How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data both directly and indirectly:

Directly. We obtain personal data directly from individuals in a variety of ways, including but not limited to the following cases:

• an individual registers to attend in meetings and events we host and during attendance at such events;
• an individual participates in an interview or survey organised by us;
• an individual subscribes to our project newsletter;
• we establish cooperative relationships with an individual;
• we provide professional services pursuant to our contract with the European

Indirectly. We obtain personal data indirectly about individuals from a variety of sources, including:

• our research consortium partners;
• our networks and contacts;
• public and open data sources such as public registers, news articles and internet searches;
• social and professional networking sites (e.g., LinkedIn).

What types of data we collect?

We only collect the data that are necessary for the smooth implementation of our project. These data fall into the following categories:

• contact details (name/surname, e-mail address, phone number);
• professional information (job title, organisation, field of expertise);
• demographics (e.g., age, gender, nationality);
• information about what a person knows or personal values;
• videos and photos (from people that attend our events only).

Technical means of data collection

Your personal data may be collected on publicly available websites, through partners’ databases, via surveying software (e.g., Google Forms, EU Survey, SurveyMonkey) and via direct enquiry to you during project activities. Should we collect your personal data in any other way than through direct enquiry with you, we will make sure to inform you about this and about the source of the data.

Bases of lawful processing

We process personal data on the following legal bases:

• Legal obligations – for processing activities required for compliance both with applicable national and European legislation as well as with the specific legal and regulatory framework of the Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European
• Consent – for processing activities such as organization of surveys and interviews, completing of questionnaires and dissemination of project’s results.
• Contractual obligations – for processing activities such as reporting to the European Commission and complying with project’s publicity obligations.

What we do with your personal data

We process your personal data with the purpose of:

• Conducting research (e.g., interviews, workshops, surveys);
• Dissemination our project’s results to different types of stakeholders;
• Sending invitations and providing access to guests attending our events and webinars;
• Administering, maintaining, and ensuring the security of our information systems, applications, and websites;
• Processing online requests or queries, including responding to communications from individuals;
• Complying with contractual, legal, and regulatory

How we secure your personal data when we process it

We continuously apply a personal data risk assessment process to identify, analyse, and evaluate the security risks that may threat your personal data. Based on the results of this risk assessment, we define and apply a set of both technical and organizational measures to mitigate the above security risks, including but not limited to:

• Data Protection Policies to guide our personnel when processing your data;
• Written contracts with organizations that process personal data on our behalf;
• Non-Disclosure Agreements with our personnel;
• Back up process, antimalware protection, access control mechanisms,

Do we share personal data with third parties?

We may occasionally share personal data with trusted third parties to help us deliver efficient and quality services. When we do so, we ensure that recipients are contractually bound to safeguard the data we entrust to them before we share the data. We may engage with several or all the following categories of recipients:

• Parties that support us as we provide our services (e.g., cloud-based software services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft SharePoint);
• Our professional advisers, including lawyers, auditors, and insurers;
• Dissemination services providers (e.g., MailChimp);
• Law enforcement or other government and regulatory agencies or other third parties as required by, and in accordance with applicable law or regulation;
• The European Commission according to our relevant contractual

Do we transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area?

We do not own file servers located outside the European Economic Area (EEA). However, some partners may use cloud and/or marketing services from reputable providers such as Google Drive, SharePoint, DropBox, MailChimp, etc., situated both inside and outside the EEA. We always check that such providers comply with the relevant GDPR requirements before starting using their services.

VISION4FOOD website Privacy & Cookies Policy

 This Privacy Statement provides an overview on which personal information will be collected from you when visiting the website, how this information will be processed and used. Your personal data are processed in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals regarding the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation), and Belgian Law of 30 July 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data.

1.    What personal data do we collect?

Upon visiting the VISION4FOOD website, VISION4FOOD automatically collects, via cookies installed to make the website operational and gather data, some information about the visitor’s device, including information about the web browser use to enter the website, IP address and time zone. Additionally, information is being captured on the individual web pages or documents a visitor views, and on how the visitor interacts with the website.

We also collect, use and store the contact information filled when a visitor subscribes to the project’s newsletter. The information collected, including personal and non-personal data, could include:

Via Mailchimp

• Individual name and surname,
• Name of the organization (when corresponds)
• Form interaction
• Username
• Email address
• Gender
• Country of residence

2.      How do we collect your data?

We collect your data and process data when you:

• Visit our website
• Subscribe to receive our news (by completing a Mailchimp form)

3.      Cookies

“Cookies” are data files that are placed on the visitors’ device or computer and often include an anonymous unique identifier. Visitors can delete all cookies already on their devices by clearing the browsing history of their browser. This will remove all cookies from all websites they have visited. Visitors though should be aware that they may also lose saved information (e.g. saved login details, site preferences).

Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies. For more information on how to set the preferences for cookies, please refer to the instructions provided by your browser. You can find out more about cookies and how to control them on www.allaboutcookies.org.

We use tools like Matomo to better understand how visitors interact with our website. This provides us with important information to enable the site to work better. The information collected is not linked to your personal data. For more information on the cookies set by Matomo, please visit: https://matomo.org/faq/general/faq_146/.

Matomo will be collecting the below first-party cookies by the VISION4FOOD website:

Name				Purpose	Default Expiry
_pk_id				Stores a unique visitor ID.	13 months
_pk_ses				Session cookie temporarily stores data for the visit.	30 minutes
_pk_ref				Stores attribution information (the referrer that brought the visitor to the website).	6 months
_pk_testcookie				Temporary cookie to check if a visitor’s browser supports cookies (set in Internet Explorer only).	Temporary cookie that expires almost immediately after being set.

Matomo (formerly Piwik) collects the following data:

• Visitor information: IP address, browser type, device information, operating system
• Visit information: pages viewed, time spent, entry/exit pages, referral sources
• Action information: clicks, downloads, outbound link tracking

CookieFirst Data Collection

 

In addition, we will be using CookieFirst as a cookie consent management platfom that:

 

• Tracks user consent preferences
• Manages cookie deployment based on consent
• Logs consent records for compliance purposes
• Provides transparency via customizable cookie banners When implementing these solutions together:

1. CookieFirst acts as the gatekeeper, obtaining and recording consent before Matomo begins tracking
2. Matomo only collects permitted data based on the consent level granted

4.      How will we use your data?

The collection and subsequently processing of the personal information are necessary for the following purposes:

• To update relevant contents on the website and social media channels
• To report on the progress of the project to the relevant European Commission Agency
• To email you with news about the project and related topics
• To enable the interaction on the website (i.e., sharing function)

5.      What is the legal basis for the processing?

The data subjects are invited to provide their personal information through an online form. The legal basis for this processing operation is consent.

You can withdraw your consent at any time before the end of the project, by writing an email to the following address: a.karapliafi@effost.org, however that will not affect the lawfulness of the processing of your personal data prior to such withdrawal.

6.      How do we store your data?

Your data is securely stored by EFFoST on a password-protected server in the Netherlands. Only authorized people can access the information.

Your data will be stored for the entire period of the project and for 5 additional years as required by law for controls on Horizon Europe projects. Data will, therefore, be available to the relevant European Commission Agency, the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Once this period has expired, we will delete visitors’ data from the databases.

7.     Who is responsible for the data processing?

The controller for this processing operation is the VISION4FOOD project partner EFFoST:

VISION4FOOD   consortium partner:	The European Federation of Food Science & Technology
Contact person:	Afroditi Karapliafi
Phone:	+31 6 48482235
Email:	a.karapliafi@effost.org
Address:	Agro Business Park 82, 6708 PW Wageningen, The Netherlands
Website:	www.effost.org

For surveys run by different VISION4FOOD partners, please see the survey consent form for information on specific data processing.

8.      Recipients of personal data

Only defined EFFoST staff working on the VISION4FOOD project are allowed to process the personal information. Other project partners will be able to access to specific data if the purpose is specified and consent is given by users in advance.

All recipients of the data are reminded of their obligation not to use the data for any further purpose other than the ones for which they were collected. The personal information collected will not be communicated to third parties, except where necessary for the purposes outlined and to the entities identified above or otherwise specified.

9.      The collection and part of the processing of personal information are carried out through:

Microsoft Form https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/ SurveyMonkey https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/legal/privacy/ Mailchimp https://mailchimp.com/legal/

JotForm https://www.jotform.com/privacy/ Matomo https://matomo.org/privacy-policy/

10.      Social media interactions

The VISION4FOOD website integrates social media interactions allowing to share the project’s

website content on social media platforms and other related actions.

The applicable data protection provisions of the social media integrated in the VISION4FOOD website may be accessed under the following links:

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy/ Instagram – https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policy

Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/howyoutubeworks/our-commitments/protecting-user-data/

11.   Will the personal data be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area without an adequate level of data protection?

Part of the collection and processing of personal information are carried out through ‘MailChimp’ a platform provided by the Rocket Science Group LLC, an American company. Adequate safeguards have been adopted as required by law through standard contractual clauses (SCCs).

12.      Disclaimer of liability for third party websites

Although our site may contain links to third-party sites, including the sites of the consortium partners, we are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these sites and we expressly disclaim any liability for any loss or damage that may be caused by the use of these links. We do not monitor the privacy practices or the content of these sites. If you have any questions about the privacy practices of another site, you should contact the site’s responsible personnel. We suggest you read the privacy policy of each website you interact with, before allowing the collection and use of your personal data.

13.     What are your data protection rights?

You have the following rights regarding our processing of your personal data:

• Right to withdraw consent – You can withdraw consent that you have previously given to one or more specified purposes to process your personal data with no consequences and at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent.
• Right of access – You can ask us to verify whether we are processing personal data about you and, if so, to have access to a copy of such
• Right to rectification and erasure – You can ask us to correct our records if you believe they contain incorrect or incomplete information about you or ask us to erase your personal data after you withdraw your consent to processing or when we no longer need it for the purpose it was originally collected.
• Right to restriction of processing – You can ask us to temporarily restrict our processing of your personal data if you contest the accuracy of your personal data, prefer to restrict its use rather than having us erase it, or need us to preserve it for you to establish, exercise or defend a legal A temporary restriction may apply while verifying whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to process it. You can ask us to inform you before we lift that temporary processing restriction.
• Right to data portability – In some circumstances, where you have provided personal data to us, you can ask us to transmit that personal data (in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format) directly to another entity.
• Right to object – You can object to our use of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, including profiling or where processing has taken the form of automated decision- making. However, we may need to keep some minimal information (e.g., e-mail address) to comply with your request to cease marketing to you.
• Right to make a complaint to your local Data Protection Authority(DPA) regarding any concerns you      may     have                     about   our        data       handling  practices          (see: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-   authorities/index_en.htm).

To ask us to do anything of the above, you can contact us by email: info@vision4foodproject.eu

We will promptly examine your request against the relevant requirements of the laws and regulations governing privacy and personal data protection and we will answer the latest within 30 days after receiving your request. We will ask from you some kind of identification (e.g., photocopy of your identity card or passport) to avoid non-authorized reveal of your personal data. If, for reasons of complexity of the request or a multitude of requests, we are unable to respond promptly, we will notify you within 30 days of any delay, which in no case may exceed two months from the expiration of the 30-day deadline.

14.      Changes to our privacy policy

VISIOS4FOOD keeps its privacy policy under regular review and places any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on March 30, 2025.

15.      Contacts

All your requests concerning your data protection rights should be addressed to: info@vision4foodproject.eu

You have at any time the right to lodge a complaint to the Dutch Data Protection Authority at: Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens

PO Box 93374

2509 AJ DEN HAAG

+31 (0)70 888 85 00