Legal Notice - MCAA Blog

Privacy Policy – MCAA Blog Section

This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes how the Marie Curie Alumni Association (“MCAA”, "we", "us" or "our") collects, uses, discloses, transfers, and otherwise processes and handles (collectively, “Processes”) your personal data when you interact with the blog section of our webpage.

The MCAA is an international non-profit association registered in the Belgian Crossroad Bank of Enterprises (under number 0548.914.288). We process your data in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679, also known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). By accessing, using, or registering content within our blog section, you acknowledge you have read, understood, and agreed to our Processing of your personal data as outlined in this Privacy Policy.

Types of data we collect and how we obtain it

We obtain information about you when you disclose it to us in the course of using our blog services, such as:

  • Registration data: Name, surname, and email address
  • User-generated content: Blog article and images

How we use data

We only use your personal data where permitted by law. Most commonly, we will use your personal data to perform a contract entered into with you (such as publishing your submitted blog content), where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests, and/or where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

This includes the following general purposes:

  • Administering, moderating, and protecting our blog platform and its associated services.
  • Troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, and reporting.
  • Securely hosting blog contributions, user profiles, and comments.
  • We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless required or permitted by law.

Aggregated technical information

We study aggregated, anonymised technical information to better understand user engagement with our blog posts and improve our digital services. For example, we may prioritise how we optimise features based on which features or topics are the most widely interacted with. Aggregated data does not directly reveal your identity. However, if it is combined with other data in a way that indirectly identifies you, we treat the combined data as personal data governed by this Privacy Policy.

How we share data

The MCAA may share your personal data from time to time as detailed below. We take reasonable, legally binding measures to ensure that third parties with whom we collaborate protect your personal data in accordance with the GDPR. MCAA does not sell your personal data.

Integration with third parties

The MCAA integrates with a third-party IT contractor (OnlyNet) to provide technical upkeep, integration, and seamless operation of the blog features. Furthermore, this website and its blog section rely completely on the cloud infrastructure and software ecosystem provided by Acquia to securely run, optimise, and maintain website delivery.

Data storage and physical location

The MCAA website and blog databases are physically hosted in the EU West 1 region (Dublin, Ireland). By using our services, you acknowledge the storage of your data on these designated servers, which keep all operational user data safely within the European Economic Area (EEA) under EU privacy protections. You also agree to us sharing necessary connection data with our third-party infrastructure contractor (Onlynet) and hosting partners (Acquia) solely to the extent required to keep the blog active and secure.

Disclosures required by law

The MCAA may disclose your personal data under special circumstances where required by any applicable law or regulation, by order of competent public authorities, or when your actions within the blog violate our community guidelines or Terms of Service.

Access, rectification, and your rights

Under the GDPR, you have the right to access, correct, or request the erasure of your personal data at any time. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. 

Retention of personal data

MCAA retains your personal data only (i) for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it; (ii) where necessary for legal, auditing, or accountability purposes; or (iii) where otherwise required or permitted by law.

Questions

Any questions, compliance requests, or exercises of your data privacy rights regarding this Privacy Policy should be addressed to our Data Protection Officer at: [email protected].