Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Balkan Economic Forum (“BEF”) Privacy and Confidentiality Policy and Website Terms of Use
This Privacy and Confidentiality Policy (“Policy”) describes how BEF collects, stores and uses personal information and/or other confidential information (collectively, “Personal and Confidential Information”) including information about clients, contacts, suppliers and job applicants, as well as about visitors to the BEF website at www.balkaneconomicforum.org
In this Policy, we use the terms “we”, “us”, and “our” (and other similar terms) to refer to BEF, and “you” and “your” (and other similar terms) to refer to our clients, contacts, suppliers, job applicants and website visitors.
This Policy is an important document. We recommend that you read it carefully and print and keep a copy for your future reference. When you instruct BEF, interact with BEF or otherwise contact us, we will assume you agree to the uses of your Personal and Confidential Information described in this Policy unless you tell us otherwise in writing.
How to contact us
If you have any questions about how we collect, store and use Personal and Confidential Information, then please contact us using the details provided below:
- Write to us at:Blvd. Kuzman Josifovski Pitu 19/5-27, 1000 Skopje Republic of North Macedonia or
- E-mail us at: info@balkaneconomicforum.org
Website cookies
The BEF website uses Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics) for website analytics purposes – meaning that we use them to see how many visitors come to our website, the pages that generate interest and the links that visitors most often click on (amongst other things). Google Analytics uses cookies – small text files that are placed on your computer that store certain limited information about you. The cookies we use do not enable any website visitor to be individually identified and will only be used for website analytics purposes.
In addition, the coding language the BEF website is written in uses session cookies. These are deleted each time you close your browser. These cookies do not store any information about the visitor once the browser is closed.
For more information about cookies, we recommend that you visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
If you wish to delete cookies, you can change your browser settings to reject cookies. As the means by which you can do this varies from browser to browser, please visit your web browser’s “Help” menu for further details. Please note that, should you choose to refuse cookies, this might impair some of the functionality of the BEF website.
The cookies that we use on the site are:
- Analytics cookies:“_utmz” , “_utmc”, “_utmb” and “_utma” are all Google Analytics cookies – These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use the site. The information is collected anonymously, and used to report on the number of visitors to the site, where they have come from, and the pages they have visited. You can find out more info on them here and here.
- Functional Cookies:ASPXANONYMOUS – This cookie is issued by the programming language the website is written in and contains a unique ID to help recognise when an anonymous user attempts to log in. This cookie contains no personally identifiable information.
If you wish to disable cookies entirely, you may do so in your chosen web browser. You can usually find this option under privacy in your browser options or preferences
Updates to this Policy
This Policy was last updated on 1 June 2020. Please note that for legal, business or operational reasons we may from time to time update this Policy. We will highlight any material changes that we make to this Policy on the CF website.
Links to other websites
The BEF website may link to other, unaffiliated third party websites. Please note that BEF is not, and cannot, control or be responsible for the content or privacy and confidentiality practices of any third party websites. You must always carefully review the privacy and confidentiality policy of any third party website that you may visit in order to understand how the operators of that website may collect, store and use your personal and confidential information.
Website Terms of use
The material contained in BEF website is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. You should always consult a suitably qualified lawyer on any specific legal matter. BEF takes all reasonable care to ensure that the materials and information are accurate and complete. However, no warranty or representation is given that they are free from inaccuracies or omissions and we accept no responsibility for any loss or damage which may arise from reliance on information contained in BEF website or websites linked to it. All liability is excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law in respect of any loss or damage (whether direct, indirect or consequential) which howsoever arises in connection with the use of or reliance upon any materials and information appearing on this web site. No communication or information contained in BEF website is intended to be or should be construed as an invitation or inducement to any person to engage in investment activity. Any conduct through BEF website does not establish attorney-client relationship. You may reproduce materials available at BEF website for your own personal use and for non-commercial distribution. All copies must include the above copyright notice.
Applicable law
This disclaimer is governed by North Macedonia law.
Privacy and Confidentiality Policy
BEF is the controller of the information collected or provided directly.
We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with applicable privacy and data protection laws and regulations. Please read this privacy policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it.
If you have any questions about our privacy practices, please refer to the end of this privacy policy for information on how to contact us.
This privacy policy applies to information we collect:
- directly from you or
- through third parties in the standard course of the business we do in order to provide you with the service you requested.
Collection of Personal Information
We collect and use several types of information the individuals we co-operate with, including information by which you may be personally identified and that is defined as personal data or personally identifiable information under applicable law (“Personal Information”), such as your first and last name, e-mail address, billing information, demographics, telephone number, or other (online) contact information, personal details, health related information.
Categories of Personal Information we collect and use on or through our Website include:
- Information that you provide by filling in forms, in particular at the time of first contact with us.
- We also collect Personal Information when you enter a contest or promotion sponsored by us, and when you report a problem with our Website.
- Records and copies of your correspondence (including e-mail addresses), if you contact us.
- Details of transactions you carry out, if any, and of the fulfillment of your orders.
Purposes for Which We Use Your Personal Information
In general, we use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information, for following purposes:
- Provision of services:to provide you with information, products or services that you request from us;
- Customer management:to manage your account, to provide you with customer support and with notices about your account, including notices, notices about changes to any products or services we offer or provide through it;
- Advertising:following explicit consent to communicate with you about products or services that may be of interest to you either from us, our affiliates or other third parties;
- Functionality and security: to detect, prevent, and respond to actual or potential fraud, illegal activities, or intellectual property infringement;
- Compliance:to enforce our terms and conditions and to comply with our legal obligations as these derive from the applicable laws or our regulators;
- in any other way we may describe when you provide the information; or for any other purpose with your consent provided separately from this privacy policy.
Disclosure of Your Personal Information
We want you to understand when and to whom we disclose Personal Information and other information we have collected about you or your activities on the Website. We do not share your Personal Information with third parties except as indicated below:
- Affiliates.We share above categories of Personal Information with our subsidiaries and affiliates to the extent this is necessary for the purposes of provision of services, customer management, customization of content, advertising (if you have consented) and security, and compliance, or to the extent you have provided your consent provided separately from this privacy policy.
- Service providers.To our authorized service providers that perform certain services on our behalf, including for purposes of provision of the services you requested from us, customer management and security. These services may include fulfilling orders, processing credit card payments, risk and fraud detection and mitigation, providing customer service and marketing assistance. These service providers may have access to Personal Information needed to perform their functions but are not permitted to share or use such information for any other purposes. We have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that they comply with the current data protection regulations.
- Legal successors. To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by is among the assets transferred. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to try to ensure that the entity to which we transfer your personal information uses it in a manner that is consistent with this privacy policy.
- Other. To the extent this is necessary to fulfill any other purpose not mentioned above for which you provided Personal Information and, if applicable, your consent separately from this privacy policy.
We also disclose your Personal Information to other third parties, including official authorities, courts, or other public bodies:
- In response to a subpoena or similar investigative demand, a court order or other judicial or administrative order, or a request for cooperation from a law enforcement or other government agency; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; to comply with applicable law or cooperate with law enforcement, government or regulatory agencies; or to enforce our Website terms and conditions or other agreements or policies; or as otherwise required by law (including responding to any government or regulatory request). In such cases, we may raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us, in our sole discretion.
- To the extent a disclosure is necessary in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent, report or take other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, our employees, or others; to maintain and protect the security and integrity of our Website or infrastructure.
Third parties to whom we may disclose Personal Information may have their own privacy policies which describe how they use and protect Personal Information. If you want to learn more about their privacy practices, we encourage you to visit the websites of those third parties.
We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction. In particular, we may transfer non-Personal Information and process it outside your country of residence, wherever the Website, its affiliates and service providers operate. We may combine non-Personal Information we collect with additional non-Personal Information collected from other sources. We also may share aggregated information with third parties, including advisors, advertisers and investors, for the purpose of conducting general business analysis.
How We Store Your Personal Information
The information that we collect about you, including Personal Information, will be stored and processed in North Macedonia and/or in remote cases in the Countries in which we and the third parties mentioned above maintain facilities. If you are located in the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from European data protection laws, please note that in the course of providing you with the service you requested we may transfer Personal Information to some of these countries and jurisdictions that have data protection laws that do not provide the exact same level of protection as in your jurisdiction, however we make every effort possible to verify and audit that the processor and sub processors provide the best level of protection of personal data.
Retention of Personal Information
To the extent we have collected your Personal Data for purposes of provision of services, customer management, and customization of content (for descriptions of these purposes see above), we keep your Personal Information for as long as you have an account with the Website, as needed to provide you with our respective services and in compliance with relevant laws of North Macedonia. For further information regarding specific retention period please contact us at info@balkaneconomicforum.org
Personal Information used for advertising purposes will be stored for a period of 12 months.
The period for which we keep your Personal Information that is necessary for compliance and legal enforcement purposes varies and depend on the nature of our legal obligations and claims in the individual case.
Legal Bases for Collection, Use and Disclosure of Your Personal Information
There are different legal bases that we rely on to collect, use and disclose your Personal Information, namely:
- Consent:We will rely on your consent to use (i) your Personal Information for marketing and advertising purposes; (ii) your Personal Information for other purposes when we ask for your consent separately from this privacy policy and for which the purpose of the process does not relate to the services we offer to you..
- Performance of contract:The use of your Personal Information for purposes of providing the services, customer management and functionality and security as described above is necessary to perform the services provided to you under our term and conditions and any other contract that you have with us.
- Compliance with legal obligation:We are permitted to use your Personal Information in to the extent this is required to comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject.
How We Protect the Security of Your Personal Information
We take appropriate security measures (including physical, electronic and procedural measures) to safeguard your Personal Information from unauthorized access and disclosure. For example, only authorized employees are permitted to access Personal Information, and they may do so only for permitted business functions. In addition we have trained our employees on how to handle, manage and process personal data, applied upgraded technical measures and transformed our policies and procedures in a way that will comply with the General Data Protection Regulation.
Users should also take care with how they handle and disclose their Personal Information and should avoid sending Personal Information through insecure email. We are not responsible for circumventions of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.
Choices About How We Collect, Use and Disclose Your Personal Information
We strive to provide you with choices regarding the Personal Information you provide to us.
- You can choose not to provide us with certain Personal Information, but that may result in you being unable to use certain services.
- When you register with us, you may be given a choice as to whether you want to receive email messages, newsletters or advertising material about product updates, improvements, special offers, or containing special distributions of content by us. If consented yet later on you decide you no longer want to receive commercial or promotional emails or newsletters from us, you will need to avail yourself of the unsubscribe mechanism set out in the applicable communication. It may take up to seven days for us to process an opt-out request. We may send you other types of transactional and relationship e-mail communications, such as service announcements, administrative notices, and surveys, without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them as these will related directly to your relationship with us.
- If you provided Personal Information, you may terminate your relationship with us at any time as per the provision of the between us agreement or engagement. If you choose to do so, your Personal Information will be deleted in accordance with our retention policy.
Your Rights Related to Your Personal Information
Subject to the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation, you have certain rights regarding the Personal Information we collect, use or disclose and that is related to you, including the right
- to receive information on the Personal Information concerning we hold about you and how such Personal Information is used (right to access);
- to rectify inaccurate Personal Information concerning you (right to data rectification);
- to delete/erase your Personal Information (right to erasure/deletion, “right to be forgotten”);
- to receive the Personal Information provided by you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to transmit those Personal Information to another data controller (right to data portability)
- to object to the use of your Personal Information where such use is based on our legitimate interests or on public interests (right to object); and
- in some cases, to restrict our use of your Personal Information (right to restriction of processing).
If we ask for your consent to use your Personal Information, you can withdraw your consent at any time.
You may, at any time, send us an e-mail at info@balkaneconomicforum.org to exercise your above rights in accordance with the applicable legal requirements and limitations. If you are located in the European Economic Area, you have a right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
Note that some requests to delete certain Personal Information will require the deletion of your user account as the provision of user accounts are inextricable linked to the use of certain Personal Information (e.g., your e-mail address). Also note that it is possible that we require additional information from you in order to verify your authorization to make the request and to honor your request.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
We may modify or revise our privacy policy from time to time. Although we may attempt to notify you when major changes are made to this privacy policy, you are expected to periodically review the most up-to-date version found at our website www.balkaneconomicforum.org so you are aware of any changes, as they are binding on you.
If we change anything in our privacy policy, the date of change will be reflected in the “last modified date”. You agree that you will periodically review this privacy policy and refresh the page when doing so. You agree to note the date of the last revision to our privacy policy. If the “last modified” date is unchanged from the last time you reviewed our privacy policy, then it is unchanged. On the other hand, if the date has changed, then there have been changes, and you agree to re-review our privacy policy, and you agree to the new ones. By continuing to use the Website subsequent to us making available an amended version of our privacy policy in a way that you can easily take notice of it, you thereby consent to such amendment.
Enforcement; Cooperation
We regularly review our compliance with this privacy policy. Please feel free to direct any questions or concerns regarding this privacy policy or our treatment of Personal Information by contacting us through this Website at info@balkaneconomicforum.org When we receive a formal written complaint, it is our policy to contact the complaining party regarding his or her concerns. We will cooperate with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information that cannot be resolved by an individual and us.
No Rights of Third Parties
This privacy policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties or require disclosure of any Personal Information relating to users of the Website.
No Error Free Performance
We do not guarantee error-free performance under this privacy policy. We will use reasonable efforts to comply with this privacy policy and will take prompt corrective action when we learn of any failure to comply with our privacy policy. We shall not be liable for any incidental, consequential or punitive damages relating to this privacy policy.
Contact Information
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our information-handling practices, please contact us at info@balkaneconomicforum.org
You may also contact us at Blvd Kuzman Josifovski Pitu
19/5-27, 1000 Skopje, North Macedonia, telephone +389 78 241 165