Privacy statement

Brussels Family handles your data with care

Your privacy is extremely important to Brussels Family. We are therefore very committed to the protection of your personal data. The protection of personal data and by extension the protection of personal privacy are regulated in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and the Council of 27 April 2016, also referred to as the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR.

This page informs you which personal data we collect from you as a natural person, to what purpose and on which lawful basis we process these data and to whom we forward your data. We want to process your personal data in a correct, legal and transparent way. This document explains exactly how we work.

This privacy statement is tailored to our current online and offline services. Any amendments to the website or to our services may lead to changes to this privacy statement. Brussels Family adjusts the privacy statement regularly to ensure it is always up to date. The most recent version can always be found on this page. It is therefore advisable to consult this privacy statement on a regular basis.

This privacy statement applies to the Brussels Family services. Brussels Family is not responsible for the privacy policies of other sites and sources that refer to us or that we have links to.

To find out more about privacy legislation in Belgium and Europe in general, you can also visit www.privacycommission.be, which is the website of the Belgian Data Protection Authority, formerly the Privacy Commission.

Brussels Family, nice to meet you.

Your family can count on Brussels Family. We provide you with financial and legal support, both qualitatively and professionally. You are at the heart of our way of working. However much your expectations evolve and however often your questions change, we will find the answer you need to move on. This allows your family the space to grow and continue to develop.

This is the website of Brussels Family VZW, formerly Brussels Family Kinderbijslagfonds VZW, with company number 0408.167.882.

You can find our contact details at the bottom of this page.

Brussels Family wants to offer children – and the families in which they grow up – more chances to blossom successfully and happily in tomorrow’s world.

We process your data

We collect and process your data for our online and offline services. In doing so, we meet the processing requirements for the purposes described in this privacy statement.

Your personal data

Personal data are data about you as a natural person that can directly or indirectly identify you.

Brussels Family respects the privacy of all users of its website and services and ensures that the personal data of natural persons are treated confidentially.

Brussels Family collects and processes personal data of website visitors, members, potential future clients and other persons involved, such as beneficiaries or company contacts.

Our services

When you register for one of our services, we ask you to provide personal data. This information is used to provide the services. These data are included in automated processing, and allow us to perform our tasks and ensure a good service.

Brussels Family’s legal assignment is to examine the right to child benefit. We are also responsible for the calculation and payment of child benefit, childbirth benefit and adoption premium and we must not pursue any other purpose. This is laid down by law in the General Child Benefit Act.

All data are saved on Brussels Family’s secure servers with a third party Brussels Family has signed a processor agreement with. This agreement naturally includes strict standards on information security. Of course, we also comply with the strict standards of the Crossroads Banks, the Minimum Security Standards.

Your visit to our website

When you leave contact details on our website, they will be used for the requested services or simulations, and saved.

When you visit our website, we also know your IP address and the technical data of your smartphone or computer.

Our website uses cookies. These include our own cookies and third-party cookies. More information on the cookies we use and how they can be disabled or deleted is available in the section on cookies.

Our website may contain hyperlinks to third-party websites or third-party information. We have no control over other third-party websites or information. The providers of other websites or information have their own privacy policies that may conflict with the Brussels Family privacy policy. We are not responsible for the content, use or privacy policy of those websites.

Our website allows you to share information via social media such as Facebook. Social media channels have their own conditions and privacy policies, which are beyond Brussels Family’s control and responsibility. Brussels Family does not accept any liability whatsoever for the (personal) data that you publish and share via those channels.

Our email communication

When you send us emails or other messages, we may store these messages. We may also ask you for personal data that may be relevant for the situation in question, allowing us to process your requests and respond to your enquiries.

Both you and we must be aware that exchanges by email can be intercepted by outsiders. That is why we must strive to limit the information together. You can also choose not to receive any administrative communication from us via this channel. You can indicate your preferences under ‘My child benefit’ in your account.

Our marketing

With the exception of social personal data, your data will be used to promote Brussels Family’s services. You can oppose this or withdraw your consent. We sincerely believe that it may be useful for you as a (future) parent or student if we keep you informed of what is happening in the world of child benefit. You decide whether you want to use this service or not. This privacy statement’s section about your rights will tell you how to do this.

We will not just pass on your details to any third parties

Under our legal assignment, we are obliged to pass on certain data to official bodies, such as (indicative list):

• the child benefit register
• via certificates to other child benefit funds when transferring funds

If you are self-employed and pregnant, Brussels Family will exchange data with Brussels Family Sociaal Verzekeringsfonds VZW (company number 0410.682.657) based on a legitimate interest. Both organisations have the right to offer benefits based on their legal assignment:

• Brussels Family Social Insurance Fund offers service vouchers in the context of maternity assistance
• Brussels Family offers childbirth benefit

We will make things easier for you so that you do not have to retrieve the data yourself and provide it again. Under the once-only principle, we want to avoid asking you to fill in or provide information that you already provided in the past or that another Brussels Family – Brussels Family entity already has.

It is important for you to know that you can easily raise an objection if you do not agree with this method. This privacy statement’s section about your rights will tell you how to do this.

Your data will not be shared with any third parties without your specific consent or at your request. Our employees are obliged to respect the confidentiality of your data.

Our website uses third-party cookies, which means that some data can be passed on to those third parties. More information on the cookies we use and how they can be disabled or deleted is available in the section on cookies.

Your data can reach us from different sources

• You as a source of data

When you use our website or services, you provide us with data. This is data you actively submit to us when you fill out a contact form, ask for a simulation, initiate a request, send us an email, chat with us, interact with us through social media, fill in a survey or contact us by phone. To use some Brussels Family services, such as JobTeller, you need to create an account. These services have their own privacy statement to ensure that you are also well aware of how we deal with the data in those cases.

You may also share information with us in a less visible or active way.  This is the case when you use this website. Brussels Family uses cookies and other similar technologies. More information on the cookies we use and how they can be disabled or deleted is available in the section on cookies.

We collect information about the online services you use and how you do this. This specifically concerns data such as your IP address, browser, mouse clicks, pages viewed, links and so on. This allows us to customise our online services based on the needs and interests, and to better understand how our services are used.

If you log into online services from your social network site account or you use the social networking features of our website, you will provide us with some basic information on your social network site profile and some information on your behaviour on the social network site – such as likes – via your social network site. Which data is shared depends on your personal settings on the social networking site. If you do not want this information to be shared, we recommend that you check and update your settings on the relevant social network as required.

• The government as a source of data

As part of our legal assignment, the government provides us with information that we need to do our work. These data can be consulted by the authorised Brussels Family employees in official sources such as crossroads banks. They can also enter our system automatically in digital flows. The acquisition, processing and use of these data are strictly regulated.

• Third parties as a source of data

Brussels Family may also receive data from a reliable third party. Reliable sources collect data in a lawful way and may also lawfully share these data with us. In concrete terms, this means that the data were collected with your knowledge for that purpose and that you were informed that the data would be passed on. If necessary, we will mention from which party we received this information during our first contact.

We protect your data

Confidentiality

Not everyone at Brussels Family will have access to your data. Only authorised persons have access to personal data in the context of their work assignment. Our employees are obliged to respect the confidentiality of your data. This confidentiality obligation is an important part of our employment agreements and our agreements with external parties.

Processors

We rely on processors in order to offer some of our services. They are companies that carry out certain tasks on Brussels Family’s behalf that directly or indirectly involve personal data. Processors assist us with IT infrastructure and security, marketing and communication, companies for (digital) archiving and dispatch companies.

We carefully select our processors and impose strict rules on them in a processor agreement, which includes requirements such as:

• Their processing must always be based on the assignment we give them.
• They will only have the information they need to execute this assignment.
• They commit themselves to us to process these data securely and confidentially.

Storage period

We will only use your data if there is clear purpose limitation. If Brussels Family no longer has a purpose for processing the data, the data will be deleted. Brussels Family will keep your personal data and use them to the extent required in order to comply with our legal obligations.

The storage period for your personal data is based on the statutory storage period associated with the specific processing purpose. However, the storage period may be longer for exercising your and our rights.

As far as the accounts you create within our online services are concerned, we keep your registration data for as long as your account is active or for as long as is necessary to provide our services to you. You can simply ask us to delete our data for marketing purposes. An even easier way is to simply unsubscribe.

You can ask to delete your data in certain cases. This statement will tell you more about your rights and how you can assert them later.

Measures

Brussels Family believes it is important that your data are handled securely. That is why we use a variety of security technologies and organisational measures to properly protect your data against unauthorised use and access, loss and disclosure. We also regularly have audits conducted with regard to these security measures.

Brussels Family must also follow the rules imposed by the various crossroads banks, such as the Social Security Crossroads Bank Minimum Standards.

Unfortunately, the exchange of information on the internet is never 100% secure. We do all we can to safeguard the security of your data, but we cannot absolutely guarantee this ourselves.

Brussels Family ensures secure access to our online services for our customers and registered users. To gain access, the user must prove their identity using an identification procedure only they can apply. The user undertakes to use the service in a responsible manner and take all the necessary steps to avoid third parties accessing the identification data, which are strictly personal. The responsibility for complying with this identification procedure and for any harmful consequences of misusing the identification procedure lies exclusively with the user. Access codes are for personal use only and must not be shared with others.

European Economic Area – EEA

Brussels Family has no branches outside of Belgium and has contractually agreed with its processors that transferring personal data outside the EEA is not permitted, unless there are sufficient protection guarantees. This is necessary because the law in countries outside the EEA does not always offer the same data protection as in EEA member states. If these countries do not offer a sufficiently high level of protection according to the European Commission, a processor agreement based on a model approved by the European Commission must be signed to ensure sufficient protection is in place.

Our website uses third-party cookies, which means that some data can be passed on to those third parties. More information on the cookies we use and how they can be disabled or deleted is available in the section on cookies.

You and your rights

The GDPR provides you with many rights if you are a natural person whose data is processed by us.

You can view which data we process

You have the right to know which personal data we process with regard to you. You can request an overview with the type of data we have at our disposal. If you want to view the specific personal data that Brussels Family processes with regard to you, you can view the data from your account to access to our online services. Do not hesitate to contact us for any other data or if you do not have access.

When you exercise your right of access, we will give you an overview of your data that is as complete as possible. This overview will not include some personal data from conventional backup files, log files or archive files, as these are not personal data currently being processed and are therefore not immediately available. In accordance with the GDPR guidelines, these data will also be deleted from these files or disabled under the sectoral guidelines.

You can correct your data or have your data corrected

If certain data Brussels Family has for you are no (longer) correct, they should be corrected. If you have a Brussels Family account, you can edit or complete certain personal data yourself. In any other case, you can contact us and request us to correct or complete these data.

You can delete your data or have your data deleted

In some cases, you can ask to delete certain personal data or to have them deleted. Of course, this is not possible for the data required to execute our legal assignment. If you have a Brussels Family account, you can delete certain personal data yourself. In any other case, you can contact us and request us to delete these data.

You can object to certain uses of your data

If Brussels Family processes any personal data on you for which consent is the basis for processing, you can withdraw that consent whenever you want. If you have a Brussels Family account, you can change or withdraw your consent yourself. In any other case, you can contact us and request us to do this for you.

The basis for processing certain data is a legitimate interest. This means that we carefully weigh the data subject’s interests and we decide that processing the data is in the interest of the data subject. Brussels Family tries to make this assessment as objectively as possible.

For example:

• If you are a Brussels Family member, we will use your data for direct marketing purposes with regard to Brussels Family’s activities or services. At the bottom of each newsletter, you have the option to unsubscribe: it is a way to object. Obviously we will always comply with objections against processing based on a legitimate interest.
• If you are self-employed and pregnant, Brussels Family will exchange data with Brussels Family Sociaal Verzekeringsfonds VZW (company number 0410.682.657) regarding your entitlement to service vouchers in the context of maternity and childbirth benefits.

If you do not agree with the result of our consideration, you can object and we will not process your data any longer in this way.

You can request that we transfer your data to a third party

In some cases, you are entitled to ask us to electronically transfer personal data you yourself provided to us either to you or to a third party directly. However, the privacy legislation provides a number of restrictions to this right, so it does not apply to all data. If you wish to exercise this right, we will check whether it applies to your case.

You can exercise your rights

You may invoke certain rights depending on the purpose and basis for processing. Not all rights apply in all cases and to all data. If you want to exercise your rights, no problem. You are entitled to.

To ensure communication is as smooth as possible, we ask you to make your question as specific as possible, so that we can deal with it correctly and specifically. Clearly mention the right you wish to exercise in the context of which processing operation. We also inform you that we have to be able to verify your identity in a reasonable way to allow you to exercise your rights. This is to prevent someone else from exercising your rights. We may therefore request a copy of your identity card, possibly with a crossed out social security number. Address your specific request to info@brusselsfamily.be . We will contact you within 30 days of your request to exercise your rights.

If you have a complaint in connection with a previous request about the exercise of your rights, please contact info@brusselsfamily.be .

If you would like to receive more information or if you do not agree with Brussels Family’s position, make sure to visit the site of the Belgian Data Protection Authority www.privacycommission.be. You can also file a complaint there if you wish.

Contact us

If you have any general questions about our operation, please contact

Brussels Family
Brouwersvliet 4
2000 Antwerp

+32 2 227 19 60
info@brusselsfamily.be

If you have any specific questions on your privacy and rights, please contact info@brusselsfamily.be .

Cookies

(May 2018 version)

About cookies

Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website.

Cookies and related technologies are used to ensure the fast and correct operation of websites and applications. Cookies can also be used to improve our interaction with you. By getting to know you better, we can offer you more relevant content and take into account your personal taste and preferences when you use our services.

In concrete terms, a cookie may contain information that allows your browser to know your preferences – such as your preferred language – during your visit of the online service or for subsequent visits. Analysis cookies collect information on how visitors interact with the website anonymously. This allows us to make our website more user-friendly and to optimise the range of our services.

We use cookies

We use ‘direct’ cookies, which are cookies of Brussels Family, and ‘indirect’ cookies, which are third-party cookies.

You can block cookies

You can reject or manage the installation of cookies in your browser settings. A step-by-step plan that tells you how you can do this in the most common browsers is available on https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-control-web-cookies-and-boost-online-privacy/.

You can also delete the cookies already installed on your computer or mobile device at any time.

Bear in mind that when you disable cookies, some graphic elements or functionalities of our website may not be displayed correctly or in an attractive way, and that you will not be able to use some applications