LINKUS PRIVACY POLICY
LINKUS is an online platform that aims to bring together freelancers and clients and form a community for both groups to exchange information, knowledge and expertise. To this end, we need to process personal data. We declare that our activities are in accordance with the current privacy legislation, which is mainly governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG or the English abbreviation GDPR). For this reason, we want to inform you as much as possible, respect and give you control over what happens to your personal data. Below you will find information on what data we collect about you, why we do so, how long we keep it, what your privacy rights are and how you can exercise them. WHO WE ARE- The website LINKUS (“Platform”) is owned by LINKUS bv, a private company under Belgian law, with registered office in Kroonweg 26, 1700 Dilbeek and registered with the KBO under number 0760.472.080 (hereinafter “LINKUS” and “we or us”). By extension, “LINKUS”, “we or we” also refers to companies affiliated with LINKUS, which offer services under the name LINKUS at present and in the future. The list of affiliated companies can be found under legal information.
- We are the controller of the data processed through our Platform.
- This Privacy Policy, including our Cookie Policy applies to all the services we provide, both to visitors and members, and this on the Platform, our social media pages, our app, and all other LINKUS related websites, messages, and services, unless otherwise stated.
- Due to e.g. changing legislation, technological evolutions, changes in our policy, we may amend this Privacy Policy, in whole or in part, of which we will inform you. In any event, the latest version posted on the Platform will apply. If you do not agree with the changes, you may close your account. If you continue to use our Platform after we have posted or sent a notice of our changes to this Privacy Policy, you acknowledge that this means that the collection, use and sharing of your personal information will be governed by the updated Privacy Policy as of its effective date.
- By ‘processing of personal data’ we mean any processing of data that can identify you as a natural person. The concept of ‘processing’ is broad and covers, among other things, the collection, recording, organisation, storage, updating, modification, retrieval, consultation, use, dissemination or making available in any way, compilation, combination, archiving, erasure or eventual destruction of such data.
- When creating an account, you must provide details including your name, your e-mail address and/or mobile number, and a password. Before you can access our paid services, you must provide payment (such as a credit card) and billing information.
- Your profile contains your identification details and, if applicable, your photograph, as well as details of your curriculum vitae. You are not obliged to fill in all fields. The more details you provide, the better LINKUS can work for you. You can choose which data to include in your profile. If you use our services, you are obliged to provide certain information in order for the search engine to function. If you do not wish to share these details you will not be able to use our services.
- We collect your personal data when you place these data on the Platform, for example when creating an account, filling in your profile and curriculum vitae, responding to messages, etc. We do this by means of automated data processing. In doing so, we engage in automated data processing on the Platform.
- Other members may provide information about you, for example by rating you or posting content in which you are mentioned. Other members can send messages via our Platform. We then receive your personal data (including contact details).
- Our Partners or our affiliates or third party service providers may also provide us with your Personal Data, for example when you use their services or when you choose to share data from a third party’s system. We receive data when you visit websites containing our advertisements, cookies or some of our plug-ins or you sign in to services from others your account. We receive information about your visits to and interaction with third-party services when you sign in to the Platform through these third parties.
- Personal data that we obtain from persons other than you is also collected and automatically processed.
- We record your visit and use of our services. For this purpose we use cookies, login data, data about your device and IP addresses. For the use of these, please refer to our cookie policy. You can set your preferences here.
- When using mobile devices, we process data about your mobile network and mobile device, including your location, to enable the use of the Platform via mobile devices.
- For the visitor we refer to our Terms of Use and Cookie Policy.
- Members must create an account and complete their profile in order to use the functions of LINKUS as a member, such as having access to complete information (articles), tools, the messaging function to communicate with other members. For the paid services, members are required to provide additional data in order to enable these services, such as using the search engine, billing, timesheet, notification service and any other functions that may be made available in the future. We also use your data for our administration (including billing) and dispute management.
- Without the data provided by Members, the Platform cannot work and the services cannot be provided. This data is automatically processed in the search engine in order to, inter alia, match profiles to vacancies, to enable communication via the messaging function, to allow you to find other members and to be found yourself, to present you with education and training, newsletters about your field, and other potentially relevant information, to prepare and send invoices.
- We use your personal data to improve our Services, i.e. to make our Services more personalised and tailored to you, to increase the engagement of our Members and to achieve our Platform’s aim of matching freelancers with jobs and creating a community of freelancers.
- We use your information to solve problems with the Platform (e.g. in case of reporting a complaint or a problem in completing a profile, in case of a problem in the messaging function, etc.).
- In addition, we use your personal data for the security of the Platform, our Members, Partners and third parties (e.g. in the case of infringements to our Membership Conditions).
- We use anonymous data to generate insights about our Members and the sectors in which they are active, the remuneration and other contract modalities, the vacancies,… to gain insight in the market of freelancers.
- Through the Platform, we or third parties survey our Members. If you do not wish to participate, you can unsubscribe from these enquiries (surveys) in your account.
- LINKUS displays non-personalised advertisements of our services and those of our Partners.
- You can not unsubscribe from non-personalised ads in your account.
- We process personal data for a variety of purposes, each of which requires us to process only the data necessary to achieve the intended purpose.
- Personal data is processed on the following bases:
- In order for LINKUS to function, the information in your profile must be shared with the Platform, visitors, members and third parties.
- The extent and nature of the information you wish to share is determined by you in your settings. If you do not specify otherwise in your settings, the following applies:
- In addition, the following applies:
- We must not keep personal data longer than is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which we are collecting it.
- The data you enter in your account and profile are in principle kept for 30 days after you have deleted your data or closed your account. It may take up to 48 hours before the deletion of data or the closure of your account becomes visible on the Platform.
- After the retention period has expired, we will proceed to delete your personal data unless and to the extent that we need your personal data to:
- If you have shared content, posted ratings and testimonials, these will remain visible but anonymised.
- The deletion of personal data means that it is erased or permanently anonymised.
- The data in our database is kept on secure and locked (back-up) servers, both internal and external.
- Our employees are trained to correctly handle confidential data under the supervision of our Data Protection Officer (DPO). The way in which we collect and process personal data is recorded in a data processing register.
- Our infrastructure and information systems are equipped with the appropriate technical measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, unauthorised use and loss or theft, such as: password protection, hard disk encryption software, firewalls, antivirus, intrusion and anomaly detection and access controls for our employees. Our hardware and software are constantly kept up-to-date. For this we rely on specialised third parties.
- In the unlikely event of a data leak that adversely affects your personal data, you will be notified personally in the circumstances provided for by law.
- We advise you to also take the necessary security measures yourself to protect your personal data, such as securing your mailbox, firewalls on your devices, password management, etc.
- Although we make an effort to regularly screen our systems for security risks, we cannot guarantee the security of your data.
- You have the right to find out from us at any time whether or not we are processing your personal data and, if we are processing it, to access that data and receive further information about
- You have the right to have incomplete, incorrect, inappropriate or outdated personal data corrected without delay. You are also obliged to do so under the terms of membership.
- You have the right to have your personal data deleted in the following cases, without unreasonable delay:
- You have the right to obtain the restriction of the processing of your personal data if one of the following applies:
- You have the right to request your personal data to be transferred. This is only possible for the personal data you have provided to us yourself, based on consent or following agreement. In all other cases, you will not be able to enjoy this right (e.g. when the processing of your data is based on a legal obligation). You can request us to return the personal data concerned in a structured, common and machine-readable form.
- You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data on the basis of your particular situation if the processing is in our legitimate interest or in the public interest. We will cease processing your personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for processing which override your interests or if the processing of the personal data is related to the establishment, exercise or substantiation of a legal claim (for example, the submission of a request to a court).
- Do you wish not to receive any form of commercial communication (such as newsletters, invitations to seminars or events)? You always have the right to object, without having to provide a reason, to the use of your personal data for these purposes. You can contact us or use the unsubscribe button in our invitations or (electronic) newsletters or unsubscribe via your account.
- To exercise your rights, please contact us via privacy@linkus.eu. Members can determine their privacy settings in their account.
- In order to exercise your right of access, and to prevent any unauthorised disclosure of personal data, we need to verify your identity. In case of doubt or uncertainty, we will first ask you for additional information (preferably a copy of the front of your identity card).
- You can exercise your privacy rights free of charge, unless your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, in particular due to its repetitive nature. In such a case, we have the right and the choice – in accordance with the privacy legislation – (i) to charge you a reasonable fee (taking into account the administrative costs of providing the requested information or communication and the costs involved in taking the requested measures), or (ii) to refuse to comply with your request.
- We will respond to your request as soon as possible, and in any event within one month of receiving your request. Depending on the complexity of the requests and the number of requests, this period may be extended by another two months if necessary. If the deadline is extended, we will inform you of this within one month of receipt of the request.
- If we have lawfully transmitted your data to a third party (other than a processor or sub-processor), we are not liable for unlawful processing or use by that third party. We are also not liable if third parties process or use your data unlawfully and we have taken appropriate technical and organisational measures to prevent such unlawful processing or use.
- For more information on this Privacy Policy or for complaints regarding the processing of your personal data, please contact us via privacy@linkus.eu.
- For complaints in connection with the processing of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Authority, rue du Mail 35, 1000 Brussels / +32 (0)2 274 48 00 / contact@apd-gba.be / www.gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit.be. However, we request that you consult us first.