Protecting family reputation in the Gulf: a practical privacy plan for family offices

Family offices often have access to vast amounts of personal and sensitive data which can include health, finance or relationship information. If that information is not managed carefully, the family could be exposed to significant reputational risk. A family office would not wait for an investment to fail before asking who was responsible. The family’s reputation and privacy require the same proactive attention. 

For a prominent Gulf family, the starting point may be an entirely ordinary event: a photograph from a holiday, a member of staff sharing an itinerary or flight details, or a bank asking questions about an out of date online article. None necessarily look like a crisis in isolation. However, each could indicate a privacy or data issue, or be the start of a wider reputational problem costing time and expense to rectify.

Reputation and privacy should be managed with (and treated as seriously as) investment and succession risks. The aim is not to make family life secret. Indeed, that is almost impossible for HNWs in the age of social media and LLMs. The objective is to ensure that these risks are managed before they become a crisis.

Where private life meets public information

Consider a family dividing its time between Dubai, Riyadh and London. A family member posts an innocuous photograph outside a home and a photograph of the family on holiday.

Individually, these may seem unremarkable.  Put together, however, they reveal where the family lives and when the home will be empty which, on top  of having privacy implications, could also pose a security risk to the family. 

The answer is not to ban social media, which for many would be unrealistic. It is to explain what apparently harmless material can reveal, including about other people and the implications going forward. Having a team that are used to advising on international issues can be key here as competing laws on what is acceptable in different jurisdictions need to be borne in mind.

The sensible first questions are – what information is already public/available? Where/who is the publisher? Who controls/owns the information? What are the overall objectives of the family when it comes to privacy and reputation?

Do your due diligence

Not every damaging account of a family member appears in search results on pages far down on Google. Companies such as LSEG (World-Check) provide information used in screening and due diligence. The products of such companies differ, but the practical concern is straightforward: what will a prospective bank or business partner see when searching these databases? These profiles can be taken more seriously than a one-off article buried down search results. 

Imagine a profile recording an investigation into an individual but not their acquittal. Or a screening result which actually relates to someone completely unrelated but with a similar name. There have also been cases of minors who have been deemed ‘politically exposed persons’ due to tenuous links to indirect family members. These profiles can be obtained and reviewed for accuracy. The family office should ensure that profiles relating to family members and related entities are an up to date, properly contextualised record, not based on unreliable third party websites, baseless speculation or a misunderstanding of money laundering rules and regulations. Ultimately, the family office can consider seeking amendment or even removal if the facts support such a case.

What should a privacy/reputation plan look like?

A valuable plan should be clear enough to use and specific enough to follow. The below measures are  a sensible starting point.

1. Agree who owns the issue

Make sure everyone knows who to contact when a privacy or reputation issue arises, who is on the team (comms professional, media and reputation lawyer, in house counsel etc) and who is responsible for deciding what happens next. Agree who can speak for the family, approve communications and that everyone internally knows who to contact in a crisis.

A family privacy and communications protocol should be in place. It should also recognise that different family members may reasonably want different levels of visibility, but have a shared and agreed overall public strategy.

2. Make guidance practical, particularly for children

Proactively discuss photographs, live location-sharing, travel plans, account settings and device security using examples relevant to the family. Ensure family members know the consequences of posting and  have sufficient understanding of the pros and cons  of maintaining a public profile.

Children need particular consideration. Involve younger family members in the conversation where appropriate to do so rather than simply handing them rules. Consider social media training for the family. 

3. Protect information where it is held

Review who has access to sensitive information such as passports, financial records, medical information and itineraries. Enable secure sharing, multi-factor authentication and prompt removal of access when someone leaves the team. Carefully drafted employment/contractor agreements can help with what happens post employment/contract.

Employees, household staff and advisers should have confidentiality/non-disparagement clauses where appropriate, with clear explanations of what they cover and that are careful not to prevent legitimate disclosures (e.g. of criminal offences or whistleblowing). It is also worth remembering that privacy laws differ between jurisdictions. In some Gulf countries, you are not allowed to post photos online without those pictured knowing (which could capture someone inadvertently in the background of a photo). Similarly, the unauthorised disclosure of (or access to) private and/or confidential information can itself be  a criminal offence in certain jurisdictions.

4. Keep the records under review

A reputational audit can help find out what is available already and help guide what needs updating or removing. What is a third party carrying out due diligence on the family likely to find including English and (e.g.) Arabic language search results and what information is held by screening providers? 

If inaccurate, false, misleading or outdated information  is identified, keep the documents needed to demonstrate the correct position and consider addressing it before it causes a problem with a proactive reputational/source  of wealth report if required.

Where inaccurate information is corrected, consider whether it has already been relied upon by a bank or other third party. Correcting the original profile may only be part of the solution, highlighting those corrections to any third parties that have relied on  it may complete it.

What happens when something goes wrong?

Preserve the relevant material and establish what has happened, including whether there is any immediate security concern or deadline which needs to be met.  A hostile publication, for example, will require a different response from a compromised email account. 

Bring the family office, lawyers, cyber specialists and communications advisers together early. They should work from the same facts. Be careful to consider what documents are and are not privileged (the latter could be disclosable in subsequent litigation or to a regulator). Agree in advance who will handle press enquiries, regulator notifications, family correspondence and ensure consistency throughout.

Speed can also be a legal requirement. Some data breaches must be reported to the competent authorities within specific timeframes. A plan should identify who assesses notification obligations, rather than leave that question until the investigation is finished at which point it might be too late. 

For family offices, protecting privacy and reputation is not a one-off exercise or simply a response to bad publicity. It is an ongoing governance responsibility.  It is crucial to understand what information is available, control how sensitive material is handled, prepare family members and advisers for foreseeable risks, and have the right team in place and ready to act when an issue arises. It’s impossible to eliminate every risk, but a proportionate and regularly tested and updated plan can help prevent an isolated incident becoming  a lasting reputational, legal or security problem.