1. Introduction

This is the Privacy Statement and Data Retention Policy (“Privacy Policy”) for Friends of the Supergrid AISBL, doing business as Friends of Sustainable Grids (“FOSG”). This Privacy Policy was last updated in March 2019.

FOSG is committed to protecting the personal information you provide us or obtained when you access and use materials on www.friendsofthesupergrid.eu/ www.supergrid.brussels (the “Website”), including the Website’s Membership Application pages or other websites or apps that post a link to this Privacy Policy. Information that you submit to FOSG in response to an email request for information or other outreach from FOSG, or through FOSG’s employment application processes, will be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Whenever you provide such information we will only use your information in line with all applicable data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Your information will be kept in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.
FOSG may, in its discretion, amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. To ensure you are able to remain informed about the information we collect and how we use it, material changes to our statement will be reflected here. This Website may contain links to external websites, which are not governed by this Privacy Policy. FOSG does not take responsibility for the privacy practices of any third party websites to which we link. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any such websites before you submit information there.

2. Your Acceptance of this Privacy Policy

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By browsing our Website and expressly consenting where required, you agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy.

3. What Information Do We Collect?

FOSG collects information from you when you apply for Membership, request copies of publications, subscribe for email newsletters and press releases, seek additional information regarding our services or employment opportunities, databases, or register for conferences and other FOSG-sponsored events. If you do not provide such information, you will not be able to apply for Membership, request copies of publications, subscribe for email newsletters and press releases, seek additional information regarding our services or employment opportunities.

Personal information that we collect includes: names, addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, unique personal identifiers, financial information, subject areas of interest and/or demographic information.

In addition, FOSG may also conduct user surveys on the Web or use technologies to provide FOSG with information on a number of areas, such as user identity, user viewing habits, whether or not users found what they were searching for, whether the Website content is relevant to user needs, and the like.

4. How Do We Use Personal Information?

The purposes and uses of your personal information will depend on the use of the Website and the personal information provided. We process your personal information:

• For the purposes of safeguarding FOSG’s legitimate interests, including:
  • Informing you about updates to our services and notifying you about other products and services offered by FOSG that may be of interest to you, including information regarding publications and events or sending you marketing materials;
  • Responding to feedback, queries and complaints that you submit to us;
  • Understanding the Website’s user population, and identifying subjects of interest;
  • Measuring and improving the effectiveness of FOSG’s marketing actions across different channels;
  • Improving our web content and navigation.
• On the basis of your consent. Insofar as you have granted us consent to the processing of personal information for specific purposes, the lawfulness of such processing is based on your consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time.
• For compliance with a legal obligation. This includes anti-fraud and anti-money laundering measures as well as tax and social security requirements.

5. How We Might Share Your Information

FOSG will not sell, share, or rent or otherwise make available your personal information to other parties, except that we may disclose the information to third parties who perform services on our behalf and have a need to access the information in connection with those services. Any third parties will only process this information to the extent to which and within the limits that FOSG itself is permitted to process that data. In addition, FOSG may disclose your contact information in response to inquiries by bona-fide rights owners in connection with allegations of infringement of copyright or other proprietary rights arising from information that you have posted on the Website or otherwise provided to FOSG.

The third parties with whom we may need to share personal information to help us provide services and products to you and to run our Website include: our subsidiaries or affiliates; our advisors; our third party service providers who process information on our behalf to help run some of our internal business operations including email distribution, IT services and marketing and events services; our business partners for publications and events co-organized by FOSG and them; law enforcement bodies in order to comply with any legal obligation or court order.

The above also includes third parties located in different countries around the world, including outside of the EEA. It may involve your personal information being located in various countries around the world, e.g. USA where privacy laws differ. We only make these arrangements or transfers where we are satisfied that adequate levels of protection are in place to protect information held in that country. In addition, the Website may be viewed and accessed anywhere in the world, including countries that may not have laws regulating the use and transfer of personally identifiable information. By using the Website, submitting information through the Website, or submitting personal information to FOSG through other means, you voluntarily consent to such international transfer and hosting of such information to those countries and parties.

6. Retention of Your Personal Information

FOSG retains your personal information for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected. We may retain your personal information for longer if it may be the subject of a legal claim, or may otherwise be relevant for future litigation.

Where you tell us that you no longer wish to receive marketing messages about FOSG’s products and services, we will keep this information about you until you tell us otherwise. This is to ensure that we don’t send you any further marketing communications in error.

7. Unsubscribing from Marketing Communications

If, at any time, you prefer not to receive further communications from us in any or all forms you will have the ability to unsubscribe from such communications by clicking on the link provided in every email that is sent to you by us.

8. Cookies and other Tracking Technologies

FOSG may use cookies on this Website and in our communications with you to keep track of your visit to our Website and our communications with you. A “cookie” is a small amount of data sent from a Web server to your browser and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Generally, we do not use cookies or tracking technologies except in the case of our newsletter subscription, which is through MailChimp where session or preference cookies are used. With most Internet browsers, you can erase cookies from your computer hard drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored on your computer. Please refer to your browser instructions or you can visit https://www.aboutcookies.org/ for more information. Once you have given your consent to use cookies we will store a cookie on your computer or device to remember this for next time. If you wish to withdraw consent at any time you will need to delete our cookies using your Web browser’s settings. Please be advised that certain sections or functionalities of the Website may be inaccessible to you if your browser does not accept cookies.

We use the following types of cookies:

• Session or preference cookies: to enable your use of our Website and to remember your settings. Session cookies are deleted automatically at the end of your visit. Preference cookies are used for the MailChimp subscription form for our newsletter.

By continuing to browse or use our Website and services, you agree that we can store and access cookies as.

9. Security of Data

FOSG has in place appropriate technological and operational security processes designed to protect personally identifiable information from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction. Only authorized employees and contractors will have access to any data provided by you, and that access is limited by need. Each employee or contractor having access to any personally-identifiable information is obligated to maintain its confidentiality. Although we take steps that are generally accepted as industry standard to protect your personally-identifiable information, FOSG cannot guarantee that your personally-identifiable information will not become accessible to unauthorized persons and FOSG cannot be responsible for any actions resulting from a breach of security when information is supplied over the Internet or any public computer network.

10. Links to other websites

Our Website contains links to other websites that are not operated by FOSG. This Privacy Policy does not cover, and FOSG is not responsible for the privacy practices and protection or the content of any non-FOSG websites to which we link from this Website. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot control the content or security of such websites. We cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage incurred by a user as a result of visiting such websites. No links are intended to be, nor should be construed as, an endorsement of any kind by us of that other website.

11. Compliance with the Law

FOSG complies with all applicable privacy laws and regulations. FOSG may be compelled to surrender personal user or customer information to legal authorities if presented with a court subpoena or similar legal or administrative order, or as required or permitted by the laws, rules and regulations of any nation, state or other applicable jurisdiction. Also, in the event of a violation of the terms and conditions of use of the Website or a violation of any restrictions on use of materials provided in, or through, the Website, we may disclose personal user information to our affected business partners or legal authorities.

12. Your Rights over your Personal Data

In accordance with applicable data protection laws, including but not limited to the GDPR, you have a right to:

• Access your personal data by requesting a copy of the personal information we hold about you and details of how we use that information.
• If any of the information held about you is incorrect or out of date, you have the right to amend or rectify it. Please follow the process outlined below and we will amend our records where appropriate.
• You have the right to require us to erase your personal data, stop processing your personal data, restrict the processing of your personal information, right of portability of your personal information and/or to withdraw your consent to processing. This may not apply if there are other legal justifications to continue processing.
• You also have a right to lodge a complaint with a relevant supervisory authority.

If you think we may have incorrect personal information, or would like a copy of the personal information we hold on you, or to exercise any other data protection right, please email us at info@supergrid.brussels. Please note that we need you to prove who you are before we can provide you with any information.

13. Children

FOSG understands the importance of protecting children’s privacy, particularly in their online interactions. This Website is not designed for and does not intentionally target or solicit to children 18 years of age and younger.

14. Use of FOSG Website

Your access to, and use of, the Website are subject to this Privacy Policy.

15. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or to exercise your rights regarding your personal data under the GDPR, please contact us at info@supergrid.brussels.