Privacy and Cookie Policy

Last updated: February 2020

Thank you for visiting our website! Milieu Consulting SPRL (hereinafter referred to as “Milieu”, “we”, “our” or “us”) acts as the data controller responsible for your data collected in conjunction with your access to this website. Milieu is aware of the importance of your privacy, which is why we adhere to the applicable General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter referred to as the “GDPR”) as well as applicable national legislation on the protection of personal data.
This Privacy Policy aims to inform you about the collection and use of your personal data when you visit our website. We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data.

What data do we collect and how do we collect it?

In the following sections is information on which personal data we collect and process from you when you use our website or when you decide to actively communicate with us. We especially endeavour to ensure that you are informed as to: (i) the purpose for data collection, (ii) what data we collect and process, and (iii) the legal basis for any such processing of your personal data.

When applying for a job or a position at Milieu (via our website or through a spontaneous application sent to us via e-mail), we will collect your personal data such as your name, e-mail, address, telephone number, CV, cover letter, years of professional experience and your fields of expertise or any other data that you decide to disclose to us. In case of a potential interview, we might ask you to provide us with additional data such as certificates and documents supporting your application, references etc.

This data is collected in order to allow us to review your application alongside the other candidates, to organise a potential interview, to contact you about the selection procedure or in order to exercise or defend legal claims arising out of a selection procedure. The processing of such data is necessary for the performance of a potential contractual relationship with us. Milieu does not use automated decision-making, including profiling, when handling your personal data, in particular your job application.

At the time of applying you will be asked to give your consent to allow us to keep your application in our records for a further period of three (3) years. If you do not give this consent, once the vacancy has been closed and the legal claims arising out of a selection procedure are time barred, your application – and therefore all of your personal data – will be deleted from our records.

You can revoke your consent at any time and your data will be deleted, unless another legal basis for the processing of such data exists.

When you contact us via any of our contact details published on our website, we might collect data such as your name, title, company details, email address and any data you might add to your email. In such cases we only process data that you have submitted to us voluntarily and for the purpose of responding to your enquiry. Upon resolution of your enquiry, this data is deleted.

Like many sites, Milieu’s website uses cookies, web analytics and social media plugins to collect information. In this section you will find information on different tracking technology and their impact on your personal data.

Cookies and how we use them?

Cookies are small text files which are sent to your web browser from websites and are stored on your hard drive. Their main purpose is to store your settings and other data so that you do not need to enter them again when you visit our website the next time. We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below.

Unfortunately, in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in order to fully benefit from the high-level user experience which we aim to provide.

Disabling Cookies

You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent (see your browser security settings for how to do this). However, please be aware that if you reject certain cookies you may not be able to fully use our website and that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Therefore, it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.

The Cookies We Set

Our websites mostly use ‘first-party cookies’, which are cookies that are set and controlled by us, not by any external organisation. When you submit data through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms, cookies may be set to remember your user details and/or preferences for future correspondence. In order to provide you with a great experience on our website, we provide the functionality to set your preferences for how this site runs when you use it. In order to remember your preferences, we need to set cookies so that this information can be called whenever you interact with a webpage which is affected by your preferences.

The main characteristic of these cookies is that they are necessary for the functioning of our webpage. Such necessary or functional cookies help make our website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, meaning that these cookies will be set regardless of your preferences.

Cookie name Purpose Type Duration
CookieConsent Stores the user’s cookie consent state for the current domain HTTP 1 year
rc::c This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. HTML Session
wc_cart_hash_# Necessary for the functioning of the blog. HTML Persistent
wc_fragments_# Necessary for the functioning of the blog. HTML Session

Third party cookies and Web analytics

In some special cases we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties. Some of our webpages for instance display content from external providers, e.g. YouTube, Google Maps. This processing is based on our legitimate interest to improve our website experience and to optimise our services. Please note that these third-party services are outside of the control of Milieu. This includes their cookie policies.

Our website also uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics’ solutions on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site, the referred URL, details on the configuration of your operating system, your browser and your access provider and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content. The information generated by these cookies are transmitted to and stored on a Google server located in the U.S.A.  As we are using Google Analytics’ “anonymized” function, your IP address will be shortened. It is only in exceptional circumstances that your IP address is transmitted to the U.S.A. and shortened there. The IP address collected within the framework of Google Analytics will not be combined with other Google data. For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page or Google’s Privacy Policy.

Google will use the information on our behalf to analyse your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity, and to provide us with additional services related to the use of the website as well as Internet use. The legal basis for this processing activity is our legitimate interest in analysing our website’s traffic to improve the user’s experience and to optimise the website in general or consent if you have given us your consent for the use of cookies for web statistic purposes.

Social media plugins

We also use social media buttons and/or plugins on this site that allow you to connect with your social network in various ways; in particular, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This processing is based on our legitimate interest to improve our website experience and to optimise our services.

When you visit a page that displays one or more of these buttons your browser will establish a direct connection to the respective Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn server and load the button from there. At the same time Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn will know that the respective page on our website has been visited. We have no influence on the data that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn collect on the basis of the buttons. According to the available information, however, if you do not click on the respective buttons no personal data will be collected and stored unless you have logged onto to your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn account. In that case certain user data (including your IP address at the time) may be collected and linked to the account information already present on such social media. If you wish to prevent this, please log out of your social media accounts before visiting our website.

By clicking a button of a social media site, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn may set cookies through our site which may be used to enhance your profile on their respective sites or contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies. We receive no information from such social media sites about which social media buttons you may have clicked or seen on our website.

If you wish to obtain more information you should carefully review Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn’s privacy policy in order to determine how this social media site may use your personal data.

We will not disclose your personal data, be it by transmission or otherwise, to third parties except where:

  • such disclosure is necessary to fulfil existing obligations towards, or assert and enforce claims against, you;
  • you consented to such disclosure;
  • federal or competent state authorities; in particular, law enforcement and/or data protection authorities, request such disclosure on the basis of the applicable laws, if and inasmuch as such disclosure is necessary to counter dangers to public safety and order or for the investigation and persecution of criminal acts;
  • we disclose data to specialised service providers appointed by us who provide services connected to this website, its functions or our core business, but only to the extent it is necessary in order to provide these services (for example provider(s) of cloud-based services, IT service provider(s) which hosts, develops and offers support for this website and our information security system);
  • we are otherwise bound to do so by law.

Your data might be in part also transferred to, processed and stored in countries outside the EU and/or the European Economic Ares (hereinafter referred to as “EEA”) when we transfer data to third parties. In such cases we have ensured that appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure the adequate level of data protection (e.g. by concluding specific agreements with our contractual partners that use standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission, by only transmitting personal data to recipients that are Privacy Shield certified).

The security of your personal data is important to us. We are continuously implementing and improving our organisational and technical security measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, loss, destruction, or alteration. However, due to the inherent nature of the Internet and fast pace technological development, we cannot guarantee that you data will be safe from intrusion by others, such as hackers.

Where our website contains links to third party websites (e.g. our partners), services (e.g. Google Maps) or social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), we are not responsible for the information practices of such third party sites, or channels or areas of this website, that are operated by third parties. These third-party sites have their own rules about the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal data. We thus encourage you to review their applicable privacy policies in order to determine how each third party may use any personal data you provide.

We strive to keep our processing activities with respect to your personal data collected through this webpage as limited as possible. Personal data collected to facilitate your access to our website are only briefly stored and used as stated above in the chapter “Cookies and other tracking technology”.

Personal data provided by you will be retained only for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it has been collected. After that your personal data will be permanently erased or anonymised. Your data may be processed and stored for a longer period of time (i) due to statutory retention requirements; (ii)  in order to diagnose problems in connection to the functioning of this website; or (iii) due to a potential dispute, until such legal claims are not yet time barred. Statistics which have been anonymised may be saved thereafter.

Under current regulations on data handling and processing, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:

  • Right of access – you have the right to information regarding the data we process concerning you and request Milieu for a copy of your personal data together with additional information to the extend defined in Article 15 GDPR.
  • Right to rectification – you have the right to request Milieu to correct any information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • Right to erasure – you have the right to request Milieu to delete your personal data if such data is no longer required for the for the original purposes or is processed unlawfully, as described in Article 17 GDPR.
  • Right to restriction of processing – you have the right to request Milieu to restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions specified in Article 18 GDPR.
  • Right to object to processing – if data processing is based on our legitimate interest, you have the right to object to Milieu’s processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.  In such a case, we will no longer process your personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for such processing which override your interests or such processing is required for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
  • Right to data portability – you have the right to request that Milieu transfers the data that we have collected to another organisation, or directly to you, under certain conditions specified in Article 20 GDPR.
  • Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by sending us an email to privacy@milieu.be, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
  • If we use your personal data for direct marketing purposes, you have the right to object to such processing at any time, free of charge and without giving any reason by sending us an email to privacy@milieu.be.

If you would like to (i) exercise your rights, (ii) make a complaint regarding our data processing or (iii) simply make an enquiry regarding the processing of your personal data, you can send your request to our Privacy team: privacy@milieu.be. We will respond to your request within statutory deadlines.

If you believe we have in any way infringed your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Belgium Data Protection Authority.

Contact us

If you have any questions or concerns about your data privacy or security or if you wish to exercise any of the above described rights,  you can contact us via e-mail: privacy@milieu.be.

Changes to our privacy policy

Milieu keeps its Privacy and Cookie Policy under regular review and reserves its right to modify it from time to time. If we make changes to this policy, we will post a revised Privacy and Cookie Policy and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this policy. We will inform all visitors of our website of any important updates via a direct message. If you continue to use our website, you will be subject to the revised Privacy and Cookie Policy.