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The FPB offers several tools for searching the website: search engine, sitemap, JEL classification and keywords. In addition, this section also shows information on the use of cookies, our user charter and the possibility to file a complaint.
The ‘Privacy’ note outlines the policy of the Federal Planning Bureau with regard to the protection of private life with respect to the processing of personal data of the internet users who visit our websites and the citizens whose data is used as input for the studies and activities required for the execution of the tasks of the Federal Planning Bureau.
The Federal Planning Bureau observes the fundamental principles governing the processing of personal data:
The IP address of the equipment used to login to our websites or send us an email is recorded automatically. Other information on the device you use and your web browsing behaviour is also registered (country, language, operator, OEM, access time, requested page, and referring Web site address). These records are part of the normal operation and of the logging of the servers (including web and mail) and of the firewalls, for example to enable our servers to give you the content of the requested pages.
The logging of the servers is used to monitor the smooth operation of the servers (technical diagnostics), to detect abnormal or unlawful activity on our websites or to provide statistics on the visits to our webpages.
The Federal Planning Bureau uses cookies on its websites for technical purposes only, for example to record your language preferences, so that you don’t need to repeat the same actions at each visit to our website.
Three cookies are recorded by the Federal Planning Bureau: a session cookie (PHPSESSID, optional), an opt-in cookie for acceptance (displayCookieConsent) and a language preference cookie (lang).
A banner informs the visitors of the cookies but does not allow them to deactivate them because they are necessary for navigation on the website.
Cookies do not contain any information making it possible to contact you by phone, email or post.
The Federal Planning Bureau does not use cookies, beacons or other tracking technologies for commercial, direct marketing or profiling purposes.
To allow you to interact with other websites for which you have an account (such as LinkedIn and other social media websites), we can provide links or integrate third-party applications enabling you to log on to them, post content to them, or join communities of our websites on them.
We can also provide you with general links to third-party websites or applications.
The use of these links and applications is subject to the privacy policies of the visited websites. It is up to you to become familiar with these policies.
Statistics on visits to the websites of the Federal Planning Bureau (audience analysis) are produced by a third-party web analytics named Matomo.
The Federal Planning Bureau proposes company pages on the social networks LinkedIn, Twitter and Youtube. Personal data such as cookies may be collected by these social networks when the Internet user interacts in some ways (a “share” or a “like” for example). The Federal Planning Bureau doesn’t outsource any personal data processing - such as profiling for example - to these social networks.
When exchanging emails with the Federal Planning Bureau or its staff, third-party email addresses may, according to the configurations, be recorded by the individual email clients program of your contact persons. These email addresses are only used for the exchange of professional emails between the parties involved in the email exchanges.
Purposes: This data processing is aimed at 1) recording and controlling all visitors accessing the premises of the Federal Planning Bureau (access control), and 2) generating anonymous statistical data on the means of transport used by our visitors.
Description of the processing: Before allowing any visitor (including a relative of a Federal Planning Bureau staff member) to access the premises of the Federal Planning Bureau, the receptionist will check if the staff member is expecting a visit. The receptionist records the visitor’s personal data and the entry and exit times in the visitors register.
Data collected: The data processed, including personal data, can include the following items:
Recipients of the data: staff members of the Federal Planning Bureau.
Rights of data subjects: Registered persons have the right to access their personal data, to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data, as well as to request the removal of their personal data.
Lawfulness and transparency of data processing activities: data processing activities are based on the consent of the data subject as regards the (optional) recording of the means of transport;
The data controller uses appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure an adequate security level of the premises. Access control is one of the measures that are necessary to ensure the security, in the broadest sense, of goods, data and staff members of the FPB.
The visitors register book contains the information required by the GDPR.
The Federal Planning Bureau works with Flexmail as a processor for the sending of newsletters and mailings. The personal data available to the Federal Planning Bureau and Flexmail for this activity are the surname, email address, language, occupational category, and preferences for mailing categories.
The registration page of the distribution list available on the website of the Federal Planning Bureau contains one or more mailing categories you may tick, by which you agree to your data being used to send the corresponding mailings by e-mail.
The personal data are only used to send, according to the mailing categories that you selected during the registration process, information concerning: press releases, publications, databases, job offers, events and news relating to our services and activities.
The data of the distribution list are not disclosed to third parties either in the European Union or elsewhere in the world. These data are stored as long as you do not request your withdrawal.
You can withdraw your consent at any time by unsubscribing to one or more mailing categories of the Federal Planning Bureau. You can manage this yourself via the unsubscribe button at the bottom of each e-mail or on simple request by e-mail to contact@plan.be. You can also exercise your other rights through contact@plan.be, in particular to access and correct data, and/or receive a copy in CSV format. You will be informed by email of the outcome of your request.
The Federal Planning Bureau stores partners and suppliers contact details in a purchase order database for administrative purposes.
These data are not disclosed to third parties either in the European Union or elsewhere in the world.
These data are regularly updated by the Federal Planning Bureau.
Video surveillance data are recorded on the premises of the Federal Planning Bureau as follows:
In performing its legal duties, the Federal Planning Bureau is led to process personal data of citizens or samples of citizens for the purpose of scientific and statistical studies.
In most cases, the Federal Planning Bureau itself does not collect citizens’ personal data (primary collection). It collects them through subsequent processing and performs subsequent data processing of a scientific and statistical nature in a manner deemed compatible with the primary purpose of the data collection (cf GDPR Art. 5, b).
Such processing falls within the scope of article 89 of the GDPR “Safeguards and derogations relating to processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes” and within the scope of Title 4 of the Law of 30 July 2018 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data.
The Federal Planning Bureau does not process data falling under Titles 2 (data on criminal offences) and 3 (security) of the Act of 30 July 2018 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data.
The Federal Planning Bureau only provides and publishes aggregate and anonymous global data. The Federal Planning Bureau does not provide to third parties, export outside Belgium or publish the personal data of citizens who can be identified directly or indirectly.
The Federal Planning Bureau is not a source of authentic individual data that can be used by a public service for its own tasks specific to the exercise of public authority.
The processing of personal data by the Federal Planning Bureau does not require direct identification of the data subjects. Data are pseudonymised at source and usually partly aggregated in such a way that the Federal Planning Bureau does not know the direct identifiers of the citizens concerned (such as name, first name, national register number, address, etc.). The identification data are replaced at source by a code - or pseudonym - of which the decoding mechanisms, data or keys are not known by the Federal Planning Bureau (cf art. 201 and 202 of the Act of 30 July 2018 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data). Exception: the direct identification data of self-employed persons can be known when the name and address of the enterprise in the Crossroads
Bank for Enterprises match the direct identifiers of the self-employed person.
The processing of pseudonymised personal data by the Federal Planning Bureau is for statistical and scientific purposes only and must a priori have no discernible effect on the individual concerned.
Based on the above, the Federal Planning Bureau is usually unable to identify the data subject in the databases used in its scientific and statistical studies.
The rights of access, rectification or erasure and the right to object could only be applied if the data subject provides additional information making it possible to identify him/her, in such a case the pseudonym identifying the data subject in the databases.
The Federal Planning Bureau is not in a position to provide the citizen with additional information on this pseudonym.
Moreover, any change or erasure of citizens’ data would have an adverse impact on the scientific or statistical work of the Federal Planning Bureau.
The elaboration and the calibration of statistical models and tools as well as their feeding and functioning do not allow considering any interaction at the level of individual data without seriously impeding the functioning of the tools, and therefore the processing.
The rectification or erasure of some individual data would have an insignificant impact on model results (results are aggregated, global and anonymous), in such a way that the scientific interest of using the substantial technical and financial resources required to this end is not justified.
In the few cases where the Federal Planning Bureau does collect personal data itself, the individuals concerned can still exercise the rights granted to them by the GDPR. Even then, however, if altered or erased, the above-mentioned disadvantages for scientific and statistical work exist.
The Federal Planning Bureau cannot identify the data subjects occurring in most of its databases for its scientific or statistical studies and therefore cannot provide them information individually.
General information on the processing activities for scientific and statistical studies and their purposes is provided on the website of the Federal Planning Bureau (see Index of the record of processing activities below).
Similarly, in the event of a security breach (GDPR, art. 4, paragraph 12) requiring a “personal data breach communication to the data subject” (GDPR, art. 34), a general announcement will be published as soon as possible on the website of the Federal Planning Bureau (see Communication of a personal data breach below) and the Data protection authority will be notified in accordance with the regulatory provisions (GDPR, art. 33).
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The information of the Federal Planning Bureau that is made available on our websites under the headings ‘News’, ‘Themes’, ‘Indicators’, ‘Publications’ and ‘Data’ can be downloaded free of charge, copied and printed for your personal use. It can also be published and disseminated for nonprofit activities, provided that the source is acknowledged. This information may not be traded without the prior written consent of the Federal Planning Bureau. For information or data coming from other sources than the Federal Planning Bureau, you should verify copyright compliance with the source before potential reuse. Images (layout, design and illustration) may under no circumstances be copied or reused.
A general notice will be published on the website of the Federal Planning Bureau for any change in the personal data use policy.
For any question regarding privacy protection by the Federal Planning Bureau, please contact the Data protection officer whose contact details are given above.
NOTE:
The information was updated on 12 December 2022 and we regularly check it to ensure correctness, but we cannot assure it is 100% accurate all the time.
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