President contact form - Privacy statement

The European Commission (hereafter ‘the Commission’) is committed to protect your personal data and to respect your privacy. The Commission collects and further processes personal data pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 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 (repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001).

This privacy statement explains the reason for the processing of your personal data, the way we collect, handle and ensure protection of all personal data provided, how that information is used and what rights you have in relation to your personal data. It also specifies the contact details of the responsible Data Controller with whom you may exercise your rights, the Data Protection Officer and the European Data Protection Supervisor.

The information in relation to processing of data in connection with the contact form on the ,web page of the Commission President undertaken by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communication, Directorate B “Strategy & Corporate Communication”, Unit B.3 “Europa Web Communication” (COMM.B.3) is presented below.

The DG Communication Unit “Europa Web Communication” (referred to hereafter as the Data Controller) collects contact information from you through a contact form made available on the Commissioners website (URL address: https://commissioners.ec.europa.eu/ursula-von-der-leyen_en) with the aim of providing to you acontact point to contact the President of the European Commission.

Your personal data will not be used for an automated decision-making, including profiling.

We process your personal data, because:

(a) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Union institution or body;

This is in accordance with EU Regulation 2018/1725 of 23 October 2018 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, in particular article 5(1).

When sending an email, you will be asked to provide along with your message the following personal data:

• your first name
• your last name
• your email address
• your preferred contact language

Please do not provide any sensitive personal information as part of your enquiry, for example information about your personal health or financial situation.

The Data Controller only keeps your personal data for the time necessary to fulfil the purpose of collection or further processing.

Personal data is kept as long as follow-up actions to the feedback provided via the contact form are necessary with regard to the purpose(s) of the processing of personal data and no longer than two (2) years from the feedback submission’s date.

All personal data in electronic format (e-mails, documents, databases, uploaded batches of data, etc.) are either stored on the servers of the European Commission or of its contractors, all within the EU. All processing operations are carried out pursuant to the Commission Decision (EU, Euratom) 2017/46 of 10 January 2017 on the security of communication and information systems in the European Commission.

In order to protect your personal data, the Commission has put in place a number of technical and organisational measures in place. Technical measures include appropriate actions to address online security, risk of data loss, alteration of data or unauthorised access, taking into consideration the risk presented by the processing and the nature of the personal data being processed. Organisational measures include restricting access to the personal data solely to authorised persons with a legitimate need to know for the purposes of this processing operation.

Access to your personal data is provided to Commission staff responsible for carrying out this processing operation according to the “need to know” principle. Such staff abide by statutory, and when required, additional confidentiality agreements.

The information we collect will not be given to any other third party, except to the extent and for the purpose we may be required to do so by law.

You have specific rights as a ‘data subject’ under Chapter III (Articles 14-25) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, in particular the right to access, rectify or erase your personal data and the right to restrict the processing of your personal data. Where applicable, you also have the right to object to the processing or the right to data portability.

If you have provided your consent to the Data Controller for the present processing operation, you can withdraw it at any time by notifying the Data Controller. The withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of the processing carried out before you have withdrawn your consent.

You can exercise your rights by contacting the Data Controller, or in case of conflict the Data Protection Officer. If necessary, you can also address the European Data Protection Supervisor. Their contact information is given under Heading 9 below.

Where you wish to exercise your rights in the context of one or several specific processing operations, please provide their description (i.e. their Record reference(s) as specified under Heading 10 below) in your request.

• The Data Controller

If you would like to exercise your rights under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, or if you have comments, questions or concerns, or if you would like to submit a complaint regarding the collection and use of your personal data, please feel free to contact the Data Controller, Directorate-General Communication, unit “Europa Web Communication” at this email:  europamanagementec [dot] europa [dot] eu (europamanagement[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

• The Data Protection Officer (DPO) of the Commission

You may contact the Data Protection Officer (DATA-PROTECTION-OFFICERec [dot] europa [dot] eu (DATA-PROTECTION-OFFICER[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)) with regard to issues related to the processing of your personal data under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

• The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)

You have the right to have recourse (i.e. you can lodge a complaint) to the European Data Protection Supervisor (edpsedps [dot] europa [dot] eu (edps[at]edps[dot]europa[dot]eu)) if you consider that your rights under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 have been infringed as a result of the processing of your personal data by the Data Controller.

The Commission Data Protection Officer (DPO) publishes the register of all processing operations on personal data by the Commission, which have been documented and notified to him. You may access the register via the following link: http://ec.europa.eu/dpo-register.

This specific processing operation has been included in the DPO’s public register with the following Record reference: DPR-EC-00083.