The European Free Trade Association (hereinafter “EFTA”, “we”, “us”, “our”) processes your personal data to organise, manage and follow up hybrid events at EFTA (hereinafter the ‘event’). The controller is EFTA.
Why do we process your personal data and under what legal basis?
We process your personal data for the following purposes:
- to alert you of registration for the event
- to manage your participation in the event, following your registration and include you on the list of participants which will be distributed at the event
- to share contents from the event including photos and videos taken by us in the conference area, this includes photos and videos taken in designated areas including the main conference hall and shared online through relevant video conferencing/live streaming tool and shared via our official communications channels (EFTA Website and EFTA’s social media accounts such as on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter)
- to perform any event follow-up actions, such as distribution of reports
The lawfulness of the processing of personal data for the organisation, management and follow up of the event derives from the processing being necessary for the performance of this task carried out in the public interest or the exercise of official authority vested in EFTA.
You will only receive alerts regarding the registration (as mentioned in a)) based on your consent.
Your personal data will only be processed for aggregated statistics on the basis of your consent.
What personal data do we process?
We process the following categories of personal data collected via the registration form:
- first and last name
- e-mail address
- your organisational affiliation
- your occupation
When you visit our website, we process your IP address, source Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port associated to each HTTP request and date and time of the visit. We collect, based on your consent, data regarding your browsing experience on our website for aggregated statistics.
We process the following personal data during the hybrid event:
- video recording and web streaming of speakers participating in the event, as well as of participants attending the conference in person and participating in Q&A sessions
- if you attend the conference in person, photographs and audio recording depicting you
- personal data contained in the relevant conference tool's Q&A section, including image and audio of participants when so provided by the conference tool
Participants will be notified in advance if photos, videos, or audio recordings are made during the hybrid event. Photographs of participants during the event will be taken in designated areas set out by EFTA. During live streaming events a designated area which will be excluded from sight of video recording equipment will generally be provided for participants observing the event, such area can however not be provided for participants intending to partake directly in the event through Q&A.
For hybrid events, we primarily use Microsoft Teams Live Event as our video streaming tool. Personal data such as video or audio, are processed during the process. Participation in the Q&A function will allow us to process your personal data contained in the Q&A texts.
Who has access to personal data?
The EFTA team organising the event will have access to personal data submitted via the registration form. Also, a limited number of EFTA staff will have access on the basis of the need-to-know principle to aggregated statistics regarding the registration website.
Images, videos or other audio-visual material acquired during the event may be published online through official communication channels of EFTA (EFTA’s Website, and EFTA’s social media accounts such as on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter).
How have we collected your personal data?
Your personal data are collected directly from you when you visit the event website and, if applicable, when you submit a registration form.
The email address of the individuals and organisations invited to register are collected from publicly available online sources.
The images, videos, or other audio-visual materials are taken and collected by the Information and Communication Unit during the hybrid event.
How long do we keep your data?
We do not keep your personal information for longer than necessary for the purposes for which we collected it. However, we may keep your information for a longer period for statistical purposes with the appropriate safeguards in place (data aggregation).
Your personal data submitted via the registration form will be kept for 1 year following the event or at the latest after the last follow-up action.
Videos and photos from the event will be archived after 10 years and will not be available on the EFTA website any more after that period. Please note however that, once information, including personal data, is uploaded online, it can be used by third parties for their own purposes, in their own platforms, and sometimes without EFTA being informed. In such cases, please note that it may not be possible for us, notwithstanding any implemented safeguards, to ensure removal from the internet after the retention period has expired.
Technical website’s visitor logs are kept for one year.
Processing of personal data outside the EFTA States and the EU
The personal data processed in relation to the event is generally processed within the EFTA States and/or the EU.
If you attend the conference online and are located outside of an EFTA State or the EU some of your personal data may be transferred outsides of the aforementioned area in order to allow for your participation at the conference. Please note that this transfer may create additional risks because there may be a lower level of protection outside of EFTA States or the EU.
Applicable security measures
EFTA strives to ensure a high level of security for the information you may share with us via the registration or contact forms, such as using Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). This measure provides a high level of assurance for the confidentiality and integrity of the communications between your browser and the website. Nevertheless, a residual risk remains for communication over the internet, including email.
The security of our website and of the data collected is ensured by adequate technical and organisational measures. We protect data in transit between you and our website by using the SSL secure protocol ensuring their confidentiality and integrity.
Questions and information on our processing of your personal data
You can access your personal data and relevant information concerning how we use your personal data. You can request rectification of your personal data. You can ask that we delete your personal data or restrict its use. Where applicable, you can object to our processing of your personal data, on grounds relating to your particular situation. On these issues we will consider your request, take a decision, and communicate it to you.
How to withdraw your consent and the consequences of doing this
You can withdraw your consent regarding alerts for registration at any time on the event website form at the same place where you have given it. If you withdraw your consent for one of the above-mentioned purposes regarding registration, we will not process your personal data for that specific purpose. If you withdraw your consent for all of the above-mentioned registration purposes, we will delete your personal data within the timeframes mentioned in the “how long do we keep your data” section above.
Please note that withdrawing your consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing of your personal data based on your consent before its withdrawal.
You can contact the EFTA Data Protection Officer (DPO) regarding the processing of your personal data by email: , or a letter, marked for the attention of the EFTA DPO (see postal address below).
EFTA postal addresses:
European Free Trade Association, Rue de Varembé, 9-11, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland, or
European Free Trade Association, Avenue des Arts 19H, 1000 Brussels, Belgium