Privacy statement - Outreach competitions

The personal data you provide in the submission form for EEA outreach competition is processed in accordance with regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing regulation (EC) 45/2001 and decision (EC) 1247/2002. Processing operations are under the responsibility of the Head of Unit for Communications, Stakeholders and Networks in the Communication Department of the EEA, acting as data Controller, regarding the collection and processing of personal data.

1. Purpose(s) of the processing

Your personal data is collected and further processed for the purpose of the management and follow-up of your participation in EEA outreach competitions, to the extent necessary to ensure that you can be reached in the eventuality of winning a prize, when the Agency wishes to use your entry in its communication activities or to have your feedback on the photo competition.

2. Recipients of the data processed

For the purpose detailed above, access to your personal data is given to EEA staff members in the Communication Department who are in charge of managing EEA outreach competitions.

No personal data is shared with third parties for direct marketing purposes. Your name and country of origin may be shared with the wider public and the media, as well as our key partners. Your contact details (address, e-mail address and/or telephone number) will however not be shared with third parties, such as members of the media, unless the EEA obtains your prior explicit and written agreement.

The submissions to the photo competition and public vote are hosted by Wufoo (a service provided by SurveyMonkey). The information you provide is stored securely by Wufoo on EEA’s behalf. Wufoo does not use the responses for any purpose other than providing the collection service for the EEA’s photo competition.  

3. Categories of data processed

The only personal data collected and further processed is the information you encode yourself in the online form.

The EEA does not collect any IP addresses nor use Google Analytics for tracking submissions to the photo competition. The EEA needs your personal data to be able to contact you in case you win one of the prizes. The compulsory fields concern your title, name, email address, telephone number, your country of citizenship (as only citizen of countries mentioned in the Terms and Conditions are eligible to participate), age (as all participants must be 18 or older, and moreover, there may be an age limit to one of the competition prizes), competition category, title of the entry, accompanying text, and information about where the entry was captured.

Any personal information the competition participants choose to display in their submissions, including the text, will not be collected or further processed by the EEA. 

Winners shall be required to submit a copy of a valid form of identification prior to receiving the prize. Additionally, all finalists must provide the original and unedited files of their photograph(s) upon request. These materials must be submitted to the EEA via email. All identification documents will be securely deleted following the awarding of the prizes. 

4. Modalities for the processing operation

Personal data is provided via a submission form available online via Wufoo. Privacy Policy of Wufoo can be found on the following link. When submitting data online, it will be an automated processing operation whereby you input the data directly in the form which is then stored in a database. All personal data is processed manually for the purpose of the management of the competition.

5. Transfers of personal data

Personal data processed via Wufoo may be transferred to third countries as described in SurveyMonkey’s Privacy Notice, including transfers subject to appropriate safeguards in accordance with Article 46 GDPR. 

6. Access to personal data and other rights

You have no direct access to the data stored. However, you may request access to, rectification or erasure of your personal data, as well as restriction of processing or object to the processing of your personal data. Any such request should be submitted in writing to the Controller at: competitions@eea.europa.eu.  

You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. The withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out prior to the withdrawal. 

7. Legal basis

The processing of your personal data is necessary for the performance and support of the numerous tasks carried out by the EEA as mandated by Regulation (EC) No 401/2009 of 23 April 2009 on the EEA and the European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet).

8. Legality of processing

Processing is necessary for the performance of tasks carried out in the public interest and is lawful based on Article 5(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725. In addition, by submitting your application, you express explicitly your consent to the processing operation (Article 5(1)(d) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725).

9. Data retention

Information about age, email address, country of citizenship and telephone numbers of the entrants are stored for two full years after the completion of the competition, marked by the announcement of the winners. This retention period is appropriate to the purpose of managing the competition while it is still ongoing and communicating with the competition participants when the EEA wishes to use the entry in its communication activities. Only aggregated and anonymous personal data is processed and kept for statistical purposes after that date. As the copyright of the entries remains with competition participants, participants’ names are retained for duly crediting copyright owners when using the entries in EEA communication activities. The EEA, however, applies a different retention period for all competition finalists and retains their personal data until the copyright expires, as we may need to contact them for future communication or promotional activities. The identification documents of the winners are only retained for one month after the announcement of the winners. 

10. Right to appeal

You are entitled to have recourse at any time to the European Data Protection Supervisor (https://edps.europa.eu; edps@edps.europa.eu) if you consider that your rights under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 have been infringed as a result of the processing of your personal data by the EEA.
You may also contact the EEA’s Data protection Officer (DPO) in case of any difficulties relating to the processing of your data at the following email address: DPO@eea.europa.eu.