Privacy Notice

The protection of your privacy is extremely important to BNP Paribas Fortis. We undertake to protect and process your personal data in strict compliance with the law, and to make sure you have the latest information. The purpose of this privacy notice is to fully inform you about this topic and to explain how we collect, use and store your personal data. The contractual provisions we agreed with you remain unchanged.

We invite you to take the time to read this notice in order to become aware of how we handle this subject. You may object to the processing of your data, as explained in Chapter 6 of this notice.



1. What does this notice cover?



A. What does "processing your data" mean, and who is the controller?

"Processing" means any operation or set of operations which is performed upon personal data, whether or not by automatic means, such as collection, recording, organisation, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by means of transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, blocking, erasure or destruction of personal data.

BNP Paribas Fortis SA/NV, with its head office at Montagne du Parc/Warandeberg 3, 1000 Brussels is responsible for processing the personal data it deems necessary to process.

We are therefore the party whom you, as well as the supervisory authorities (for example the Privacy Commission), should contact for any questions you may have relating to the way our bank uses your data.

For some services, we rely on specialised partners which, when necessary, act as processors. They therefore have to follow our instructions and adhere to our policy on personal data protection. In some other cases, these partners may also act as joint controllers for processing data and must comply with their own legal obligations in this area.

We ensure that our partners receive only the data that are strictly necessary to perform their contractual duties.

Examples of usual partners in the financial sector:

We also act as a processor for other entities which may or may not belong to the BNP Paribas Group. In this case, those entities act as controllers for processing personal data. We are thus only following their instructions.



B. To whom is it addressed?

Those affected by this notice are:

This notice does not affect:



C. What data are covered by this notice?

The data covered by this notice are personal data of natural persons, which means any data that directly or indirectly enable the person to be identified.

Whenever you interact with BNP Paribas Fortis, we may collect various personal data:

In accordance with the law, we will not process any sensitive data, namely those relating to

If we had to process this type of data, we would always request your prior consent.



D. Which legislation applies in Belgium?

The protection of your personal data is covered by the law of 8 December 1992 (known as "The Privacy Law") and its implementing royal decrees. We undertake to comply with our obligations and respect your rights whenever we process your data. If you wish to learn more about this subject, we advise you to visit the Privacy Commission's website.



2. When are your personal data collected?

Some of your data can, in particular, be collected by BNP Paribas Fortis:



3. For which purposes are your data processed?

We process your personal data for different purposes. For each processing, only the data that are relevant to the intended purpose will be processed.

Generally, we will use your personal data either:

You will find below a more detailed explanation of the purposes we are pursuing:



4. How do we protect your data?

Access to your personal data is only granted to people who need it in order to perform their mission. They are required to apply strict professional discretion and must comply with all the technical instructions foreseen to ensure the confidentiality of personal data.

We have set up technical processes and specialised teams who are dedicated to the protection of your personal data. By so doing, we want to prevent any unauthorised person from gaining access to, processing, altering or deleting said data.

Here is some advice on how to keep your data secure:

Our websites may sometimes contain links to third-party websites (social media, organisers of events that we are sponsoring, etc.) whose conditions of use fall outside the scope of this privacy notice. We therefore recommend that you read their privacy notice carefully, to find out how they protect your privacy.



5. Who has access to your data and to whom are they transferred?

The people who are authorised to access your data are specifically defined depending on their role.

We transfer your data to our staff, associated companies and those that are part of the group to which we belong, for the same purposes as those listed in point 3. We do not transfer your data to third parties outside the BNP Paribas Group for commercial use unless we have received your explicit prior approval.

As far as international transfers are concerned, we also make sure we protect your personal data applying the level of security required by European legislation. If we transfer your data outside the European Union to a country that cannot guarantee this level, we increase the IT security and add contractual clauses which are intended to increase their protection. We also inform the Privacy Commission.



6. What are your rights and how can you exercise them?



A. Right to access, rectify and erase

You have the right to access your data. You can ask us:

If you discover that your data are inaccurate or incomplete, you can ask us to rectify them. In some very specific cases, the law also allows you to have them erased or restricted.

In the interests of keeping your data properly up to date, we ask you to inform of us of any change (moving house, renewing your identity card, for example).



B. Right to object to the processing of your data

You have the right to object to some processing of your personal data that we may want to carry out. In particular, you have the right to object, without giving any reason, to the use of your data for direct marketing purposes.

However, this right can only be exercised under certain conditions:

  1. Your request must be dated and signed.
  2. For other cases than objecting to direct marketing, you need to have serious and legitimate reasons relating to your specific situation in order to object to processing being carried out. In the case of a valid objection, said processing will no longer be permitted for these data.
  3. However, you cannot object to processing that is necessary:


C. Right to object to a channel of communication used for marketing purposes (direct marketing)

Even when we have the right to process your personal data, we will ask for your explicit consent to use electronic messaging (e-mail, SMS, etc.) for marketing purposes.

When sending marketing messages by SMS or e-mail about products that have no connection with those you already hold, we are required to ask for your explicit consent. You can change your mind at any time by replying to the SMS or e-mails we have sent.

The marketing offers sent by post or communicated by telephone are not subject to the same prior consent. But again, you can object to them:

If you wish to start receiving our marketing information again, you can inform your branch.

We do however reserve the right to keep contacting you electronically for the performance of your contract or if required by law.



D. Whom should I contact?

In order to exercise your rights, all you need to do is contact your branch.

In relation to your right to access, you can send us your signed and dated request, together with a copy of your identity card. Please be as accurate as possible:

In case of disagreement relating to the processing of your personal data, you can submit a request for mediation to the Privacy Commission at the following address:

Privacy Commission
Rue de la Presse 35
B-1000 Brussels
Tel.: +32 2 274 48 00
E-mail: commission@privacycommission.be



7. How long do we store your data?

We may not keep your personal data for longer than what is necessary for the processing for which they were collected. In practice, we differentiate between a retention period and an archiving period.



8. Your use of our websites and of our mobile apps

Regarding our internet website: If you are not a customer and you visit one of our websites, you agree that we use the data generated during your visit. For more information, please consult the general terms of use of our websites.

Besides the data that you voluntarily provide us with whenever you use our websites, we also use the following technological means to collect data:



A. Cookies

A cookie is a small file sent by the server at our bank to the hard disk on your computer, tablet or smartphone, which allows us to identify your device for navigation.
In particular, we use functional and performance cookies. To find out more, please read our cookie policy.



B. Other technological means

Besides cookies, we sometimes use other technological means for statistical purposes. For example, web beacons or action tags count the number of visitors coming to our website or our apps after seeing our advertising on a third-party site. The only purpose of these beacons is to assess how successful our marketing campaigns are, not to access any of your personal data.

We also use technologies such as pictures or QR codes which are read by a picture reader installed by Shazam. When you scan them on our website, we do not collect your personal data, only the information on how you accessed said website.
The app that lets you read these pictures or QR codes does not belong to the bank. We therefore advise you, before any download, to find out about the privacy policy for data collected by the third party.



9. BNP Paribas Fortis and the Group

BNP Paribas Fortis SA/NV is a bank that sells a comprehensive range of financial services on the Belgian market to private individuals, self-employed, those in liberal professions, and SMEs. It has 3 separate brands with different specificities: BNP Paribas Fortis, Hello bank! and Fintro. We also offer specialised solutions to wealthy individuals, large companies and public and financial institutions. Our registered office is at Montagne du Parc/Warandeberg 3, B-1000 Brussels.

Since May 2009, we have been part of the BNP Paribas Group, which is present in many countries, both in Europe and worldwide.



10. How can I keep up with changes to this privacy notice?

In a changing world, where technology never stands still, this privacy notice may be subject to amendments. We invite you to review the latest version of this notice online and we will inform you of any changes through the website or other usual communication channels.



Last update: February 26, 2016

Complaints

Contact

If you have a complaint, please let us know about it. Your relationship manager is your trusted contact person. If you are unable to contact your relationship manager, it's not a problem! You can fill in the following form. The department Complaints Handling Team CB (Warandeberg/Montagne du Parc, 3 – 1000 Brussels e-mail : complaints.cb@bnpparibasfortis.com) will record your complaint and after analysing it, will send you a response.

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