Introduction

For simplifying the reading of this Privacy Policy, when we will refer to Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF aisbl, we will use the following terminology: Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF.

We believe in the importance to protect the privacy of our members, website visitors and contacts. Therefore, we would like to be transparent about the collection and processing practices of personal data by our organisation. It will guide you to make well-informed choices about the information you provide and how we store and use this data.

This Privacy Policy Statement explains and summarises how Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF collects, uses and protects your personal data. The term “personal data[1]” refers to all data that allows your identification such as your email address, first and last name, pictures, IP addresses, etc. This privacy policy only applies to personal data we hold on individuals and therefore does not apply to information held on companies or other organisations.

We take very seriously the protection of your personal data and comply with the EU Data Protection Regulation (Regulation 2016/679), also known as GDPR, in addition to all the data protection legislation applicable in Belgium.

The controller of your personal data is Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF, place du champ de mars 2, 1050 Brussels. If you have any issue regarding your personal data, please don’t hesitate to send a message to Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF at info@solarheateurope.eu.

By your continued use of our services (including our website), you consent to the collection and use of your personal data for the purposes set out in this privacy policy.

Should you wish to consult, complete, rectify or remove any of the information that we hold about you or your organisation, please contact us at: info@solarheateurope.eu.

To know more about your data protection and privacy rights, please consult the Belgian supervisory authority’s website: the Commission for the protection of privacy (website available in English, French and Dutch).

How do we receive your data?

We may receive information from you:

• When you contact us directly, normally via our website through our newsletter registration link, our contact form, our membership application form, our Solar Heat Markets in Europe Statistics form or other application linked to Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF, whether to apply for services or to make an enquiry or other request,
• From our network,
• Through meeting a Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF representatives at events,
• Through our website and the use of cookies, uses which requires your consents before collecting your data,
• Occasionally from other third parties who may lawfully pass on us information about you.

Using your information

We will use your information, with your consent, for the following purposes:

• To provide or manage any information and services that you have requested,
• To provide you with products and services to which you are entitled as part of your membership in Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF (updates, flash news, newsletters, publications, etc.)
• To help us identify your requests and answer you when you contact us,
• For general administration purposes (i.e. invoicing),
• To help us improve the quality of our products and services (i.e. post event survey),
• To help us promote solar thermal/solar heat technologies,
• To carry out analysis and customer profiling, in order to improve your customer experience (i.e. visits of our website pages),

How do you provide your consent to process your personal data?

There can be several ways in which you provide your personal data to Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF:

• Self-registration to our website’(s), event/survey applications, and/or to our email marketing application(s),
• Confirmed opt in (for email marketing applications where this option is available),
• Written communication (by email, or any other kinds of written messaging including via social media channels),
• Signed contracts (e.g. membership applications, supplier contracts, project consortium agreements, etc.),
• Accepting our website cookie policy.

You may request the permanent deletion of your personal data from any or all our records with a written request to info@solarheateurope.eu. Kindly note that this will directly affect your access to products and/or services which you may have subscribed to (e.g. membership benefits, subscriptions to publications, etc.)

We do not share your data with any third parties, with the exception of:

• When we have been asked to provide information for legal or regulatory purposes,
• When we are existing or future legal proceedings,
• When, for an event, extra security clearances are required for accessing a secured venue, such as the European Parliament or the European Commission.

Informing you about our products and services

We may use your information to contact you with news on solar thermal/heat technology, solar cooling, solar district heating, solar industrial process heat or any related topics which may be of interest to you and occasionally for market research purposes. Wherever you have provided your prior agreement (see consent to process personal data above), we may contact you by an appropriate means of communication (phone, post, email or any other electronic means).

The range of products and services offered by us include:

• Events, seminars, forums, conferences,
• News, publications,
• Policy updates on solar thermal/heat technology,
• Market updates on solar thermal/heat industry,
• Solar heat/thermal-related products and services, including amongst other topics: finance, design, insurance, IoT, etc.

You can opt out from receiving marketing communications from us and/or request the permanent deletion of your personal data in our email sent via our Mailchimp account or at any time by writing to us at Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF, info@solarheateurope.eu.

We will only send you marketing communications by email or other electronic means if you give us your agreement to do so (Opt-in). For example, we may inform you via a tick box that when providing your email address, you will be indicating your agreement to receive later marketing emails. If you give us your agreement and subsequently wish to opt out, you can do so at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link which will be included on all our marketing emails. You can also contact us at info@solarheateurope.eu.

Our website may contain links towards other websites than Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF. Please bear in mind that our Privacy Policy applies only to our website and links. We are not responsible for the content, data uses or security processes of other websites and applications.

How long will we keep your data?

To comply with GDPR, we have different approaches regarding the personal data stored by Solar Heat Europe:

• We will keep the data collected via our website for 36 months. Google analytics, the online software used by our organisation, will automatically delete the data collected once the period of retention is reached. This data will be used to optimise our website and compare our website frequentation on different years,
• We will keep the data collected for our events for a duration period of 24 months. This data will allow us to compare the frequentation of our events on year to another. This data will be mainly collected via Google forms.
• We will keep the data collected from our members regarding their Solar Heat Europe’s membership for a period of 10 year after the termination of Solar Heat Europe’s membership. This data will be mainly used for administrative reasons and is originally collected via our membership application form. The duration period is the Belgian legal period before destroying any data linked to contracts.

Specific opt out and data deletion instructions are available for all our applications (e.g. marketing emails, website(s)). In case of doubt, don’t hesitate to submit a manual deletion request at: info@solarheateurope.eu.

In case personal data is processed in the framework of a European project (e.g. Horizon 2020 project), this data will be kept and processed only during the duration of the project, unless you provided us with your agreement to use this data further.

Providing information to Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF

If you give us information on behalf of someone else, we will consider that you have their consent to do so and that they are aware of this Privacy Policy and do not have any objection to the processing of their information by Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF, in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for informing us of any change in your details, such as a change of address. You have a right to ask Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF to correct any inaccuracies in the information we hold about you.

Furthermore, you can also ask Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF what personal data we hold about you by contacting us at info@solarheateurope.eu.

Security

We endeavour to work only with IT services providers which guarantee a high level of data security. However, we kindly ask you to acknowledge that when providing us your information through any information technology means (via websites, internet applications, emails, etc.) that the internet and email communications over the internet may not be secure. We cannot be responsible for any loss or unauthorised interception of information transmitted via the internet which is beyond our control.

Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your data, we make reasonable efforts to ensure security on our systems. Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF uses secure server software and firewalls to protect your information from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by the breach of such firewalls and secure server software.

According to the GDPR, if such breaches occur, we will contact you following the breach discovery without undue delay[2].

Links to third-party websites and co-branded websites

Our websites and applications may contain links to third party websites or may be co-branded. Please be aware that Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF is not responsible for and cannot control the privacy practices of other websites or third parties. We encourage you to read the privacy policies for these other websites, as they may differ from ours. Our websites and applications may also be created and maintained by service providers or/and may contain links to co-branded websites which do not display a Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF URL or/and may have information identifying a third party as the host of the particular website or/and application. Please read the privacy policy on the co-branded website for the applicable privacy practices relating to your personal data collected via this website, as it may differ from our Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy applies solely to personal data collected by Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF on its websites or applications, where this Privacy Policy is posted. We are not responsible for the content, privacy or security of other websites and applications.

Accessing your personal information, opt-out, making changes or requesting information

You may restrict Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF’s use of your personal data for direct marketing purposes. You may also request access to the correction of, or deletion of your personal data. For instructions on changing any of your privacy preferences, accessing your information, updating your information, for any privacy or data-protection-related question, please write to info@solarheateurope.eu for assistance.

Contact us

You can contact us at any time to request any questions/modifications/changes/deletion of your personal data by writing to us at info@solarheateurope.eu.

How to exercise your rights

You can send us a written request, either at the following address: Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF, Place du Champ de Mars 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium, or to the following email address: info@solarheateurope.eu.

You also always have the right to an appeal with the Commission for the protection of the Private life to the following email: commission@privacycommission.be. Further information can be found on the Commission for the Protection of Privacy.

Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF website: Terms & Conditions of Use

Introduction

These Terms & Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy apply to Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF website www.solarheateurope.eu. By accessing and browsing Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF’s website or by using and/or downloading any content from it, you agree to and accept the Terms of Use as set forth below.

If you have any questions about these Terms & Conditions of Use or Privacy Policy, you can contact us at info@solarheateurope.eu or write to Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF, Place du champ de mars 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.

Disclaimer

The materials contained in this website are provided for general information purposes only and are not intended to provide legal or other professional advice nor do they commit Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF to any obligation whatsoever. Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF accepts no responsibility for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage which may arise from reliance on information contained in this site. Users are advised to seek confirmation of statements made herein before acting upon them; specialist advice should also be sought on specific issues.

Notification of Changes

Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF intends to continuously improve and add new functionalities and features to its website, as well as improve and add to our existing products and services. Because of these ongoing changes, modification in the laws, and the changing nature of technology, Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF website data practices may change from time to time, without prior noticing you. Please review our Privacy Policy on a regular basis to make sure you have read the latest version. Your continued use of our website following the posting of changes to these terms means that you consent to those changes.

Use of Content

The contents of this website, including but not limited to: text, graphics, pictures, illustrations, logos, software, trademarks, service marks and other material is protected by copyright and other laws.

Unless otherwise indicated in the relevant content, and on the condition that you comply with all of your obligations under these Terms of Use, you are authorised to view, copy, print and distribute, but not to modify, the content on this website; provided that (1) such use is for informational, non-commercial purposes only, and (2) any copy of the content made must include the copyright notice mentioning Solar Heat Europe or other attribution associated with the content.

Third Party References and Content

Certain links on this website may lead to websites, resources or tools maintained by third parties over whom we have no control. We do not make any express or implied representations or warranties whatsoever regarding such websites, resources and tool, and links to any such websites, resources and tools should not be construed as an endorsement of them or their content by us.

Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF’s website may also include postings, listings, stories, and articles from third parties, clearly indicated as sources of the content. Such content is the responsibility of the third-party creator of the content. Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF has no responsibility for such content and is merely providing access to such content as a service for you.

Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF may, in appropriate circumstances and at its sole discretion, remove or disable access to material on the website that infringes on the rights of others. If you believe that your work has been used on the website in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide us with a written notice – by postal mail or email – that includes the following information:

• The signature (electronic or physical) of a person authorised to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is allegedly infringed,
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed,
• A description of where the material in question is located on the website,
• Your mailing address, telephone number, and email address,
• A statement by you that you believe in good faith that the disputed use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law,
• A statement by you, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.

For purposes of such notice, our address is as follows: Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF, Place du champ de mars 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium; Phone: +32 2 318 40 60; Email: info@solarheateurope.eu.

Registered Users

Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF’s website contains various password-protected content that can be only accessed by registered users. The conditions to become a registered user and may be changed at our discretion. As a general rule, only representatives of Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF member organisations may be granted by a registered user status. Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF may grant access to specific content or tools to other individuals as deemed appropriate in the context of various services it provides to its members.

If you become a registered user of our website, any password-protected content (including personal information of others registered users, any documentation irrespective of its format as well as your individual login details) must not be shared with non-authorised third parties.

Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF reserves the right to:

• Refuse the registered-user status to individuals that do not meet the established conditions,
• Remove the registered user status in the event of (1) resignation/exclusion of the member organisation he/she represents, (2) termination of a certain service provided or (3) if there is evidence of misuse of the data or passwords, with no liability to compensate the user for loss of access.

Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF does not control the information posted by registered users and has no obligation to monitor postings. However, we reserve the right at all times to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, or to edit, refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, for any reason, whatsoever at Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF’s sole discretion.

Solar Heat Europe’s Website: Privacy and Cookie Policy

This privacy policy governs the collection and use of personal relating to potential and existing users of Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF’s website(s). For our general data privacy statement, please consult the dedicated chapter above.

Collection and Use of Personal data

The only personal data Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF currently collects through its website is the information you specifically and voluntarily give us when using our site. You may be required to provide personal data on different parts of our website – such as the “Contact us” form, our membership application form (giving access to password-protected content on our intranet and/or specific services) or any other polls or forms integrated in our website. For example, we use the personal data you provide us via our “Contact us” form in order to answer the query you will have sent us through the website.

This personal data is stored by Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF for the duration describe in our general data privacy policy in the section “How long we keep your data” or until a specific request to erase your specific data is received from you.

Similarly, we may provide “subscription” email services, either directly or through affiliates (via our newsletter subscription form), which enable you to receive current news about Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF and its activities. For such services, we will provide you with an opportunity to opt out from our distribution lists.

By providing your personal data in order to become a registered user of the website, you agree to the following:

• To share this information with Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF staff and members. Only Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF’s staff and other registered users of the website can view your personal information. On the website’s intranet, you share your information with solar thermal/heat experts, in a safe and trusted environment.
• To update your profile. Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF holds historic data and makes every effort to ensure this information is as accurate as possible. We keep you informed via email about the data we hold on your profile, when requested, and may request that you review and update this data regularly.

We will not publicly disclose your personal data not share/sell it to third parties. You may send a request by writing at any time to info@solarheateurope.eu to request the deletion of your personal data from our records.

Security of Personal Data

We use administrative, technical, and physical measures to safeguard personal data against loss, theft and unauthorised uses, access or modifications. Certain areas of our website may be password protected. If you are a user of our website and have a password, you can help to preserve your privacy by ensuring that you do not share your password with anyone else.

Anonymous Information Collected – Cookie Policy

In addition to the information you provide when you use our website, Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF uses technology to collect anonymous information about the use of our website. For example, we use tracking technology to estimate the number of visitors our website counts in a day and which pages they view. We also use technology to determine which web browsers our visitors use and the address from which they accessed our sites. This technology does not identify you personally. It simply enables us to compile statistics about our visitors and their use of our website.

To ensure that this website is well managed and to facilitate improved navigation, we or our service providers may also use cookies (small text files stored in a user’s browser) to aggregate data. Additional information on how we use cookies and other tracking technologies and how you can control these can be found on the following website: https://cookies.insites.com/about-cookies/.

We may use cookies for a number of purposes:

• Session cookies to allow you to log in to the intranet, in order to remember that you are logged in and that your session is secure, and to identify you as a user of our products and services when you have logged in,
• Analytical cookies to track the pages you visit via Google Analytics, in order to allow us to improve the performance of our website. These analyses will be performed through the use of anonymised IP addresses and cookies,
• Tracking cookies to embed YouTube videos and share content from other social media websites,
• Tracking cookies to allow you to share pages with social networks and email.

We use ‘social buttons”, to enable our users to share or bookmark web content. These are buttons for third-party social media sites and these sites may log information about your activities on the Internet including on this website. Please review the respective terms of use and privacy policies of the sites to understand exactly how they your information and to find out how to opt out or delete such information.

Most browsers accept cookies automatically. You can disable cookies in your browser, but these may stop our website from functioning properly. These browser controls will usually be found in the ‘options’, ‘settings’ or ‘preferences’ menu.

Furthermore, on our website, you can also request that Solar Heat Europe does not use cookies while on visiting our website by simply declining our Cookie Policy at the bottom right on our website’s home page or in this website page.

Solar Heat Europe’s Events: Data Privacy Policy

For our events, we collected most generally the following data:

• Salutation (Mr, Ms, Mrs, Dr., etc.)
• First name,
• Last name,
• Email,
• Job title,
• Organisation

As such, we will be used solely for the purpose of the event and for potential event promotion related to the same subject or linked to solar thermal/heat technology. We may also use this data to contact you a posteriori in order to evaluate potential room of improvement for this event.

This data will be kept during 24 months in order to compare the different trends of attendances for our event. For collecting this data, we are using Google Form and we use also Google Drive for storing the data communicated.

You can at any moment ask/request or demand to delete the data you have provided to Solar Heat Europe at the following email address: info@solarheateurope.eu

 

This data privacy and cookie policy statement was last updated on May 23^rd, 2018.

[1] ‘personal data,’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person. (Article 4 (1), Definitions, Regulation 2016/679)

[2] Article 34, GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2016/679