ESSA Privacy Notice

Introduction

The ESSA Project is all about privacy, protection of personal data, trust, and transparency. These central values are shared among all members of the ESSA Project Consortium and guide all our activities. As such, we, DIGITALEUROPE AISBL, administrating this website for the purpose of the ESSA Project consider the protection of your personal data and the preservation of your privacy as a top priority.

In this Notice you will find a detailed presentation of the reasons and purposes for which we may collect and process your personal data through our website, the ways we process it, what exactly processing entails, the principles of processing we apply, as well as for how long we retain your data and how we protect it. You will also be informed about who has access to your data, what rights you have on your data and how you may exercise them.

We encourage you to read our Privacy Notice thoroughly.

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Notice do not hesitate to contact us via e-mail at [email protected].

Update or amend the current Privacy Notice

Due to developments in business and/or technology, we may need to change or amend the current Privacy Notice.

Any update of the Privacy Notice will be notified on this web page.

Who we are:

The website https://softwareskills.eu/ (hereafter “the Site”) is administrated by DIGITALEUROPE for the purpose of the ESSA Project. Throughout this Privacy Notice “we”, “us”, “our” etc. refer to DIGITALEUROPE. Also, we are the data controller within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 7 GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). This Privacy Notice only applies to the Site operated by us. If offers from other providers (“third-party offers”) are accessible from this Site, our Privacy Notice does not apply to these third-party offers. In this case, we are also not responsible for the processing of your personal data in the context of such third-party offers within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 7 DSGVO.

DIGITALEUROPE is located at 14 Rue de la Science, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium. You may contact DIGITALEUROPE sending an e-mail at [email protected] or using our website contact form (https://softwareskills.eu/contact-us/)

For issues related to this Notice, please refer to the designated e-mail address.

You may find more information about the ESSA Project Consortium Members here.

What type of personal data we collect and process:

In general

  • Personal Data

This is data that identifies you or can be used to identify you personally. It may include your name, email address, your employer, and your country of residence.

Such information is only collected directly from you if we have a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f) GDPR, if it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b) GDPR or if you declare your respective consent, especially if you voluntarily choose to submit it to us, using our contact form and/or our newsletter subscription form.

  • Non-Personal Data

Non-Personal Data includes information that cannot be used to identify you, such as demographic information regarding, for example, browser types and other anonymous statistical data involving the use of the Site.

This information is automatically collected via Cookies, according to your preferences, i.e., which Cookies you have allowed. Such details help us better understand your needs and preferences and improve the Site. Moreover, as the Site is dedicated to the dissemination of the ESSA Project, such information allows us to assess the reach of our communication policy and our market.

In detail

  • If you use the Contact Form

If you choose to contact us using our Contact Form, we will collect and process the personal data you will disclose by filling in the form and submitting this information to us.

More specifically we will process your e-mail address, your name, and any personal data you may optionally choose to include in your message.

  • If you subscribe to our Newsletter

If you choose to subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated with status and the developments regarding the ESSA Project, we will process your e-mail address.

Why we collect and how we process your personal data

  • If you use the Contact Form on the Site

We process your e-mail address to contact you and respond to your message.

Any additional information, including personal data, you may choose to share with us through the Contact Form is only collected and processed for the purposes of communicating with you and responding to your message. The legal basis for this is your consent within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit a) GDPR. As far as processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures in response to your request, the legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b) GDPR.

  • If you subscribe to our Newsletter

We process your e-mail address to send you our newsletter with updates regarding the status and progress of the ESSA Project. This is based on your consent within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit a) GDPR.

To send our newsletter, we use the service provider MailerLite Limited, an Irish registered company at Ground Floor, 71 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2, D02 P593, Ireland.

By subscribing to our newsletter, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to MailerLite for processing. Learn more about MailerLite’s privacy practices here.

In this context, your personal data may also be transferred to the USA, where, according to the European Court of Justice, there is no comparable level of data protection as in the European Union.

To protect your personal data, MailerLite has supplemented these with further safeguards to prevent access to your data. Read more about the Data Processing Addendum.

Who has access to your personal data and why

We follow a purpose-specific data-access plan, to reduce the diffusion of personal data. Hence, according to the purpose for which we have collected your data we limit the access only to those necessary. All the members of our team are privacy-aware, and mindful to protect and preserve your privacy and data protection.

  • If you use the Contact Form on the Site

In principle, only the Site’s Administrator and the Project Coordinator have access to the data disclosed through the Contact Form. In case your message requires input from a specific member of the ESSA Project Consortium, the content of your message will be safely transferred to the relevant Consortium member.

  • If you subscribe to our Newsletter

Only the Site’s Administrator has access to the e-mail addresses collected through the Newsletter Subscription Form.

For how long we retain your data

We apply a purpose-specific policy to define the period for which we process and store your data.

  • If you use the Contact Form on the Site

After our communication is completed, your personal data will not be reused unless in relation to your original request. Upon completion of the project and the reporting period of five years, all data will be permanently erased in a secure way. For the storage within this period, we have a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f) GDPR to fulfil our reporting obligations and to be able to prove the project communication.

  • If you subscribed to our Newsletter

We will process and store your data for as long as the ESSA Project has a newsletter. If for some reason we stop having a newsletter we shall inform our subscribers and permanently erase your data in a secure way. Also, if you choose at any point to unsubscribe, we will promptly erase your data in a secure way. Unsubscribing from the newsletter is possible at any time and can be done via a link provided for this purpose in each newsletter.

All personal data will be securely and permanently deleted after the lifespan of the project ends, and all reporting related to the ESSA Project is concluded.

Cookies

On this Site, we make use of cookies. For more information, please see our Cookie Policy.

The rights you have on your personal data

The collection and processing of your personal data through the Site is always in line with our legal obligations, in compliance with the GDPR, and in accordance with our own values and principles which aim to preserve your privacy and protect your personal data. Each time you are invited to share any piece of your personal data, you will be offered sufficient information and justifications about the reasons why we are asking you to disclose your data, the purposes for their collection and process, and details about how they will be processed and used. We will seek to acquire your explicit and informed consent, each time required, prior to collecting your data.

Your personal data will be only processed for the specific reasons and purposes explained in this Notice and in accordance with the principles and safeguards explained here. If you are not sure you clearly understand something in this Notice, you are encouraged to contact us.

The GDPR provides you with some specific rights concerning your personal data, which you can freely exercise whenever you choose.

More specifically you have the right:

  • to obtain confirmation as to whether personal data concerning you are being processed, and, where that is the case, accessing the personal data to the extent named in Art. 15 GDPR and receive a copy (inter alia about the purposes for the collection and processing of your data, the time limits of processing and storing of your data, those involved in collection and processing). If you do not feel we have provided you with enough information do not hesitate to contact us asking for more details.
  • to rectify the data we have about you, Art. 16 GDPR. In case a piece of your personal data has changed while we retain it, you may ask us to update it to ensure that the data we have about you is always accurate, updated, and suitable for the reasons/purposes for which you have shared it with us,
  • to request a copy of your data in a convenient/ appropriate format to be transferred to a third party or used for other purposes (data portability) under the conditions of Art. 20 GDPR,
  • to request us to erase your data under the conditions of Art. 17 GDPR,
  • to restriction of further processing of your data under the conditions of Art. 18 GDPR,
  • to revoke your consent at any time with effect for the future,
  • to file an official/formal complaint to the competent authorities. If you have any concerns about possible interference in your privacy or misuse of your personal data on our behalf, you may contact us (for contact details see below). We hope that we can answer any questions you may have about how we process your personal data and resolve any issue related to your personal data and the protection of your privacy. However, if there are unresolved issues that concern you, or you would rather contacting the competent authorities directly, you also have the right to complain to the relevant data protection authorities. For the authority’s responsibility and how to submit a complaint, you can visit the website of your country’s data protection authority (https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en), where there is detailed information.

The rights related to automatic decision making and profiling are not applicable in this case, as we are not using automated procedures and/or profiling via similar means.

According to Art. 21 GDPR, you also have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to processing of personal data concerning you which is based on lit. e) or f) of Art. 6 para. 1 GDPR. We will no longer process the personal data unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

You may freely exercise your rights by sending an e-mail at [email protected].

Requirements to provide personal data

There is no legal or contractual obligation to provide us with personal data. However, in the case of those data that are mandatory for the provision of the respective service, the provision is necessary if you wish to make use of these services

Last updated March 2022.