Introduction

The European Consumer Organisation (hereinafter “BEUC”) processes your personal data to organise, manage and follow up BEUC’s online and on-site events.

We process your personal data based on Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (‘the GDPR’).

BEUC is acting as the controller of the data processing and as a data processor. BEUC is located at Rue d’Arlon 80, 1040 Brussels, Belgium and can be contacted at privacy@beuc.eu.

Purposes of processing

Participation in BEUC’s events is voluntary and entails the processing of personal data.
We process your personal data for the following purposes:

1.    to manage your participation in the event, following your registration
2.    to manage dietary restrictions of participants attending the event in-person, if applicable
3.    to allow for accommodation of special health needs in case of attendance in person of the event

You will only receive alerts regarding the registration based on your consent.
Your dietary restrictions and health personal data provided in order to accommodate health special needs related to in-person attendance of the conference are processed based on your consent.

You will only be photographed and video-recorded for communication purposes based on your consent. For photographs and video-recordings taken during the conference, your consent will be collected at the reception desk, when receiving your conference badge. For photographs taken during social events organised by BEUC your consent will be collected at the entrance. Photos taken under private capacity do not fall under the responsibility of BEUC.

Video recordings of speakers will be published on the Youtube channel of BEUC, based on their consent.

For online events, we rely on Zoom. Additionally, to provide an interactive session, we also occasionally rely on external IT services such as Slido. According to Zoom’s privacy policy and Slido’s privacy policy, the services entail that personal data will be transferred to the US. Please consult their respective privacy policies for more information on how they process personal data and note that on 16 July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union decided (C-311/18) that the US does not provide an adequate level of protection for personal data of non-US persons, that is essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU. The Court pointed out that access by US surveillance services to personal data of non-US persons is not limited to what is strictly necessary. Moreover, US law does not provide judicial enforceable rights against US authorities.

Please note that, while BEUC is committed to data protection of our audience and while we are looking into better alternatives to deliver our online events, in the current circumstances, we do request participants’ consent for transferring data to the US through these services, and that we won’t be able to accept you as participant in case you don’t consent to the process of your data.

Reporting the event:
BEUC is co-funded by the European Union. To prove the legitimate use of the funds, BEUC must be able to verify and document the number of participants. For this purpose, we take screenshots of the participants’ lists during online events. Your personal data will be shared with the organisers the event project. Your data will be processed for maximum one year after the end of the event to allow for verification and auditing of the project associated with the event.

What personal data do we process?  

We process the following categories of personal data collected via the registration form:

• first and last name

• e-mail address

• your organisation

• your position (optional)

• whether you plan to attend the conference virtually or in-person

• video recording and web streaming of speakers participating in the panel of the main conference hall, as well as of participants attending the conference in person and participate in the Q&A session of the said panel

• if you attend the conference or any social events organised by BEUC in person, photographs and audio-video recording depicting you (optional)

• if you attend the conference in person, dietary restrictions (optional)

• if you attend the conference in person, special health needs (optional)

• if you attend the conference online and you are located outside of the EU/EEA area and in the absence of an adequacy decision pursuant to Article 45(3) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, your consent for transfer of your personal data outside of the EU/EEA area to allow you to attend the conference remotely.

Your rights

As a ‘data subject’, you have the right to access, rectify, restrict and delete the data we hold about you, and the right to object to the processing of your data based on a legitimate or public interest and to withdraw your consent at any moment. The withdrawal of consent shall not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent given before the withdrawal. We shall no longer process the personal data unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override the interests, rights and freedoms of you or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. For more information about your data protection rights, please click here.  

If you want to exercise one of the above rights or if you have any queries concerning the processing of your personal data, or you believe your rights are not being respected and your personal data is being used unlawfully, you also have the right to lodge a complaint your national Data Protection Authority. You can find the contact details of all national data protection authorities here. Additionally, you can also write to the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) at privacy@beuc.eu.