Privacy Policy

EFPA cares about your privacy and treats personal data with the strictest confidentiality and always in accordance with the applicable legislation.

The purpose of this privacy policy is to provide you with transparent information about the data we collect, the purpose, the way we use it, with whom we share it and the rights you have with regard to the processing of such data.

1. Who is responsible for the processing of your personal data?

The European Federation of Psychologists Associations, an international non-profit organization established at Grasmarkt 105/39, 1000 Brussels, Belgium and registered in the Crossroads Bank of Enterprises under number 0478.487.736 (hereafter “EFPA”, "the Federation", "We" and "Us") is responsible for the processing of data as described in this privacy policy. 

This privacy policy is applicable, inter alia, (i) to our websites www.efpa.eu, www.europsy.eu and https://efpa.magzmaker.com/ and their related weblinks (hereinafter “our Websites”) and (ii) to all relations between EFPA and its members, participants of congresses and other events, EuroPsy applicants, volunteers, service providers and partners.

It is important to read this privacy policy carefully. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at dataprotection@efpa.eu.

2. How do we collect your personal data?

EFPA is an association which combines a wide range of activities in the field of psychology, including the provision of membership services, the collection and dissemination of (scientific) information and the organization of congresses by Members under the auspice of EFPA and other events. This may require the handling of personal data of individuals involved in these activities and hence EFPA collects personal data in a number of ways from a number of sources.

EFPA may collect your personal data in the following ways:

• directly from your verbal or written input;
• indirectly through third parties acting on behalf of you (e.g. Full Members providing details of their representatives or members);
• automatically when you visit our Websites (e.g. through the use of cookies).

Your personal data are principally collected:

• when you or a third party acting on your behalf register personal data when applying for or updating an EFPA membership via email or the forms provided by EFPA;
• when you or a third party acting on your behalf enter personal data via the application form for the EuroPsy certification;
• when you or a third party acting on your behalf enter personal data on a form applying to become a member of the Board of Directors or the Executive Board of EFPA, or applying for a position at one of the EFPA Groups;
• when you provide us with your personal data in the context of a (volunteer) agreement between EFPA and you;
• when you or a third party acting on your behalf enter personal data through the application procedure for EFPA awards;
• when you or a third party acting on your behalf enter personal data on a form requesting an EFPA product or service (e.g. when registering for the EFPA News Magazine or a webinar organized by EFPA);
• when you or a third party acting on your behalf submit content for the EFPA News Magazine;
• when you register as speaker or attendee/participant for congresses, seminars, webinars or other events organized by EFPA;
• when you or a third party acting on your behalf submit content in connection with a scientific paper or other documentation within one of the EFPA groups;
• when you visit our Websites, via cookies.

3.What personal data do we process about you and what do we us

3.1 Memberships

3.1.1. Membership accounts and mailings

Full Members

EFPA collects the identification and contact details of the persons who serve as representatives for the conclusion of the Full Members membership with EFPA and subsequently as contact person for the Federation. EFPA processes the following personal data of the aforementioned representatives and/or contact persons: name, email address, country, home address, national psychologist’s association, billing and payment information.

EFPA uses this personal data for the following purposes: membership management, accounting and payments, to communicate with the members about specific matters regarding their transactions (e.g. registration for EFPA organized meetings or events), to handle nominations for specific EFPA groups and to compose these groups, to communicate developments regarding the internal functioning of EFPA (e.g. minutes of meetings of the General Assembly and of the Board of Directors), to contribute to the mission and aims of the Federation (e.g. by sharing the outputs and reports of the different EFPA groups) with the members, to update information about EFPA on the website, to send the members information about specific EFPA activities which EFPA believes may interest them, to send them copies of the European Psychologists Journal and the EFPA Newsmagazine in paper and/or online and in general, to provide members with the products or services they request and/or may expect from EFPA.

The personal data will be shared with our Head office in Belgium (EFPA staff) and individuals or organizations in direct relationship with EFPA and whose interventions are necessary or required to duly perform the tasks indicated above.

Associate Members

EFPA collects the identification and contact details of the persons who serve as representatives for the conclusion of the Associate Member membership with EFPA, and subsequently as contact person for the Federation. EFPA processes the following personal data of the aforementioned representatives and/or contact persons: name, email address, country, national and/or European association, billing and payment information.

EFPA uses this personal data for the following purposes: membership management, accounting and payments, to provide members with the products or services they request, to communicate with the members about specific matters regarding their transactions (e.g. registration for EFPA organized meetings or events), to contribute to the mission and aims of the Federation (e.g. by sharing the outputs and reports of the different EFPA groups) with the members, to update information about EFPA on the website, to send the members information about specific EFPA activities which EFPA believes may interest them, to send them copies of the European Psychologists Journal and the EFPA Newsmagazine in paper and/or online and in general to be able to offer the services and products they request and/or may expect from by the Associate Member.

The personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium (EFPA staff) and individuals or organizations in direct relationship with EFPA and whose interventions are necessary or required to duly perform the tasks indicated above.

Membership mailings

We use your address and email address to communicate with you (see also higher in this section 3), to send you information directly related to the transactions you have with us (e.g. confirmation of registrations), to send you information about specific EFPA activities, which we believe may interest you and to send you the link to the EFPA News Magazine.

EFPA respects the privacy of personal email addresses. The objective is not to send you unwanted messages. All mailings sent to you offer the possibility to unsubscribe.  

The personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium (EFPA staff) and individuals or organizations in direct relationship with EFPA and whose interventions are necessary or required to duly perform the tasks indicated above.

3.1.2. Elections and Nominations

Board of Directors

For the purpose of (re-)election of the Board of Directors we collect the following personal data of the persons nominated by their Member Associations standing for (re-)election: name, job title, mobile phone number, email address, country, national psychologists association, resume.

Your personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium (EFPA staff), the EFPA Members of the own country of the person standing for (re-)election, the Belgian Law Gazette and individuals or organizations in direct relationship with EFPA and whose interventions are necessary or required to duly perform the tasks indicated above.

EFPA Groups

For the purpose of nomination and composition of the EFPA Groups we collect the following personal data of the persons nominated by their Full Members standing for (re)election: name, job title and professional expertise, email address, country, national psychologists association.

The personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium (EFPA staff), the EFPA Members of the own country of the person standing for (re-)election and individuals or organizations in direct relationship with EFPA and whose interventions are necessary or required to duly perform the tasks indicated above.

3.2. Volunteers

For the purpose of concluding volunteer agreements we collect the following personal data: name, address, email address, country, national psychologists association.

The personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium (EFPA staff) and individuals or organizations in direct relationship with EFPA and whose interventions are necessary or required to duly perform the tasks indicated above.

3.3. EuroPsy

As mentioned above under section 3.1.2., EFPA establishes (Specialist) European Awarding Committee(s). These Awarding Committees are responsible for awarding the EuroPsy and entering an individual into the European Register of EuroPsy Psychologists according to the EFPA Regulations on EuroPsy.

These European Committees delegate the authority to award the EuroPsy in accordance with the Regulations to National Awarding Committees in countries in which the Member Association of EFPA has accepted the EuroPsy and these Regulations. Subsequently, the (Specialist) European Awarding Committee(s) is (are) responsible for ensuring that the registration and awarding of the EuroPsy occurs in accordance with the Regulations.

EFPA collects personal data of psychologists who have been awarded the EuroPsy for the purpose of holding and maintaining the European Register of EuroPsy Psychologists. The personal data collected by EFPA to be included in the EuroPsy Register are: identification data of the registrant (such as name, date of birth, email address, work address), university education, field of practice and the place and date of authorisation by the National Awarding Committee. Optional data the registrant may provide consist of phone number, social media and date of graduation.

The personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium (EFPA staff) and entered into the freely accessible European Register of EuroPsy Psychologists.

3.4. EFPA Awards

For the purpose of nomination of EFPA awards, anyone who wishes to nominate a candidate for the EFPA awards must provide personal data together with the nomination. The types of personal data may vary depending on the award, but may include: name, email address, letter of nomination and statement how the nominee meets the criteria for the award, list of publications, CV, picture.

The personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium and the specific Award Selection Committee.

3.5. Congresses and events

If you participate in any way to the 19th European Congress of Psychology 2025 for example as participant to one or more events of the upcoming ECP, as representative of a third party who provide assistance for the organization of the upcoming ECP, etc., we will process your personal data as joint controller together with the congress organizer for the following purpose: the organization of the upcoming ECP.

The congress organizer of the upcoming ECP is:

The Cyprus Psychologists’ Association
P.O. Box 25628
311 Nicosia
Cyprus

In practice it will be the Cyprus Psychologists’ Association who organizes all aspects of the congress and who will process your personal data. EFPA has no access to your personal data. For more information on the processing of your personal data for the organization of the upcoming ECP, please refer to the privacy policy of the Cyprus Psychologists’ Association.

If you still have questions about the processing of your personal data, you can always contact us at dataprotection@efpa.eu.

3.6. Webinars and online events

EFPA collects personal data via online application forms of data subjects that register for an EFPA webinar or other online event.

EFPA uses the identification data (first name, family name, country, member association, organisation, position, email address) to communicate with the registrants, to send them information directly related to the webinar or online event they registered for and to send them information about other EFPA activities which we believe may interest them.

The personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium.

3.7. News Magazine and Journal

3.7.1. EFPA News Magazine

Contribution to the EFPA News Magazine

For the publication of our News Magazine, the following personal data of you will be collected: your name, email address and the content with which you want or agree to contribute to our News Magazine. EFPA may also collect personal data for the content of the News Magazine from outputs and reports of the different EFPA groups and from content quoted from other public sources with reference to the original source. We process these data for the reviewing, selecting and publishing of articles and other materials in our News Magazine.

The personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium.

Distribution of the EFPA News Magazine

For the distribution of our News Magazine, we collect your name and email address to send you the link to the newest edition of the News Magazine.

Your personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium. If you have contributed to the News Magazine, the personal data you provided together with your content will be shared with the readers of the News Magazine. You can consult the previous editions of our News Magazine online via https://efpa.magzmaker.com/.

3.7.2. European Psychologist Journal

Contribution to the European Psychologist Journal

For the publication of the European Psychologist Journal, the following personal data of you may be processed: your name, email address and the content with which you want or agree to contribute to the Journal.

Your personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium and the editorial team of the European Psychologist Journal.

Distribution of the European Psychologist Journal

For the distribution of the Journal, we collect your name, address and email address to send you a copy of the Journal.

Your personal data will be shared with our Headoffice in Belgium and the editorial team of the European Psychologist Journal.

3.8. Email privacy

If you agreed to receive communications from EFPA about future activities (e.g. by sending us an email or by registering for one of our webinars), we will use your personal data (name and email address) to keep you informed about EFPA events and other services offered by EFPA which we believe may interest you.

EFPA respects the privacy of personal email addresses. The objective is not to send you unwanted messages. All mailings sent to you offer the possibility to unsubscribe.

3.9. Information we collect automatically via our Website

When you visit our Websites, information is collected in an automated manner about your computer or device, your IP address, the referring website, what pages you visit and the general use you make of the website. This information is collected using various technologies which includes saving cookies on your computer or device. For more information on our use of cookies and the information we collect with them, please refer to our Cookie Policy.

3.10. Social media channels

EFPA maintains publicly accessible profiles in various social networks. We have social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. EFPA may process your personal data when posting content via these social media (e.g. when posting a picture of an event which includes attendees).

In addition to the information that our organization may post about you, social networks generally have the ability to comprehensively analyze your user behavior when you visit their websites or sites with integrated social media content (e.g. like buttons or banner advertisements). Visiting the EFPA social media pages or profiles will trigger a number of processes which concern your personal data.

When you log in to your social media account and visit the EFPA page or profile on this social media platform, the operator of this social media portal has the ability to associate this visit with your user account. However, your personal data can also under certain circumstances be detected even if you are not logged in or do not possess an account with the social media portal in question. In such cases these data can be acquired for example via cookies which are stored on your terminal device, or by acquiring your IP address.

If you would like to know how these social networks process your personal data, please refer to their individual privacy policies:

• Privacy policy of Meta
• Privacy policy of  X
• Privacy policy of LinkedIn

4. What are the legal basis for the processing?

EFPA primarily processes data on the basis of (i) the legal relationship resulting from the membership with EFPA, or for steps prior to the acceptance of the membership with EFPA upon request of the data subject, and/or (ii) the legitimate interest of EFPA. The legitimate interest of EFPA in these cases is the promotion of the missions and aims of EFPA by extending the circle of addressees for the services offered by EFPA in pursuit of EFPA’s purpose.

The promotion of EFPA events and other services offered by EFPA to non-Members is based upon request of the data subject (e.g. sending the EFPA News Magazine to data subjects who specifically requested it) or upon on the legitimate interest of EFPA. The legitimate interest of EFPA in these cases is the promotion of the missions and aims of EFPA by extending the circle of addressees for the services offered by EFPA in pursuit of EFPA’s purpose.

The notification of personal data to relevant authorities is based on the legal obligations to be met by EFPA (e.g. public authorities in the context of employee data).

The processing of personal data of contractors not being Members rendering services to or receiving services from EFPA, is based on the performance of separate contracts and steps taken prior to entering into these contracts.

The processing of personal data will be based on the data subject’s consent (e.g. posting of pictures on social media), if and in as far as the processing of personal data is not based on the performance of contractual obligations or for steps prior to entering into a contract with EFPA, or on the legitimate interest of EFPA.

5. How long do we keep your personal data?

We will retain your personal data for as long as this is necessary to achieve the purposes set out in section 3. We will remove your personal data from our database as soon as we no longer need them to achieve these purposes or when you validly exercise the right to erase your personal data, unless we are required by law to retain your data for a longer period of time.

Should you wish to know how long your personal data will be kept for specific processes, please contact us at dataprotection@efpa.eu.

6. Whom do we share personal data with and how do we protect your personal data?

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal data to others.

We shall not disclose your personal data to third parties, unless it is necessary in the context of providing EFPA services. In this respect, your personal data may be disclosed to software providers, cloud partners (e.g. Dropbox), external communication platforms (e.g. Facebook Workplace), payment partners and business partners such as event organizers, accommodation and travel partners and publishers (e.g. the editorial team of the European Psychologist Journal).

If it is necessary that EFPA discloses your personal data to third parties in this context, the third party in question is required to use your personal data in accordance with the provisions of this privacy policy. We have concluded data processing agreements with the third parties concerned, which contain the necessary guarantees regarding confidentiality and privacy compliance of your personal data.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, it is however possible that EFPA discloses your personal data to the competent authorities (i) if EFPA is obliged to do so under the law or under legal proceedings and (ii) to safeguard and defend our rights.

In certain cases, EFPA may transfer personal data to third countries located outside the European Union or the European Economic Area (EAA). This could be the case for instance (i) when a representative of the Board of Directors is based in one of the countries outside the EAA), which do not fall under the adequacy decision enacted by the European Commission (e.g. Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, etc.); (ii) representatives of the Board of Directors can access personal data in the nomination forms for EFPA Groups; (iii) the reports of the EFPA groups may be shared with the Full Members and other relevant bodies.

However, any transfer of personal data outside the EAA to such a recipient in a country which does not fall under the adequacy decision enacted by the European Commission, shall be governed by the provisions of a data transfer agreement which shall contain the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) issued by the European Commission, or on the explicit consent of the data subject. In those cases where it is not possible to rely on a data transfer agreement due to the fact that the data transfer is occasional, the data transfer shall be based on one of the specific derogations provided for by the General Data Protection Regulation, such as the performance of a contract with the data subject. 

7. What are your rights?

> Right to information / access

You have the right to request information on the data we hold about you from us at any time. This information includes, but is not limited to, the categories of data we process, the purposes for which it is processed, the source of the data if not collected directly from you, and, if applicable, the recipients with whom we have shared your data. You can obtain a copy of your data from us free of charge. If you require additional copies, we reserve the right to charge you for these copies.

> Right to rectification

You have the right to request that we rectify inaccurate data relating to you. We will take appropriate steps to keep the data we store and process on an ongoing basis accurate, complete and current, based on the most up-to-date information available.

> Right to erasure

You have the right to request that we erase your data, as long as the legal requirements for this are satisfied. This may be the case if:

• the data is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected or otherwise processed;
• you withdraw the consent on which data processing is based, and there is no other legal basis for processing;
• you lodge an objection to the processing of your data and there are no legitimate reasons for processing, or you object to data processing for direct marketing purposes;
• the data was processed unlawfully;

and provided that processing is not required:

• to ensure compliance with a legal obligation that requires us to process your data;
• especially with regard to statutory retention periods;
• to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

> Right to restriction of processing

You have the right to request that we restrict processing of your data if:

• you dispute the accuracy of the data – in which case processing may be restricted during the time it takes to verify the accuracy of the data;
• processing is unlawful, and you reject erasure of your data, requesting that its usage be restricted instead;
• we no longer need your data, but you need it to establish, exercise or defend your rights;
• you have lodged an objection to its processing, as long as it is not certain that our legitimate reasons outweigh yours.

> Right to object

You have the right to object to the processing of your data at any time for reasons that arise from your particular situation, as long as data processing is based on your consent, on our legitimate interests or those of a third party. In this case, we will cease to process your data. This does not apply if we can show that there are compelling legitimate grounds for processing that outweigh your interests, or if we need your data for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

> Right to data portability

You have the right to request that we transfer your data – if technically possible – to another responsible party. However, you may only enforce this right if data processing is based on your consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract. Rather than receiving a copy of your data, you may also ask us to submit the data directly to another responsible party specified by you.

> Right to withdraw your consent

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, for example if you have given your consent for direct marketing.

8. How can you exercise your rights?

If you wish to exercise one of the above rights, you can send a written request by letter to EFPA Headoffice, Grasmarkt 105/39, 1000 Brussels, Belgium or by email to dataprotection@efpa.eu.

We promise you an answer as soon as possible, at the latest one month after we have received your request.

We make every effort to comply with all requests within one month. However, this period may be extended for reasons relating to the specific right or complexity of your request.

9. Right to file a complaint

Please note that you always have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority and to seek judicial remedy in relation with the processing of your personal data.

For Belgium this is the Data Protection Authority, which can be reached by mail at Drukpersstraat 35, 1000 Brussels, and by email at the following address: contact@apd-gba.be. 

For other countries of the EU you can find the list of data protection supervisory authorities here.

10. Revisions to our Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to revise this privacy policy or any part of it from time to time, in particular to comply with all new applicable laws and/or regulations, the recommendations of the Authorities and the decisions of the courts in this area.

Please review the policy periodically for changes.

Last updated 23.02.2024