Privacy Policy

Last updated and effective: 21 October 2026

The China Timber & Wood Products Distribution Association (CTWPDA, referred to as “we”, “us” or “our”) values the protection of your personal information and data security. This Policy has been prepared in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, including the Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Cybersecurity Law of the People’s Republic of China, and the Data Security Law of the People’s Republic of China. It applies to visits to this website and its associated certification registry system, online enquiries, and the handling of complaint emails.

1. Information Collection and Use

You do not need to provide your name, telephone number or email address to browse the public content of this website. We process only the information necessary to respond to your requests, provide relevant services, analyse website traffic and maintain website security.

When you contact us through a contact form or by email, we process the information you submit, including your name, organisation, job title, email address, telephone number, country or region, enquiry category, message and attachments. Required form fields are marked on the relevant page; other information is provided voluntarily. This information is used only to respond to enquiries, communicate with you and coordinate matters related to your request. It is not used for unrelated advertising or marketing.

When you submit a complaint through the certification registry system, we process your contact details, complaint and supporting materials only to the extent necessary to receive, review and respond to it. Please do not submit sensitive personal information unrelated to the matter raised.

2. Matomo and Cookies

This website uses Matomo for website analytics and first-party analytics cookies to identify browsing sessions and repeat visits. This helps us understand traffic volumes, page views, traffic sources and website usage so that we can improve our content and services. The data processed includes cookie-generated visitor identifiers, visit times, pages visited, referring pages, browser and device types, and masked IP addresses. IP masking reduces the risk of identification but does not mean that all analytics data has been anonymised.

We enable non-essential Matomo analytics only after you have given your consent. You can refuse or withdraw consent through the website’s cookie settings. Refusing analytics does not affect your ability to browse the website’s public content. You can also clear or disable cookies in your browser. Analytics cookies have a maximum lifetime of 30 days. Preference cookies used to remember your acceptance or refusal are not used to track visits.

We do not send contact form content, email bodies, names, email addresses or telephone numbers to Matomo. We also do not link visitor identifiers with the contact information you submit to identify you.

3. Information Retention and Storage Locations

Contact emails and complaint emails from the certification registry system are retained on the relevant email servers for 30 days from receipt and deleted when that period expires. Contact form submissions stored in the website database, if any, are also retained for no longer than 30 days and then deleted.

Raw Matomo visit records are retained for no longer than 30 days, after which they are deleted or irreversibly anonymised. Aggregated statistics that contain no identifiable personal information may be retained. Cybersecurity logs that must be retained by law are managed separately from these records. Relevant network logs are retained for at least six months as required by applicable regulations and deleted once the retention period has expired and there is no lawful need for further retention. Where laws or administrative regulations require a different retention period, those requirements apply.

Storage locations: website and form data: [China]; Matomo data: [China]; email data: [China]. Where personal information is transferred across borders, we will fulfil the applicable legal obligations, including informing you about the overseas recipient and the relevant processing arrangements, and obtaining your separate consent where required by law.

4. Information Disclosure and Security

We do not sell your personal information. Where we engage service providers to process information for website hosting, technical maintenance or email services, we will establish the scope of processing, security measures and confidentiality obligations in accordance with the law, and supervise their processing activities. Where we provide personal information to other independent personal information processors or disclose it publicly, we will fulfil the applicable notification and consent requirements, except where we are lawfully cooperating with competent authorities in the performance of their duties.

We use access controls, encryption in transit and necessary security management measures to prevent unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration or loss of information. If an information security incident occurs, we will promptly take remedial action and fulfil our reporting and notification obligations in accordance with the law.

5. Your Rights

You may use the contact details in this Policy to request access to, copies of, correction of, supplementation of or deletion of your personal information; withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; or request an explanation of the relevant processing rules. We will verify your identity only to the extent necessary and handle your request promptly in accordance with the law. If we cannot lawfully fulfil your request, we will explain why. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the validity of processing carried out on the basis of consent before its withdrawal.

6. Third-Party Links and Policy Updates

This website may contain links to third-party websites. When you visit those websites, their processing of personal information is governed by their respective privacy policies.

We may update this Policy to reflect changes in applicable laws and regulations, our services or our actual processing practices. The updated date will be published on this page. Where significant changes involve the purposes or methods of processing, or the categories of information processed, we will provide further notice and obtain renewed consent where required by law.

7. Contact Us

Personal information processor: China Timber & Wood Products Distribution Association.

Privacy contact email: support@ctwpda.org.cn
Telephone: +86 10 6865 6266

Address: Rooms 15A11–15, Building 6, SDIC Fortune Plaza, No. 9 Guang’an Road, Fengtai District, Beijing, China.