Data Protection Notice and Privacy Policy

De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) is firmly committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your personal data. This Data Protection Notice explains how we use and protect personal data when you:

• visit our website;
• give us your contact details and/or other personal data; or
• correspond with us.

The processing of information relating to identified or identifiable natural persons (“personal data”) collected through this website or otherwise received by De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) such as through e-mails, business cards, fax, correspondence or registration forms, is subject to EU Regulation 2016/679 (the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR) and any national implementing or complementing rules and regulations in Belgium. The Belgian Data Protection Authority supervises compliance with the applicable data protection laws.

This website and the associated cookies are managed by De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) with registered office at 11 rue Granbonpré, Building J, Box 8, 1435 Mont-Saint-Guibert, and CBE number 0438.987.752.

De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) is the data controller when it collects, through its website, certain information relating to users who visit its website and may, solely for internal purposes, track how users make use of its website. The information collected through the website includes the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, computer and connection information such as browser type and version, operating system, as well as Uniform Resource Locators (URL) click stream to, through, and from our website, including date and time.

In addition, De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) may collect and process information of persons who contact us (including job applicants), through the website, or e-mail. This information may include: name, gender, language, the contact details and other information on business cards (such as function and company), CVs, and e-mail addresses.

In some cases, your information may be complemented or updated with publicly available information to ensure your contact details and professional information is up to date.

Your personal data are only used to the extent that this is required to pursue the following legitimate interests:

• to ensure the security of the website;
• public and business relations, including the promotion and defence of interests of De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC);
• to ensure legal compliance, investigate fraud or infringements and establish, defend or exercise legal claims; and/or
• to maintain a contact database of our clients, providers and other external contacts.

If requested by you, or with your consent, we may also use your personal data:

• to process your queries efficiently;
• to provide the products and services you have ordered;
• investigate complaints about the products and services or regarding our website;
• to contact you for the purpose of providing information on our sector and our activities and developments (including the sending of newsletters and organising events); and/or
• to process your job application.

If you have consented to such processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw such consent at any time. Please see below for how to withdraw your consent.

De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) may process and share the information we obtain or receive via our Website:

• with companies belonging to the group and/or with subsidiaries of the group, or
• with any third party with whom you have asked us to share your personal information or with organisations you have agreed to share your information with, such as Facebook or other social media acting as data controllers.

De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) also relies on third parties to host and provide maintenance and technical support for its website and for the delivery of its newsletters. In the context of these services, and only to the extent that this is necessary for the service they provide, these third parties may have access to the personal data processed by De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) for the aforementioned purposes. In addition, professional advisors and auditors may have access to personal data. Our service providers abide by appropriate confidentiality, data protection legislations, and other safeguards protecting your personal data.

Under certain circumstances, De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) may need to disclose personal data to public authorities for the purposes as mentioned above, including to comply with regulatory or legal requirements.

Your personal data will not be sold or rented to third parties.

De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) does not transfer your personal data to third countries outside the European Economic Area.

You have the right to access your data, have us update outdated information or correct any errors in your data or, if necessary, delete such data or request that we restrict the use thereof. You have also the right to receive an electronic copy of your own personal data, which are processed by De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) as data controller, and have the right to transmit those data to another data controller.

You also have the right to opt out of receiving newsletters or marketing materials from De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC). With each newsletter, you will have the possibility of unsubscribing or updating your information and preferences.

Please note that in certain circumstances as provided by law, we may withhold access to your personal data or may not grant your request where we have the right to do so under applicable data protection legislations.

In addition, you can exercise your rights by sending an email to info@dsengineers.com or using the link provided under Section 10 on How to Contact Us below. Please note that we may ask for additional information to ascertain your identity before we comply with your request.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory (data protection) authority.

Data about your browsing our website will be kept only for the duration of the session.

Registrations for events or newsletters will be kept until after the event or until you unsubscribe from our newsletters.

Other personal data that we have will be retained for the duration that is relevant for the purpose as set out under Section 3 above, in accordance to internal retention periods, taking into account contractual or legal obligations and liability that we may have to keep records of our files.

Cookies may last longer on your device than the duration of the session so we can identify you upon your next visit. More information on cookies can be found hereafter.

Some features of this website are designed to give you a better online experience on our website and will only work if we use cookies.

Cookies are small text files that contain small pieces of information and store information, such as your language preference, when you visit our website. Cookies enable us to gain information about the use of its websites. This information may be analysed by third parties on our behalf.

These cookies are stored on your computer, tablet or smartphone when you visit our website. Cookies may contain personal identifying data, but this is not always the case.

When you revisit the website at a later time, this cookie will send information to the website so that the website recognises your browser and can remember your language preference, for example. Some cookies make it possible to enable certain functions on our website or to measure how website visitors use our website so that we can use this information to optimise the website.

Cookies often have an expiration date with the result that they are automatically deleted after a certain time. Some cookies are deleted immediately after closing the browser, such as session cookies, while others remain on your device for a longer period of time.

a.    We use the following categories of cookies on our website:

Strictly Necessary / essential and functional Cookies

Strictly necessary cookies are essential in order to navigate on our website and make use of its functions. Functional cookies remember the choices you have made, such as the country from which you are visiting the website, language choice and search parameters. Without these cookies, requested services such as remembering your login details or the items in a shopping cart cannot be provided. These cookies allow us to offer you a more enjoyable experience that better suits your choices. These cookies cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

We can install these cookies without asking your consent.

Cookies for analytical and statistical purposes and performance cookies

These cookies collect anonymous information about how people use our website. We use these cookies to find out how customers get to our website, how they browse or use our website and what can be improved such as navigation and marketing campaigns. The data stored by these cookies do not contain any personal information that can be used to determine your identity.

We also make use of third party services, i.e. Google Analytics, to collect information about visitors to our website. This information is aggregated to determine the number of visits, average length of visit, pages viewed, etc. We use this information to measure the use of the website and to improve the content and value of our website. More information on how Google processes your information can be found on – the Google Analytics webpage.  For the use of these “third party” cookies for analytical purposes, your prior consent is requested. These cookies are therefore all installed on your device after you have given your consent.

You may also disable Google Analytics on your browser, by following: “Disable Analytics”

Targeting cookies or advertising cookies

These cookies collect information about your browsing habits in order to make advertising more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advert as well as help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.  The cookies are usually placed by third party advertising networks. They remember the websites you visit and that information is shared with other parties such as advertisers.

Social Media Cookies

These cookies allow you to share what you’ve been doing on the website on social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. These cookies are not within our control. The social media platform acts as a data controller in this case.  Please refer to the respective privacy policies for how their cookies work.

b.    Deletion of cookies and more information about cookies:

If you have given us your consent by clicking on the appropriate button on the cookie banner, you can withdraw your consent at any time. You can do this by deleting the stored cookies via your browser.

Some cookies are deleted when you close down your browser (session cookies). Others remain on your device until they expire or you delete them from your cache (persistent cookies or tracking code) and enable us to remember things about you as a returning visitor.

If you want to delete any cookies that are already on your computer, please refer to the help and support area on your internet browser for instructions on how to locate the file or directory that stores cookies. The help option on the toolbar of most browsers will also tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Please bear in mind that some personalized services may not be available if you choose to disable cookies.

Via the links below you will find more information about deleting cookies per browser:

For more information about cookies and how to delete them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org, or go to www.youronlinechoices.eu where behavioural advertising and online privacy are further explained. These websites exist only in English and are not affiliated with our website or company.

Please note that by deleting our cookies or disabling future cookies you may not be able to access certain areas or features of our site.

De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) is committed to trying to make sure that your information is secure. We have implemented reasonable technical and organisational measures to secure your personal data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed. You should, however, remember that the internet is an open system and we cannot guarantee that unauthorised third parties will never be able to defeat those measures or use your personal data for improper purposes.

This website may contain links to third party websites. De Smet SA Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) is not responsible for the content of these websites and is not responsible for the privacy standards and practices of that third party. We recommend you to read and understand the relevant privacy policies of these third parties and their websites before you accept their cookies and visit their website to ensure yourself that your personal data is sufficiently protected.

We may change and update this Policy from time to time to ensure that it reflects which cookies are used and how we process your personal information at any given time. The updated version of this Policy will be placed on the same webpage and will be effective immediately upon publication. Please return to this web page regularly to ensure that you are always aware of the information we collect and process, how and under what circumstances your data is used and in what cases we share your data with third parties.

This version is dated January 2021.