The protection of the privacy of an individual is a fundamental right. In order to be able to provide you, our customer, with our services and products, it is necessary that we have some personal data. VAB aims to process personal data in a legal, fair and transparent manner. This privacy statement is intended to give you an understanding of the manner in which VAB processes personal data.

Personal data is any form of information about an identified or identifiable natural person. Examples of personal data are the name of a person, a photo, a video recording, a telephone number, a code, a password, a bank account number, the report of a conversation, a link with a company or other persons, an e-mail address, an audio recording, a chat conversation, social media messages, written correspondence, Internet-related browsing information, etc. This data is collected in several ways:

• Data provided to VAB by the customers themselves,

• VAB assigns data to customers for the use of VAB products and/or services,

• VAB collects data from customers through the use of VAB products and/or services,

• VAB receives data from customers through third parties, provided that these third parties have correctly acquired and processed the data in question in accordance with European and Belgian regulations.

The collected data can be combined.

By processing, VAB means the collection, recording, organisation, storage, updating, alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, distribution, provision, compilation, combination, archiving, deletion and destruction of personal data. VAB only processes personal data on the basis of:

• a contractual agreement, or,

• after obtaining permission from the data subject, or,

• a legitimate interest, or,

• a legal obligation.

VAB may decide to process data in-house, or to entirely or partially delegate the processing to an external organisation. In this case, personal data will be forwarded to these third parties for processing under the responsibility of VAB. The transfer only takes place for the same processing purposes as those used by VAB itself. VAB ensures that these parties manage and process the data in a confidential and secure manner, in the same way as VAB. VAB enforces this contractually, monitors it, and is entitled to audit these parties or have them audited.

VAB processes personal data for specific purposes. VAB only processes the data that is required to achieve these processing purposes. VAB will not process any data that does not contribute to a previously defined purpose. The only exceptions to this are legal obligations. The processing purposes are documented in the ‘VAB - Register of processing activities’. This register documents the processing activities that take place under the responsibility of VAB:

• a description of the processing purposes and their legal basis,

• a description of the categories of personal data, the data subjects and the recipients,

• where possible, the intended period within which the different categories of data will be deleted, and,

• where possible, a general description of the technical and organisational security measures.

This register is always available to the supervisory data protection authority.

A data receiver is a third party to which VAB supplies data without delegating any further processing. Third parties are natural or legal persons, government bodies, services or other bodies that are not involved in the processing of the data in question. VAB does not sell or pass personal data on to third parties, unless the person in question gives permission for this. VAB only transmits personal data without permission of the data subject where VAB is required to do so by law. Any transmission of personal data is documented in the ‘VAB - Register of processing activities’.

VAB retains personal data no longer than is strictly necessary for the achievement of the purpose. Some data must be retained for a period imposed by law (e.g. accounting documents). The retention periods are documented in the ‘VAB - Register of processing activities’.

By law, every person whose data is processed by VAB (i.e., the data subject or data subject) has several rights:

• Right of rectification: VAB must correct any personal data that is incorrect or incomplete and inform any third parties if VAB has provided them with corrected data. In addition, VAB must inform the data subject as to which third parties the corrected data was provided, and verify that the correction was implemented.

• Right of access: The data subject has the right to know whether his/her personal data is being processed or not; upon request, VAB must provide a copy of the processed personal data free of charge. With regard to the data from VAB that is being held by third parties, the necessary actions must also be taken to provide this data to the data subject through VAB.

• Right of rectification: VAB must correct any personal data that is incorrect or incomplete and inform any third parties if VAB has provided them with corrected data. In addition, VAB must inform the data subject as to which third parties the corrected data was provided, and verify that the correction was implemented.

• Right of erasure: The data subject can ask to exercise his/her right to be forgotten by VAB and to be removed from the files of VAB (including any files held by third parties who process this data for VAB), taking legal or contractual exceptions into account.

• Right of restriction of the processing: When the data subject formulates an objection, or wishes to exercise the right of removal or correction, the right of restriction can also be requested.

• Right of transferability of data: The data subject has the right to have the personal data that he/she has provided transferred to another processor.

• Right of objection: The data subject can oppose the use of data for processing on the basis of justified grounds for direct marketing purposes, and the processing for scientific or historical research. All data subjects have the right to not be subjected to fully automated decision-making (e.g. profiling).

These rights can be exercised in 2 ways:

 • through an e-mail addressed to privacy@vab.be, or,

 • through a written request addressed to VAB, Risk Management - Data Protection, Pastoor Coplaan 100, B-2070 Zwijndrecht

In order to exercise one or more rights, either in writing or via e-mail, and to prevent any unauthorised disclosure of personal data, the requester must provide proof of identity, such as, preferably, the front of the identity card. VAB will respond to the request within a period of up to 7 days following receipt of the written request or e-mail. The regulations for the protection of privacy can be found in the General Data Protection Regulation. This legislation defines the obligations of VAB with regard to the processing of personal data. More information about these regulations can be obtained from the website of the Commission for the Protection of Privacy: www.privacycommission.be. Customers who are unhappy because VAB does not meet their privacy expectations always have the right to file a complaint with the data protection authority through an e-mail to commission@privacycommission.be.

VAB sometimes makes reference to third parties (websites, social media, event organisers, etc.) whose terms and conditions do not fall within the scope of this privacy statement. In these cases, the customer should personally take the initiative to request information from these third parties about their policy regarding the protection of personal data.

In the website(s), newsletters and other online services of VAB, we make use of cookies, scripts, logs, iframes, plugins, captchas, trackers, pixels and fingerprinting, which we group together below under the term ‘cookies’.

In this cookie policy, we aim to inform you about the types of cookies we use, the purposes for which they are used, what happens to the data we collect, and how you can manage its use. In this way, we can align our services to your privacy preferences. The cookie policy applies to this website and to the VAB online services. We also clearly indicate when we share cookies with third parties, and under what conditions. Please note: a different privacy and cookie policy will apply if you click through to an external website via a link.

VAB is responsible for this cookie policy. The 'Contact us’ section shows you how you can easily contact us.

As cookies contain personal data, you can also exercise the rights that apply under the privacy legislation. You will find information on this in the 'Exercising your rights’ section.

Cookies are small data or text files that are installed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website or use an online service. They enable your web browser or device to be recognised, and keep track of your surfing behaviour. In this way we remember, for example, how the website can be properly displayed on your device, what you filled in on a form, which pages you visited, whether you read our newsletter, and what your social medial profiles are. We use cookies to protect our forms against cyber attacks, and also to collect all kinds of statistics about the use and the users of our website(s) and online services. Some cookies originate from us, while others come from third parties.

The following technologies also fall under this cookie policy:

Scripts: a series of commands that perform a task on our website, for example, saving and processing data from a form on our server. Your web browser can block certain scripts. This may cause our website to stop working, however, or may result in it not being displayed properly in your web browser.

Logs: files that keep track of user information, such as your IP address, browser type, Internet provider, the website that referred you to our website, the date, time and the number of mouse clicks. These enable us to manage the website, to store your surfing behaviour, to determine trends, and to make our website more useful, for example, by learning what users think of our website, and which pages are used the most.

Iframes: a field that we use to display external content on our website, such as YouTube or Vimeo videos, for example.

Plugins: small pieces of software that extend the functionalities of the website and that originate from third parties.

Captchas: response tests that check whether there is a human user on your side of the line, in order to prevent computer programs from misusing the forms on our website to send spam, for example.

Trackers: technology that captures your online behaviour between websites, such as which websites you visit, which actions you take, and what information you have entered on these websites, such as, for example, your bank card use, your search terms or the content of your social media profiles, which can then be used to derive personality traits. Examples of trackers are certain cookies, pixels and fingerprinting.

Pixels: small, invisible images that allow us to collect certain information about the use of the website, such as, for example, the number of users that visit a specific page.

Fingerprinting: a technique that combines specific data about your device in order to recognise you as a unique user. The digital fingerprint is used to prevent fraud and misuse of the website, but also to be able to draw up a profile of you.​

VAB uses four types of cookies for both functional and analytical purposes:

A. Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies provide basic functions, such as navigation between pages, access to secured parts of the website(s), saving forms, and verifying that the user is a person and not a computer. The website cannot be used without these cookies. You therefore cannot refuse them.

B. Functional / preference cookies

These cookies determine how the website(s) is/are displayed and how it works for you by remembering, for example, your registration data, your personal preferences, your subscription to the newsletter, or your participation in a survey. In this way, you don’t have to make the same choices every time you visit the website. They also allow you to watch or operate external videos in an iframe. These cookies are activated the moment you use these functionalities or explicitly request a particular service. You therefore cannot refuse them.

C. Analytical / performance cookies

Analytical cookies collect general information about how visitors use the website or online service, such as the number of unique visitors, and which pages are visited the most. These cookies help us to map out and improve the use of the website. We use Adobe Analytics for this on our website. We make your data as unrecognisable as possible, and do not share your data with Adobe.

D. Personalisation cookies / advertising cookies, social media cookies and cookies from other media companies

Advertising cookies track your surfing behaviour between different websites in order to compile a user profile and to show you targeted advertising in line with your interests. Social media cookies and cookies from other media companies are used to enable the integration of our website or online service with social network sites, such as Facebook or X, or media companies, such as YouTube or X. These social network sites use your data to send you personalised advertising. If you refuse these cookies, you will see less personalised content.

Do you have any questions, comments or complaints? Please let us know. You can do this by sending an e-mail to privacy@vab.be. Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) can also be reached via this e-mail.

As cookies contain personal data, you can also exercise the rights that apply under the privacy legislation in this context. You have the right to information and access, the right to rectification, the right to object, the right to be forgotten and the right to submit a complaint. You can exercise these rights by sending an e-mail to privacy@vab.be.

You will find more information about the processing of your personal data and about exercising these rights in our Privacy Statement.

A number of cookies are necessary to allow the website to work, or to be able to provide an online service. These cookies cannot be refused. We will ask for your permission for all other cookies, because these are not strictly necessary and can identify you as a person. You can give, modify or withdraw your permission for the installation of these cookies at any time via the cookie settings. You can use your web browser settings to determine how your web browser handles cookies. You can also always delete already installed cookies from your computer or mobile device. 

This cookie policy may change if circumstances require this, for example, in the case of changes to our services or to the applicable legislation. The date at the bottom of the cookie banner indicates when it was last changed. If we add new cookies to our website(s) or online services, we will again ask for your permission via the cookie banner.