EHEDG Privacy and Cookie Policy

The European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group (hereafter EHEDG) is a global voluntary expert network promoting safe food by improving hygienic engineering and design in all aspects of food manufacture. The EHEDG is registered as a foundation in the Netherlands, and its administration is handled by the EHEDG Office in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

This Privacy Statement relates to the data collected online through our website www.ehedg.org. In particular, it addresses which data are collected and how they are used, stored, and shared within EHEDG, which serves as the data controller. The EHEDG website is hosted and managed in the Netherlands.

EHEDG is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask that you provide your personal data, i.e. information which relates to you as an identified or an identifiable natural person, through our website, you can be assured that this data will only be processed in accordance with this Privacy Statement (for more details see our extended Privacy Policy).

What we collect

You can access and use our website without providing us with your personal data.

EHEDG may collect your personal data through the website in the following specific situations:

1. When you register as a new member (whether as an individual or as a company or institution)
2. When you subscribe to our newsletter;
3. When you fill out our contact form for requests related to our services.

In these instances, the following personal data may be collected: name, address, telephone number, email address, job title.

EHEDG does not collect any special categories of personal data as defined in article 9 sub 1 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

How we use cookies

Some information may also be collected automatically through cookies when you access and use our website. A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to our customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

How we use your data

The data collected through our website are used for the following purposes:

Membership activities:

• to add your details to our internal membership database with the purpose of providing direct and custom-tailored information to you
• to add your details to the respective EHEDG Regional Section of your home country or area
• to add your details to the respective EHEDG Committees or Working Groups
• to give you individual access to the internal membership section of our website including options for guideline download (for EHEDG company and institute members), respectively for access to the internal folders of our Committees or Working Groups.

Marketing activities:

• to send you our newsletter, which includes updates about the EHEDG expert network and its activities, as well as information on our events, training courses, testing & certification opportunities, publications, or any other news of relevance;
• to assess the effectiveness of our newsletter and other communications;
• to contact you for evaluation of your membership benefits to help us improve our services;
• to track the analytics of our website;
• to measure the business usage of our website.

Standard communication:

• to respond to your inquiries sent via our contact form.

How we share your data

As a global expert network, EHEDG may share the personal data it collects through the website internally, among its Committees, Regional Sections or Working Groups.

EHEDG may employ the services of third parties to support us with certain tasks, such as web technical support, the organisation of EHEDG events or marketing automation. We may also share your data in this respect with our third-party service providers, to perform services on our behalf and to the benefit of our members.

EHEDG does not sell, lease, share, or otherwise transfer your personal data to third parties.

How we store and protect your data

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we process. In particular, EHEDG adheres to a documented information security policy. This ensures that the data are stored in compliance with the GDPR and within the limits of the purpose for which they were collected.

Your rights

If you change your mind and no longer wish that we process your personal data, you may either tick the 'unsubscribe' box in our newsletters, or e-mail to office@ehedg.org by asking us to remove you from our mailing list.

If you wish to obtain details relating to the personal data which we have collected from you, if you believe that these data are incorrect or incomplete and would like to have them corrected, or if you would like that we erase your data, please also send an e-mail to office@ehedg.org.

Links

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have left our website via these links, we no longer have any control or responsibility regarding how other websites handle your data.

Updates or amendments

This Privacy Statement may be subject to updates or amendments, which are made available on our website. We encourage you to periodically review it to ensure that you still agree to it. This Privacy Statement is effective from 1 May 2018 and was updated on 25 July 2022.

Contact us

Should you require any other information in relation to your personal data, which we collect or process, please do not hesitate to contact us at office@ehedg.org.

More details

For more details please see the extended EHEDG Privacy Policy