Privacy Policy

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This privacy policy describes the collection, use, storage and sharing practices of personal data carried out by HELCOM Secretariat for the use of public HELCOM web services, such as the PROTECT BALTIC website (https://protectbaltic.eu).

We comply with EU and national ethical and legal regulations, including the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation 2016/680) framework of the EU. 

PROTECT BALTIC objectives comply with the fundamental ethical principles present in the Nuremberg Code, European Textbook on Ethics in Research, and EC Ethics Appraisal Procedure. 

The key research questions to be studied in the project and associate project activities and methods are reviewed and validated by the dedicated Ethics Board gathering all work package leads from the project. With previously obtained consent the project will collect personal data from those interacting with the project be it though workshops, webinars or the newsletter, all in compliance with the GDPR. 

The recommendations and solutions developed in the project are reviewed on several levels including by the Ethics Board. The impacts to be achieved by the project do not pose ethical questions and are fully in compliance with the Nuremberg Code, European Textbook on Ethics in Research, and EC Ethics Appraisal Procedure. The monitoring of the project progress and its measures to maximize impacts will also entail the ethics review in several stages of the project.

Data including any personal contact information is collected based on the HELCOM Meeting Portal sign-up process for users that are invited as group members or to participate in a meeting. The meeting portal user profile form contains basic contact information for creating a user account in the HELCOM Meeting Portal. The user account is associated with relevant HELCOM group(s), to which the user is appointed by the relevant HELCOM Contracting Party.

The contact information collected through the HELCOM Meeting Portal is needed for the HELCOM Secretariat to carry out communication activities and to share information between HELCOM and its subsidiary bodies. The HELCOM Meeting Portal contains lists of HELCOM group members and a member search, which is visible to all signed in users. The listing contains user name, email, organization and group affiliation(s). The data on website usage is collected for the development of HELCOM’s information activities and for the HELCOM Map and Data service to identify returning users.

HELCOM Secretariat staff have access to the user information stored in the HELCOM Meeting Portal. The information can be accessed only by the HELCOM Secretariat staff for carrying out their duties. The HELCOM Secretariat keeps list of persons attending HELCOM Meetings (name, email and affiliation). The meeting participation list is public information and is made available as an annex of Meeting outcomes, when approved by all Meeting Participants.  The usage statistics of web services is used only by the HELCOM Secretariat staff and will not be used to identify individual visitors.

HELCOM Secretariat uses appropriate technical and administrative security measures to protect any personal information that it stores.  Data might be processed and analyzed for publication in reports, scientific journals and other forms of project outputs, only in anonymized form. None of the data will be transferred to third parties. Retention time of the original research data is the same as the project duration, although the anonymized resultant data may be stored for longer periods of time to be used in future research.  

At any point, you may withdraw your participation by stopping the interview, survey or workshop.  

Privacy rights for HELCOM Meeting Portal users

a)      Access to personal data. Users of the HELCOM Meeting Portal have the right to access their personal data stored in the system. The data can be accessed from the user profile or by sending a separate request by email to the HELCOM Secretariat at portal@helcom.fi.

b)      Requests for correction of incorrect data. If the Meeting Portal user data is incorrect or incomplete, the user is entitled to have the data rectified. This can be done by resubmitting the sign-up form or by sending an email to portal@helcom.fi.

c)      Requests for erasure. Erasure of personal data can be done if the user withdraws consent to the processing personal data as outlined in the HELCOM privacy policy. This can be done by sending erasure request to portal@helcom.fi.

Privacy rights for HELCOM Meeting Portal users

 Users of the website may download or print copies of any and all materials on the website for personal use. None of the information on this website may be copied, distributed or transmitted in any way for commercial use without an explicit written consent from the HELCOM Secretariat. For any materials downloaded from this website, the source and references must be acknowledged. 

The HELCOM Secretariat collects data regarding the use of different HELCOM web services (public website and its subdomains, HELCOM Meeting Portal, HELCOM Map and Data service). This is done by using cookies or similar technologies. The data will not be used to identify individual visitors.

Cookies are used to identify returning user to HELCOM Map and Data service in order to save selection on use conditions. It is possible to modify web browser controls to accept or reject cookies. However, rejection of cookies results in use condition prompt answer not to be saved.