1. Types of personal data

The types of personal data we may collect and process include personal information that can be used to identify you, such as:

• Your name (First and last name)
• IP address
• Email address
• Billing address, Shipping address
• Telephone number (landline/mobile phone)
• Product preferences, demographic information and any other information you choose to provide
• Information concerning your use of our websites and/or mobile applications (hereinafter referred to as the “app”) (including, but not limited to, IP address, browser type and the web pages you visited when you obtained access to the website)
• In some limited cases, information regarding race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, membership information, and information regarding gender may also be collected
• Health information we collect when you participate in a research project, which might entail information about your location and ‘Personal Sensitive Data’ (for example dietary and medical requirements, blood, tissues, biometrics, foot/fingerprints, movement tracking and tracing of individuals).
• The log-in details of your mobile device as well as geographical location data (where appropriate)
• Communication preference
• Incoming and outgoing correspondence data

Verhaert Innovation Academy also automatically collects anonymous information regarding your use of our websites and services. As such, Verhaert Innovation Academy will, for example, automatically log which sections of the website, platform or app you visit, which web browser you use, which website you visited when you obtained access to the website, and what your IP address is. We cannot identify you through these data, but it allows Verhaert Innovation Academy to draw up statistics regarding the use of the website, the platform and/or the app, and to send more targeted communication.

2. Methods of personal data collection

The personal data are collected and can be processed in the context of:

• Creating a (demo) account
• Collaboration with Verhaert Innovation Academy
• Visiting the website
• Your use of our services via the platform and/or the app, whether or not using a mobile device
• Subscribing to the newsletter (via the website or not)
• The verification of your identity (e.g. when you solicit the Verhaert Innovation Academy customer service or reset your password)
• Incoming and outgoing correspondence with Verhaert Innovation Academy
• Communicating ideas to Verhaert Innovation Academy with regards to improving the services, the platform and/or the app
• Requesting a quote or implementing an agreement with Verhaert Innovation Academy
• Providing support
• Sending targeted marketing and advertisements, updates and promotional offers based on your communication preferences
• Issuing invoices and collecting payment
• Optimizing the quality, management and content of our websites, platforms and apps
• Statistical purposes
• The exchange of business cards
• Verhaert Innovation Academy may conduct surveys and other market research. Survey participants may be asked for personal information (name, contact information, etc.) in addition to opinions or feedback. The type of information provided via surveys may vary.
• Your interest in working for Verhaert Innovation Academy
• Verhaert Innovation Academy occasionally requires registration in exchange for our thought leadership: white papers, articles, studies, reports, survey analyses, booklets, etc. Your personal information may be requested in registration forms and the type of information collected from you will vary. Verhaert Academy for Corporate Entrepreneurship reserves the right to distribute certain thought leadership materials only to those who supply the requested information
• Event registration for which the type of information collected will vary. Verhaert Innovation Academy may share registrant information with third parties in association with the event. Examples of “third parties” include hotels, sponsors or co-sponsors, promoters, event organizers (including via third-party websites), speakers, panelists, etc.
• If you have been given access rights to Verhaert Innovation Academy Client Portal by your Verhaert Innovation Academy contact
• Facilitate and improve your online experience
• Provide the services you request, process transactions and send you related information, including confirmations and receipts
• Respond to your comments, questions and requests and provide training and customer service
• Communicate with you about products, services, offers, promotions, rewards and events and provide news and information we think will be of interest to you (for information about how to opt out of this direct marketing, please see the Your Choices section below)
• Manage your online account(s) and send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support and administrative messages
• Personalize your online experience and provide advertisements, content or features that match your profile and interests
• Monitor and analyze trends, usage and activities
• Process and deliver contest and promotion entries and rewards
• Link or combine with information we get from others to help understand your needs and provide you with better services
• Contact you regarding your use of the website and, in our discretion, changes to our policies
• Provide you with notices related to the website and the services
• We store user input data sent through the contact forms on our websites, along with metainformation about the submissions, including the time stamp, the origin IP address, and the user agent (browser)
• Job applications: We only collect the personal data that are necessary for the job application. These data will be stored in a secured database, which is only accessible to authorized persons who need these data to process the application. For example: based on your data, we can match your profile to job openings within our organization.

Personal information will be registered in our customer relationship management (CRM) system.

If you have opted out of receiving future Verhaert Innovation Academy publications, your contact details will remain in our opt-out list to prevent that you receive any further publications from Verhaert Innovation Academy.

The personal data collected by Verhaert Innovation Academy are therefore expressly and voluntarily provided by you.

3. Information we collect automatically

We and our service providers automatically collect certain information about you when you access or use the website and store it in log files. This information may include demographic information, IP address, browser type, operating system characteristics, information about your use of the Website, and data regarding network connected hardware (e.g., computer or mobile device). Examples of this are unique device identifiers, type, model, version, MAC address, device or session ID, error related data status, capability, confirmation, functionality, performance data, and connection type. This information may also include clickstream data, which is information about the page-by-page paths you take as you browse through the website.

The methods that we and our service providers may use to automatically collect such information include:

• Log information: We collect information about your use of our website, such as the type of browser you use, access times, pages viewed, your IP address and the referring link through which you accessed the website. We may link this information to other information we collect about you. We do this to improve services we offer you, to improve marketing, analytics, or site functionality.
• Information collected by tracking technologies: We and our service providers may use cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you interact with the website or emails, including information about your browsing and purchasing behavior. We may combine this information with other information we collect about you and use it for various purposes. This includes improving the website and your online experience, understanding which areas and features of the website are popular, counting visits, understanding campaign effectiveness, tailoring our communications with you, determining whether an email has been opened and links within the email have been clicked, and for other internal business purposes.
• Cookies: Cookies are data files that are placed on a computer when it is used to visit a website. These cookies may be used for many purposes, including, without limitation, tracking user preferences or web pages visited while using the website. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually set your browser to remove or reject cookies, but note that doing so does not necessarily affect third-party flash cookies used in connection with our website. For more information about disabling flash cookies, visit the Flash Player settings on Adobe’s website. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of the website. In addition, please be aware that if you choose to block cookies, some advertising preferences that are dependent on cookies may not be able to be respected. For more information on our cookie usage, please read our Cookie policy.
• Web beacons: We may include small graphic images called web beacons, also known as “internet tags,” “clear gifs” or “tracking pixels,” in our web pages and email messages. We may use web beacons or similar technologies for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count the number of visitors to the website, to monitor how users navigate the website, and to count how many emails that we sent were actually opened or how many particular articles or links were actually viewed.
• Other tracking technology: Verhaert Innovation Academy and our service providers may use other tracking technologies to analyze website trends, track our users’ movements around the website, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.
• Google Ads: Verhaert Innovation Academy may use remarketing technologies to track you across multiple websites and devices. This allows us to deliver relevant information and ads through other websites to users who previously have visited our website. For this purpose, Google may use cookies.
• We choose to activate Google signals, Google Analytics will associate the visitation information it collects from our sites and/or apps with Google information from accounts of signed-in users who have consented to this association for the purpose of ads personalization. This Google information may include end user location, search history, YouTube history, and data from sites that partner with Google-and is used to provide aggregated and anonymized insights into the users’ cross device behaviors.

4. Information we collect from our partners and other sources

We may also obtain information about you from other sources and combine that with information we collect about you. For example, we may obtain your contact information if you attend a conference or webinar that we sponsor and the organizer provides us with a list of attendees. We may also obtain your contact information from third parties that market mailing lists. If we receive personal information from a third-party source and/or if we combine the information we receive from these third-party sources with your personal information, we will treat that information as personal information. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information provided by third parties or how such third parties collect, use and share such information.

5. Sharing of information

We may disclose your personal information to our agents, vendors, consultants and other service providers to carry out work on our behalf. These entities acting on our behalf are prohibited from using your personal information for any purpose other than to provide this assistance.

We must disclose your personal information in response to lawful requests by public authorities, or to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

In addition, we may share information about you as follows:

• To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in response to subpoenas or other legal processes or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, or investigate fraud;
• If we believe your actions are inconsistent with our user agreements for the services or policies;
• To protect the rights, property, life, health, security and safety of us or any third party;
• To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we may also use IP addresses, mobile device identifiers or any other information we collect to identify users, and may do so in cooperation with copyright owners, internet service providers, wireless service providers or law enforcement agencies in our discretion. Such disclosures may be carried out without notice to you;
• With our affiliates for internal business purposes;
• In connection with, or during negotiations of, any proposed or actual merger, purchase, sale (including a liquidation, realization, foreclosure or repossession), lease, or any other type of acquisition of all or any portion of Verhaert Innovation Academy assets, financing, disposal, conveyance or transfer of all or a portion of our business to another company. In this event you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our website of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.

In our sole discretion, we may also share aggregated or de-identified information, which cannot reasonably be used to identify you.

6. Social media platforms

You may wish to participate in the various blogs, forums, wikis and other social media platforms hosted by Verhaert Innovation Academy (“social media platforms”) which we make available to you. The main aim of these social media platforms is to facilitate and allow you to share content. However, Verhaert Innovation Academy cannot be held responsible if you share personal information on social media platforms that is subsequently used, misused or otherwise appropriated by another user.

Verhaert Innovation Academy may also provide links to other social media platforms maintained on separate servers by individuals or organizations over which Verhaert Innovation Academy has no control. Verhaert Innovation Academy makes no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or any other aspect of the information located on such servers.

A link to a third party’s website should not be construed as an endorsement by either Verhaert Innovation Academy, that third party or its products and services. Verhaert Innovation Academy makes no representations or warranties regarding how user data is stored or used on third-party servers. We recommend reviewing the privacy policy of each third-party site linked from our websites to determine their use of your personal information.

7. Children’s privacy

Verhaert Innovation Academy websites are not intended for use by children. We understand the importance of protecting children’s information, especially in an online environment, and we do not knowingly collect or maintain information about children.

8. General data protection regulation

Verhaert Innovation Academy is aware of the passage of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We are evaluating any additional requirements or restrictions imposed by the GDPR to ensure that we handle customer data in compliance with applicable law. Please check back periodically as we will update this section with additional information.

9. Security

Verhaert Innovation Academy takes reasonable, physical, technological and organizational precautions in order to avoid unauthorized access to your personal information, and loss, abuse or alteration of your personal data.

Notwithstanding, Verhaert Innovation Academy ’s security policy, the checks it carries out and the actions it proposes in this context, cannot guarantee an infallible level of security. Since no method of transmission or forwarding over the internet, or any method of electronic storage is 100% secure, Verhaert Innovation Academy  is, in this context, not in a position to guarantee absolute security.

We cannot reveal in detail how we protect your information. However, we are audited on a regular base, both from an external as an internal point of view. We take immediate action if the audit reveals that certain aspects of our policies, processes or procedures are not up to our standards. Apart from your information, we must protect our own information and intellectual property as well.

Finally, the security of your (demo) account will also partly depend on the confidentiality of your password in obtaining access to the platform and/or the app. If you have communicated your password to a third party – for example because this third party has indicated that it wishes to offer additional services – this third party will have access to your (demo) account and your personal data via your password. In such cases, you are liable for the transactions which occur as a result of the use made of your (demo) account. Verhaert Innovation Academy therefore strongly advises you, if you observe that someone has accessed your (demo) account, to immediately change your password and contact us.

10. Legal grounds

According to the privacy legislation, we’re required to tell you on which legal grounds we are processing your personal information. This means that we are only allowed to process your personal information if there is a legal basis for doing so.

• Consent – We have received your permission to use your personal information. (Examples: subscription to a newsletter, participation in a research project, your business card, …)
• Performance of a contract – We process your personal information to fulfill our contractual obligations (for example: we process personal information about our contractors to be able to pay their fees)
• Legitimate interest – We use legitimate interest as a legal base for the effective and normal operation of our business, providing such interest does not outweigh our rights. (For example: we process your personal information to secure our websites during your visits to them).

11. Storage of personal data

Unless a longer storage period is required or justified by the law or through compliance with another legal obligation, Verhaert Innovation Academy will only store your personal data for the period necessary to achieve and fulfill the purpose in question.

12. Changes to this privacy policy

Verhaert Innovation Academy may change this privacy policy as needed. As such, it is strongly recommended to regularly consult this policy, to make sure that you are aware of any changes.

13. Your choices

Your privacy rights

If you wish to invoke your privacy rights, as defined below, please contact dpo@mastersininnovation.com:

• Right to access personal data which Verhaert Innovation Academy possibly has concerning you;
• Right to rectification, completion or update of your personal data;
• Right to delete your personal data (‘right to be forgotten’);
• Right to limit the processing of your personal data;
• Right to transfer your personal data;
• Right to oppose/object to the processing of your personal data;

In principle, you can exercise these rights free of charge via the above-mentioned email address. In addition, you can always  update, modify and/or verify your personal data via your personal account which you were required to submit when creating your (demo) account.

If you no longer wish to receive newsletters or information about our services, you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” button underneath each Verhaert Innovation Academy email.

Complaints

If you have any complaints about the way Verhaert Innovation Academy collects, uses and/or processes your personal data, you can lodge a complaint with the privacy commission.

14. Contact Verhaert Innovation Academy

If you have questions about this privacy policy, or the manner in which Verhaert Innovation Academy  collects, uses or processes your personal data, please contact us:

• Via e-mail: dpo@mastersininnovation.com
• Via post: Verhaert Masters in Innovation, Hogenakkerhoekstraat 21, 9150 Kruibeke (Belgium)