Privacy policy

This website is managed by EU Matrix (registered in Brussels, Belgium), which is the Data Processor.

This privacy policy governs the manner in which this website collects, uses, maintains and discloses Personal Data collected from users of the Project website (“the Site”).

This privacy policy complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which entered into force in the European Union as of 25 May 2018.

We hold a high respect for personal privacy. To this end, we use information that is purposely publicised by the public institutions, political representatives or private actors.

1. What data we collect

As this website reports on the activity of the EU institutions in the public interest, the collection and processing of personal data of relevant stakeholders is based on the principle of legitimate interest. We collect only publicly-available data and only data that regards activities undertaken publicly as part of the mandate of political representatives.

We collect the following personal data on different subject categories.

1.A If you are a political representative, we collect your following publicly available data:

- name and surname

- photo

- country of origin

- political affiliations

- political opinions expressed publicly, in the form of votes or statements

- political activities conducted publicly (speeches, amendments, parliamentary questions, etc)

- institutional email address

- social media addresses made public

Note: we only collect data based on publicly available sources about activities undertaken in the capacity of representative of citizens. We do not collect any information about activities conducted in personal capacity.

Why do we collect this data ?

As this website reports on the activity of EU institutions which impacts on the lives of all European citizens, the collection and processing of this data is based on the principle of legitimate interest.

1.B If you are an individual private citizen, while most of the website can be accessed anonymously, when you create an account we may collect, subject to your consent, your:

- your socio-demographic data (age interval, country of origin, gender)

- email address, if you give us consent by registering on the Site

- IP address

- Facebook/Twitter/email identification, if you give us consent for the purpose of compiling aggregated / anonymous statistics on our users

• the type of domain with which you connect to the Internet;

• the IP address assigned to you;

• the date and time of your access to our website;

• the pages you viewed on our website;

• the type of browser, platform and/or operating system you are using;

• the search engine and the keywords used to find the website;

• your browsing preferences.

Why do we collect this data ?

We collect this data for statistical purposes only. This allows us to aggregate data anonymously and learn how the website is being used, so that we can make it more user-friendly and improve our service.

With your consent or based on our legitimate interest based in particular on our relationship, we will also use your email address to send you updates. You can always unsubscribe from within the emails we’re sending you or by contacting us.

We may use the following third-party service provider to process and store your data: Mailchimp (The Rocket Science Group, LLC). MailChimp’s privacy policy had also been revised to comply with the GDPR’s requirements (for more information read MailChimp’s Privacy Statement).

We use Google Analytics to track user activity on the Site in order to provide a better user experience.

We do not transfer any personal data of the users of this website outside the European Union. By using the Website, you consent to the collection of this information and its transfer of outside of your country, but within the European Union.

We will not make your Personal Data available to the general public or third parties, and we will never sell, share or swap your data with any other organisation.

2) How we keep data secure

We store your data in servers in the European Union. By using the Site, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country but within the European Union.

We will take any relevant action in case we have concerns about potential data abuses.

We take measures to maintain the confidentiality of your Personal Data and protect it from unlawful disclosure. We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your Personal Data when you enter, submit, or access your Personal Data. The Site has different layers of security depending on the layer of implementation: network, server and application.

The server is protected from unauthorized access: root access is only permitted through SSH and never directly; all user passwords are long, randomized and changed frequently. Database access is permitted only from local host, no external computer can directly connect from outside to the MySQL server running on the machine.

All files accessible through Apache are owned by a low-access level user. Application holes, like SQL injection or unauthorized access to the admin interface were also considered and checked against. Backup is run daily, both on the files and on the databases from the server.

Nevertheless, the data controller may in no way be held liable in the event that this data is stolen or hijacked by a third party despite the security measures adopted.

3) Who has access to your data

Your data is accessible by employees or contractors authorized by the data controller, who are subject to strict confidentiality agreements.

We will not make your Personal Data available to the general public or third parties, and we will never sell, share or swap your data with any other organisation.

4) Retention of Personal Data

We will retain your Personal Data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose(s) for which it was collected and to comply with applicable laws.

Once this goal is achieved, we either delete or completely anonymize them.

5) Cookies

The Site uses session cookies, in order to keep the user logged in during a session. This cookie is deleted when the user logs out of the system.

The Site uses Google Analytics to track user activity on the Site in order to provide a better user experience.

6) Changes to our Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page, and/or update the privacy policy modification date below.

7) Contacting Us

If you have any questions or complaints, or you wish to access, correct or delete your Personal Data, please contact the Site Privacy

Officer who can be reached at:

[email protected].

If necessary, the Privacy Officer will contact another employee to assist in completing your requested task.

----

Cookie Policy

Effective since: 01.09.2022

Cookie Policy

EU Matrix operates a strict privacy policy. We are committed to being transparent about the technologies we use, and we’ve outlined below how we use cookies when you visit our site.

Insofar as the information collected using cookies constitutes personal data, the provisions of the Privacy Policy shall apply and supplement this Cookie Policy.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small snippet of text that a website asks your browser to store. All cookies have expiration dates in them that determine how long they stay in your browser. Cookies can be removed in two ways: automatically, when they expire, or when you manually delete them.

Does EU Matrix use cookies?

Yes, with the primary purpose to make our website work more effectively and to memorize various information in order to facilitate your navigation on a website/a mobile application, to ensure the smooth functioning of these or to make them more effective.

What kinds of cookies does EU Matrix use and why?

We use different kinds of cookies for various reasons:

• Essential cookies (strictly necessary) – These cookies are essential for browsing our Website or strictly necessary for the provision of a service specifically requested by a user.

• Session cookies – these are temporary cookies that expire (and are automatically erased) whenever you close your browser. We use session cookies to grant access to content and things you have to log in to do.

• Persistent cookies – these usually have an expiration date of maximum 13 months and thus stay in your browser until they expire, or until you manually delete them. We use persistent cookies for functionalities like remembering login details, which makes it possible for registered users to return to the site without having to log in. We also use persistent cookies to better understand usage patterns so we can improve the site for our customers. This information is anonymised – when we look at the data, in other words, we look at patterns, but we do not see individuals’ personally identified information (PII).

• Analytics cookies (statistics) – These cookies are used to gather information about your use of the Website, in order to improve the content of the Website, make it more suitable to your needs and increase its usability. For example, these cookies show us the most visited pages of the Website or help to identify difficulties that may be encountered during navigation.

• Preference cookies (performance) – These cookies collect information about your choices and preferences and make your navigation more pleasant and personalized.

What other cookies might you encounter on EU Matrix?

There are also limited third-party cookies on the site. These cookies could be session or persistent and are set by entities other than POLITICO. To ensure compliance with our policies, we restrict the use of third-party cookies to trusted partners of POLITICO. For example, we currently allow:

• Social sharing – This allows you to share our articles through various social sharing networks like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Social networks providing such a sharing button are likely to identify you with this button, even if you did not use this button when visiting our Website. We invite you to consult the privacy policy of these social networks, by visiting their respective websites, to learn the purpose of using the information collected through these sharing buttons.

• Audience measurement and validation – We use Google Analytics to understand how many people come and what is popular which helps us improve the website. No personally identifiable information (PII) is stored and site usage is always looked at on an aggregate (and anonymous) level.

The collection and use of information by these companies is governed by the relevant third party’s privacy policy and is not covered by our privacy policy.

How can I configure, delete or disable cookies?

You can easily delete, disable or accept cookies from our Website at any time by configuring your browser settings.

Each browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.) has its own cookie configuration mode. To learn about the procedure to follow concerning your navigator, visit the site: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/.

Will the Website work if I disable cookies?

You can browse EU Matrix with cookies disabled, though some interactions may not work. For example, ticking the “Stay logged in” box at login will not actually keep you logged in to the site unless you have enabled cookies.

Why does the message explaining cookies keep appearing?

If you close the banner and it reappears the next time you visit us, you most likely have cookies disabled. We use a persistent cookie to remember that you closed the banner, but this only works when cookies on our site are enabled.