RAK Energy Summit 2026 is organised by Ras Al Khaimah Municipality (“we”, “us”, “our”) in partnership with Etihad Water and Electricity. This Privacy Policy governs the collection, use, and sharing of personal information for RAK Energy Summit when you use our website and WhatsApp Assistant. This policy applies to all registered participants, including those who may be invited or registered through other organisations. We handle personal information in line with applicable data protection laws and do not sell your personal information. 

1. What the Assistant Does 

The Assistant is an automated chatbot. It answers questions about the Summit, such as the agenda, speakers, venue, timings and logistics. It also acts as a match-making tool for businesses to connect. 

2. Information We Collect

We collect only what we need to run the Assistant to ensure a seamless networking experience: 

● Participant listing: your name, job title, organisation and sector taken from your Summit registration

● WhatsApp details: your WhatsApp name and mobile number

Additionally, we automatically collect basic technical information when you browse the RAK Energy Summit website, such as IP addresses, browser types, and device identifiers. This information is utilised for system administration, cybersecurity monitoring, and statistical analysis of browsing patterns to optimise website performance.

3. How The Assistant Uses Your Information 

The Assistant uses your information to:

● Answer basic service level questions about the Summit and send you information you request for. Please do not provide any sensitive information, such as bank or credit card details, and personal identification (ID) documentation in these chats.

● Help participants find and meet each other, as described in Section 4

● Improve its service by reviewing common questions and answers. Any statistics we may report do not name individuals. 

We do not use your conversation to send you marketing messages. 

4. Match-making

Information collected during registration is fed to the Assistant to provide match-making services. This is how it works:

● Search: A participant asks the Assistant to identify people in a particular sector or company to connect with. The Assistant shares only each person’s name, job title and organisation.

● Request: The participant chooses a person from the list and sends a request to meet, with or without a short note. Please keep meeting request notes professional.

● Notification: The selected individual receives the request, showing the sender’s name, job title, organisation and note, if any.

● Decision: The selected individual decides whether to accept or ignore the request. If they ignore it, no contact details are shared, and the sender is not notified.

● Chat: Double Opt-In Process – WhatsApp numbers of both participants will be shared with each other only when the first participant opts in by sending a connection request and the second participant opts in by accepting the request. Once both actions are completed, their WhatsApp numbers will be mutually shared, and they can initiate a conversation. If the request is ignored or declined, no contact details will be shared.

You can remove yourself at any time by sending “STOP”, and you will no longer appear in any search. 

5. Who We Share It With 

We share your information only where needed, and only the minimum required:

● Other organisations: participant details such as name, job title and organisation when you appear in search results on the match-making tool or send a request, and any note you add. Your mobile number is shared ONLY once a request is accepted.

● The Chatbot provider (that runs the Assistant): the information needed to run the assistant for us, and only for that purpose. 

● WhatsApp: the messages you send and receive, which it carries under its own privacy policy and may process outside the UAE

● Event Management Company: information provided while filling the registration form such as name, email ID, mobile number, and organisation. This information will be used to contact you only regarding the event such as event schedule, updates, and other relevant event related messaging.

● Sponsors: participant details such as name, organisation, job title, email IDand mobile number will be shared after the event to sponsors from relevant sectors as notified during registration.

● Authorities: any information the law requires us to share

● Data Deletion: participants have the right to request access to their personal data and obtain a copy of the information being processed. They may request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete personal information, and request deletion of their personal data, including removal from the event’s matchmaking database and communication lists, subject to applicable legal and regulatory retention requirements.

● Matchmaking analytics: individual conversations and chat content are not visible to the event organisers or any third party and remain private between the participants. However, overall matchmaking activity and aggregated datamay be monitored for event reporting and performance analysis, including the number of connection requests sent, sender and receiver, number of requests accepted or declined, successful connections, and overall matchmaking engagement. These analytics are used to evaluate networking activity and event performance without accessing or disclosing private conversations.

Once your number is shared with another participant after an accepted request, any contact between you is your own outside our control. If you prefer not to use the Assistant, you can contact us by email or phone instead. 

6. Data Security and Retention

We implement robust technical and organisational security measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. We keep conversations with the Assistant, listings and meeting requests for 48 months after the Summit. After that, we delete them or keep them only in a form that no longer identifies you.

7. Contact Us and Changes 

For questions about this Policy, or complaints about how we handle your information, please contact us by email on Mervynp@mecollabevents.com.

We may update this policy, if for example, we add new features to the Assistant. Any changes will be reflected immediately.