Privacy Statement

The Stories Unfold website is an initiative taken by Visit Flanders. Visit Flanders highly values your privacy and always processes your personal data in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the provisions of federal and Flemish regulations on the protection of individuals when processing personal data.  

1. Who are we and who is responsible for the processing activity?

Visit Flanders is an agency of the Flemish government which has its headquarters in Brussels and has the following company registration number: 0225.944.375. We act as a controller for the personal data we process through your use of our website and through the services that we provide. Visit Flanders has contracted service providers to be processors and subcontractors, the details of those service providers can be found in the overview below.  

Why do we process your personal data and how long do we store it?

Visit Flanders will process your personal data for the following purposes: 

2.1 General

You can subscribe to our newsletter on our website and you have the possibility of contacting us. For this purpose, we process your personal data.  

For more information on the data we process through our cookies in our cookie policy.  

Visit Flanders will not use your personal data for other purposes than those described in this privacy notice.  

3. Why do we share your personal data with third parties?

We only share your personal data with another party if you request this yourself, if it is necessary to execute our services or to comply with our legal obligations. For example, we sometimes use third party service providers such as developers and IT service providers to enable our online services. Your personal data may also, if necessary for the provision of services or because of a legal obligation, be transferred to or accessed by government agencies or other third parties. We conclude protocols or agreements with these government institutions or third parties to ensure that your personal data is processed in accordance with the relevant privacy legislation (including the GDPR) and the standards of Visit Flanders. These protocols are available [here].  

At Visit Flanders, we will not transfer your personal data to third parties outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). However, in certain cases personal data may be transferred to third parties located outside the EEA. In these situations, we will ensure that this transfer takes place in accordance with the GDPR (by, among other things, the presence of an adequacy decision in the country concerned or the conclusion of SCCs and additional measures, etc.). 

4. How do we secure your personal data?

Visit Flanders makes every effort to prevent misuse, loss, unauthorized access and other unwanted actions with your personal data. To this end, we implement appropriate technical and organizational measures so that the processing meets the requirements of national and European legislation. In the event of an unexpected incident involving your personal data, Visit Flanders will always inform you in accordance with the legal provisions. 

5. What are your rights & how can you exercise them?

Visit Flanders considers it important that you always retain control over the processing of your personal data. Below you will find more information about the various rights you have regarding the processing of your personal data:  

• Right of inspection: you have the right to inspect all the personal data we process about you. You can also obtain a copy of these data, which we will send to you on paper or digitally; 

• Right to rectification: if the personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to have this information rectified or, given the purposes of the processing, completed; 

• Right to restrict processing: in certain cases, you have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data. This means that the personal data may only be stored by us and processed for limited purposes. If you would like more information about these particular cases, please contact our data protection officer; 

• Right to data transfer: as a data subject, you have the right to receive your personal data from us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to have it transferred to another data controller; 

• Right to object: if you believe that your personal data should no longer be processed because of your specific situation, you can object to such processing in the context of our products and services that we offer in the public interest; 

• Right to erasure: you have the right to request the erasure of your personal data if they are no longer necessary in light of the purposes of this Privacy Statement or if you withdraw your consent to the processing; 

• Right to withdraw your consent: if we process your personal data based on consent we have obtained from you, you may withdraw it at any time.  

Depending on the processing and the legal basis of that processing, certain conditions or restrictions may be attached to the performance of the above rights.  

6. Contact

If you have any further questions, wish to file a complaint, or want to exercise your data protection rights you can contact the data protection officer of Visit Flanders through privacy@toerismevlaanderen.be. You also have to right to file a complaint with the Flemish data protection authority of de Belgian federal data protection authority.  

7. Modifications

This privacy notice that is applicable to the processing of your data is the notice you can consult when visiting the visit Flanders website. Visit Flanders can update this privacy policy when needed.