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European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations

Privacy

Protection of your personal data

This privacy statement provides information about
the processing and the protection of your personal data.

Processing operation: User account database and email notifications on the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations website

Data Controller: Head of Unit in charge of Communication

Record reference: DPR-EC-01857

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Why and how do we process your personal data?

3. On what legal ground(s) do we process your personal data?

4. Which personal data do we collect and process?

5. How long do we keep your personal data?

6. How do we protect and safeguard your personal data?

7. Who has access to your personal data and to whom is it disclosed?

8. What are your rights and how can you exercise them?

9. Contact information

10. Where to find more detailed information?

1. Introduction

The European Commission (hereafter ‘the Commission’) is committed to protect your personal data and to respect your privacy. The Commission collects and further processes personal data pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data (repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001).

This privacy statement explains the reason for the processing of your personal data, the way we collect, handle and ensure protection of all personal data provided, how that information is used and what rights you have in relation to your personal data. It also specifies the contact details of the responsible Data Controller with whom you may exercise your rights, the Data Protection Officer and the European Data Protection Supervisor.

The information in relation to processing operation user account database and email notifications on the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations website undertaken by Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) is presented below.

2. Why and how do we process your data?

This privacy statement concerns the website of the Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) https://ec.europa.eu/echo/index_en that aims to raise awareness about DG ECHO’s mandate and activities. This site provides the ability for individuals interested in DG ECHO’s work to subscribe to email notifications (“newsletter”) on new news items, photo stories, and video posts from geographical region(s) and topic(s) of their choosing.

Purpose of the processing operation: DG ECHO collects and uses your personal information for the subscription or subscription to the newsletter.

Your personal data will not be used for an automated decision-making including profiling.

3. On what legal ground(s) do we process your personal data?

We process your personal based on the consent of the data subject data to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes, pursuant to Article 5(1)(d) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

4. Which personal data do we collect and further process?

In order to carry out this processing operation, only data necessary for the subscription and subscription to the newsletter is collected. Individuals interested in receiving email notifications and thus subscribing to the newsletter are asked to submit their: username, email address, age, gender, and country of residence. By submitting this information, individuals are able to create a user account.

The provision of a username, email address, age, gender, and country of residence is mandatory to subscribe to the email notification. If you do not provide your personal data, you will not have access to this feature.

5. How long do we keep your data?

The Data Controller, only keeps your personal data for the time necessary to fulfil the purpose of collection or further processing, namely, from the moment of creating a user account, personal data is retained for a period of 5 years. Seven days before the expiry of this retention period, users will be contacted via an automated message to confirm continued subscription. In the case of no reply, the personal data will be automatically deleted from the user database 72 hours after the sending of the message.

Users have the option to modify, update, or delete their account. In the case of deletion, personal data is permanently deleted and subscription to the newsletter is automatically ceased.

6. How do we protect and safeguard your personal data?

All personal data in electronic format (e-mails, documents, databases, uploaded batches of data, etc.) are stored on the servers of the European Commission. All processing operations are carried out pursuant to the Commission Decision (EU, Euratom) 2017/46 of 10 January 2017 on the security of communication and information systems in the European Commission.

The Commission’s contractors are bound by a specific contractual clause for any processing operations of your data on behalf of the Commission, and by the confidentiality obligations deriving from the transposition of the General Data Protection Regulation in the EU Member States (‘GDPR’ Regulation (EU) 2016/679.)

In order to protect your personal data, the Commission has put in place a number of technical and organisational measures. Technical measures include appropriate actions to address online security, risk of data loss, alteration of data or unauthorised access, taking into consideration the risk presented by the processing and the nature of the personal data being processed. Organisational measures include restricting access to the personal data solely to authorised persons with a legitimate need to know for the purposes of this processing operation.

7. Who has access to your information and to whom is it disclosed?

Access to your personal data is provided to the Commission staff responsible for carrying out this processing operation and to authorised staff according to the “need to know” principle. Such staff abide by statutory, and when required, additional confidentiality agreements. Access is also granted to contractors.

8. What are your rights and how can you exercise them?

You have specific rights as a ‘data subject’ under Chapter III (Articles 14-25) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, in particular the right to access, your personal data and to rectify them in case your personal data are inaccurate or incomplete. Where applicable, you have the right to erase your personal data, to restrict the processing of your personal data, to object to the processing, and the right to data portability. You have consented to provide your personal data to the Data Controller for the present processing operation. You can withdraw your consent at any time by notifying the Data Controller. The withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of the processing carried out before you have withdrawn the consent.

You can exercise your rights by contacting the Data Controller, or in case of conflict the Data Protection Officer. If necessary, you can also address the European Data Protection Supervisor. Their contact information is given under Heading 9 below.

Where you wish to exercise your rights in the context of one or several specific processing operations, please provide their description (i.e. their Record reference(s) as specified under Heading 10 below) in your request.

9. Contact information

The Data Controller

If you would like to exercise your rights under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, or if you have comments, questions or concerns, or if you would like to submit a complaint regarding the collection and use of your personal data, please feel free to contact the Data Controller:

Head of Unit ECHO.A.4 "Communication"
Rue de la loi 86
B-1049 Brussels
email: ECHO-INTERNETatec [dot] europa [dot] eu

The Data Protection Officer (DPO) of the Commission

You may contact the Data Protection Officer (DATA-PROTECTION-OFFICERatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (DATA-PROTECTION-OFFICER[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)) with regard to issues related to the processing of your personal data under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)

You have the right to have recourse (i.e. you can lodge a complaint) to the European Data Protection Supervisor (edpsatedps [dot] europa [dot] eu (edps[at]edps[dot]europa[dot]eu)) if you consider that your rights under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 have been infringed as a result of the processing of your personal data by the Data Controller.

10. Where to find more detailed information?

The Commission Data Protection Officer (DPO) publishes the register of all processing operations on personal data by the Commission, which have been documented and notified to him. You may access the register via the following link: http://ec.europa.eu/dpo-register.

This specific processing operation has been included in the DPO’s public register with the following Record reference: DPR-EC-01857