The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) shut down its activities in December 2020 at the end of its mandate. The administrative closure of the Centre was completed in November 2021.

Privacy statement

1. Who are we?

Your privacy is very important to us. That’s why we wrote this privacy statement (hereinafter the “Statement”). The purpose of this Statement is to describe how personal data are collected and used by us, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), having its headquarters located in the Netherlands at the Agro Business Park 2, in Wageningen, registered in the Netherlands under ABNI 8051.17.027 (hereinafter referred to as “we”).

Our further contact details can be found under point 12 of this Statement, as well as the contact details of our data protection officer.

Unless otherwise stated, we are the data controller for the personal data collected under this Statement. A “data controller” refers to the person who determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.

Regardless of which personal data we process or when and how we process your personal data, we always follow the following principles:

  • personal data must be fairly and lawfully process;
  • personal data must be processed for specific purposes only and not for anything else;
  • personal data must be adequate, relevant and not excessive;
  • personal data must be accurate and up to date;
  • personal data must not be kept for longer than it is needed;
  • personal data must be processed in line with individuals rights;
  • personal data must be kept secure;
  • personal data must not be transfer to other countries without adequate protection.

2. How do we receive and process your information?

We collect information about you from a variety of sources, including:

  • information we collect from you directly in the framework of the services you have requested from us;
  • information we collect about you when you visit our websites, and social media pages, use our services, or view our online advertisements;

3. Which data do we collect?

Which personal data we collect, depends on your specific situation or the specific services you request.

We collect personal data of your representatives, employees and managers. You may want to give us your name and contact information (phone number or/and email address) to communicate with you and/or to do business with us as a customer, a supplier or a business partner.

We also use cookies and other technologies to collect information when you visit our sites and social media pages, view our online advertisements or promotions or use other services. The following are examples of information we may collect with these technologies:

  • browser type and language;
  • IP address;
  • web pages you view;
  • links you click;
  • e-mails you open.

Collecting information in this manner allows us to collect statistics about the usage and effectiveness of our websites, personalize your experience and tailor our interactions with you.

4. Why do we need your data?

We use the data we collect for the following purposes, described in more detail below:

  1. to provide our services;
  2. to send communications, including promotional communications;
  3. statistical purposes and aggregate insights.

The information that we collect, either directly or indirectly, may be combined to help us improve its overall accuracy and completeness and to help us better tailor our interactions with you.

4.1. Providing our services

We use personal data of your representatives, employees and managers for the purposes of providing services, with respect to requirements on conformity, regulations, risk management and quality control as well as for various business purposes such as customer relationship and client account management.

4.2 Communications

We use the data we collect to deliver and personalize our communications with you. The information you provide to us, as well as the information we have collected about you indirectly, shall be used to keep you and/or your representatives, employees and managers informed of CTA professional and social activities and of any other subject that could be of interest to you and/or any one of them.

If you and/or your representatives, employees or managers no longer wish to receive such information, you and/or they can send a request to this effect by e-mail at all times. Our contact details are mentioned under point 12.

You may at any time choose not to receive marketing materials from us by following the unsubscribe instructions included in each e-mail you may receive. Our contact details are mentioned under point 12.

We do not deliver third party online advertisements on our websites, but we advertise our products and services on others' websites like Facebook or LinkedIn. Please familiarize yourself with those website operators' or network advertisers' privacy statements to understand their practices relating to advertising, including what type of information they may collect about your internet usage.

4.3 Statistical purposes and aggregated insights

We use your data for statistical purposes and to produce aggregate insights. For example, we may use data to generate statistics about the number of users, event participants, geographical breakdown, expertise and other, the number of ad impressions served or clicked on, or the demographic distribution of visitors to a site.

We may use such aggregated statistics for marketing purposes.

5. What are the reasons and legal basis for our processing?

Processing personal data must, of course, be done for legitimate reasons only.

We use and share your personal data based on your consent and this for the purposes mentioned in this Statement. You and/or your representatives, employees or managers are at any time entitled to withdraw your consent. If you and/or your representatives, employees or managers wish to do so, please contact us. Our contact details are mentioned under point 12 of this Statement.

We also use your personal data to the extent that this is necessary for the performance of the contract you have concluded with us or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into this contract.

6. With whom else do we share personal information?

We may share the abovementioned data with any local or foreign entity within its network, including those which support the CTA office policy and management and with service providers engaged by CTA.

We may also use third-party service providers to perform certain processing on our behalf.

In case we share your information, we have undertaken technical, organizational and contractual measures to ensure that your personal information is exclusively processed for the purposes mentioned in this Statement. We shall use only third parties providing sufficient guarantees to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures in such a manner that processing will meet all legal requirements and ensure the protection of the rights of the data subject.

Only if we are required to do so by law, your personal information may be provided to supervisory agencies, fiscal authorities and investigative agencies.

7. Where do we process and store your data?

Personal data collected by us may be stored and processed in the Netherlands or Germany (the locations of our web servers), or in any other country where our affiliates, subsidiaries or service providers maintain facilities.

We do however not intend to transfer personal data outside the European Economic Area.

8. How long do we keep your data?

We will retain your data for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes detailed in this Statement. We will retain and use your data as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

9. How do we secure your data?

Your personal information is treated as strictly confidential and we have taken the appropriate technical and organizational security measures. We implement reasonable physical, administrative and technical safeguards to help us protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure. We also require that our processors protect such information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

10. What are your rights?

We adhere to the European and national data protection law applicable in the Netherlands, which includes the following rights:

  • if the processing of personal data is based on your consent, you have a right to withdraw consent at any time for future processing;
  • you have a right to request from us access to and rectification of your personal data. You can send us a request to the contact details mentioned under point 12 of this Statement.
  • you have a right to object to the processing of your personal data, including the right to object to direct marketing;
  • you have a right to restrict processing;
  • you have a right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority;
  • you have a right to erasure, also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’. The broad principle underpinning this right is to enable you to request the deletion or removal of personal data whether there is no compelling reason for its continued processing.

11. Can minors use our services?

It is not our policy to intentionally collect or maintain information about anyone under the age of 16.

12. Any questions or complaints?

Should you have any questions about the processing of your personal data, about exercising your rights or about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us.

The contact details are: dataprotection@cta.int

13. How to deal with updates to this Statement?

We may modify or amend this Statement from time to time at our discretion. We encourage you to periodically review this Statement to be informed about how we are protecting your information.