Policy last reviewed and updated on 25 May 2018

The European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) values the confidentiality and protection of your personal data. Therefore, we comply with applicable data privacy legislation with regard to processing personal data. Since we receive and process your personal data, EADTU is controller of your personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). “‘Controller’ means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.”

This privacy policy serves as our commitment to you to protect the security and privacy of your personal data. This policy is applicable to our business, member and project administration, our newsletters, events and our websites. Our websites include the general EADTU website, all EADTU project and services’ websites and the Online, Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference website. This policy covers the following areas of privacy concerns:

1. What we collect and how we use it
2. How we store your data
3. How long we keep information
4. Cookies
5. Your privacy rights and contact

What we collect and how we use it

The information we collect is for us to inform you about EADTU (members/stakeholders), news and latest developments in online, open and flexible higher education. Moreover, the data is necessary to answer within the accountability to the European Commission. We strive to collect as little personal data as we need to further our mission. We have no necessity to collect and process personal data beyond what is required for the functioning of our association.

We collect data from the following parties:

• Employees: the personal data collected of our employees is necessary for business management purposes and general business administration. This form of data processing is based on contracts.

• Association members: In order to inform our members about the activities of EADTU we keep a member administration. This form of data processing is based on legitimate company interests.

• Newsletter subscribers: the email addresses and names processed for the people who subscribed to the newsletters of EADTU (OpenupEd newsletter, EADTU newsletter and/or Conference announcements) are solely used to send the newsletters to and will not be used for any other purposes. You are able to unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time. This form of data processing is based on legitimate company interests.

• EADTU project partners: As coordinator of various European funded projects, EADTU processes data of its partners. Some of this information has to be answered to within the accountability of the European Commission. This form of data processing is based on contracts.

• EADTU stakeholders: EADTU processes names and email addresses of various stakeholders interested in the field of open, online and flexible higher education. These data will solely be used to inform stakeholders about actions, news, surveys, projects and publications in which we believe the stakeholders will have an interest in. This form of data processing is based on legitimate company interests.

• Participants EADTU events on-site: EADTU organises several events, like the Online, Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference and the EADTU-EU Summit, next to more regional and project related events. The information collected may differ per event, depending on what is needed for accountability and event organisation. This form of data processing is based on legitimate company interests.

• Participants EADTU closed meetings: In case the meeting is recorded, the participants are asked for their permission before the meeting starts. Recorded closed meetings are never publicly made available, but a private YouTube link is shared with all participants of the meeting and used as evidence for the European Commission if applicable. This form of data processing is based on consent.

• Participants EADTU open webinars: For various EADTU open webinars, participants are asked to register. During registration participants can opt-in for notifications of future webinars. All other names and email addresses in the registration form will be deleted after sending the webinar recordings to all registered participants in case the webinar is recorded. Before the start of the webinar, participants are asked for their permission to be recorded. Only with consent of the participants, webinar recordings are made publicly available via YouTube to serve public interest. This form of data processing is based on consent.

• Social media: EADTU is active via social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn). There is the possibility that we process personal data of third parties via these channels.

In principle EADTU will not send processed personal data to other parties, with exception of one of the following cases:

• Necessary for the execution of an agreement: It may be necessary to send personal data to other organisations or institutions in context of the execution of an agreement with the person who has the personal data. This could include sending signature lists of events to the European Commission for accountability.

• Based on permission: In some situations we send personal data to third parties on basis of permission from the person concerned. This consent is only valid if the person concerned has given his consent and after having been clearly informed in advance for which permission is granted.

• Necessary for external processing: EADTU cannot carry out its activities and services without cooperation of third parties, such as ICT suppliers. In some cases these external parties will also have to process personal data for EADTU. This processing will only take place on the basis of processing agreements in which the mutual rights and obligations with regard to the careful processing of personal data are recorded.

How we store your data

EADTU takes security very seriously. All office staff is made aware of the security procedures they must follow when handling personal information. EADTU ensures appropriate security of the personal data that it holds, in line with the applicable legal requirements and guidelines.

How long we keep information

EADTU complies with the applicable statutory retention periods when storing personal data. Personal data may not be stored longer than for the purpose for which it is processed. This will vary from case to case. As soon as there is no more ground to keep the personal data, it will be removed or made anonymous.

Cookies

If you visit one of our websites and use it informatively, we are only interested in data that says something about the success of the site. For example, visitor numbers, duration of visits, peak hours and most visited pages are information that we use to optimize the site, improve our service and to answer within the accountability to the European Commission. We only track non-traceable visitor data by means of a 'cookie'. Your visit will therefore remain anonymous. In addition to these so-called analytical cookies, EADTU also uses functional and tracking cookies:

• Functional cookies, these are necessary for the technical operation of the website.
• Tracking cookies, these ensure that we can provide you with relevant information.
• Analytical cookies, these cookies help us to improve usability and the website in general. EADTU has a processor agreement with Google for Google Analytics cookies. Personal data is encrypted and processed anonymously and ‘sharing data’ with Google has been switched off. The Google Analytics cookies are not used in combination with other services of Google, such as DoubleClick and AdWords.

If you are concerned about your privacy and the use of cookie technology you may set your web browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. You may also set your browser to refuse the cookies our site attempts to send you. In this case, you may still use most of the features of the Website.

We use standard cookies to track activity around the site. This cookie is deleted at the end of each session/visit. We may also use cookies to track any click through from emails sent by EADTU to one of our websites.

Your privacy rights and contact

You are entitled to inspect your personal data and the right to request correction or deletion of your personal data.

If you want to know which personal data EADTU processes, you can make a written request for access. EADTU handles your request within 4 weeks.

Does your information appear to be incorrect, incomplete or irrelevant? Then you can make an additional request to have your details changed or supplemented. You can send your written request to:

Parkweg 27
6212 XN Maastricht
The Netherlands
Tel.: +31 43 311 87 12
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This privacy statement has been drawn up in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. EADTU reserves the right to periodically update this privacy statement. It is therefore recommended that you review this privacy statement regularly so that you are kept informed of these changes. The latest version can always be consulted via this link.