Privacy statement of Flanders Investment & Trade

General policy on the processing and protection of personal data
15/08/2019

Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) values your privacy and respects your rights when processing your personal data. In this statement, you can learn how your personal data is collected, processed and used by our organization. This privacy notice reflects the general privacy policy regarding the processing and protection of personal data applied by:

  Flanders Investment & Trade
  Koning Albert II-laan 37, 1030 Brussels, Belgium
  BE0242.401.911.

Who processes your personal data?

FIT processes your personal data. In this privacy notice, we use the pronoun “we” to refer to FIT. FIT is responsible for the processing of your personal data for the purposes described within this privacy notice. We only process personal data and allow personal data to be processed when necessary for the tasks assigned to us. This is done in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and provisions of the federal and Flemish regulations governing the protection of natural persons in the processing of personal data.

If you have any questions, complaints, suggestions, or inquiries regarding your personal rights or the processing of your personal data, you can contact our data protection officer (DPO) at any time by sending an e-mail to privacy@fitagency.be.

When is personal data processed?

We collect and process your personal data after you have requested one of our services or contact us concerning the services we provide. In other cases, we may process your personal data when you ask general questions. It is possible that the government, without you taking action, implements a decree or arrangement which requires us to process your personal data.

Which personal data does FIT process?

Personal data is any data that identifies or relates to you as a natural person. In light of this, FIT processes:

• identification and contact details;
• data related to your profession and/or function;
• data related to social media you use;
• data related to your areas of interest (location, domain, topics);
• authentication data;
• digital cookies;
• telephone calls (via our call center).

How do we collect and process your personal data?

We use three methods to collect your personal data:

• We retrieve your personal data directly from our forms or documents which are attached to webpages, emails, or by other means. Those documents may be required by regulation.
• We collect your personal data through digital cookies.
• We may request personal data from other government agencies or organizations that already have this data. In doing so, we always comply with regulations governing the protection of natural persons in processing their personal data as defined on the European, federal or Flemish level. As such, we have established formal authorizations to request personal data from other governmental organizations.

Why do we process personal data?

We process your personal data to provide you with the services you request, specifically, but not limited to:

• promoting your business to third parties;
• managing your profile;
• providing personal assistance to you as a customer and contacting you for this purpose;
• delivering newsletters for which you have subscribed (based upon your consent);

• delivering personalized emails and reminders based on your interests (by using a tracker that analyses your clicking behavior in our newsletters);

• inviting you to events and trade missions organized by FIT (‘e-mail-alert’) (based upon your consent);
• delivering the Wereldwijs-magazine (based upon your consent);
• handling your application for subsidies;
• handling your request for advice;
• managing your participation in our actions;
• delivering your personal data to our partners;
• managing your complaints;
• improving your website experience;
• identifying you online and targeting you on other channels (based upon your consent);
• improving the quality of our telephone calls (via our call center);
• …

Description of FIT services

In some cases, regulations directly require and impose the processing of personal data. In the case of FIT, this concerns tasks as described in the following founding decree:

https://codex.vlaanderen.be/Portals/Codex/documenten/1013054.html

We may process personal data for non-regulated tasks if you have given your explicit consent, if the processing results from an agreement you have made or if we have a legitimate interest in doing so. In each specific case, we explicitly state the grounds on which we process personal data.

How long do we retain your personal data?

FIT is committed to retaining your personal data no longer than necessary. Personal data related to your MyFIT-profile is deleted or fully anonymized if you decide to remove your profile.

Telephone calls recorded for the purpose of quality improvement will be retained for 12 months at most.

Do we share your personal data with others?

First, your personal data will be processed by FIT and its employees only.

Second, only in those cases requested by you, data concerning your business or related people will be shared with relevant third parties. FIT enforces a strict policy stipulating that such data is only exchanged when in line with our tasks and objectives.

Last, FIT may rely on third parties for specific services. These third parties must comply with strict rules when processing any of your personal data, and only process personal data necessary to perform their task. This includes, e.g. event agencies that support us in organizing our events. These service providers only receive the personal data needed to deliver the services we have requested. For example, this may concern contact and identification details needed to manage your attendance of an event.

Is your personal data being transferred outside the EU?

FIT does not intend to transfer your personal data to third parties outside the European Union.

As stated above, depending on your demand, we may provide your data to relevant parties both inside and outside the European Union. FIT does this only in your interests and the interests of your organization.

For more details about how this works, contact our data protection officer:

  Gilles Bollen
  E: privacy@fitagency.be

What are your rights?

FIT provides full transparency on the processing of your personal data and takes all reasonable steps to assure the quality and accuracy of your personal data. As an individual, you have the right to:

• access your personal data;
• transfer your personal data;
• adjust or complete your personal data when false or incomplete;
• temporarily or permanently restrict the processing of your personal data (including the withdrawal of your consent);
• request the deletion of your personal data.

If your personal data is processed in the public interest, you can at any moment oppose its processing. We then consider whether your individual interest outweighs the general interest targeted through the processing activity. If we cannot, or may not, process your data any further, we may not be able to manage your attendance of an event and your participation may become impossible.

You can, at any time, contact our DPO via privacy@fitagency.be. To respect confidentiality rights, we kindly ask you to provide evidence of your identity.

You can also contact this department if you consider your personal data no longer relevant and want it to be deleted. FIT retains the right to determine whether your request is legitimate. Above all, FIT may in have to comply with retention periods required by law, which would prohibit us from granting your request for the deletion of personal data. In such an event, FIT will evaluate which portion of your personal data can be deleted, and inform you about its decision.

If you do not agree with our way of processing your personal data, you can contact our data protection officer (DPO) at privacy@fitagency.be, or file a complaint with the competent supervisory authority (see contact details below).

How is your personal data protected?

FIT does its utmost to continuously guarantee the availability, confidentiality and integrity of your personal data. FIT therefore takes appropriate measures to protect such data. This includes the careful selection and strict limitation of the number of employees with access to your data.

Moreover, impact on privacy is analyzed extensively to guarantee your rights, as well as the security and protection of your personal data. If an unexpected incident occurs leading to a breach affecting your personal data, FIT will notify you while taking into account the retention period required by law.

General information

We reserve the right to amend and adapt this privacy policy. Changes and adaptations will be published on our website.

This version was last amended and approved on February 15th, 2019.

FIT contact details

  Flanders Investment & Trade
  Koning Albert II-laan 37
  1030 Brussels
  Belgium

  BE0242.401.911
  E: privacy@fitagency.be

Contact details of Data Protection Authority (supervisory authority) 

  Drukpersstraat 35
  1000 Brussels
  Belgium

  E: commission@privacycommission.be