Privacy Policy

Fair Trade Advocacy Office Privacy Policy
(v 15 Nov 2019)

This is a statement of the data protection policy adopted by the Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) in line with the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the “General Data Protection Regulation” or “GDPR”).

We collect your personal data (first name, last name, organization, country, emails, gender, subscription preferences) so that we are able to send you newsletters, reports, articles and event invitations that are most relevant to you. In addition, we may occasionally be required, either by law or to carry out our responsibilities as a regulator and a professional body, to collect, use and share certain types of personal information to comply with the requirements of government departments, agencies and regulators.

We provide users the opportunity to unsubscribe from our mailing lists by emailing brussels@fairtrade-advocacy.org. You may choose to receive only specific communications or none at all through a special online form which is also available at the bottom of our e-mail communications.

The FTAO will not sell, rent, loan, trade, or lease any personal information collected online or offline. All information shall be kept absolutely confidential unless given consent to by the user.
Under the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the “General Data Protection Regulation” or “GDPR”), all organisations which handle personal information must comply with a number of important principles regarding the privacy and disclosure of this information.

Thus, we fully endorse and adhere to the principles of data protection set out in the Data Protection legislation and will:

• fully observe the conditions regarding the fair collection and use of personal information
• meet our legal obligations to specify the purposes for which we use personal information
• only collect and process the personal information needed to carry out our work or to comply with any legal requirements
• ensure that the personal information we use is as accurate as possible
• ensure that we don’t hold personal information any longer than is necessary
• ensure that people know about their rights to see the personal information we hold about them
• take appropriate technical and organisational security measures to safeguard personal information
• ensure that personal information is not transferred abroad without suitable safeguards

In addition, we will ensure that:

• there is someone with specific responsibility for data protection in the organisation, (telephone +32 (0) 2 543 19 23; email brussels@fairtrade-advocacy.org)
• we regularly review and audit how we handle personal information
• the way we handle personal information is clearly described
• everyone handling personal information understands that they are responsible for following good practice
• everyone handling personal information is appropriately trained and properly supervised
• we regularly assess the performance of people who handle personal information
• anybody wanting to make enquiries about handling personal information knows what to do; and
• queries about handling personal information are deal with promptly and courteously
• You have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. To do so please write to the Fair Trade Advocacy Office, Village Partenaire, 15 Rue Fernard Bernierstraat, 1060 Brussels – Belgium.
• You can get a written copy of this policy by emailing brussels@fairtrade-advocacy.org, by telephone on +32 (0) 2 543 19 23, or in writing at the address above.

Verification and Withdrawal of Consent

At any moment, data subjects are able to contact the FTAO to verify their personal data stored by us, and to withdraw their consent for our storing of their personal data. To do this, please contact brussels@fairtrade-advocacy.org.

Updates to our privacy policy

We will revise or update this policy if our practices change, or as we develop better ways to keep you informed about them. Please refer to this page for the latest information and the effective date of any changes. If we decide to change this policy, we will post a new policy on our website and change the date at the bottom. Changes to the policy shall not apply retroactively.

If you have questions about our privacy practices, you may contact us by emailing brussels@fairtrade-advocacy.org.