Welcome to DPO Circle

DPO Circle is a community of Data Protection Officers and professionals involved in implementing GDPR, Privacy and Data Protection compliance. The Mobile app is outstanding, Test it.

A knowledge sharing platform is made available to members to assist them in communicating and sharing resources and tools.

Members organize round-table discussions, conferences, seminars and other educational events on specific topics of interest.

Members are invited to share relevant information, documents and news that can benefit their fellow members.

The association is open to any alumni or participant in a Privacy, Data Protection or GDRP education delivered by any party, training organisation or university. Members are invited to promote their knowledge and to engage in continued education.

DPO Circle members promote research and are interested to establish contacts with research centers, universities and solution providers with the aim of bringing value to privacy implementation.

Sharing knowledge is our primary objective.

The association is open to any alumni or participant in a Privacy, Data Protection or GDRP education delivered by any party, training organisation or university. Members are invited to promote their knowledge and to engage in continued education.

DPO Circle members promote research and are interested to establish contacts with research centers, universities and solution providers with the aim of bringing value to privacy implementation.

We thank all those who accompany this community since April 2017. You are welcome to invite your relations, colleagues and other experts in our professional domains of data protection. 

By accessing and using this website you agree to the following Code of Conduct. If you do not agree to the Code of Conduct, Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy, you must immediately terminate use of this site.

The DPO circle cares about providing information and discussions that are relevant and respectful of the rights of others. When you submit comments, posts or images on the DPO circle website, you will ensure to never:

Spread false and/or defamatory information.

Include content that is discriminatory, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy or right to publicity, or otherwise violative of any law.

Post content that includes private and/or personal information, such as home phone numbers and email addresses.

Infringe on copyrights, trademarks or trade secrets.

Post in manner that would constitute spamming (e.g., posting with such frequency or repetitiveness that others may be discouraged from posting, posts that are irrelevant to the topic and/or to the DPO circle mission, and "follow me" posts) or trolling (defined as comments that appear intended to send the discussion in a fruitless direction).

The DPO circle does not have the obligation to monitor User-Generated Content, but reserves the right to do so. Content that is posted in violation of this policy may be blocked or removed in the DPO circle association sole discretion. Violations of this Code of Conduct may cause your access to this site or ability to post content to be suspended or terminated.

By submitting content on this website, you grant to the DPO circle association a perpetual, non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use, download, duplicate, display, distribute, modify and create derivative works of that content without your further approval or permission and without compensation by the DPO circle 

As a courtesy, please do not send commercial messages directly to participants on the DPO online tool unless specifically invited to do so by such individual. Complaints about unsolicited commercial messages are taken seriously.

Disclaimer:

The DPO circle  is not responsible for the opinions or claims of other users posted to this website and we do not typically confirm the accuracy of postings. User-generated content, such as comments or posts, represent the views of those providing the content, and do not necessarily represent the views or policy of the DPO circle. References or links (provided by the DPO circle or by a user) to products or services do not constitute endorsements by the DPO circle a.

This Code of Conduct may be amended or modified at any time.

DPO Circle is an activity that is currently carried out by Ataya & Partners, Avenue Louise 500, 1050 Brussels (BE0719.976.659)

DPO Circle respects your privacy. In this privacy policy we explain what personal data we may collect, how we use it and how long we retain this information, with whom we share it and to whom we transfer your personal data when you visit our site or use our services. It contains also information on cookies and tracking technologies. This policy does not include websites or services of our partners.

This policy is designed to help you obtain information about our privacy practices. We also describe the choices you can make about our use of the information when you use our sites and services. The policy also explains the measures we take to protect the security of your personal data. For transparency reasons we explain some of the terms that we use. You will find the definitions at the end of this policy.

It contains the following chapters:

Why to collect personal data?

When you visit our sites, we only collect information with the cookies and tracking technologies disclosed below.

When you register to become a member of our community, we will collect your name, job title, and email address. This is necessary to provide you with the services we offer.

You may choose to provide us with additional personal data that you like to share with the other members of the DPO Circle community. This information is fully maintainable by yourself and is not shared with partners and sponsors of DPO Circle.

One of the services we offer is a chat functionality between members. The content of the chats is retained for the working of this service and only used for reference by the participants of the chat, but are not used within other processing activities.

Members can post articles, messages, likes and comments on the platform. This information is visible for all members of the group in which you make the post and personal connected members. DPO Circle does not process this information for other purposes then creating insights for its members.

We also keep record whether or not members participate in events, webinars and surveys. We use this information to evaluate the participation of members to the community. This information will also be anonymously processed to analyse trends in the GDPR community

The answers to surveys will only be used anonymously to create insights that benefit the community.

How do we use personal data and how long do we retain this personal data?

The personal data we obtain from you when you register to our services, will be used to:

Offer you our services; and

Communicate with you about services and programs of DPO Circle and its business partners

We retain this personal data as long as we have a working relationship.

The personal data we collect through cookies and tracking technology when your visit our website is only used to operate, evaluate and improve our business and services for the purpose of:

developing new products and services

communications management

analysing our services, website

facilitating the functionality of our website

We only retain the personal data we obtain through cookies and tracking technology for 180 days. Unless you visit us again within that time, the cookies are automatically disabled and retained data is deleted after the specified period has expired.

What are your rights and what privacy choices are available to you?

We like to inform you about your rights regarding the personal data we maintain about you. You have the right of access and rectification. You are able to exercise these rights by logging in to your account or you can contact us via your local DPO Circle representative.

You have also the right of restriction of processing, erasure and data portability. If you wish to exercise one of these rights, please contact your local DPO Circle representative.

A brief explanation of your rights can be found in the paragraph ‘definitions within this privacy policy’.

As described in the previous paragraph you have the choice whether or not to provide us with extra personal data (e.g. personal data that you like to share with the rest of the member of our community, but are not necessary to deliver our services).

For the collection and the use of personal data, which we gather about you by automated means (cookies, tracking technology), while visiting our website, you offer you the possibility to opt out.

At any time you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

Do we share your personal data?

Your privacy is important to us. We do not share your personal data with partners, sponsors or any other third parties, unless you have given your explicit consent, e.g. through the feedback form which you completed during one of our events.

Links to other services and platforms

For your convenience and information our website provides links to other websites. These websites and platforms operate independently from DPO Circle and have their own privacy policies, which we strongly suggest that you read before communicating any personal data. These websites and platforms are not controlled by DPO Circle.

International transfers?

Your personal data may be transferred to servers of our partner Mighty Software, Inc, located in the United States. We like to inform you that the level of protection may not be the same as the laws in the E.A.A. Mighty Software Inc. will take the necessary steps to become certified for the Privacy Shield in order to be compliant for GDPR before the 25^th of May 2018 in the field of international data transfers.

How do we use cookies and tracking technologies?

Cookies are text files that are placed in your computer’s browser to store your preferences. We use two kinds of cookies :

Session cookies: necessary for the working of the website and providing the services of our organisation – the personal data collected are erased when the user closes the browser.– we do not require your consent for this kind of cookies. (bv. New Relics)

Permanent cookies and trackers: The permanent cookies we use are Google Analytics, Facebook pixels. For the permanent cookies you have the option to manage your preferences. We will only use these cookies to the extent that you agreed to them.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics uses cookies, text files stored on your computer, to help the website analyse how users use the site. The personal data (e.g. IP-address) gathered will be transmitted to Google after being shortened and modified on the European servers to prevent any direct references to particular persons. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluation your use of the website, compiling reports on our website activity for our use and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to us. Your IP address will not be associated with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser.

Facebook Pixels

With your permission, our website utilizes Facebook Pixels. This tool allows us to follow the actions of users after they are redirected to a provider’s website by clicking on a Facebook advertisement. That way we are able to record the efficacy of the Facebook advertisement for statistical and market research purposes. The collected data remain anonymous. We cannot see the personal data of any individual user.

However, the data we collect are saved and processed by Facebook and Facebook is able to connect the data with your Facebook account. They can use the data for their own advertising purposes. Please click here for more information regarding Facebook's Privacy Policy.

How do we protect your personal data?

The personal data you provide to us is protected by using encryption technology (Secure Socket Layer). This will be indicated by the symbol of a locked padlock or unbroken key. This makes the transmitted information incomprehensible to third parties.

Periodical newsletters

On a periodical basis we provide our members with newsletters with information for the DPO CIRCLE members, invitations for seminars, lunches, information sessions. There is an opt out functionality within each type of information mailing that can be activated by the recipient. When activated this type of mailing will not be send to the recipient anymore.

How can you contact us?

If you have any question regarding personal data we collect from you and how we use that data, you can contact us by clicking here.

Updates of the privacy policy

This privacy policy may and will be updated when required. If you are a member of our community, we will not make any changes affecting you without first sending you a revised policy describing the changes. Similar changes will also be described on our website.

Definitions within this policy

Personal data : means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

The right to access: you have the right to obtain from DPO Circle confirmation as to whether or not your personal data are being processed.

The right of information: you have the right to following information: purpose of processing, categories of data that are processed, the recipients of the data, the retaining time, the safeguards in case of international transfers, the existence of automated decision-making.

The right of rectification: in case of inaccurate personal data you have the right to rectify these data.

The right of restriction of processing: in certain cases (e.g. contestation of the accuracy of the personal data) your personal data will no longer be processed until the restriction is lifted

The right of erasure: in certain cases (e.g. the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which they were collected) you will have the right to obtain erasure of personal data. to

The right of data portability: were the processing of personal data is carried out by automated means, you have the right to receive the personal data which you have provide, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

The right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: in case you have a question on or an issue with our privacy policy you can contact us through this email address: [email protected]. or you have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority.

DPO Circle is an activity that is currently carried out by Ataya & Partners, Avenue Louise 500, 1050 Brussels (BE0719.976.659)