Privacy Statement

Your privacy is very important to us. This means we save your data securely and ensure it remains properly protected at all times. We tell you what we do with your data when we use it respectfully to improve our service to you.

We start from the principle that everyone has control over his or her personal data, and everyone is entitled to not share it with us or stop sharing it with us. This privacy declaration states what personal data we can collect from you, how we use this data, and who we might share it with. We explain what we do to protect your privacy, how you can have your say, and what checks are carried out to ensure compliance with this declaration.

This privacy declaration is applicable for the collection, management, use and sharing of your data by the international organisation ACP/OACPS. This privacy declaration should be read in conjunction with our cookie policy below. We can modify our privacy declaration at any time, and communicate this via acp.int where we will also make the latest version available. This privacy declaration was reviewed and last modified on 25 May 2022.

Our contact details:
Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States
Rue de l’Aqueduc 118, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
mail info@acp.int, call +32 2 743 06 00

When is this declaration applicable?

This privacy declaration is applicable when you visit our websites, contact our employees, or send us an application. By visiting our websites, contacting our employees, or sending us an application, you consent for us to collect your personal data and use it as described in this privacy declaration.

If you use our websites unlawfully, we reserve the right to process your data. This is the case, for example, if you violate the conditions of use or property rights, or threaten the security of our websites or service provision.

What data do we collect?

We collect your data to be able to provide and improve our services, and to inform you about our activities. You provide some of this information to us directly, for example via forms on our website, with your business card, or in your email correspondence with us.

We distinguish different types of personal data. This enables us to propose our services:
– User data: we can use this to identify or contact you. For example: your name, address, phone numbers, preferred language, gender, email addresses, contact details on social media;
– Usage data: information about interactions, such as your participation in our campaigns and use of our websites;
– Traffic data: we need this technical information, such as your IP address, to ensure our electronic communication runs smoothly;
– Sensitive data: we do not process any sensitive data.

Why do we collect this data?

We process personal data for various reasons, whereby we only ever process the data required for the purpose intended. With your permission, where it is required, we collect your personal data for the following specific purposes:

– To process your requests about our services.
When you visit our websites or are in touch with our employees to collect or request information about our services, or when you subscribe to our newsletter, for example, we need your address. We then use all the information we receive about you to provide you with the information you request, in the manner you indicate.

– To offer you the best service.
We keep your records to improve our services. We need this information to set up, maintain and support our services correctly. This means we can contact you for the next step in our collaboration, or to request feedback about our services. We also need to be able to inform you about any technical problems or disruptions on our side.

– To inform you about our activities.
We can use your data to inform you about new and existing activities, workshops, events, webinars, training and vacancies, amongst other things, to provide you with direct marketing or create a profile for you so that we can inform you about things we think will be of interest to you. We can do this in writing, electronically or by phone. We also use your data for the newsletters you subscribe to. You will only receive communication by email if you have given your explicit permission for this, where this is required. We can also analyse your behaviour. We do this by registering the activities that take place, for example the newsletters you view and the links you click on. This also makes it easier for us to give you the information you’re looking for.

– To process your application.
If you apply for a vacancy with us, we need your contact details and information about your career to contact you and process your application. Your application details can only be accessed by people who need it to perform their tasks. We never share your application information with companies or people who are not part of our organisation, unless you explicitly agree to this.

Who manages your data?

All personal data is managed by the international organisation ACP/OACPS. The data is only accessible to people within ACP/OACPS who need it to perform their tasks.

We also use external processors. This means, among other things, that we temporarily provide data to third parties if they need it for specific tasks when we do not have the resources to do this ourselves. In this case, we always ensure that your data is handled confidentially and used securely by agreeing this contractually with the processors. This means a processor will never be able to use your data for their own initiatives, and your data must be deleted as soon as a processor has completed their task.

We can pass your personal data on to any legal successors and affiliated organisations, such as subsidiaries and sister organisations, for the same purposes as stated in this privacy declaration. We work with third parties or hire contractors for some aspects of our products and services. Your data is only passed on for the same purposes as agreed with the international organisation ACP/OACPS itself. We make sure that they manage your data securely and respectfully in the same way we do.

In some cases we use anonymous, aggregated data for communication purposes or external reporting. This data can never be traced back to a specific individual.

We never sell or lease your data to companies or people who are not part of our organisation or affiliated organisations. We treat your data as confidential information.

If we provide personal data to third parties in any other way, this is always done with explicit communication to provide information about the third party and the purposes for passing it on and processing it. Where legally required, we ask for your explicit permission. You always have the option to object to this.

How do we secure your data?

We provide maximum protection for your personal data and privacy. Our employees are trained to deal with confidential data correctly. We employ people who are responsible for the security of our infrastructure, and we purchase specialist services to ensure the security of our IT infrastructure. We also take all sorts of technical measures to protect your personal data. Should a data breach occur with unfavourable consequences for your personal data, you will be personally informed under the conditions required by law.

Our websites sometimes contain links to third-party sites that have usage conditions which do not fall under the scope of this privacy declaration. Among other things, this includes the embedded photos from Flickr that you watch. Please read their policy carefully with regard to protecting your personal data.

Looking at, correcting or deleting data?

You are entitled to access your data. If we process your personal data, you can ask us what we process it for, which categories of data we process, which categories of third parties we share your personal data with, what the origin of the processed data is, and what logic we use if we process certain personal data automatically.

You can exercise your right to access your personal data in writing, to the attention of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, Rue de l’Aqueduc 118, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium, or by email to info@acp.int. We have 30 days to respond to your request. This period starts when we receive your request in writing and have all the information available required to fulfil your request.

We can ask you for proof of your identity when you wish to exercise your right to access your personal data, and to prevent any unauthorised publication of your personal data.

You are also entitled to have any incomplete, incorrect, inappropriate or outdated personal data corrected or deleted. You can always contact us by email or post for this. We will then always modify this information within the legally set periods. Please take into account that we can then sometimes no longer offer you some services, depending on your request. We also cannot always delete the requested data, for example because we are legally required to retain data for a certain period. To keep your data up to date, we request you to inform us of any change.

No direct marketing?

You are entitled to object to your personal data being used for direct marketing without giving any reason. You can contact us by email or post for this.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We take care to ensure appropriate organisational and technical measures to secure personal data. We may not store personal data for longer than is necessary to fulfil the purpose we collect it for. The storage period can therefore differ per purpose. Upon completion of the applicable storage periods, personal data is fully anonymised or deleted. We process user data for a maximum of ten years or until ten years after the last operational contact between us, or a maximum of 13 months for traffic data.

Questions?

We are always here to provide appropriate answers to any questions you may have about our privacy policy, or if you want to contact us to modify your data. You can contact us by email, in writing or by phone using the contact details below. You can also use these contact details to submit a complaint which we will process correctly as quickly as possible. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can always contact the relevant authorities and, more specifically, the Data Protection Authority. Contact details are available on their website.

Our contact details:
Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States
Rue de l’Aqueduc 118, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
mail info@acp.int, call +32 2 743 06 00

Cookie Declaration

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file that a website stores on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. First party cookies are cookies set by the website you’re visiting. Only that website can read them. In addition, a website might potentially use external services, which also set their own cookies, known as third-party cookies. Persistent cookies are cookies saved on your computer and that are not deleted automatically when you quit your browser, unlike a session cookie, which is deleted when you quit your browser.

When you visit this website, you will not be prompted to accept or refuse cookies. This website doesn’t use cookies and consequently doesn’t store personal information through cookies.

This website uses Matomo to aggregate data about activities on our website. Those data are fully anonymous. Nevertheless, you can opt out of that as well.

You may choose to prevent this website from aggregating and analyzing the actions you take here. Doing so will protect your privacy, but will also prevent the owner from learning from your actions and creating a better experience for you and other users.

How can you manage cookies?

Removing cookies from your device
You can delete all cookies that are already on your device by clearing the browsing history of your browser. This will remove all cookies from all websites you have visited. Be aware though that you may also lose some saved information (e.g. saved login details, site preferences).

Managing site-specific cookies
For more detailed control over site-specific cookies, check the privacy and cookie settings in your preferred browser, such as Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge en Mozilla Firefox.

Blocking cookies
You can set most modern browsers to prevent any cookies being placed on your device, but you may then have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site/page. And some services and functionalities may not work properly at all (e.g. profile logging-in).