Privacy Policy

At THE FIFTH CONFERENCE BVBA ("THE FIFTH CONFERENCE") we take the privacy of our members seriously. Please read this Privacy Policy to learn more about how we treat personally identifiable information.  If you have questions, suggestions, comments, or concerns about our Privacy Policy, please contact us via email at info [at] thefifthconference.com, or in writing at: Web Manager, The Fifth Conference, Tervuursesteenweg 133/2, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.

THE FIFTH CONFERENCE abides by the provisions as set forth in the Act of 8 December 1992 on the protection of privacy relating to the processing of personal data, amended by the Act of 11 December 1998 transposing Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and by the provisions in the Act of 13 June 2005 on electronic communication. 

The “controller” determines the scope and the means for the processing of your personal data. The “controller” of the processing of your personal data is the Provider, THE FIFTH CONFERENCE bvba

A declaration has been submitted to the CBPL (the Belgian Privacy Protection Commission) for the processing of your personal data. 

This policy covers THE FIFTH CONFERENCE’s handling of personally identifiable information that we retrieve when you visit our website, or become a member of THE FIFTH CONFERENCE.  We recognise personally identifiable information as information that someone can use to identify or contact you in person, such as real name, telephone number, birth date, email address, or physical mailing address. Information that we use internally to identify you as a member in our system, such as your chosen username, is not considered personally identifiable information.  This policy does not cover the privacy practices of third parties that we do not own or control, such as our sponsors and advertisers.

1. Information You Provide Us

Required Registration Information. During the registration process, we collect your email address. We will send you an email to verify that you are the owner of this address. You must also select a username that we will use to identify you in our system.

Optional Member Profile Information. You can choose to provide us with additional optional information about yourself in your member profile, for example you can submit biographical and professional information and a photo of yourself.

Access To Your Personal Information. In principle, we make it convenient for you to view the personally identifiable information we have collected from you in your member profile, where you can add, edit, or delete it as you see fit.

Information Submitted During A Transaction. During a payment transaction (for example, when you purchase a subscription or become a member of THE FIFTH CONFERENCE through this website), we collect information including your name, shipping and billing address(es), email address, telephone number, and credit card information. This information is collected and used to process your payment transaction, and also for shipping the print version of THE FIFTH CONFERENCE to you.

2. Information We Do Not Collect.

Children. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information about children. If you believe that we have information from or about anyone under 13 years of age, please notify us by email at info [at] thefifthconference.com or write to our Web Director at the address noted above.

3. Information We Track.

Log Files. Similar to other websites, we gather certain anonymous, non-personal information automatically and store it in web server log files. This information includes internet protocol addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), site entry/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data. We use this information to improve our site, analyze trends, administer the site, track users' movements around the site, and gather aggregate information about our user base as a whole. Aggregate information is data we collect about a group or category of services or members from which individual member identities have been removed, and therefore does not include your personally identifiable information.

Cookies. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user's computer for record-keeping purposes. It can also help us understand how our site visitors click to our site, and what pages they view during their visit. Similar to many websites, we store an encrypted cookie on your computer so we can remember you when you come back to our website without requiring you to log-in every time. Cookies also allow us to track and understand the interests of our users to enhance the overall experience on our site.

You can set your web browser software to disable cookies. To do so, please refer to the help section of your specific browser for more information on how to manage or disable cookies. 

HOW INFORMATION IS USED

1. In Company Communications.

We use emails and/or prominent notifications on our website as our primary means to inform our members or subscribers of important service and promotional announcements.

System-related Announcements. We use your email address to deliver important system-related announcements. Example system-related announcements include: email verification during registration, requests for password reset, important security or server maintenance updates, or policy changes. These service-related announcements are considered a fundamental part of our service, and members cannot opt-out of these email announcements.

Promotional Announcements. In order to improve the experience for our members or subscribers, we will offer you the ability to sign up for optional email communications, such as updates from THE FIFTH CONFERENCE, periodic newsletters, or invitations to subscriber or member events. These communications are enhancements to our service and are entirely optional. We will ask for your consent before sending you promotional communications, and will make it easy for you to unsubscribe from these communications, either through the emails or though your member profile.

2. On Our Website.

Identification Of Authors By Username. The THE FIFTH CONFERENCE website offers opportunities for members to vote and comment on content found on this website, engage in dialogue, share information, and submit original article. This means that to some extent we depend on the contributions and actions of our members to improve the quality of the site experience. When you make a contribution to the site, you will be identified by your username as the author of that contribution. In these circumstances, we will only identify you by your username. Other than the username, which in principle can be entirely made up, in using our service, you are not required to provide or publicize any personally identifiable information in connection with your contributions and actions on our website.

Public Profile. When you register, we will create a public member profile based on your username. You have the option to include personally identifiable information in your public profile, but you are not required to do so. You can easily add, edit, and delete information in your public member profile from the profile page. Whenever you voluntarily post public information to your public member profile, that information can be accessed by the public and can in turn be used by those people to send you unsolicited communications.

Site Statistics. As noted above, we may use information collected from our web log files to calculate and publish anonymous, non-personal, aggregate statistics that we believe our members are interested in viewing. For example, we may track and publish the total number of users who have viewed a particular web page. We publish this data in aggregate form only, and do not tie it to any personally identifiable information.

3. For Internal Reporting And Analysis.

As noted above, we use information gathered from log files and cookies to improve our site, analyze trends, administer the site, track users' movements around the site, and to gather aggregate information about our user base as a whole. We do not tie this data to personally identifiable information.

HOW INFORMATION IS SHARED AND DISCLOSED

1. On Our Website.

Public Messages. Some of our features allow you to communicate with other members by posting public messages (such as when you make comments on an article, respond to comments about an article, or submit an article). Please be aware that what you write in these public messages can be viewed, collected or used by anyone who visits our website. We are not responsible for any personally identifiable information that you submit or permit others to submit through public messages.

2. With Third-Parties.

Sharing, Renting, and Selling Information we Collect. Occasionally we share anonymous, non-personal, aggregate information about our user base with partners or advertisers, and we may publish these aggregate usage statistics on our website for the interest of our members. We do not tie this shared or published data to personally identifiable information. Additionally, we do not make our subscriber list available to third parties for advertising, marketing or sales purposes.  

Linked Services. In some cases, we allow you to access or link to other web services through our website. For example, we allow members to import information from Facebook. We make it easy for you to determine when you are accessing or linking to these other web services through or website. In all of these cases, our partners may choose to collect your personal information as they deem appropriate. As noted above, we are not responsible for or in control of how our partners collect, use, or disclose your information obtained through these linked services. We encourage you to be aware when you are using these partner services and, for your best on-line experience, we encourage you to review their policies before submitting any personal information to them.

3. As Required In Legal Circumstances.

Legal Requirements. We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our website.

Acquisition Or Other Transfer. If our company is acquired, all of our assets, including member information, may be transferred to the acquiring company. At that time, your member information, including personally identifiable information, may become subject to the acquiring company's privacy policy. In addition, in the event that we must liquidate our assets due to bankruptcy or other event, we will consider our subscriber and membership information, including personally identifiable information, as a unique asset subject to sale or other transfer. Before we transfer your information under any of these scenarios, we will notify you either by email or by posting a notice on our site, and we will remind you of your ability to add, edit or delete your personally identifiable information from your member profile in advance of any such transfer.

HOW INFORMATION IS KEPT SECURE

Security policy. The Fifth Conference bvba does its utmost to protect your privacy and ensure your personal details are not misused, accidentally destroyed, lost or altered within the company.  Occasionally we share your details with other companies who are managing data for us (e.g. database consultants). They are only permitted to process your data with explicit permission from The Fifth Conference bvba, enabling them to perform the services required.

Transfer of personal data overseas. As the internet is a global environment, collecting and processing personal information may involve the transmission of this data internationally, including outside of the European Union. Therefore, by communicating electronically with us you acknowledge and agree to your personal data being processed in this way.

Security of Account Information. Your member account information is password-protected. We will not share your password with anyone. Please do not share your password with anyone, and remember to change your password from time to time, to keep your account information secure.

Network Security. We have implemented a variety of commercially standard encryption and security technologies and procedures to protect information, including your personal information, stored in our computer systems from unauthorized access. Please be aware that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, thus we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, but we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Management Procedures. We also maintain standard physical and electronic procedural safeguards that limit access to your personally identifiable information to our employees (or people working on our behalf and under confidentiality agreements) who, through the course of standard business activities, need to access your personally identifiable information.

YOUR PERSONAL CHOICES

Sharing Information With Other Members. You are able to control what personal information about you is shared with other members in your public member profile, and what information you choose to keep private. You can view, add, edit, and delete information in your public member profile by visiting the profile page.

Receiving Communications. If you subscribe to any optional promotional communications, you will be able to unsubscribe from them through your member profile or through the emails we send you.

Editing, Updating, Or Deleting Member Profile Information. You can view the personally identifiable information we have collected from you in your member profile where you can add, edit, or delete it as you see fit. You may also request deletion of your member account through your member profile.

UPDATES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

From time to time, we will review and make changes to our privacy policy. When we do so, we will notify you either by email or place a prominent notice on our website. The most recent version of our privacy policy is always available from a link on our homepage. We encourage you to visit this site frequently to stay up to date on our current policy.