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homepage | Privacy and Cookie Policy

Privacy and Cookie Policy

1 Who are we?

This is the Privacy and Cookie Policy of the international non-profit making organisation Federation Européenne Du Verre D’emballage in relation to the Friends of Glass programme (hereinafter referred to as “Friends of glass” or “we, us”)), with registered office at Louizalaan 89, letter box 4, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, and registered in the Crossroads Bank of Enterprises under the company number BE 0417.651.811.

In the context of our activities (developing a community of persons and legal entities from different countries in Europe and beyond who are committed to promoting a sustainable and healthy lifestyle through glass packaging) we collect, hold, disclose and/or otherwise process personal data. Pursuant to the applicable data protection and privacy legislation, we qualify as the controller with respect to the processing activities further described in this Privacy and Cookie Policy.

2             What is the importance of this Privacy and Cookie Policy?

We value your right to privacy and strive to protect your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection legislation and more specifically with the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and its national implementing legislation.

In this Privacy and Cookie Policy we set forth how we collect your personal data, how and for which purposes we may use your personal data and to whom we disclose your personal data.

Furthermore, this Privacy and Cookie Policy includes important information regarding your rights with respect to the processing of your personal data. Therefore, we encourage you to read this Privacy and Cookie Policy carefully.

From time to time, we may need to change this Privacy and Cookie Policy. In such a case, we will send you a copy of this new version [ per e-mail]. The most recent version of this Privacy and Cookie Policy is available on our website www.friendsofglass.com.

Attention: By sharing your personal data with us, we expect that you read this Privacy and Cookie Policy carefully. This does however not mean that we need your ‘consent’ to the processing of your personal data. We do not process your personal data on the basis of your consent, unless specifically indicated otherwise (e.g. for sending our electronic newsletter where we rely upon your opt-in consent).

Whose personal data do we collect?

In the context of our activities (as described above), we process personal data of visitors of our website, of persons subscribing to our website

How do we collect personal data?

We collect your personal data in various ways:

  • directly from you when you navigate our Friends of Glass website(s), when you complete a contact form on our Friends of Glass website(s); when you enter a contest administered by Friends of Glass; or when you register for our Friends of Glass electronic newsletter;

3             What personal data do we collect?

We may collect the following personal data about you:

  • Personal identification data: name, email address;
  • Electronic identification data: IP address, information collected via cookies (read Titles 11 and 12 on the use of cookies);
  • Personal characteristics: country of residence; and affiliated organisation or company if relevant.

Anytime certain information is mandatory and other information is optional, this shall be clearly indicated as such.

4             For what purposes do we use your personal data?

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

  • for the administration of the subscribers to our Friends of Glass website and social media channels;
  • for the management of our website(s) and social media channels;
  • for the organisation of contests administered by Friends of Glass;
  • for marketing purposes, i.e. for our electronic mailings (if you had subscribed to them);

For your perfect information, you can find hereinafter the legal grounds applicable to these processing activities:

  • for the processing of your personal data for electronic direct marketing purposes (sending our electronic newsletter), we rely upon your opt-in consent. Only if you have unambiguously stated that you would like to receive our electronic newsletter (you are entirely free to do this), we will register you for our electronic mailings.

Note that you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, free of charge, and without this having any negative implications for you. You may do so by writing to Friends of Glass – to the attention of FEVE, Louizalaan 89, letter box 4, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, or to the following email address info@friendsofglass.com.

  • in all other cases, the processing of your personal data is based on our legitimate interests (i.e. the interest of keeping records of the persons subscribing to our website, of improving the content and quality of our website and enhancing a better compatibility of our website to the interests, needs and desires of its users,

With whom do we share your personal data?

With our service providers (‘processors’):

In the context of our activities as described above, we may share your personal data with third parties, in particular with service providers (IT/cloud service providers, PR/marketing agencies who organise mailing campaigns for us, and that act as our ‘processors’.

With government authorities:

Furthermore, we may share your personal data with the government, police authorities or the judiciary in case we have a legal obligation to do so.We will implement appropriate safeguards when transferring your personal data to third parties. If necessary, we will for example conclude a data transfer or a processing agreement specifying the limitations to the use of your personal data and the obligations with respect to the security of your personal data.

Your personal data and your profile will not be lent or sold to third parties for marketing purposes without your prior explicit consent.

5             How long do we store your personal data?

Your personal data will not be stored for longer than is necessary in relation to the purposes for which we process them (as listed above). Afterwards it is still possible that they can be found in our back-ups or archives, but they will no longer be actively processed in a file.

More specifically, the following retention guidelines are applied by us:

  • the personal data used for the administration of the subscribers to our website are retained for as long as your membership lasts. As soon as we note that your personal data are no longer accurate or active, or whenever you decide to use your right to erasure of your personal data, we will no longer keep your personal data for this purpose;
  • any personal data used for marketing purposes will be retained for as long as we are sending you relevant mailings. As soon as we note that your contact details are no longer accurate or active, or whenever you decide to use your unsubscribe right, we will no longer keep your personal data for these purposes;

Only where we are legally obliged to, or where this is necessary for defending our interests in the context of judicial proceedings (e.g. in case of a dispute), we will store the personal data for longer periods.

More information on our retention periods is available upon simple request.

6             How do we protect your personal data?

We will implement the necessary administrative, technical and organisational measures for ensuring a level of security appropriate to the specific risks that we have identified.

We protect your personal data against destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of or access to personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.

Further, we seek to ensure that we keep your personal data accurate and up to date. In view thereof, we kindly request you to inform us of any changes to your personal data (such as a change in your contact details).

More information on our protection measures is available upon simple request.

7             What are your rights and how can you exercise them?

You have (under certain conditions, as explained in more details on the Belgian Privacy Commission’s website: https://www.privacycommission.be/nl/algemene-verordening-gegevensbescherming-burger) the right to:

  • information about and access to your personal data;
  • rectify your personal data;
  • erasure of your personal data (‘right to be forgotten’);
  • restriction of processing of your personal data;
  • object to the processing of your personal data;
  • receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to (have) transmit(ted) your personal data to another organisation.

Finally, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Belgian Privacy Commission / Data Protection Authority relating to the processing of your personal data by us.

To read more about these rights, and circumstances under which you can use these rights, in particular your right to object (this is your ‘opt-out’ right for our electronic newsletter), please also read the Annex to this Privacy and Cookie Policy. In principle you may exercise these rights free of charge. Only where requests are manifestly unfounded or excessive we may charge a reasonable fee.

We aim to respond as quickly as possible to your requests or questions. We might request a proof of identity in advance in order to double-check your request.

8             Use of cookies , web beacons and social media plug-ins

We use certain cookies, web beacons and social media plug-ins on our website. Some of them are essential to make our website work, others serve to provide you a better, faster and safer user experience.

A cookie is a small file that includes a small quantity of information sent to the browser of the website user by a web server and stored on the hard disk drive of the computer for archiving purposes. Certain parts of the Website runs on the basis of profile information recorded in the cookies.

The Website uses cookies in two ways. The cookies are first used to identify you as a user and to allow you to use our website. Those cookies are deleted at the end of a session unless you choose explicitly to save your user name and password. The cookies are also used to record information in order to re-use them and to save your user preferences. The cookies are part of the functionalities of our Website. If your browser does not accept the cookies, you will not be able to use this Website properly. In addition to Personal Data, the Website also records non personal data (number and duration of the visits, preferences, etc.). Those data are used to improve the Website and its use, for example by displaying information based on the interests of the user. Friends of Glass will periodically receive a summary of the data rendered anonymous that cannot lead to identifiable users. Those data no longer allow to identify the individual user.

In addition, we use web beacons. Web beacons are electronic images that make it possible to count the number of visitors to a particular website and provide access to certain cookies. They help us analyse the effectiveness of our website.

Further, we use social media plug-ins. These enable us to recognise you on the basis of your social media profile and to import certain data (such as the identification and contact details or your profile picture). In addition, they enable us to use social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) ‘share’ buttons. More information in this respect is to be found in the privacy policy of your social media service. In case you do not wish to establish a connection with your social media profile, please log out before using our website.

9             How can you manage / delete these cookies?

All major internet browsers offer the option to manage the cookies that were installed on your computer or mobile device.

In case you do not wish that this website places cookies on your computer or mobile device, you may limit or delete these easily by adjusting you mobile or browser settings.  In addition, you can set your mobile or browser settings in such a way that you get a notification every time you receive a cookie on your computer or mobile device, so that you can decide whether you wish to accept this cookie or not.

Please note that when you disable certain cookies of which we are making use, the possibility exists that certain parts of our website will no longer function properly and you will no longer enjoy an optimal user experience.

10           Contact

If you have any questions, comments or complaints in relation to this Privacy and Cookie Policy or the processing of your personal data by us, please feel free to contact us at by writing to Friends of Glass – to the attention of FEVE, Louizalaan 89, letter box 4, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, or to the following email address info@friendsofglass.com.