Who is your Data Protection Supervisor?

Introducing Mr Ben De Goignies. Adequately protecting your data requires the most qualified person to be personally in charge and responsible.

Ben De Goignies, our CEO, is in charge of operational excellence at Presence and has been with us for over 15 years. He is aware of all processes and procedures in our organisation and personally makes sure that all Presence staff respect them at all times.

This Presence Privacy Promise is also his personal promise to all our stakeholders. He is available at all times to answer any questions you have concerning the use of the data you entrust us with.

You can reach out to him at ben.degoignies@presencegroup.eu.

When and how do we collect your personal information?

If we are in contact with you, we create a record in your name on one of our IT platforms. To that record we add information that you give us at confirmation, reservation or registration for any project, meeting, conference or event we execute for you or we invite you to. We hold general information about our stakeholders (contacts, customers and suppliers), such as their name, address, invoicing details and any necessary information needed for us to provide you with the highest quality of service. We keep records when we are in contact with you and we keep records of your participation in our activities both live and through online platforms.

What do we use your personal information for?

  • To process specific activities like enquiries, price requests, applications and registrations. (art. 6.1.b GDPR contract)
  • To provide services (art. 6.1.b GDPR contract) that include sending you information about current and future business opportunities with Presence (art. 6.1.f GDPR legitimate interest) and  new product and service offerings (art. 6.1.a GDPR consent) . We sometimes use trusted partners or organisations (ex external service providers, ...) to process your personal information when they are providing you with relevant services (art. 6.1.f legitimate interest), this always happens under strict contractual confidentiality obligations (art 6.1.b GDPR contract).
  • To allow our trusted partners to provide services to you (art. 6.1.b GDPR contract).
  • To carry out research to help us plan and improve our services. We may contact you ourselves or ask trusted organisations and partners to do so on our behalf (art. 6.1.b GDPR contract) or (art. 6.1.f GDPR legitimate interest).
  • To produce aggregated statistical information, including data for monitoring equality of opportunity for our suppliers and partners (art 6.1.f GDPR legitimate interest).

Any personal data processed at online and Metaverse event are used for the following processing purposes:

  • Sending newsletters: By collecting email addresses and preferences of our participants, we can keep them up to date about future events, updates and relevant content (art 6.1.a GDPR consent).
  • Event optimisation: Analysing data to improve future online events, for example by understanding what events are popular to increase the quality of our events (art 6.1.f GDPR legitimate interest).
  • Researching the market: Using data to discover trends and insights into the market which can help in developing new products, services or marketing strategies (art 6.1.f GDPR legitimate interest).
  • Feedback and Questionnaires: Collecting opinions and feedback of participants to improve events and measure participant satisfaction (art 6.1.f GDPR legitimate interest).

How do we store your data?

We are committed to the data protection principles of good practice for handling information. All personal information is held in secure computer and manual files, and your data will only be used by Presence employees, working under a Presence contract with NDA and non-compete clauses.

We will transfer your data to trusted partners and organisations only on a need-to-know basis in order to carry out the projects we execute for you.

In any case, we will only use your data in order to maintain the highest level of quality of services for your benefit.

We have a retention schedule for information and keep records only for as long as they have a legal or business purpose.

Do we transfer your data outside the EEA?

If you ask us to work on a project outside the European Economic Area, we may need to transfer your personal data to countries outside the EEA and make it available to trusted organisations on a need-to-know basis. These organisations have a partnership arrangement with us within which appropriate safeguards are implemented to protect personal data. In this way, we can provide the highest quality of services to you.

What about cookies and the internet?

If you use the internet to carry out certain transactions with Presence, your computer will store small pieces of information, known as ‘cookies’, in its memory. Cookies cannot read your computer’s hard disk or make any information available to third parties. They are used so that we can easily recognise you when you return to our websites and, as a result, will enable us to provide you with a better service. We also track user traffic patterns in order to determine the effectiveness of our website. We do not release this information to third parties.

For more detailed information see "Cookies" on the Presence website.

If you prefer not to receive cookies while browsing our website, you can set your browser to refuse them.

How do we protect your personal information?

All Presence staff are made aware of the security procedures they must follow when handling personal information.

Information is protected from unauthorised access and we are confident that no one will be able to access your personal information unlawfully.

We also protect information that is being transferred.

As long as your web browser supports the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), any personal information transmitted from your browser to our web service, or from the service to your browser, will be encrypted to make it unreadable.

Please note that email is never a 100% secure way of communicating. By using it, you agree that you will send any information by email at your own risk.

While we will take all reasonable precautions to make sure that other organisations who we deal with have good security practices, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those organisations whose websites may be linked to our service.

How can you access the data we store about you?

As a data subject, you have the right to access the personal data processed by Presence at any time and can have it corrected if they are inaccurate or incomplete. You can also have the data transferred, have its processing restricted or have it deleted (under circumstances). Also, you have the right to oppose, gratuitously, any processing of personal data for direct marketing purposes. You can withdraw your consent for marketing-related emails by contacting the Data Protection Supervisor.

Presence does not use data that is processed purely in an automated manner (such as profiling).

Since the processing of personal data takes place partly on the basis of art 6.1.a GDPR consent, you also always have the right to withdraw the given consent. However, please note that you will no longer receive relevant information if you do not consent to the processing of certain personal data.

You may assert these aforementioned rights by contacting our Data Protection Supervisor, Mr Ben De Goignies, in writing at Presence, 24 Bohey, 9647 Doncols or by email at ben.degoignies@presencegroup.eu.

An official complaint can be submitted to the Data Protection Authority: 15, Boulevard du Jazz, L-4370 Belvaux, Tel +352 2610 60 1, Fax +352 2610 60 6099, email: info@cnpd.lu.


Modification of Privacy Statement

If necessary, Presence may amend or update this Privacy Statement to reflect changes on the website or in its practices. If there are material changes to the way Presence uses or processes your personal data, it will notify you by sending you a notice directly. Presence encourages you to periodically review this statement to learn more about how it uses and protects your information.

More information and advice

For more information and advice on data protection matters, you can also contact Mr Ben De Goignies, our Data Protection Supervisor directly on ben.degoignies@presencegroup.eu.


Some definitions of terms used in the Presence Privacy Promise

Trusted partners: service providers used and screened by Presence for quality and reliability. We check whether they have a GDPR policy in place and we have written agreements with our partners with NDAs and non-compete clauses.