General statement:
If you use this website, various pieces of personal data will be collected. Personal information is any data with which you could be personally identified. We take the protection of your personal data very seriously. We treat your personal data as confidential and in accordance with the statutory data protection regulations and this privacy policy. To process personal data a legal basis under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is required by law. We mostly chose to use the legal basis of consent for the processing of your personal data on our website. That is why we are asking you to consent – or not – to the use of your personal data for the purposes that we are explaining there.

Who is responsible for the data collection on this website?

The data collected on this website are processed by the website operator, which is Damian Boeselager, his team and, where relevant, sub-contractors (i.e. website operators) contracted by Damian for this purpose. The operator’s contact details can be found in the website’s imprint.

How do we collect your data?

Some data are collected when you provide it to us. This could, for example, be data you enter on a contact form. Other data are collected automatically by our IT systems when you visit the website. These data are primarily technical data such as the browser and operating system you are using or when you accessed the page. These data are collected automatically as soon as you enter our website.

What do we use your data for?

Part of the data is collected to ensure the proper functioning of the website. Other data can be used to analyse how you use the site or interact with our content.

What rights do you have regarding your data?

You always have the right to request information about your stored data, its origin, its recipients, and the purpose of its collection at no charge. You also have the right to request that it be corrected, blocked, or deleted. You can contact us at any time using the address given in the legal notice if you have further questions about the issue of privacy and data protection. You may also, of course, file a complaint with the competent regulatory authorities.
Analytics and third-party tools

When visiting our website, statistical analyses may be made of your surfing behaviour. This happens primarily using cookies and analytics. The analysis of your surfing behaviour is usually anonymous, i.e. we will not be able to identify you from this data.
Please note that data transmitted via the internet (e.g. via email communication) may be subject to security breaches. Complete protection of your data from third-party access is not possible.
The party responsible for processing data on this website is:

Damian Boeselager
Altero Spinelli Building
Office ASP9&108
60, rue Wiertz
1047 Brussels
Belgium
Telephone: +32-2-2845164
Email: damian.boeselager@europarl.europa.eu

The responsible party is the natural or legal person who alone or jointly with others decides on the purposes and means of processing personal data (names, email addresses, etc.).
Revocation of your consent to the processing of your data

Many data processing operations are only possible with your express consent. You may revoke your consent at any time with future effect. An informal email making this request is sufficient. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed.
Right to file complaints with regulatory authorities

If there has been a breach of data protection legislation, the person affected may file a complaint with the competent regulatory authorities. The competent regulatory authority for matters related to data protection legislation is the data protection officer of the Belgian state in which our group is located: Belgian Commission for the Protection of Privacy, rue de la Presse 35, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, commission@privacycommission.be.

Right to data portability

You have the right to have data which we process based on your consent or in fulfilment of a contract automatically delivered to yourself or to a third party in a standard, machine-readable format. If you require the direct transfer of data to another responsible party, this will only be done to the extent technically feasible.
Information, blocking, deletion

As permitted by law, you have the right to be provided at any time with information free of charge about any of your personal data that is stored as well as its origin, the recipient and the purpose for which it has been processed. You also have the right to have this data corrected, blocked or deleted. You can contact us at any time using the address given in our legal notice if you have further questions on the topic of personal data.
Opposition to promotional emails

We hereby expressly prohibit the use of contact data published in the context of website legal notice requirements with regard to sending promotional and informational materials not expressly requested. The website operator reserves the right to take specific legal action if unsolicited advertising material, such as email spam, is received.
Cookies

Some of our web pages use cookies. Cookies do not harm your computer and do not contain any viruses. Cookies help make our website more user-friendly, efficient, and secure. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer and saved by your browser. Most of the cookies we use are so-called “session cookies.” They are automatically deleted after your visit. Other cookies remain in your device’s memory until you delete them. These cookies make it possible to recognize your browser when you next visit the site.

You can configure your browser to inform you about the use of cookies so that you can decide on a case-by-case basis whether to accept or reject a cookie. Alternatively, your browser can be configured to automatically accept cookies under certain conditions or to always reject them, or to automatically delete cookies when closing your browser. Disabling cookies may limit the functionality of this website.

Cookies which are necessary to allow electronic communications or to provide certain functions you wish to use (such as the shopping cart) are stored pursuant to Art. 6 paragraph 1, letter f of GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the storage of cookies to ensure an optimized service provided free of technical errors. If other cookies (such as those used to analyse your surfing behaviour) are also stored, they will be treated separately in this privacy policy.

Server log files
The website provider automatically collects and stores information that your browser automatically transmits to us in “server log files”. These are:
Browser type and browser version
Operating system used
Referrer URL
Host name of the accessing computer
Time of the server request
IP address

These data will not be combined with data from other sources.
The basis for data processing is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR, which allows the processing of data to fulfil a contract or for measures preliminary to a contract.
Contact form

Should you send us questions via the contact form, we will collect the data entered on the form, including the contact details you provide, to answer your question and any follow-up questions. We do not share this information without your permission.
We will, therefore, process any data you enter onto the contact form only with your consent per Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR. You may revoke your consent at any time. An informal email making this request is sufficient. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed.

We will retain the data you provide on the contact form until you request its deletion, revoke your consent for its storage, or the purpose for its storage no longer pertains (e.g. after fulfilling your request). Any mandatory statutory provisions, especially those regarding mandatory data retention periods, remain unaffected by this provision.
Analytics, Plugins & Tools
Matomo (formerly Piwik)

This website uses the open source web analytics service Matomo. Matomo uses so-called “cookies”. These are text files that are stored on your computer and that allow an analysis of the use of the website by you. For this purpose, the information generated by the cookie about the use of this website is stored on our server. The IP address is anonymized before it is stored. Matomo cookies remain on your device until you delete them. The storage of Matomo cookies is based on Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. The information generated by the cookies about your use of this website will not be disclosed to third parties. You can prevent these cookies being stored by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser. However, we wish to point out that doing so may mean you will not be able to enjoy the full functionality of this website. If you do not agree with the storage and use of your data, you can disable this feature. In this case, an opt-out cookie will be stored in your browser to prevent Matomo from storing your usage data. If you delete your cookies, this will mean that the opt-out cookie will also be deleted. You will then need to reactivate it when you return to our site if you wish your activity not to be tracked.
Google Floodlight

If you have given us your explicit consent when accessing our website, we will use Google Floodlight, a service provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, (“Google”). We use Google Floodlight to measure your journey onto our website and, where relevant, to learn more about which video campaigns have been most effective in evoking your interest. To do this we have set a Google Floodlight tags on our website to measure the efficiency of our campaigns with greater accuracy and allow us to determine specific conversions which we tagged (e.g. subscription to our newsletter) and the channels (e.g. videos on YouTube or other pages) via which these conversions were generated. We can filter these evaluations and assess them according to specific criteria. Google Floodlight uses cookies and similar technologies to measure conversions and identify you based on a unique cookie or user ID and save your interactions (impressions, clicks and other activities) along with this ID. This makes it possible to track your interactions across multiple devices and assign them to a conversion. We use Google Floodlight and the corresponding cookies and tags based on your consent, Art. 6 para. 1(a) GDPR. This legal basis also covers the processing of your personal data for the aforementioned purposes.

Google Floodlight may process personal data in the USA. With your consent to use these services, you also consent to the processing of your data in the USA pursuant to Art. 49 (1) lit. a GDPR. The ECJ classifies the USA as a country with insufficient data protection according to EU standards. For example, there is a risk that U.S. authorities will process personal data in surveillance programs without any existing possibility of legal action for Europeans.
You can withdraw your consent with effect for the future at any time by making the corresponding changes to your cookies settings. You can find general information about the processing of your personal data by Google at: policies.google.com/privacy and policies.google.com/technologies/ads.
YouTube

Our website uses plugins from YouTube, which is operated by Google. The operator of the pages is YouTube LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. If you visit one of our pages featuring a YouTube plugin, a connection to the YouTube servers is established. Here the YouTube server is informed about which of our pages you have visited. If you’re logged in to your YouTube account, YouTube allows you to associate your browsing behaviour directly with your personal profile. You can prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account. YouTube is used to help make our website appealing. This constitutes a justified interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. Further information about handling user data, can be found in the data protection declaration of YouTube under https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy.]
Newsletter data

If you would like to receive our newsletter, we require a valid email address as well as information that allows us to verify that you are the owner of the specified email address and that you agree to receive this newsletter. No additional data is collected or is only collected on a voluntary basis. We only use this data to send the requested information and do not pass it on to third parties. We will, therefore, process any data you enter onto the contact form only with your consent per Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR. You can revoke consent to the storage of your data and email address as well as their use for sending the newsletter at any time, e.g. through the “unsubscribe” link in the newsletter. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed. The data provided when registering for the newsletter will be used to distribute the newsletter until you cancel your subscription when said data will be deleted. Data we have stored for other purposes (e.g. email addresses for the members area) remain unaffected.

Online presence in social media
We also have online presence in social networks and platforms to share updates with those who are interested and to share our content. When entering these websites, the terms and conditions and the data protection guidelines apply to the respective operators. Unless otherwise stated in our Privacy Policy, we will process the relevant data of these users as long as they actively communicate with us within social networks and platforms, e.g. if posting on our walls or sending us private messages.
Links to other websites

Our website contains links to websites of other providers not affiliated with us. After clicking on the link, we no longer have any influence on the processing of the transmitted data (such as the IP address or the URL on which the link is located), because the behaviour of third parties is beyond our control. Therefore, we cannot accept any responsibility for the processing of such data by third parties.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time with future effect. A current version is available at this point. Please visit the website regularly to find out about the applicable privacy policy.
As of: 07.08.2023