ESA PRIVACY POLICY

Effective as of May 25, 2018

ESA, the European Seed Association, is an international, non-profit association (AISBL) registered according to Belgian law. Today, ESA has more than 35 national member associations, from EU Members States and beyond, representing several thousand seed businesses, as well as more than 70 direct company members, including from seed related industries. As an industry association, ESA’s main focus is to represent the interests of those active in research, breeding, production and marketing of seeds of agricultural, horticultural and ornamental plant species.

Within the framework of its activities ESA collects, stores and/or uses personal information:

from visitors of the ESA website;
from registered users of the Members’ area of the ESA website;
from other data subjects who have provided their contact information to ESA.

Data protection and privacy is very important for ESA therefore, by the present Privacy Policy we wish to inform you about what data ESA collects from you and for what purposes, how we use that data, who has access to that data and what are your rights to control your privacy.

Please take your time to read this policy and contact ESA if you have any questions or feedback regarding our Privacy Policy. The ESA Secretariat can be contacted at:

European Seed Association Secretariat

Avenue des Arts, 52 (7th floor)

1000 Brussels, Belgium

Phone: +32 2 743 28 60

Email: secretariat@euroseeds.eu

1. What information is collected by ESA and how such information is used?

1.1. Visitors of the ESA website:

1.1.1 Browsing statistics and log information

It is important for ESA to know what information on its website is most interesting and relevant for visitors and how such information could be even further improved. For this reason, the ESA website collects data such as browser information, date and time of browsing, demographic data, page views, location by using the tool Google Analytics and cookies.

Collection of your data by Google Analytics can be disabled by you at any time according to the applicable instructions. You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see instructions under point 1.1.2.)

Further on, in order to ensure the technical availability and security of the ESA website, the server hosting the ESA website may collect information such as the device and browser you use or your IP address.

1.1.2. Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are downloaded to your device when you visit the ESA website. Cookies are used by websites for a lot of practical reasons, none of which are meant to be harmful for you. In fact, Cookies are designed to make your on-line experience more enjoyable. Some are necessary to the functioning of the ESA website and others are used to draw up statistics allowing us to offer you a more enjoyable visit. There are different types of cookies. The ESA website uses technical, tracking and third-party cookies.

Useful information about the technical aspects of Cookies can be found on: http://www.allaboutcookies.org

An overview of the Cookies used on the ESA website can be found here.

Cookie configuration settings

You can prevent the setting of Cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser. Cookie settings can vary from one browser to another, so check the “Help” menu of your browser to learn how to change your Cookie preferences. Besides, you can find information about how to manage Cookies in the browser at the following addresses:

Safari

1.2 Registered users of the Members’ area

The information that you provide to the ESA Secretariat when you ask for the creation of an account (your name, last name and e-mail address) are necessary for the setting up of your account and the generation of your username. Besides the creation of your account, your personal information is used by the ESA Secretariat to have a clear overview of the persons that have access to the information and materials shared on the Members’ area of the ESA website; and to be able to communicate with you about updates and other relevant information related to this part of the website.

The legal basis for the processing of this type of information is your explicit request to create a personal account for having access to the Members’ area of the ESA website and ESA’s legitimate interest to be able to restrict and control access to its internal website and the information provided therein.

1.3 ESA contacts

If your personal data are stored in ESA’s contacts database such information may include your name, last name, e-mail address, phone number and affiliation (name of your company or organization). Such contact details we may obtain from you if you contact ESA through the contact form on the ESA website; if you have given your contact details to one of ESA’s employees or if you registered to participate in any event organized by ESA (such as the ESA Annual Meeting or workshops, conferences, seminars or other events). We store your personal contact information in our database for the sole purpose of being able to communicate with you in our regular or occasional professional exchanges.

The legal basis for the processing of your personal information by ESA is your consent which you can withdraw at any time by sending an e-mail to the ESA Secretariat at secretariat@eurosees.eu.

2. Who can access your personal data?

2.1 Visitors of the ESA website

The information collected through Cookies and the Google Analytics tool is accessible to those employees of ESA who are responsible for the maintenance and content of the ESA website.

2.2 Registered users of the Members’ area

Employees of the ESA Secretariat who are responsible for managing access to and the content of the Members’ area part of the ESA website will have access to parts of the information that you provide when creating your account.

Your name, e-mail address and username are stored by the company Globule Bleu, which is hosting the ESA website. Your password is accessible exclusively to you and to ESA employees who are responsible for the Members’ Area of the website.

2.3 ESA contacts

All employees of the ESA Secretariat have access to the ESA contacts database since keeping contact with members and other partners of ESA is a regular part of their daily work.

2.4 Third-party access

The personal information that ESA collects from you is exclusively accessed and used as outlined in the present Privacy Policy. We do not provide access to your personal information to any third party apart from the following cases:

If you register to participate at the ESA Annual Meeting or any other ESA event, your name, surname, e-mail address and company affiliation will be shared with all other participants of the Annual Meeting or other event you are participating to. This is done in order to allow participants to connect with each other easily even after an event and further construct their professional relationships. Such participants lists are also kept on record for statistical and professional reasons.
If you are an ESA member and also a member of one of ESA’s working bodies, your name, surname and e-mail address will be shared with other members of the same working body as part of the mailing list. This is necessary for the working bodies to be able to function properly.

Should any further access be requested to personal information by any third party, the ESA Secretariat will contact you directly and request your explicit consent to such third-party access.

3. How long does ESA store your personal data?

3.1 Visitors of the ESA website

The information that is possibly collected through Google Analytics about the use of the ESA website is stored for a period of 26 months. Depending on the type of Cookie used by the ESA website, the information collected through Cookies is stored for a period ranging from one minute to two years (as described under point 1.1.2.)

3.2 Registered users of the Member’s area

If you become a registered user of the Members’ area of the ESA website, the personal information that you provided when creating your account is stored by the ESA website (and its back-up) as long as your account is valid. The validity of your account is in principle controlled by you. If you do not wish to maintain your account, you can always delete it by using the “Delete my account” function. If you are not using your account for more than one year, your account becomes inactive and after two years your account will be automatically deleted from the ESA website, together with all the personal information linked to it.

3.3 ESA contacts

If your contact details are stored in ESA’s contacts database, your personal information (as specified under point 1.3.) will be stored until ESA has regular or occasional professional contact or collaboration with you, or until you request the deletion of your contact details from the ESA database. You can request the deletion of your personal data at any time by sending a request to the ESA Secretariat at secretariat@euroseeds.eu.

4. How does ESA protect you against unlawful access to and use of your personal information?

ESA will keep your information confidential and secure and use it in accordance with its internal procedures covering the storage, access and use of information, and all applicable laws. ESA has implemented physical, technical and administrative safeguards reasonably designed to protect your personal information.

ESA will keep your personal information as accurate, complete and up-to-date as necessary for the purposes for which it is collected and processed.

5. What are your rights?

Under data protection legislation you have a number of rights that allow you to have control over your privacy. ESA respects these rights and wishes to ensure that by contacting the ESA Secretariat via e-mail at secretariat@euroseeds.eu, you may exercise your rights. These rights are as follows:

your right to have access to your personal data;
your right to ask for the rectification of your personal data;
your right to ask for the erasure of your personal data;
your right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data, where applicable;
your right to lodge a complaint.

In some cases, you may have a right to request a restriction on processing your personal data or to object to processing of your personal data.

You can exercise your above-mentioned rights in line with the requirements as provided for in the EU General Data Protection Regulation.

In case you are of the opinion that your rights under the EU data protection rules have not been respected, you can lodge a complaint at the competent data protection authority of the EU Member State of your habitual residence. You can find the competent authorities and their contact details here.

6. Changes to the present Privacy Policy

ESA reserves the right to revise the present Privacy Policy from time to time. The latest effective version of the Privacy Policy will govern the use of your information and will always be available on the ESA website. Should such modification of the present Privacy Policy take place, we will notify you in due time allowing you to confirm or withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal information by ESA.