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Privacy Policy

Updated on 16 December 2022

The EU SME Centre, (“the Centre”, “We”), is a project funded by the European Commission under the Single Market Programme. The Centre is committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors and service users. In compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), this privacy policy provides information on how we collect, use and protect your personal information.

This Data Protection Policy (hereinafter referred to as the “Policy”) applies where we are acting as a data controller which include 1) our website, 2) organisation of trainings, workshops, webinars, B2B matchmakings, meetings, conferences etc., organised by the EU SME Centre under the framework of the Project.

Please note the EU SME Centre Phase IV is implemented by six consortium partners – the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, Italy China Council Foundation, Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação, Trade Promotion Europe, and the EU-China Business Association.

Topics:

  • What data do we collect?
  • How do we collect your data?
  • Third Party Disclosure
  • How will we use your data?
  • How do we store your data?
  • Marketing
  • What are your data protection rights?
  • What are cookies?
  • How do we use cookies?
  • What types of cookies do we use?
  • How to manage your cookies
  • Privacy policies of other websites
  • Changes to our privacy policy
  • How to contact us
  • How to contact the appropriate authorities

 

What data do we collect?

The Centre collects the following data:

  • Personal identification information (Name, email address)
  • Information about your company (company name and country of origin, company size, approximate annual turnover, industry sector, web address, business’s status in the Chinese market, and business interests.)
  • Data regarding your use of our website and services (“usage data”). The usage data may include your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency, and pattern of your service use.

 

How do we collect your data?

You directly provide the Centre with most of the data we collect. We collect data and process data when you:

  • Create an account on our website
  • Use or view our website via your browser’s cookies.
  • Sign up for our mailing list / Opt-in to our newsletter. Data related to our marketing emails including your open and click behaviours is collected and stored in MailChimp.
  • Utilise any of our products or services, e.g. when downloading publications or when using them.
  • Make a business enquiry or seek our consulting service through the ‘Ask-the-Expert’ service or the Self Diagnosis Tool.
  • Registration and/or participation to an event (co-) organised by the EU SME Centre.
  • Voluntarily complete a satisfaction/feedback survey or provide feedback on any of our communication channels (e.g. social media) or via email.

After your account on the website is created and activated, you can still modify it in “My Account”.

Though users can visit our website anonymously (i.e. without creating an account), usage data may still be collected and stored in Google Analytics.

The delivery of certain personal data is (sometimes) a condition in order to benefit from certain services (for example in order to use the Ask-the-expert function, subscribe to newsletters, participate in certain activities, events, conferences etc.).

In some cases when collecting your personal and company information, it will be stated which data are mandatory and which data are optional to provide. The collection of your personal and company information by the Centre is thus provided voluntarily by you.

Third-party disclosure

Data collected from third party event registration platforms are used for internal analytic purposes to which the EU SME Centre identifies the targeted audience.

All events are co-funded by the European Union’s Single Market Programme. Hence, by registering to an event organised by the EU SME Centre, you give your consent to having your personal data, as indicated in the registration form collected, processed and stored according to the applicable legislation and Privacy Policy. You also authorise the organiser to transfer the data to the European Union in case of co-funded activities.

Third-party links

Our website contains third-party links in sections including but not limited to: Events, Partners, Publications, Success Stories and Press Releases.

These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We, therefore, have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites. You can send your feedback to us at info@eusmecentre.org.cn.

Third-party platforms 

We use third-party platforms to carry out some of our services for you and you can find their privacy policies separately on their website:

MailChimp – which sends out our marketing emails

https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/

YouTube – which displays some of our free webinar videos

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7671399?hl=en

LinkedIn – which shares our news with users on LinkedIn via Company Page and LinkedIn Group

https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

Facebook – which shares our news with users on Facebook via our Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/legal/FB_Work_Privacy

Twitter – which shares our news with users on Twitter via our Twitter Account

https://twitter.com/en/privacy

WeChat Official Account – which shares our news with users on WeChat

https://weixin.qq.com/cgi-bin/readtemplate?lang=en&t=weixin_agreement&s=privacy&cc=CN

How will we use your data?

Any and all information collected by us is kept strictly confidential. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy policy and in compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
We may use the information we collect from you in the following ways:

  • To personalise your experience and to allow us to deliver the type of content and product offerings in which you are most interested.
  • To answer your enquiries promptly and provide consulting services that meet your business requests.
  • To collect your feedback to our services and find ways to improve them.
  • To conduct research and internal reporting on EU SMEs’ status in the Chinese market for the European Commission.
  • To send our newsletters, updates on our content, services and activities, and other content from a third-party.

 

How do we store your data?

The EU SME Centre will retain all personal data collected in its own database as well as in the cloud.

The Centre will keep your personal and company information for a maximum of 5 years after the closure of the EU SME Centre IV – 30 June 2025. Once this time period has expired, we will erase permanently your data from both our database and the cloud.

 

Marketing

The Centre would like to send you information about products and services of ours that we think may be of interest to you. By signing up to our newsletter, you voluntarily opt-in to receive marketing related content from the EU SME Centre.

The EU SME Centre uses the software MailChimp to send out marketing emails. You can read more about their privacy policy here: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/

If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes or giving your data to other involved parties of the project, you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the button “Unsubscribe” included in the lower part of any e-mail of the EU SME Centre.

 

What are your data protection rights?

The Centre would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

The right to access – You have the right to request the Centre for copies of your personal data.

The right to rectification – You have the right to request that the Centre correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request the Centre to complete information you believe is incomplete.

The right to erasure – You have the right to request that the Centre erases your personal data, by providing proper motives.

The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that the Centre restricts the processing of your personal data, by providing proper motives.

The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the Centre’s processing of your personal data, by providing proper motives.

The right to data portability – You have the right to request that the Centre transfer the data that we have collected to another organisation, or directly to you, by providing proper motives.

Your request will be automatically accepted unless we make objection within one month from your submission.

 

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at:

e-mail: info@eusmecentre.org.cn

phone: +86 (10) 8523 6098

 

What are cookies?

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard Internet log information and visitor behavior information. When you visit our websites, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies or similar technology.

For further information, visit https://allaboutcookies.org

 

How do we use cookies?

The Centre uses cookies in a range of ways to improve your experience on our website, including:

  • Keeping you signed-in to the website
  • Understanding how you use our website, e.g. webpage visits, use of web browser, which channel led you to our website, time spent on the website, geographical location, etc.

We cannot identify you based on these data, but they allow the Centre to compile statistics about the use of the website.

 

What types of cookies do we use?

There are a number of different types of cookies, however, our website uses:

  • Functionality – EU SME Centre uses these cookies so that we recognise you on our website and remember your previously selected preferences. These could include what language you prefer and location you are in. A mix of first-party and third-party cookies are used.
  • Advertising – EU SME Centre uses these cookies to collect information about your visit to our website, the content you viewed, the links you followed and information about your browser, device, and your IP address. EU SME Centre sometimes shares some limited aspects of this data with third parties for advertising purposes. We may also share online data collected through cookies with our advertising partners. This means that when you visit another website, you may be shown advertising based on your browsing patterns on our website.

 

How to manage cookies

You can set your browser not to accept cookies, and the above website tells you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases, some of our website features may not function as a result.

 

Privacy policies of other websites

The EU SME Centre website contains links to other websites. Our privacy policy applies only to our website, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy. See under “How do we collect your data”.


Changes to our privacy policy

The Centre keeps its privacy policy under regular review and places any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 16 December 2022


How to contact us

If you have any questions about the Centre’s privacy policy, the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us.

e-mail: info@eusmecentre.org.cn

phone: +86 (10) 8523 6098

How to contact the appropriate authority

Should you wish to report a complaint or if you feel that the Centre has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.