AND/OR ANY SUBSIDIARY OF SUCH HOLDING COMPANIES AND/OR ITS THIRD PARTY CONTENT PROVIDER(S) ENDEAVOR TO ENSURE THE ACCURACY AND RELIABILITY OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BUT DO NOT GUARANTEE ITS SUITABILITY, AVAILABILITY, SERVICE LEVEL, TIMELINESS, ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY AND ACCEPT NO LIABILITY (WHETHER IN TORT OR CONTRACT OR OTHERWISE) FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE ARISING FROM ANY INTERRUPTION, DEFECT, ERROR, DELAY, INACCURACIES OR OMISSIONS.

Integration and severability

If any provision of these User Agreement’s Terms of Use or other provision is deemed unlawful, void, or unenforceable, then that provision will be deemed severable from these Terms of Use and will not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions. These Terms of Use represent the entire agreement between you and TCS relating to the subject matter herein.

No offer, solicitation or recommendation of financial services or products 

Making available information about products or services on the TCS Sites does not constitute an offer, solicitation or recommendation of any products or services provided by TCS or any member of TCS. The information provided on the TCS Sites is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person in any jurisdiction where such distribution or use would be contrary to law or regulation. The TCS Sites shall not be considered as communicating (i) any invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity or (ii) any offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or other instruments or to buy insurance outside any jurisdiction where we are licensed or authorised to perform such activities (“Authorised Countries”).

Not all the products and services that you may view on or through the TCS Sites may be available in all geographical locations served by TCS. In accessing the TCS Sites and any information available through the TCS Sites, you are responsible for informing yourself of and observing fully the applicable laws and regulations of any relevant jurisdiction. TCS may decline to provide you with products and services solely based on your place of residence or your actual location.

Products or services you may view on or through the TCS Sites may not be registered or authorized by any central bank, governmental or regulatory authority in the Authorised Countries or in your place of residence or location. Accordingly, you may not be protected by the securities laws or other relevant laws and regulations of your place of residence or jurisdictions outside the Authorised Countries with respect to products or services you may view on or through the TCS Sites.

TCS does not represent that any securities, products or services you may view on or through the TCS Sites are suitable for you or any particular person. You acknowledge that:

1. neither TCS itself nor any affiliates of TCS have solicited your use of the TCS Sites or your provision of any information as a result of using the TCS Sites; and
2. any information provided on the TCS Sites does not constitute and should not be considered as investment, financial, tax or professional advice. You should obtain your own independent investment, financial, tax, legal and professional advice as appropriate.

Trademarks and copyright

TCS and other parties (as applicable) own the trademarks, trade names, logos and service marks (“Trademarks”) that are used or displayed on the TCS Sites. You are not allowed to use any Trademark used or displayed on the TCS Sites without our or such other parties’ prior written consent.

Materials on the TCS Sites are protected by copyright. You are not allowed to modify, reproduce, store in a retrieval system, transmit, copy or distribute these materials (or any part of them), or use them for creating derivative works or in any other way for commercial or public purposes without our prior written consent.

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENTS

TCS respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that any material available on or through the TCS Sites infringes upon any copyright you own or control, please immediately notify us using the contact information (see “Contact Us” below) provided below (a “Notification”). Upon receipt of your Notification, TCS will take whatever action, in its sole discretion, it deems appropriate, including without limitation and as the case may be, removal of the challenged content from the TCS Sites and providing a copy of your Notification to the person who posted or stored the material addressed in the Notification. Please be advised that pursuant to applicable law, you may be held liable for damages if you make material misrepresentations in a Notification. Thus, if you are not sure that material located on or linked to by the TCS Sites infringes your copyright, you should consider first contacting an attorney.

No warranty

Whilst TCS has taken care in preparing the content and information contained on the TCS Sites, such content and information are provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, whether express or implied. In particular, no warranty about non-infringement, security, accuracy, fitness for a purpose or absence of computer viruses is given in connection with such content and information.

Linked websites

Neither TCS itself nor any other member of TCS are responsible for the contents available on or the set-up of any other websites linked to the TCS Sites (“external websites”). Your access to and use of an external website is at your own risk and subject to any terms and conditions applicable to such access and use. By providing hyperlinks to an external website, TCS shall not be deemed to (i) endorse, recommend, approve, guarantee or introduce any third party or the services or products it provides on the external website, or (ii) have any form of cooperation with such third party and the external website. TCS is not a party to any contractual arrangement entered into between you and the provider of any external website unless TCS expressly specifies or agrees.

Email

Email messages sent to TCS over the internet cannot be guaranteed to be completely secure. TCS is not responsible for any damages you incur if you send a message to TCS, or if TCS sends a message to you at your request, over the internet. TCS is not responsible in any way for direct, indirect, special or consequential damages arising from or in connection with the use of the TCS Sites.

Transmitting over the Internet

Due to the nature of the internet, messages and transactions may be subject to interruption, transmission blackout, delayed transmission or incorrect data transmission. TCS is not liable for malfunctions in communications facilities beyond our control that may affect the accuracy or timeliness of messages and transactions you send. TCS has a right to delay acting or refuse to act on an instruction if TCS is aware of or suspect a breach of security or other suspicious circumstances relating to the use of the TCS Sites.

Downloading and other security measures

TCS does not represent or confirm the following (or any of them):

1. that the TCS Sites will be available and meet your requirements;
2. that access to the TCS Sites will not be interrupted;
3. that there will be no delay, failure, error or omission or loss of information in transmission;
4. that no viruses or other contaminating or destructive or otherwise inappropriate properties will be transmitted; and
5. that no damage will occur to your computer system.

You are solely responsible for the following:

1. adequate protection and back up of data and equipment;
2. undertaking reasonable and appropriate precautions to scan for computer viruses and other contaminating or destructive or otherwise inappropriate properties; and
3. keeping your personal information, which TCS uses to identify you for conducting certain transactions available in the TCS Sites, secured from unauthorized use.

TCS does not represent or confirm the accuracy, functionality and performance of any third party software that may be used in connection with the TCS Sites.

Notices

All notices or demands to or upon you shall be effective if either delivered personally, sent by courier, certified mail, by facsimile or email to the last-known correspondence, fax or email address provided by you to TCS, or by posting such notice or demand on an area of the applicable TCS Sites that is publicly accessible without a charge.

Applicable law and venue

The laws of Hong Kong, without regard to principles of conflict of laws, govern these Terms of Use and any dispute that might arise between you and TCS. This is the case regardless of whether you reside or transact business with TCS in Hong Kong or elsewhere. If you take legal action relating to these Terms of Use, you agree to file such action in Hong Kong and in no other venue, and you consent and submit to the personal jurisdiction of those courts for the purposes of litigating any such action.

Contact Us

In order to resolve a complaint regarding the TCS Sites or to receive further information regarding use of the TCS Sites, please contact us at:

The Core Securities Company Limited
Suite C, 20/F, Standard Chartered Bank Building, 4-4A Des Voeux Road Central
Central, Hong Kong
Attention: Complaints Officer / Compliance Department

As stated in the paragraph headed “Consent to Electronic Records, Communications and Signatures”, by clicking “I consent to and will abide by the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use” to continue with the registration, and/or by continuing with the use of TCS’ online services, you are deemed to have signed and legally bound to this User Agreement with your electronic signature, and you confirm that you have read and understood the terms and conditions of this User Agreement.

The Core Securities Company Limited

Privacy Policy

The Core Securities Company Limited and all of its subsidiaries and affiliates (“we”, “us”, “our”, “The Core Group” including our successors and assigns) are committed to maintaining your Personal Information (as defined below) in accordance with the requirements of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Chapter 486 of the laws of Hong Kong) (“Ordinance”) and relevant laws and regulations. The privacy and security of your Personal Information is important to us, and we take all practical steps to ensure that your Personal Information is kept secure with us in compliance with the Ordinance and the applicable laws and regulations.

By opening an account with us or by utilizing the products, services and applications available through The Core Group’s websites, mobile applications, customer service centers or otherwise, you have consented to the collection and use of your Personal Information in accordance with this privacy policy (this “Privacy Policy” or this “Policy”). We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy carefully.

This Policy is specifically addressed to those who provide Personal Information to The Core Group or who visit or use The Core Group’s online or offline platforms, though websites, trading platforms, software applications (mobile or otherwise), social media sites, MySmartAdvisor or other user’s applications.

Please note that certain details of this Policy may depend on whether you deal with us through an investment professional, directly as an individual investor, or whether The Core Group provides services to your employer as plan administrator.

The Core Group is responsible for the Personal Information that we may collect in the manner discussed below. The Core Group includes its affiliates (the “TCG Entities”). Specifically, your Personal Information will be controlled by the TCG Entity that is providing services or communication to you. In some instances, your Personal Information will be controlled by more than one TCG Entity.

Personal Information to be collected and processed by us may include, among other things, information: (i) provided voluntarily by you or which you have authorized us to collect during The Core Group’s account application process or during use of any of The Core Group’s website(s) and/or mobile applications or through the use of our customer service centers (for example, your name, email address, telephone number, birth date, tax ID number, investment objectives, mobile device information, geographic information, IP address, your picture, etc.); (ii) acquired as a result of the transactions you conduct through The Core Group’s systems or in connection with services offered by The Core Group; (iii) received from third party data providers; and (iv) collected through Internet cookies (for further information on our use of cookies, please see our Cookie Policy).

1. Collection of Personal Information

   1. We may collect the Personal Information of clients and other individuals in connection with the purposes set out in this Policy. These clients, applicants and other individuals may include the following or any of them (collectively “you”, “your”):

      1. clients of services provided by The Core Group;
      2. applicants for services provided by The Core Group;
      3. persons related to a client or an applicant that is not an individual, including the beneficial owners and officers of that client or applicant, or in the case of a trust, including the trustees, settlors, protectors and beneficiaries of the trust; and
      4. other relevant persons related to any of our client.

   2. If the Personal Information requested by us is not provided, we may be unable to provide (or continue to provide) products or services to you or to the relevant client or applicant related to you.

   3. Personal Information may be:

      1. collected from you directly or from someone acting on your behalf through our websites, applications (mobile or otherwise), our customer service centers or our other platforms, including but not limited to, MySmartAdvisor;
      2. collected from other sources (including third-party service providers to verify your identity, to prevent fraud or to help us identify products and services that may be of interest to you); and
      3. combined with other data available to members of The Core Group.

   4. Please note that if you elect to utilize our services, you are voluntarily providing your Personal Information to us. In most circumstances, we cannot take action without collecting and utilizing certain of your Personal Information because such Personal Information is required for processing your instructions or orders or providing you with access to our services or marketing materials. In most cases, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for us to provide the services to you without the relevant Personal Information.

   5. “Personal Information” in this Policy refers to:

      1. Basic information

         If you are a participant under an employee stock option plan, the personal information your employer provided to us for setting up a MySmartAdvisor account, or provided to us from you when you set up the personal center, shall include employee ID, Chinese name, English name, middle name^*, gender^*, date of birth^*, marital status^*, identification document type, identification document number, nationality, whether an individual is in mainland China^*, resident status, days of residence in mainland China^*, job position^*, department, office address, company email address, personal email address^*, tax code, employee group name^*, SEC144^*, base currency^*, job grade^*, job code^*, base benefits^*, base house benefits^*, address 1^*, address 2^*, zip code^*, phone number^*, fax number^*, employment commencement date, departure date^*, whether an individual has worked outside of mainland China^*, date of entry^*, date of departure^*, brokerage account number^*, MyCoreInfo user name^*, social security number^*, sub-area name^*, default language^*, bank account information, address and contact information (Items marked with “*” are optional).

         If you are a user under Wealth Management, the personal information you provided to us via the online account opening (“OAO”) system, shall include facial information, identification document (we would automatically identify the family name (Chinese), given name (Chinese), gender, date of birth, date of expiry, ID number, issuance authority using the information displayed on the identification document), family name (English), given name (English), country of birth, education level, address proof, account type, contact information (home phone number, mobile phone number, e-mail address and residential address), employment status (name of employer, nature of business, position), mainland China bank debit card (bank name, account number, mainland China mobile number registered with the bank), notice of the foreign account tax compliance act, dividend policy, identity declaration-dependencies, terms and declaration, risk tolerance assessment, risk tolerance analysis, risk disclosure, and online signature collection.

         The above information is collected for the purpose of registering your MySmartAdvisor account, setting up your personal homepage, binding your mobile phone number and email address to the account, and providing customer service to you.

      2. Order information

         The personal information provided and/or submitted to us while you are using the MySmartAdvisor system or automatically generated by the MySmartAdvisor system, shall include website browse record, application usage record, click record, time of visit, transaction record, log-in account, account status, order ID, date of order, date of transaction, date of settlement, currency, transaction amount, daily balance report.

         The above information is collected for the purpose of providing customer service and executing order transactions for you.

   6. During the online account opening process, when you are conducting identity authentication and verification, you may need to enable your device’s camera and allow access to the pictures of the device. We will collect your facial information and valid identity document and address proof, and will use them strictly within the authorization you granted to ensure the safety of your account and transactions. If you don’t wish to provide such information or refuse to grant such authorization, you may fail to complete online account opening process, thus unable to use the corresponding services and functions provided by us.

   7. Pursuant to relevant laws and regulations, we may legitimately collect your Personal Information without your prior authorization or consent under the following circumstances:

      1. directly related to national security or national defense;
      2. directly related to public security, public health or significant public interests;
      3. directly related to criminal investigations, prosecutions, trials and enforcement of court decisions;
      4. for the purpose of safeguarding the life, property or other significant legitimate rights and interests of you or other individuals but fail to obtain consent from you in a timely manner;
      5. the Personal Information collected is disclosed to the public by you;
      6. the Personal Information collected comes from legitimately and publicly disclosed information (for example, legitimate news report, governmental information disclosure or other sources);
      7. necessary for the execution and performance of this Policy requested by you;
      8. necessary for the maintenance of safe and stable operation of the service provided, such as the discovery and handling of service failures;
      9. necessary for reporting legitimate news; and
      10. other circumstances stipulated in relevant laws and regulations.

2. Use and Transmit of Personal Information

   1. We may use Personal Information for the following purposes (which may vary depending on the nature of your relationship with us) (the “Permitted Purposes”):

      1. to verify your identity (online and/or through mobile applications, as the case may be);
      2. to prevent fraud;
      3. to complete your online account opening (if you enter information in an online account application, we may store the information even if you don’t complete or submit the application);
      4. to provide you with brokerage and other services available on our platforms, and/or to deal with any requests or inquiries you may have;
      5. to pursue legitimate interests, including to carry out, monitor and analyze our business operations or the use of websites;
      6. to conduct monitoring by us or any other person on our behalf using various methods, including: (i) the use of “intelligent” automated monitoring tools; or (ii) through random monitoring of systems, for example systematically via electronic communication recording tools; (iii) specific monitoring of systems, for example in relation to investigations, regulatory requests, inquiries, disclosure requests, subject access requests, litigation, arbitration or mediation or; (iv) data tracking, aggregation and analysis tools that pull data from various disparate data sources to draw linkages and/or detect behavioral patterns, interactions or preferences for analysis (including predictive analysis); and/or (v) using other similar monitoring technology that may become available from time to time;
      7. to conduct credit checks;
      8. to assist other financial institutions to conduct credit checks, if you consent;
      9. to ensure ongoing credit worthiness of you;
      10. to design and monitor financial services, credit facilities or related products for you;
      11. to contact you (unless you tell us that you prefer us not to) regarding features and functionality that may be of interest to you;
      12. to provide and improve customer relationship management (including but not limited to loyalty programs or privileges and rewards schemes);
      13. to market financial services, credit facilities or related products (if you consent, and do not raise objection to such consent in our records);
      14. to enter into or carry out contracts of various kinds;
      15. to determine the amount of indebtedness amount owed to or by you;
      16. to collect amounts outstanding from you and those providing security for your obligations;
      17. to comply with the requirements, obligations or arrangements (whether compulsory or voluntary) to make disclosure under and/or to comply with all applicable laws or regulations in any country as they may apply to you, us, the TCG Entities or other demands or requests made by any governmental authorities or other regulating bodies;
      18. to combine the information collected on our website or through other applications with information collected from or about you in other contexts (including, information collected online, through email exchanges, or offline sources);
      19. to issue administrative communications for future change of this policy;
      20. to conduct risk assessment for you;
      21. purposes relating thereto; and
      22. for any other purposes not listed above but stated at the time you provide your Personal Information to us.

   2. We may use Personal Information for the following purposes (which may vary depending on the nature of your relationship with us):

      1. For the purpose of the provision of customer service and securities transactions, we may conduct cross-border transfer of your Personal Information to the TCG Entities in Hong Kong (“Transferee”). The Personal Information will be processed by Transferee by way of collection, receipt, possession, hold, use and retention. The Personal Information will be stored in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. If you wish to exercise related rights, or contact such Transferee, you may contact the Data Protection Officer stated under Clause F(2) who would handle your requests. The period of retention by such Transferee would be no more than necessary for the purpose of processing the Personal Information, and without your and our consent, we will not transmit the Personal Information to any third party (including not to share with or transfer to a third party, delegate a third party to process or in any way disclose to a third party), unless otherwise stipulated in the laws and regulations;
      2. We may instruct service providers within or outside of The Core Group, domestically or abroad, to process Personal Information for the Permitted Purposes on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions. For example, for the purpose of identity verification or provision of customer service with convenience and efficiency, we may provide your Personal Information to service providers outside of The Core Group; if you choose to subscribe for any services provided by a third-party service provider or execute securities transactions in markets outside of Hong Kong, we may disclose such information to the service providers as necessary for them to provide the services that you have requested. These service providers generally owe a duty of confidentiality to The Core Group that limits their use of the information that they receive. If required by law, The Core Group will retain control over and will remain responsible for your Personal Information and will use appropriate safeguards to ensure the integrity and security of your Personal Information when engaging service providers;
      3. We may share your Personal Information with companies providing services in the areas of fraud and crime prevention and with companies providing similar services, including financial institutions, such as credit reference agencies and regulatory bodies; and
      4. With reference to the applicable laws, we may share your Personal Information with courts, law enforcement authorities, regulators or attorneys or other parties for the establishment, exercise or defense of a legal or equitable claim or for the purposes of a confidential alternative dispute resolution process;

   3. We will not transmit your Personal Information to any other corporation, organization or individual except：

      1. Under your direct instruction or with your prior consent;
      2. pursuant to laws and regulations or compulsory administrative or judicial requirements;
      3. as required to investigate actual or suspected fraudulent or criminal activities;
      4. in the event of asset transfer, acquisition, merger, reorganization or liquidation, where your Personal Information would be transferred as a result of such event, we will inform you the occurrence of such event and request the successor which will receive and possess your Personal Information to continue to be bound by this Policy. If the purpose of using the Personal Information is changed, we will request the successor to seek the consent from you.

3. Sharing and Disclosure of Personal Information

   1. Personal Information held by us or a member of the TCG Entities will be kept confidential but we or a member of the TCG Entities may share Personal Information to the following parties or any of them (whether within or outside Hong Kong) for Permitted Purposes:

      1. any agents, contractors, sub-contractors or associates of The Core Group or the TCG Entities providing services to The Core Group (including their respective employees, officers, agents, contractors, service providers and professional advisors);
      2. any third party service providers who provide services to us or any member of the TCG Entities providing services to The Core Group in connection with the operation or maintenance of our business (including their respective employees and officers);
      3. any regulatory authorities, law enforcement officials and other relevant government bodies;
      4. any financial institution or dealer with which you have or propose to have dealings;
      5. any authorized debt collection agencies and other parties authorized by The Core Group or any TCG Entities providing services to The Core Group, for the purpose of collection, recovery and any other actions or remedies available legally to The Core Group for outstanding debt due to The Core Group;
      6. any persons under a duty of confidentiality to us or a member of The Core Group or the TCG Entities providing services to The Core Group which have undertaken to keep such data confidential;
      7. any persons acting on your behalf whose Personal Information are provided, payment recipients, beneficiaries, account nominees, intermediaries, correspondent and agent banks, clearing houses, clearing or settlement systems, market counterparties, upstream withholding agents, swap or trade repositories, stock exchanges, companies in which you have an interest in securities (where such securities are held by us or any member of The Core Group) or any persons making any payment into a client's account;
      8. any persons to whom we are or any member of the TCG Entities providing services to The Core Group is under an obligation or required or expected to make disclosure for the purposes set out in, or in connection with the above;
      9. any actual or proposed assignee(s) of ours or participant(s) or sub-participant(s) or transferee(s) of our rights in respect of you;
      10. any persons giving or proposing to give a guarantee or security to guarantee or secure your obligations to us; and

      11. Others including:

          1. any member of The Core Group or the TCG Entities providing services to The Core Group;
          2. third party financial institutions, securities and investment services providers;
          3. co-branding partners of ours or any member of the TCG Entities providing services to The Core Group (the names of such co-branding partners will be provided during the application process for the relevant products and services, as the case may be);
          4. external service providers that we or any member of the TCG Entities providing services to The Core Group engage(s) for the purposes set out in in this Policy.

   2. Such Personal Information may be shared in and to a place outside of Hong Kong.

   3. You acknowledge and accept the risks that the information disclosed pursuant to this Policy may be subject to further disclosure by the recipient to other parties in accordance with the laws of the country in which the recipient is located. Such laws may be wider in scope and implemented under less restrictive terms than would otherwise be the case in Hong Kong due to difference in applicable laws and regulations.

   4. You agree to allow The Core Group to disclose your Personal Information for the purposes and to those persons as set out in this Policy and to use such Personal Information pursuant to this Policy.

   5. Pursuant to relevant laws, regulations, standards and policies, we may legitimately share and disclose your Personal Information without your prior consent under the following circumstances:

      1. directly related to national security or national defense;
      2. directly related to public security, public health or significant public interests;
      3. directly related to criminal investigations, prosecutions, trials and enforcement of court decisions;
      4. for the purpose of safeguarding the life, property or other significant legitimate rights and interests of you or other individuals, and fail to obtain consent from you in a timely manner;
      5. the Personal Information involved is disclosed to the public by you;
      6. collected from legitimately and publicly disclosed information (such as: legitimate news report, governmental information disclosure or other sources);

      Please note that pursuant to applicable laws, if we adopt technical measures or other necessary measures to process the Personal Information, which would result in failing to identify an individual or restore the Personal Information, you will not be informed of the sharing, transfer and disclosure of such processed Personal Information and your consent is not required.

4. Use of Personal Information in Direct Marketing

   We may share your Personal Information in the following circumstances:

   1. Where you are a client, we intend to use your Personal Information in direct marketing and we require your consent (which includes an indication of no objection) for that purpose. Please note that:

      1. your name, contact details, products and other service portfolio information, transaction pattern and behavior, financial background and demographic data held by us from time to time may be used by us in direct marketing;

      2. the following products, services or information may be marketed:

         1. financial investment services;
         2. related investment products;
         3. financial and investment advice;
         4. client relationship management services;
         5. client credit protection and maintenance services; or
         6. any other related goods, products or services The Core Group may develop unless you instruct The Core Group otherwise, and seeking or obtaining the same;

      3. the above products, services and subjects may be provided by or (in the case of donations and contributions) solicited by us and/or:

         1. any member of The Core Group;
         2. third party financial institutions, securities and investment services providers;
         3. co-branding partners of ours or any member of The Core (the names of such co-branding partners will be provided during the application process for the relevant products and services, as the case may be); and
         4. external service providers that we or any member of The Core Group engage(s) for the purposes set out in paragraph B (f) and (g) above.

   2. If you do not wish us to use or provide to other persons your Personal Information for use in direct marketing as described above, you may exercise your opt-out right by notifying us through the below contact information.

      Customer Service Team

      The Core Securities Company Limited

      Address: Suite C, 20/F, Standard Chartered Bank Building, 4-4A Des Voeux Road Central, Central, Hong Kong

      Phone: +852 3653 8888

      Fax: +852 3653 8800

5. Provision of Another Person's Personal Information

   If you provide Personal Information of another person to us (such as one of your directors or employees or someone with whom you have business dealings), you must ensure that you are entitled to disclose such Personal Information to us and that, without us taking any further steps, we may collect, use and disclose such Personal Information as described in this Policy. In particular, you must ensure that the individual concerned is given a copy of this Policy and is aware of the various matters detailed in this Policy, as those matters relate to that individual, including our identity, how to contact us, our purposes of collection, our Personal Information disclosure practices (including disclosure to overseas recipients), any right the individual may have to obtain access to the Personal Information and make complaints about the processing of the Personal Information and the relevant consequences if the Personal Information is not provided (such as our inability to provide services).

6. Personal Information Access Requests

   1. You have the right:

      1. to check whether we hold Personal Information about you and to access such Personal Information;
      2. to require us to correct any Personal Information relating to you which is inaccurate; and
      3. to ascertain our policies and practices in relation to Personal Information and to be informed of the kind of Personal Information held by us.

   2. In accordance with the provisions of the Ordinance, we have the right to charge a reasonable fee for the processing of any Personal Information access request.

      If you have any queries, comments or suggestions regarding this Policy or the processing of the Personal Information, you may contact our Data Protection Officer:

      Address: Suite C, 20/F, Standard Chartered Bank Building, 4-4A Des Voeux Road Central, Central, Hong Kong

      Phone: +852 3653 8888

      Fax: +852 3653 8800

      Normally, we shall respond to you within fifteen (15) days or period stipulated in the applicable laws and regulations in a timely manner.

      For security reasons, you may be required to submit written requests or prove your identity by other means. We may ask you to verify your identity before handling your request. We will not charge you for your reasonable requests in principle. However, we may reject or impose a fee as appropriate on repeated requests beyond reasonable scope. We reserve the right to reject the requests for accessing Personal Information that are not directly relevant to you, repeated groundless requests and requests that require excessive technological means (e.g. developing a new system or fundamentally changing the current practices) and put others’ legitimate rights and interests at risk or are downright impractical.

      Pursuant to relevant laws and regulations, we reserve the right to reject your request under the following circumstances:

      1. directly related to national security or defense security;
      2. directly related to public security, public health or significant public interests;
      3. directly related to criminal investigations, prosecutions, trials and enforcement of court decisions;
      4. sufficient evidence that you have subjective malice or abuse of rights；
      5. responding to your request will cause serious harm to the legitimate rights and interests of you or other individuals or organizations;
      6. involving trade secrets.

7. Deletion of Personal Information

   1. Under the following circumstances, you may contact the Data Protection Officer stated under Clause F(2) to delete your Personal Information:

      1. the processing of your Personal Information violates applicable laws or regulations;
      2. we collected and used your Personal Information without your consent;
      3. the processing of Personal Information breaches our agreement with you;
      4. you withdraw the consent to the processing of your Personal Information;
      5. you no longer use our products or services;
      6. we no longer provide our products or services to you;
      7. the purposes of collection of your Personal Information have been accomplished, unable to accomplish or no longer necessary;
      8. the retention time of your Personal Information has expired.

   2. Unless otherwise required by laws and regulations, we shall delete your Personal Information upon your request, and will also notify the entities which obtained your Personal Information from us and request such entities to delete the Personal Information in a timely manner (unless such entities have been independently authorized by you).

8. De-registration of Account

   You may contact the Data Protection Officer stated under Clause F(2) to de-register your account. Before the de-registration of your account, we shall verify your identity, security status, device information etc. Subject to the relevant client agreement(s) and relevant laws and regulations, your account may be de-registered or deleted. The de-registration of your account is irreversible, after which, we will cease to provide products or services to or collect the Personal Information from you and, upon your request or pursuant to applicable laws and regulations, delete or anonymize your Personal Information unless otherwise stipulated in laws and regulations. Please be cautious with such action, or else you will be fully responsible for the data loss consequences resulted from the de-registration of the account.

   Nothing in this Policy shall limit your rights as a data subject under the Ordinance.

9. Storage

   We retain your Personal Information in an identifiable form in accordance with our internal policies which include the general standards and procedures regarding the retention, processing and disposition of your Personal Information. Personal Information is retained for a period of time sufficient to meet the legal, regulatory and business requirements. Retention period may be extended if we are required to preserve your Personal Information in connection with litigations, investigations and legal proceedings, or as required by applicable laws and regulations. We will only retain your Personal Information for the necessary period required for achieving the purpose of use stated in this Policy, and the shortest period of time required by laws and regulations. We will delete or anonymize your Personal Information as required by applicable laws and regulations after the required retention period has expired or you have de-registered your account, unless you have authorized otherwise.

10. The Core Group Mobile Apps

    The Core Group’s applications (“Apps”) allow you to access your accounts, trade securities, move money, and access news and research using wireless or mobile devices. Our Policy applies to any Personal Information or other information that we may collect through the Apps.

11. Protecting the Privacy of Children and the Underaged Online

    The Core Group’s websites are not directed to individuals under the age of eighteen (18). Unless it is necessary, applicable and appropriate, The Core Group does not intend to collect information on its websites from those we know are under 18, and we request that these individuals do not provide Personal Information through the sites. If we discover that any Personal Information of an individual under the age of eighteen (18) has been collected without the consent from his/her guardian, we will endeavor to delete such Personal Information in a timely manner.

12. Use of Cookies

    When visiting our site through a web browser, we record information regarding your user identity and store in cookies and use such information for authentication and authorization purposes. Cookies are small bits of information that are automatically stored on your web browser in your computer that can be retrieved by our site. Cookies are necessary and useful because they allow us to recognize your device and they store information about your use of our site, thus enabling us to provide more efficient user authentication and authorization services. Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies. If you prefer, you can set your browser to disable cookies or to inform you when they are set. By disabling cookies, you may not be able to take full advantage of our site. If you accept cookies, you will be acknowledging that your information is being collected, stored, accessed and used as outlined above.

    Our use of cookies applies to any product or service that links to this Policy or incorporates it by reference. We use cookies and similar technologies to collect and use data as part of our services and which includes our sites, communications, mobile applications and off-site customer service centers.

    More specifically, we use cookies for the following purposes:

    1. Authentication: We use cookies and similar technologies to recognize you when you visit our services. If you signed in your account, these technologies help us show you the right information and personalize your experience in line with your settings. For example, cookies enable us to identify you and verify your account.
    2. Security: We use cookies and similar technologies to make your interactions with our services faster and more secure. For example, we use cookies to enable and support our security features, keep your account safe and to help us detect malicious activities and violations of our user agreement.
    3. Preferences, features and services: We use cookies and similar technologies to enable the functionality of our services, such as helping you to fill out forms for our services more easily and providing you with features, insights and customized content. We also use these technologies to remember information about your browser and your preferences. For example, cookies can tell us which language you prefer and what your communications preferences are. We may also use local storage to speed up site functionality.
    4. Customized content: We use cookies and similar technologies to customize your experience on our services. For example, we may use cookies to remember previous searches so that when you return to our services, we can offer additional information that relates to your previous search.

    By continuing to visit or use our services, you are agreeing to the use of cookies and similar technologies for the purposes described in this Policy.

13. Others

    1. We consider the protection of Personal Information to be a foundation of customer trust and a sound business practice. In compliance with obligations under law and as required by law, we will take appropriate organizational control measures and safeguards to keep your Personal Information confidential and secure in accordance with our internal procedures covering the storage, disclosure of and access to Personal Information. We employ physical, electronic and procedural controls and we regularly adapt these controls to respond to changing requirements and advances in technology. Personal Information may be kept on our information technology systems, those of our contractors or in paper files. We restrict access to your Personal Information to those who require it to develop, support, offer and deliver products and services to you.

    2. The contents of this Policy may be amended from time to time. Please contact The Core Group and/or visit our site regularly for the latest Policy. You may refer to the date of the latest version of this Policy to confirm whether there is any amendment made to this Policy.

    3. If you are a client of The Core Group and your Personal Information is collected in the application form in an event, such as participating in a seminar, the personal data collection statement in such application form will supplement this Policy and in case of any inconsistency, the personal information collection statement in such activity application form shall prevail to the extent of such inconsistency.

    4. Note: In case of discrepancies between the English and Chinese versions, the English version shall apply and prevail.

    5. The content of our site may be updated from time to time by The Core Group. By accessing this site and any of its pages you are agreeing to this Policy set out above. If you do not agree with this Policy, you must not access or otherwise use this site or any of its contents.

    6. THE CORE GROUP ENDEAVOURS TO ENSURE THE ACCURACY AND RELIABILITY OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON OR THROUGH ITS SITE BUT DOES NOT WARRANT OR GUARANTEE ITS ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY AND ACCEPTS NO LIABILITY (WHETHER IN TORT OR CONTRACT OR OTHERWISE) FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE ARISING FROM ANY INACCURACIES OR OMISSIONS OR OTHERWISE HOWSOEVER ARISING.

Last Updated: [August 2022]

The Core Securities Company Limited

Disclaimer

Please NOTE the following:

Our online service (access via website, mobile application or otherwise) (“Our Online Service”) is a self-directed online investment platform. We do not provide any personal investment advice to clients and hence any online transactions executed via our platform under such situation are at your own investment decision. You should consider carefully if the products you are going to purchase into are suitable for your investment objective, investment experience, risk tolerance and other personal circumstances.

Authorised use and no investment recommendations - Any content and pages thereof including but not limited to research articles, aims to provide you with an added information support, online assistance and facility resources for making your own investment decision. The information contained therein are based on our views with the generic and factual factors of the respective market condition and/or sectors where none of them have taken into account of the personal conditions or circumstances of any specific person and they shall not be construed as any recommendation or solicitation to invest in any particular securities. Your access, use and reliance upon such content or services is at your own risk.

Unless otherwise agreed by The Core Securities Company Limited (“TCSC”) in writing, you alone are solely responsible for your investment decisions based on your investment objectives as well as personal and financial situation.

Authorised use and non-solicitation - The products mentioned herein might not be approved for sale or purchase by persons outside Hong Kong. Our Online Service is not targeting at any persons in any jurisdiction where (by reason of that person’s nationality, residence or otherwise) the publication or availability of Our Online Service is prohibited. Persons in respect of whom such prohibitions apply must not access Our Online Service. It is the responsibility of any persons who access the information contained herein to observe all applicable laws and regulations of their relevant jurisdiction. By proceeding, you are representing and warranting that the applicable laws and regulations of your jurisdiction allow you to access the information.

Your use of Our Online Service is governed by the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy in effect on the date Our Online Service is accessed by you. The information contained on Our Online Service is current as at the date of publication but we reserve the right to change Our Online Service, the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy at any time without notice. If you use Our Online Service after the amended Terms of Use or Privacy Policy has been published, you will be deemed to have agreed to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, as amended.

By accessing Our Online Service and any pages thereof, you acknowledge that you have read the above information and accept the terms and conditions in using the materials and content made available on Our Online Service, and agree to be bound by the said terms and conditions.

You acknowledge and agree that you have read and agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

In addition, investment involves risks. The price of securities may go down as well as up, and under certain circumstances an investor may sustain a total or substantial loss of investment. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of the future or likely performance of the securities. Securities may invest extensively in financial derivatives. Investors should read the relevant securities’ prospectuses for further details including the risk factors before making any investment decision. An investor should make an appraisal of the risks involved in investing in these products and should consult their own independent and professional advisors to ensure that any decision made is suitable with regards to their circumstances and financial position.

Securities that are invested in emerging markets may involve a higher degree of risk, and may be more sensitive to price movements relative to the developed markets.

When the investment returns of securities are denominated in a foreign currency other than the HKD, HK dollar-based investors are exposed to exchange rate fluctuations. RMB is currently not freely convertible and is subject to exchange controls and restrictions. There is no guarantee that RMB will not depreciate. If you convert Hong Kong Dollar or any other currency into RMB so as to invest in securities and subsequently convert the RMB redemption proceeds back into Hong Kong Dollar or any other currency, you may suffer a loss if RMB depreciates against Hong Kong Dollar or other currency.

Our Online Service contains information provided by TCSC and its successors, as applicable. The information and products are intended for Hong Kong residents only. Non-Hong Kong residents are responsible for observing all applicable regulations and laws of the relevant jurisdictions before accessing the information contained herein. The legal and regulatory restrictions that apply to Our Online Service are stated in the Terms of Use section and Privacy Policy, which you are advised to read before using Our Online Service. Your use of Our Online Service represents that you understand and have accepted the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

With respect to certain market information providers:

China Investment Information Services Limited, its holding companies and/or any subsidiary of such holding companies and/or its third party content provider(s) endeavor to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information provided but do not guarantee its suitability, availability, service level, timeliness, accuracy or reliability and accept no liability (whether in tort or contract or otherwise) for any loss or damage arising from any interruption, defect, error, delay, inaccuracies or omissions.

HKEX Information Services Limited, its holding companies and/or any subsidiary of such holding companies and/or its third party content provider(s) endeavor to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information provided but do not guarantee its suitability, availability, service level, timeliness, accuracy or reliability and accept no liability (whether in tort or contract or otherwise) for any loss or damage arising from any interruption, defect, error, delay, inaccuracies or omissions.

This webpage has not been reviewed by the Securities and Futures Commission or any other regulatory authorities in Hong Kong.

TCSC reserves the right to change this disclaimer at any time by posting changes on Our Online Service. You are responsible for reviewing regularly information posted therein to obtain timely notice of such changes. Your continued use of Our Online Service after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of this disclaimer as modified by the posted changes.

This disclaimer herein shall be governed by the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (“Hong Kong”).

In the event of any discrepancy between the Chinese and English versions, the English version shall prevail.

Last updated in August 2020.