Privacy Statement Flanders Chancellery and Foreign Office (08/04/2020)
1 Goal of This Privacy Statement
The Flanders Chancellery and Foreign Office of the Flemish Government cares about your privacy and always acts in this respect in accordance with the stipulations of privacy legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This privacy statement wishes to inform you about the processing of your personal data.
If you have any questions or comments on this privacy statement or about the protection of your personal data by the Department, please contact us through one of the channels mentioned in title 8 of this Privacy Statement.
2 What Personal Data do we process and why?
The Department processes your contact data and identification data. We obtain this data either because you provided this data directly to us, or because we collected them indirectly through publicly available databases, websites or other public sources. We use this information to carry out our tasks in the context of the public interest that the Department pursues. This involves looking after the international relations of the Flemish Government, particularly the coordination of Flanders’ international and European actions and the management of Flanders' relations with foreign governments, the European Union and international organizations. These assignments stem from, among other provisions, Article 6 of the Decree of the Flemish Government of June 3th 2005 regarding the organization of the Flemish administration.
To carry out our tasks in the context of the public interest, we also organize conferences, receptions, lectures and other events. During such events, pictures and other visual footage may be processed on which you are recognizable. We never process footage that targets you unless you agree to this yourself by posing voluntarily. This footage is used in the general communication by the Department about its activities, such as on our website, social media channels and information brochures. If you object to the use of visual footage on which you are depicted, or any other objection to the processing of your personal data, this can be reported via privacy@flanders.eu.
3 Transfers of personal data to third parties
To maintain and improve our services we sometimes invoke third parties, e.g. developers and IT-suppliers. Where necessary for the services provided by these third parties, your personal data may be transferred to them. We conclude contractual agreements with these third parties to ensure that they only process your personal data according to our instructions and that they always meet the same degree of security and confidentiality as we do. The Department maintains responsible for the processing operations carried out by third parties.
At the request of the government, or to comply with other legal obligations, some of your personal data may be transferred to official authorities. For example, in the context of legal proceedings or judicial investigations.
4 How long do we retain your data ?
We do not retain your personal data any longer than strictly necessary to fulfill the objectives for which the personal data was originally collected (see title 2 of this Privacy Statement). In addition, we delete your personal data without undue delay at your request (see title 5 of this Privacy Statement).
5 Rights regarding your personal data
Regarding your personal data, you have the right to:
- Request access to your personal data
- Request rectification of your personal data
- Request restriction of the processing your personal data
- Request erasure of your personal data
- Request the portability of personal data (this means a request to transfer your data to a different organization in a commonly used machine-readable format)
- Object against the processing of your personal data
All requests regarding the above mentioned rights must be submitted through one of the channels mentioned in title 8 of this Privacy Statement. If we are unable to work out a suitable solution together you have the right to file a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement. Or you can contact our leading data protection authority: https://www.dataprotectionauthority.be/.
6 The protection of your personal data
The Department does everything within its grasp to prevent misuse, loss, theft, unauthorized access and other unwanted action regarding your personal data. We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure that your data is processed in accordance with national and European legislation and guarantee the protection of your rights. Our Data Protection Officer and Information Security Officer make sure these measures are monitored regularly and kept up to date.
7 Modification of this Privacy Statement
The Department can modify this Privacy Statement at any time. All updates and changes come into force immediately upon publication on this website. Therefore, we encourage you to consult this Privacy Statement regularly to stay informed about the latest changes that can have an impact on you. Important changes shall be communicated through common communication channels.
Should we intend to process your personal data for purposes other than those for which the personal data has been obtained, we will inform you about these intended processing activities, their purposes and any other relevant information through common communication channels prior to the further processing.
8 Contact information of the Flanders Chancellery and Foreign Office and the Data Protection Officer
Contact Information of the data controller
Flanders Chancellery and Foreign Office
Havenlaan / Avenue du Port 88 PO Box 80, 1000 Brussels
+32 2 553 60 32
Contact information of the Data Protection Officer
If you have further questions or if you want further information concerning this privacy statement, you can contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO) via the following email address: privacy@flanders.eu.