Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

We wrote this policy in plain language on purpose. A shipper who signs a consignment note at midnight before a sailing should be able to understand, without legal training, what happens to the name and the contact details written on that note. We have avoided abbreviations wherever a short sentence works better, and we have arranged the sections in the order that a booking usually travels through the office.

Nothing in this policy reduces any right that you hold under the law that applies to you. Where the law gives you a stronger protection than this document describes, the law prevails. Where this document gives a clearer explanation than the law alone, we intend to honour it as a statement of how we actually work.

2. Who controls your information

The controller of the information described here is Millennium Sea Company Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong with its trading counter at Rm 501 5/F Belgian Bank Bldg, 721-725 Nathan Rd, Mong Kok, Hong Kong - 999077, Hong Kong (HK). The controller decides why information is collected and how it is used, and the controller answers for those decisions.

The person in charge of privacy questions at the counter is the office manager on duty. The manager maintains the register of processing activities, reviews requests from individuals, and trains the clerks who open consignment notes and close sailing tallies. You may write to the office manager at accounts@huixintrade.buzz or telephone +12792840746 during business hours.

Where the Company engages an outside supplier to host a booking system or to store scanned documents, that supplier acts on written instructions and does not become a controller in its own right. The Company remains responsible for choosing the supplier carefully and for checking that the arrangements meet the standards described in the security section below.

3. Scope of this policy

This policy covers personal information handled through the trade counter, the booking registers, the consignment note runs, the sailing tallies, the damage claim reviews, the port call audits and this website. It covers information about shippers, consignees, carriers, freight forwarders, warehouse operators, port agents and visitors to the office.

This policy does not cover the internal records of a shipping line or a port authority that the Company deals with as a separate organisation. Those bodies publish their own privacy notices, and a shipper who deals with them directly should read those notices. This policy also does not cover the personal records of Company employees, which are held under a separate internal notice available to staff on request.

Where a client provides information about other people, for example the name of a driver or a consignee contact, the client is responsible for making sure those people know that their details will be passed to the counter for the purpose of the booking. We ask clients to keep that list short and relevant to the sailing.

4. Information we collect

We collect only what a working counter needs to open a booking, keep it straight and close it cleanly. The categories are grouped below for clarity, though in practice a single consignment note may carry several of them at once.

• Identity and contact details: name, company name, job title, postal address, email address and telephone number of the person making or receiving the booking.
• Booking details: sailing date, vessel name, lane, bay reference, declared weight and volume, and the type of cargo in general terms.
• Financial details: invoice address, purchase order reference and payment status. We do not store full card numbers on the counter systems.
• Correspondence: emails, letters, counter notes and telephone notes connected with a booking, a claim or an audit.
• Website details: the information you type into the contact form and limited technical information described in the website section below.
• Visitor details: the name written in the visitor book when someone calls at the office in person.

We do not ask for information about health, religion, political views or similar sensitive matters, and we ask that clients do not send such information to the counter. If a consignment requires special handling notes, we ask for the handling requirement itself rather than the medical or personal reason behind it.

5. Booking and allocation records

When a shipper requests space, the allocation desk creates a booking record. That record holds the shipper name, the contact person, the lane, the sailing date, the proposed bay and the weight spread. It also holds a history of every change, because an allocation that moves between bays should be traceable long after the vessel has sailed.

The booking record exists so that the hold plan, the consignment note and the tally sheet can all point at the same facts. If a bay is reassigned because a late booking needs room, the record shows who authorised the change and when the shipper was told. This is not bureaucracy for its own sake. It is the difference between a counter that can answer a question in a minute and one that has to reconstruct a week from memory.

Booking records are kept for the period described in the retention section below. A shipper may ask for a copy of the booking record that concerns them, and we will provide it unless doing so would reveal information about another shipper that we are not free to disclose.

6. Consignment notes and paper files

Consignment notes are the paper account of what is travelling. They carry the shipper name, the consignee, the description of the goods, the declared value where one is given, and the signature of the clerk who accepted the note. Because notes are signed by hand, they also carry the handwriting of the people involved, and we treat a signed note as a document that deserves careful storage.

Completed note runs are filed with the departure they belong to. Where a note has been scanned for a digital system, the scan is stored with the same reference as the paper original, and the paper is kept until the retention period ends. Access to the paper file room is limited to counter staff and is recorded in the file room register.

If a note has to be corrected after signature, the correction is made on the face of the note with initials and a date, never by replacing the sheet. That habit protects both the shipper and the Company if a claim later questions what was agreed on the day.

7. Sailing tallies and audit sheets

Sailing tallies record what crossed the rail, counted by a clerk at the quay. A tally sheet carries the vessel, the sailing date, the bay references, the count of units and any discrepancy noted in the margin. Where a tally clerk writes a short note about a damaged pallet or a missing label, that note becomes part of the sailing file.

Port call audits are written after the sailing and reconcile the promises made at booking with the records produced at the quay. Audit sheets name the office that booked the space and the clerk who signed the tally. They are shared with the client who requested the audit and are kept with the sailing file so that a future booking can learn from the past one.

Both the tally and the audit contain the names of individuals as well as companies. We use those names only for the purposes of the sailing and the records that support it, and we do not republish them in marketing material without permission.

8. Information from this website

This website is a small brochure for the trade counter. It does not require an account, it does not run a shop, and it does not ask you to upload documents. The contact form asks for a name, an email address, a subject and a message. When you submit the form, your own mail program opens with the message addressed to accounts@huixintrade.buzz, and the message is sent from your mail account rather than stored on the website.

Our web host may keep standard server logs for a short period. Those logs can include the internet protocol address of the visitor, the browser type, the page requested and the time of the request. We use the logs only to keep the site available and to investigate faults. We do not use them to build profiles of visitors and we do not combine them with booking records.

We do not run advertising trackers on this site, and we do not embed third party video players or comment systems that would collect information about you. If that ever changes, this policy will be updated before the change takes effect and the cookies section will describe the new tool plainly.

9. Why we use information

We use personal information for a defined set of purposes, all of which are connected to running the counter. The list below is meant to be read as a whole, because many of the purposes overlap during a single sailing.

• To answer an enquiry and prepare a hold plan with a bay assignment.
• To open, check and close consignment notes for a departure.
• To keep the hold plan, the note and the tally sheet pointing at the same facts.
• To prepare freight quotes with a stated expiry and a named author.
• To review a damage claim using the documents that actually exist for the sailing.
• To write a port call audit and feed the findings into the next allocation window.
• To raise invoices, record payments and answer questions about an account.
• To meet record keeping duties that apply to shipping and trade documents.
• To answer a legal request from a court, regulator or port authority where the law requires it.
• To improve our own counters by reviewing how a sailing was handled after the fact.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not rent a contact list to anyone. We do not use booking information to send advertising for products that have nothing to do with the counter. If you receive a message from us that does not look connected to a sailing or an enquiry you made, please tell the office manager so that we can investigate.

10. Our lawful bases for processing

Where the law requires us to name a basis for using information, we rely on the following grounds. The first is the performance of a contract or the steps needed before a contract is made, which covers a booking enquiry, a hold allocation, a quote and the invoices that follow. The second is compliance with a legal obligation, which covers trade records and the documents we must keep for a stated period.

The third is our legitimate interest in running a reliable counter and protecting it from fraud or error. When we rely on this ground we keep the processing proportionate, we consider whether a less intrusive route would work, and we honour any objection that you raise unless we have a compelling reason that the law recognises. The fourth is consent, which we ask for only in the narrow cases where no other ground applies, such as a request to receive occasional service notes by email.

Where consent is the ground, you may withdraw it at any time by writing to accounts@huixintrade.buzz. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of anything done before the withdrawal, and it does not prevent us from keeping records that the law requires us to keep.

11. When we share information

A booking cannot travel without being shared. The carrier needs the bay reference, the port agent needs the tally, and the consignee needs the arrival details. We share the minimum that each party needs for the sailing in question, and we share it through the channels that the booking already uses.

• Carriers, vessel agents and port service providers involved in the sailing.
• Bonded warehouse operators and trucking contractors where they handle the cargo.
• Auditors, insurers and legal advisers where a claim or an audit requires it.
• Suppliers who host our booking registers or store scanned documents, under written instruction.
• Courts, regulators and law enforcement where the law requires disclosure.

We do not share personal information with a party that has no role in the sailing. If a third party asks us for a contact detail that belongs to a shipper, we will refer the request back to the shipper unless the shipper has already authorised the disclosure or the law requires it. This rule is simple to state and occasionally awkward to apply, but it is the rule the counter follows.

12. International transfers

Cargo moves across borders, and so do the records that accompany it. A booking taken in Mong Kok may involve a carrier registered elsewhere, a port agent in another jurisdiction and a consignee who needs to see the tally before the vessel berths. When information leaves Hong Kong for one of those parties, we send only what the sailing requires and we use the secure channel agreed with the recipient.

Where we use a hosting supplier whose servers sit outside Hong Kong, we check that the supplier applies security measures that meet the standard described below, and we keep a written record of the check. We do not transfer personal information to a jurisdiction for the purpose of marketing, and we do not store booking records in a country that the supplier cannot identify in writing when asked.

If you would like to know which countries are involved for a particular sailing, the office manager can tell you. We would rather answer the question than leave a shipper guessing about where a note has travelled.

13. How long we keep records

Records are kept for as long as they serve a purpose, and no longer. Booking records and hold plans are kept for seven years after the sailing, because a claim or an audit can surface well after the vessel has left and the hold plan is often the only document that shows what was promised. Consignment notes and tally sheets are kept for the same period where they support a trading record, and for a shorter period where the law does not require them.

Website messages sent through the contact form arrive in the counter mailbox and are kept with the booking they concern. Enquiries that never become bookings are deleted from the mailbox after twelve months unless the sender asks us to keep them. Visitor book entries are kept for twelve months for safety reasons and then destroyed.

When a retention period ends, paper is shredded and digital records are deleted from the active system. Backups are cycled out within the period agreed with the hosting supplier. We do not keep a hidden copy of something the policy says has been deleted.

14. How we protect information

The counter is small, and its security is built from habits as much as from equipment. Paper files are kept in locked cabinets in a room that is closed outside counter hours. The file room register records who removed a folder and when it was returned. Digital registers are reached through individual accounts, each with its own password, and the accounts are removed within a working day when a clerk leaves the Company.

Messages that carry consignment details are sent over encrypted connections, and scanned documents are stored in a system that restricts access by role. Our booking registers are backed up daily, and the backup is tested by restoring a sample file each quarter, because a backup that has never been restored is only a hope.

If a security incident occurs that is likely to put personal information at risk, we will notify the affected clients and the relevant authority without undue delay, describe what happened in plain terms, and set out the steps we have taken. We will not wait for a perfect account before telling people that something has gone wrong.

15. Cookies and similar tools

This website does not set advertising cookies and does not run a visitor analytics product. The site may use a small technical cookie where one is needed to remember a form state during a single visit, and that cookie disappears when the browser session ends. The contact form itself does not depend on a cookie to work; it prepares a message in your mail program.

If we later add a tool that stores information on your device for a purpose beyond the technical one, we will update this policy and ask for consent where the law requires it. You can also block or clear cookies in your browser settings, and the site will continue to work for reading and for sending a message.

Third party sites that you reach through a link from our pages may set their own cookies. Those sites publish their own notices, and we encourage you to read them before sharing information.

16. Messages about our services

We send service messages when they are needed for a booking, for example a note that a bay has been reassigned or a tally that has been closed. Those messages are part of the service and are not marketing. We send occasional service notes, such as a reminder about a changed port call window, only to clients who have asked to receive them.

If you receive a service note and no longer wish to, reply with a single word and the office manager will remove you from the list. The removal applies to service notes only. It does not stop the messages that a live booking requires, because those messages protect the cargo and the record.

We do not buy contact lists and we do not add a shipper to a mailing list simply because a booking was made. A business relationship is not a permission slip for advertising, and we treat it as something that has to be earned.

17. Your privacy rights

Subject to the law that applies to you, you may ask us to confirm whether we hold personal information about you and to provide a copy. You may ask us to correct information that is wrong, to delete information that we no longer have a reason to keep, and to restrict how information is used while a question is being resolved. You may object to processing that relies on our legitimate interest.

To make a request, write to accounts@huixintrade.buzz with enough detail for us to find the record, such as the sailing date, the vessel name and the consignment note number. We will reply within thirty days, and if the request is complex we will tell you why more time is needed rather than letting the deadline pass in silence.

We may ask for proof of identity before releasing a record, because a counter that hands a shipper file to the wrong caller is not secure. We will not charge a fee for a routine request, though we may charge a reasonable amount for repeated copies that require substantial work. If we refuse a request, we will explain the reason and tell you how to complain.

18. Privacy for Children

This website and the trade counter are intended for businesses and for adults acting in a business capacity. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children, and no part of the booking process is designed to appeal to them. A consignment note may name a young person as a recipient of household goods, but that is a shipping detail rather than a collection of information about the child.

If you believe that a child has sent personal information to the counter, please write to accounts@huixintrade.buzz and we will delete the information promptly. If a child has contacted us through the website, we will remove the message and confirm the removal to the person who asked, without requiring a long account of how the message came to be sent.

Parents and guardians who have questions about privacy at the counter are welcome to call +12792840746 and speak with the office manager. We would rather explain the practice than have a family worry about a message that was never meant for us.

19. Automated decisions and profiling

The counter does not make automated decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on a person. A bay assignment is made by a clerk reading a hold plan, and a claim review is signed by a person who has compared the documents. Software helps us store and find records, but it does not decide whether a shipper is refused or a claim is rejected.

We do keep simple checks that flag a booking for a second look, for example a declared weight that is far above the usual figure for a lane or a note that has arrived twice. Those checks raise a question for a clerk, and the clerk decides. They do not act on their own and they do not create a profile that follows a person from one sailing to the next.

If we ever introduce a tool that makes a decision without a person in the loop, this policy will be updated first and the section will describe the logic, the significance and the way to ask for a human review.

20. Links to other websites

Our pages may link to the sites of carriers, port authorities or trade bodies when a shipper needs their timetable or their forms. We choose those links for usefulness, but we do not control how those sites handle information. Once you leave our pages, the notice published by the other site applies.

We do not place tracking pixels on links that lead away from our site, and we do not receive a report about which shipper clicked which link. If you reach a page from our site and it asks for information that surprises you, please pause and read its notice before typing anything.

If a link on our site stops working or leads to a page that no longer matches its description, tell the office manager and we will correct or remove it. A counter that sends people to a wrong address is not doing its job.

21. Questions and complaints

If you have a question about this policy, start with the office manager at accounts@huixintrade.buzz or on +12792840746. Most questions about a booking can be answered in the same call, and most questions about a record can be answered once we have the sailing date and the note number.

If you are not satisfied with the answer, write to Millennium Sea Company Limited at Rm 501 5/F Belgian Bank Bldg, 721-725 Nathan Rd, Mong Kok, Hong Kong - 999077, Hong Kong (HK) and mark the letter for the attention of the privacy lead. We will acknowledge the complaint within five working days and give a full reply within thirty days.

You also have the right to complain to the privacy regulator in the jurisdiction where you live or work, or where the matter occurred. We would appreciate the chance to resolve the issue first, but we will not treat a complaint to a regulator as anything other than your right.

22. Changes to this policy

We review this policy each year and whenever the counter changes the way it handles information. When a change is material, we will update the date at the top of the page and describe the change in a short note at the end of this section, so that a returning reader can see what moved without comparing the whole document from memory.

If a change affects a booking that is already in progress, we will tell the shipper directly rather than relying on a page update. A policy that only exists on a website is easy to miss, and the counter prefers to speak to the people whose records are affected.

Older versions of this policy are kept with the Company records for six years. A client may ask for the version that applied on the date of a particular sailing, and we will provide it together with the booking record if the request is clear.

23. How to reach the counter

Millennium Sea Company Limited welcomes privacy questions at the Nathan Road office. The counter is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 18:00 and on Saturday from 10:00 to 14:00, and the port call window opens at 9:30 each working day.

Email: accounts@huixintrade.buzz
Telephone: +12792840746
Address: Rm 501 5/F Belgian Bank Bldg, 721-725 Nathan Rd, Mong Kok, Hong Kong - 999077, Hong Kong (HK)

When you write about a privacy matter, please include the sailing date, the vessel name and the consignment note number if you have them. Those three details let the clerk pull the right folder and answer with the facts rather than a general reply.