Privacy Statement

This privacy statement applies to the Europeana website https://www.europeana.eu, to https://pro.europeana.eu and to the content displayed on these URLs. Please note that only the English version of these terms should be considered legally valid. We take no legal responsibility for any differences or discrepancies created in the translations of these terms.

Processing operation
Processing of personal data on https://www.europeana.eu/ and https://pro.europeana.eu, including IP addresses, by visitors of the publicly available websites.

Data Controller
European Commission, Directorate‑General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT), Directorate G, Unit G2

Data Processor
Europeana Foundation, Prins Willem-Alexanderhof 5, 2595 BE The Hague, The Netherlands, info@europeana.eu

Record reference
DPR-EC-09706.2

1. Introduction

The European Commission (hereafter ‘the Commission’) and the Europeana Foundation are committed to protecting your personal data and to respecting your privacy. The Commission collects and further processes personal data pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data (repealing Regulation (EC) n° 45/2001).

This privacy statement explains the reason for the processing of your personal data, the way we collect, handle and ensure protection of all personal data provided, how that information is used and what rights you have in relation to your personal data. It also specifies the contact details of the responsible Data Controller with whom you may exercise your rights, the Data Protection Officer and the European Data Protection Supervisor.

The information in relation to the processing operation “Data processing on https://www.europeana.eu/ and https://pro.europeana.eu” undertaken by the Europeana Foundation, on behalf of the European Commission, is presented below.

2. Why and how do we process your personal data?

Purpose of the processing operation: The Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology offer a number of external websites. The technical setup collects and uses your personal information to be able to provide the websites which are physically located outside the Commission controlled hosting infrastructure.

The Europeana Foundation, on behalf of the European Commission, makes it possible for you to authenticate on Europeana.eu. We will use the data provided upon registration to make it possible for you to create and share galleries, like items and vote for features you would like to see on Europeana.eu.

Feedback forms might be used as a contact channel for you to report bugs/technical issues, send spontaneous comments on the content, or submit ideas for blog posts. You can also opt-in to be contacted by the web administrator for a follow-up to your message.

Small data files called cookies are placed on your device. These data files are in the vast majority set by the visited website, also known as “First-party cookies”, and their purpose is to enable the site to store your preferences, to make the website operational and to gather pseudonymized analytics data for a certain period of time. Depending on the nature of the cookie, consent may be needed to place them on your device. You can always accept or refuse the cookies and you can find the cookie policy on this website.

Your personal data will not be used for automated decision-making including profiling.

The datasets uploaded on this website might contain personal data. The Europeana Foundation, on behalf of the European Commission, signs Data Exchange Agreements with all data providers to ensure that the publication of these datasets does not infringe on third-parties’ personality, privacy, publicity or other rights, including data protection.

We process your personal data on several grounds:

  • Article 5(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725: this processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Union institution or body.

Indeed, informing the broad public is a task resulting from the European Commission's own prerogatives at institutional level, as provided for in Article 58(2) (d) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2018/1046 of 18 July 2018 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (OJ L 193, 30.7.2018, p. 1). We ensure that adequate and specific safeguards are implemented for the processing of personal data, in line with the applicable data protection legislation.

  • Article 5(1)(d) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725: for the processing activities consisting in feedback forms, cookies, subscriptions, registrations and authentication measures, your consent is necessary. In compliance with Article 3(15) and Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, the consent must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. We have obtained your consent directly from you. You may have expressed it by an email, submitted via e-registration form, or in any other written form.

4. Which personal data do we collect and further process?

In order to carry out this processing operation, the Europeana Foundation, on behalf of the Commission, collects the following categories of personal data:

  • Any personal data included in datasets uploaded by data providers in compliance with the Data Exchange Agreement.
  • Internet Protocol address (IP address) or the device ID of the device used to access the website. Without this processing you will not be able to establish a technical connection between your devices and the server infrastructure and therefore will not be able to access our websites.

In order for you to authenticate on https://www.europeana.eu/, the Europeana Foundation, on behalf of the Commission, collects the following categories of personal data:

  • E-mail address and password;
  • Username.

In order for you to use our feedback form, the Europeana Foundation, on behalf of the Commission, collects the following categories of personal data:

  • E-mail address;
  • Comment.

5. How long do we keep your personal data?

The Europeana Foundation, on behalf of the Commission, only keeps your personal data for the time necessary to fulfil the purpose of collection or further processing, namely for the duration of the browsing session. In addition, IP addresses might be saved for one year in the log files of the services for security reasons. As to the analytics tool, the IP address and the device ID (e.g. IMEI number and WIFI MAC address) are deleted immediately at disconnection.

Personal data collected through Matomo is retained for 13 months. As to the feedback form, data is kept for 2 years from the moment the form is submitted.

Personal data included in datasets uploaded by data providers is retained for as long as the datasets are published.

6. How do we protect and safeguard your personal data?

All personal data in electronic format (e-mails, documents, databases, uploaded batches of data, etc.) are stored on the servers of the Europeana Foundation All processing operations are carried out pursuant to the Commission Decision (EU, Euratom) 2017/46 of 10 January 2017 on the security of communication and information systems in the European Commission.

The Europeana Foundation is bound by a specific contractual clause for any processing operations of your data on behalf of the Commission, and by the confidentiality obligations deriving from the transposition of the General Data Protection Regulation in the EU Member States (‘GDPR’ Regulation (EU) 2016/679).

In order to protect your personal data, the Commission has put in place a number of technical and organisational measures. Technical measures include appropriate actions to address online security, risk of data loss, alteration of data or unauthorised access, taking into consideration the risk presented by the processing and the nature of the personal data being processed. Organisational measures include restricting access to the personal data solely to authorised persons with a legitimate need to know for the purposes of this processing operation.

7. Who has access to your personal data and to whom is it disclosed?

Access to your personal data is provided to the Europeana Foundation staff responsible for carrying out this processing operation and to authorised staff according to the “need to know” principle. Such staff abide by statutory, and when required, additional confidentiality agreements.

The information we collect will not be given to any third party, except to the extent and for the purpose we may be required to do so by law.

The website contains embedded videos hosted on third party platforms (e.g. Vimeo or YouTube). When you visit a page that contains an embedded video hosted on these platforms or watch such a video, your web browser transmits some of your personal data to these platforms. The categories of data transmitted are described in the privacy policies of these platforms but note that it also depends on the settings of your web browser. We draw your attention to the fact that these platforms might process your personal data in third countries. For more information, please consult the privacy policy of the platform in question.

Personal data included in datasets uploaded by data providers is visible by any visitor of the website.

8. What are your rights and how can you exercise them?

You have specific rights as a ‘data subject’ under Chapter III (Articles 14-25) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, in particular the right to access, rectify or erase your personal data and the right to restrict the processing of your personal data. Where applicable, you also have the right to object to the processing or the right to data portability.

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data, which is lawfully carried out pursuant to Article 5(1)(a).

You have consented to provide your personal data for the present processing operation. You can withdraw your consent at any time by notifying the Europeana Foundation, on behalf of the European Commission. The withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of the processing carried out before you withdraw your consent.

You can exercise your rights by contacting the Data Controller, or in case of conflict the Data Protection Officer. If necessary, you can also address the European Data Protection Supervisor. Their contact information is given under Heading 9 below.

Where you wish to exercise your rights in the context of one or several specific processing operations, please provide their description (i.e. their Record reference(s) as specified under Heading 10 below) in your request.

9. Contact information

  • The Data Controller

If you would like to exercise your rights under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, if you have comments, questions or concerns, or if you would like to submit a complaint regarding the collection and use of your personal data, please feel free to contact the Data Controller Unit G2, Directorate G, Directorate‑General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT) of the European Commission at: CNECT-G2@ec.europa.eu

  • The Data Protection Officer (DPO) of the Commission

You may contact the Data Protection Officer (DATA-PROTECTION-OFFICER@ec.europa.eu) with regard to issues related to the processing of your personal data under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

  • The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)

You have the right to have recourse (i.e. you can lodge a complaint) to the European Data Protection Supervisor (edps@edps.europa.eu) if you consider that your rights under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 have been infringed as a result of the processing of your personal data by the Data Controller.

10. Where to find more detailed information?

The Commission Data Protection Officer (DPO) publishes the register of all processing operations on personal data by the Commission, which have been documented and notified to him. You may access the register via the following link: http://ec.europa.eu/dpo-register.

This specific processing operation has been included in the DPO’s public register with the following Record reference: DPR-EC-09706.2.

11. Changes to our privacy policy

Europeana keeps its privacy policies under regular review and places any updates on this web page. This specific privacy policy was last updated on 6 June 2023.