Futurium Platform and Communities Privacy Statement

PROTECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Table of Contents

Introduction

This privacy statement concerns the Futurium Platform and all activities related to the Futurium Communities (such as online participation on the platform). It explains the reason for the processing, the way we collect, handle and ensure protection of all personal data provided, how that information is used and what rights you may exercise in relation to your data. The European institutions are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. As this service collects and further processes personal data, specific data protection rules apply [1]. The Futurium Platform is owned by the European Commission; the Futurium Communities are administrated by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), other Directorates-General.

[1] Regulation 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data.

Why do we process your data?

We collect and use your personal information to administer the Futurium Communities set up by DG CONNECT, other Directorates-General or Executive Agencies. Collecting and using your data enables us to establish your membership within a community, to contact you with regard to online and offline activities relating to the community and ensure your participation therein, and to have an overview of the various types of members of the communities.

The processing operations on personal data for the organisation and management of the Futurium Communities are lawful under Article 5(d) of Regulation 2018/1725, as the user provides his/her consent before becoming a member. The purpose of the respective Futurium Community and any related policy decisions are set out in detail in the ‘About’ tab on the Community page of the Futurium website.

Which data do we collect and process?

We process personal data necessary for the creation of your account on the Futurium website, which allows you to participate in the Communities hosted by the Futurium online platform, and for the organisation and management of the different Communities.

Mandatory fields to be filled in when you create an account:

First name, last name,
Email address.

These data become part of your user account.

The system administrator receives your IP address if it is not masked.

Optional fields you can fill in when creating a profile include, in particular:

Location: city, country,
Avatar or profile picture
Topic, interest represented,
Professional contact information: company name, function.

Mandatory fields to be provided when you join a community:

Other personal data may be collected when you join a specific community: For instance, you may be asked to provide information about your motivation to join and your professional background and experience) which are relevant for a particular community.

Registered users of the platform can in any case provide additional information, some of which may contain personal data:

Articles,
Comments,
Pictures, text files,
Links, e.g. to videos.

Please note that the Commission does not request nor expect that participants to Futurium include (i) special categories of data under Article 10(1) of Regulation 2018/1725 (that is “personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation”) or (ii) personal data related to criminal convictions and offences as provided for in Article 11 of Regulation 2018/1725, related to themselves or to third persons in their contributions to Futurium communities. Any inclusion of these types of personal data is the responsibility of the participant. The moderator might decide to delete such personal data on the basis of a case-by-case assessment.

How long do we keep your data?

DG CONNECT keeps your data for as long as follow-up actions to the Futurium Community concerned are necessary, namely the operation of the Community and its related management. Your personal data will be kept during 5 years after your last interaction with the platform. Then, your personal data will be deleted, unless you renew your interest in being a registered user of the platform.

Your personal data will be deleted from the Platform before the end of the five-year retention period, upon request (see Contact Information in Section 8. below).

How do we protect your data?

All data in electronic format (e-mails, documents, uploaded batches of data, etc.) are stored either on the servers of the European Commission or of its contractors in line with its decision C(2006)3602 of 16 August 2006 concerning the security of information systems used by the European Commission. The Commission’s contractors are bound by a specific contractual clause for any processing operations of your data on behalf of the Commission.

Who has access to your data and to whom is it disclosed?

All personal data provided by you can be accessed by the websites’ administrators (Commission staff), as well as by other Commission staff on a need to know basis.

Your data may be accessed by other persons, depending on their access rights:

As a registered user, your first name, last name and profile picture if provided, as well as the content posted, are visible to any visitor of the website, if you have joined an open thematic community and/or posted content on the platform. If you have merely registered on the platform without performing any other action, these data are not visible to visitors and other users.
As a registered user, your first name, last name and profile picture if provided, as well as the content posted in a closed community, are visible only to members of this community. Visitors of the platform cannot access these data if they are not members of this closed community. You can accept or not to be contacted by other members (by default: no), there is no possibility to block specific users.
Information provided by you as part of the request for joining any of the thematic communities are visible by its moderators. These moderators may be external to the Commission (data processors).

Additional personal data provided by you as part of your profile are visible only to registered users of the platform. You can configure the privacy settings of your account and determine which of these personal data are visible to other users.

What are your rights and how can you exercise them?

As a registered user of the Futurium platform, you can modify or delete your personal data in the profile section of the platform. You can also modify or delete your posted content.

You may also ask the data controller to remove your profile. Your created content on the platform will then be anonymised.

Blocking, rectifying or deleting of personal data can be done on request by contacting the following email address: cnect-futurium@ec.europa.eu.

Contact information

If you have comments or questions, any concerns or a complaint regarding the collection and use of your personal data, please feel free to contact the data controller using the following contact information:

DG CONNECT Unit R.3 “Knowledge Management and Innovative Systems”

Building BU25

B-1049 Brussels

Email: CNECT-FUTURIUM@ec.europa.eu

You may also contact the Data Protection Officer (DPO) of the European Commission: DATA-PROTECTION-OFFICER@ec.europa.eu

In case of conflict, complaints can be addressed to the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) by using the following contact information: edps@edps.europa.eu.

You can find more detailed information in the Register of the Data Protection Officer of the Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/info/about-european-commission/service-standards-and-principles/transparency/data-processing-register_en

Futurium

Your Voices, Our Future

ARCHIVED PLATFORM

This website is archived since mid-May 2021 and it is not possible to login anymore.

But don't worry there is a new Futurium platform and all active communities have been migrated.