Privacy Policy

1. SCOPE OF THE PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Policy applies to all personal information of consumers collected or used by ESSMA VZW, a non-profit association under Belgian law, with registered office at Tiensesteenweg 168 H, box 602, 3800 Sint-Truiden, Belgium, registered in the Register of Legal Entities under enterprise number 0842.785.389 (RLE Antwerp, Hasselt section) and ESSMA Services NV, a limited liability company under Belgian law, with registered office at Tiensesteenweg 168 H, box 602, 3800 Sint-Truiden, Belgium, registered in the Register of Legal Entities under enterprise number 0664.650.334 (RLE Antwerp, Hasselt section) (hereinafter referred to as “we/us”) and our affiliates. This includes personal information for commercial use of websites owned by us as well as offline collection of personal data for commercial use by us. We are the controller for the data processing in the context of the website and any (mobile) applications in accordance with the applicable laws relating to the processing of personal data, including the Personal Data Protection Act and as from 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Act.

Upon your first visit to the website or (mobile) application, you will be asked to confirm that you have taken note of this Privacy Policy and to accept its content. If any significant changes are made to the Privacy Policy, you will be asked to confirm again that you have taken note of this Privacy Policy and that you accept its content.

For your convenience and to improve the use of the website, links may occasionally be posted to websites owned and managed by third parties. Via these links you leave our website and services and these links are beyond our control. The websites to which you are referred to through the link have their own separate terms and conditions, as well as their own privacy policy. We are not responsible and cannot be held liable for the content and activities of these websites. If you visit these websites or provide you with access to it, this is entirely at your own risk.

2. WHY SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH US?

Sharing your personal information enables us to offer you a number of benefits. It will be simpler and easier for you to:

  • Sign up to receive news about upcoming events;
  • Sign up to receive all benefits you are entitled to;
  • Sign up to receive a newsletter;
  • Receive personal messages and special offers that are relevant to you.

You can share your personal information with us by registering on our website.

3. WHICH PERSONAL INFORMATION WILL BE COLLECTED

We may collect personal data relating to your use or purchase of our services. Such personal data can be obtained as follows:

  • Registering or filling out forms on our website. This includes information that you can provide if you request additional information about our services or sign up to receive our e-mail newsletters or vouchers;
  • Completing a profile on the website;
  • Buying a service from us;
  • Request information or assistance from us.

Use of other website functionalities that may be offered from time to time and may require such information to use that functionality. We may also collect information that does not constitute personal data, including but not limited to the frequency of user visits to the website, the routes through which users access the website and use any hyperlinks present on the website. We or our service organizations and intermediaries may process and use this joint data for various purposes, including but not limited to analysis of this data for trends and statistics, website development or planning and evaluation of marketing initiatives. This information is collected by means of certain tools and methods, such as retrieving your IP address or using cookies, and is stored, used and disclosed in a bundled form, unless otherwise noted.

4. SHARING INFORMATION

We will only exchange information with third parties if we sell you a service in a joint marketing effort with other companies. In such a case, your personal information will be exchanged with these companies. Please note that these companies often have their own privacy policies that apply to the way they use your personal information. This privacy policy may sometimes differ from our Privacy Policy. We may use external companies to process your purchase or request or to process your personal information. We require these companies to protect your personal data adequately and not to use your information for other purposes not approved by us.

We will disclose personal information if required by law. We will not sell or provide third parties with your personal information with permission to use your personal information for their own purposes. We will not share personal financial information you provided (such as credit card information) with other parties unless it is necessary to process your order, process our invoice or prevent or counter fraud.

5. COOKIES AND WEBSITE LOGGIN

On our website and our (mobile) applications, different technologies can be used to make them more user-friendly, effective and secure. Such technologies may result in information being collected automatically by us or by third parties on our behalf. This information generally does not contain personal information about the user. Our website and (mobile) applications sometimes make use of so-called cookies. These are mostly small text files stored by your web browser on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device.

Cookies enable us to recognize your computer or (mobile) device at your next visit without having to disturbing you with re-registering. Cookies help to make our website or (mobile) application more user-friendly, effective, and safer. The cookies we usually use are so-called “session cookies”, which are automatically deleted at the end of the visit to the website. By default, browsers allow the use of cookies, but this feature can also be disabled. This will, however, result in some services being not available or only partially available. It is also possible to manually delete cookies after use via the web browser.

You expressly consent to the processing of non-essential cookies as described in this Privacy Policy.

6. DATA PROVIDED BY YOU

In addition to the data that is automatically collected, we also process personal information provided by you to us. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Your contact information, including your first and last name, billing or delivery address, email address and your phone number;
  • If you have created an online profile, the preferences and interests stored in this profile;
  • If you contacted customer service, the details of this contact and contact history.

All of these data are characterized by the fact that you provided this information yourself. We use this information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. You may always change your personal information.

7. HOW WILL COLLECTED INFORMATION BE USED

We will use the information we collected about you to improve your user experience and to inform you about the offers on our services. If you provided us with personal information regarding an offer, an event, a mobile application, etc., we may send you emails or other messages related to the service you requested. In the event you contact our customer service, we will use your personal information (including your contact history) to enable our customer service to process your request and provide the best possible service. If you have given your consent to receive newsletters, we will send it to you. If you have provided us with your personal information as part of a service, we will provide you with similar services. We may also contact you to request feedback about our services. You can unsubscribe for these messages at any time by clicking on a link in the corresponding email or other message (see below in article 8.1). If you have agreed that we may contact you, we may do this by regular mail, email, SMS, telephone or other electronic means for marketing, advertising and opinion poll purposes. This includes, for example, information relating to our special offers, sales actions, etc. We can share your contact information to our partners for marketing, advertising and opinion research purposes. Article 8 contains information about your rights, and in particular how to revoke your permission.

Your personal data will only be stored as long as this is considered necessary for the processing purposes contained in this Privacy Policy. If you indicate that you do not wish to use any services anymore and you use the option to unsubscribe for services or delete user accounts, this personal data will no longer be retained by us.

8. YOUR RIGHTS

If you provide us your personal information through our website or other channels, this will be done on a voluntary basis and upon your consent to use it in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you choose not to provide the requested information, different customer benefits may not be available to you. In certain cases, only those who have provided us with the necessary personal information are able to use certain services and participate in the activities and offers available on our Website and (mobile) applications. Since transparency and fairplay are important values to us, we offer different options, depending on the exact circumstances, to help you to maintain control over your personal information. These options include the ability to unsubscribe from services, delete user accounts or unsubscribe to receive information about the stored data.

8.1. RIGHT TO OBJECT/ TO RESIGN

E-mails that we send to you and containing, for example, a newsletter or marketing content, have an option to unsubscribe to receipt such emails by following the relevant instructions in the affected email. If you wish to stop receiving emails from us, you can simply click on this unsubscribe-hyperlink and then we will stop sending you emails. If you would like to object to the receipt of advertising information and offers in general, including by ordinary mail, email, SMS, phone or other electronic means, or if you wish to consent revoke, you can at any time send an email to contact@essma.eu. In case we have doubts about your identity, we may ask you to identify yourself (e.g. by sending a copy of the front of your passport or e-ID). Regarding other types of messages you can receive, such as maintenance or administrative notifications, the receipt of these messages can only be terminated by canceling your account, as such messages are a required part of user accounts and related usage of our website and (mobile) applications. You can cancel your account by sending an email to contact@essma.eu.

8.2. RIGHT TO REQUEST/ ACCES INFORMATION

You have the right to be informed at any time of the personal information that has been stored about you, including its origin and recipients as well as the purpose for which they are stored. All information contained in article 15 of the General Data Processing Regulation will be made available to you on such a valid request, provided proof of your identity by submitting a copy of the front of your identity card. Information about stored personal information can be obtained by using the contact information in the Contact Information in Article 11.

8.3. RIGHT TO REQUEST AN IMPROVEMENT OR ERASURE

You have the right to request that your stored personal information will be adjusted, supplemented, corrected or deleted. We will inform you if and if so, to what extent we will meet your request. If for any reason we do not consent to your request, we will inform you of the reasons.

8.4. OTHER RIGHTS AS A RESULTS OF THE GENERAL DATA PROTECTION ACT

In addition, as from May 25, 2018, you have the right to request the limitation of data processing and the limitation of transferring the data provided by you to a third-party, the so-called “right to data transferability”. If you would like more information about these rights, you can also contact us through the contact information in article 11 of this Privacy Policy. If a particular processing of personal information is based on your sole permission, you may withdraw this permission as from 25 May 2018. We will inform you if and if so, to what extent we will meet your request. If for any reason we do not consent to your request, we will inform you of the reasons.

 

9. INFORMATION SECURITY AND DATA INTEGRITY

We take all appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data from unforeseen or illegal destruction, loss, change, unauthorized use, publication or access, especially where processing involves the transfer of personal data through a network, and against any other illegal forms of processing and abuse.

10. SOCIAL NETWORKING

Our website and (mobile) applications provide you with Social Plug-ins from different social networks. If you choose to interact with a social network, your activity on our website or through our (mobile) applications will also be made available to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. If you are logged in to one of the social networks while visiting our website or (mobile) applications, the social network can add this information to your profile. If you interact with any of the Social Plug-ins, this information will be transferred to the social network. If you do not wish such data transfer, you must log out of your social network before you go to our website or use (mobile) applications. We cannot influence this data collection and data transfer through the Social Plug-ins. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of those social network websites for comprehensive information about the collection and transfer of personal data, what rights you have and how to obtain adequate privacy settings.

 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/privacy

Google+: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

 

11. CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have any questions about the processing of your personal information or our Privacy Policy, please contact us by sending an e-mail to: contact@essma.eu

We ask you to contact us with any questions or complaints via the contact details above. However, we inform you that you have the right to file a complaint with the supervisory authority, which in Belgium is the Commission for the Protection of Privacy (better known as the “Privacy Commission”).