Privacy Policy

This privacy statement governs the processing of your personal data on the website and will also provide an overview of the privacy statements applied for each service provided by Farys (“Services”).

Farys ov, with offices located at Stropstraat 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium, registered with the KBO (Central Belgian Database for Companies) under number 0200.068.636 (“Farys”, “we”, “us”), acts as a data controller in the context of all processing operations on behalf of the various services offered through the companies Farys (ov), TMVS (dv) and Creat CV.

Farys operates in accordance with the provisions of the Belgian and European data protection regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Farys considers the protection of privacy extremely important and attaches great value to the proper protection of your personal data. 

By means of this privacy statement, Farys would like to provide you – as a customer, visitor and user of our Services – with as much information and control as possible about the collection, processing and use of your personal data. Please read this privacy statement very carefully. Not only are your rights set out below, but also the way in which you can exercise those rights. 

Farys has appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO), whom you can always contact for questions about your privacy and the processing of your personal data. The DPO can be reached via the following email address: dpo@farys.be.

Farys only processes your personal data for clearly defined purposes and only collects the necessary personal data for this purpose. In general, Farys will process your data to ensure its service and its communication within the framework of its activities such as drinking water and purification activities. 

When you browse our website, your personal data will be processed through our cookies. For information about this processing, we would like to refer you to the cookie policy. 

You will also find personal data in our customer zone. These data are collected through their original purpose and projected onto your secure profile so that you can easily update them and communicate changes quickly and efficiently. The data are also always retained according to the purposes detailed below. We store your customer zone login details to secure the access to your account so that only you or people you share this information with can log in. It is also recorded that you have agreed to the general terms and conditions, this privacy statement, as well as the date and time of consent.

Farys processes the following personal data for the following purposes: 

• Our processing in general:

• Digital water meters:

In addition to the above-mentioned data, processing via a digital water meter will also process specific data.

Farys can only process your personal data if it has an appropriate legal basis to do so.

For a number of purposes, Farys relies on the fulfillment of its public interest tasks. You can object to the processing of your personal data by contacting the DPO at dpo@farys.be. However, Farys can oppose this if there are compelling legitimate grounds for the processing that outweigh your interests, rights and liberties.

For certain purposes, Farys relies on your consent. The consent you give is always free and you have the right to withdraw it at any time. You can withdraw your consent for the newsletter by unsubscribing via the provided link in the newsletter or by contacting our DPO. A withdrawal of consent does not affect the processing of personal data prior to such withdrawal.

Farys can also record telephone contacts with its customers for the purpose of coaching and training our employees, or in the context of difficult conversations, the operator may decide that calls from our call centres will be recorded. You will always be notified of this possibility at the beginning of the call. 

Farys uses surveillance cameras in and around its buildings. Farys relies on its public interest tasks with the aim of preventing, establishing or detecting crimes against persons or property. Camera surveillance installed and carried out in accordance with the Consolidated Laws of 21 March 2007 regulating the placement and use of surveillance cameras (“Camera Act”). In addition to the notification via this privacy statement, you will always find a pictogram near the cameras so that you are aware of the camera surveillance. The camera images will be saved in accordance with the Camera Act, generally for a period of one month. In the event of a legal or police inquiry, data can be transferred in accordance with the GDPR without your prior consent. This will always take place under the supervision of the judicial and police authorities, and your data will never be transferred for other (e.g., commercial) purposes.

Farys has placed a pictogram at the entrance of each monitored place. This pictogram informs you that you are being filmed. This pictogram contains the notification of camera surveillance, the Camera Act, the contact details of Farys and it’s DPO.

Your personal data can – under certain conditions – be transferred to third parties.

Some of these third parties work on behalf of Farys or are deployed to perform an aspect of Farys's Services, for example, carrying out works on private property, for billing and customer administration and for dispute management.

In each case, Farys will enter into a processing agreement with these third parties who process personal data on behalf of Farys. Farys will only share personal data that is relevant and necessary for the performance of their specific task. The confidential handling of this personal data is always included in this processing agreement.
The data are not disclosed to third parties other than those referred to in this privacy statement. In order to ensure the best possible service, we can pass on personal data to the following categories of recipients:

• Legal service providers;
• Service providers concerning customer affairs (including the print partner, De Stroomlijn, Doccle, OCMW, site administrators);
• Other government services (VMM, Flemish Ombudservice);
• Technical service providers (including IT providers and contractors).

In the context of the digital water meters, the installation is carried out in collaboration with other drinking water companies, Fluvius and subcontractors. Consequently, we will share your data with these parties so that our installers only need to visit you once. In Art. 2.2.2, § 2/1 of the Decree on Integrated Water Policy, the legislator instructed to cooperate in this way. We obviously also take the necessary technical, organisational and contractual measures in the context of this cooperation. 

Farys will not sell, distribute or rent your personal data to third parties without your consent or unless Farys is required by law to do so.

If you would like to know which third parties Farys shares your personal data with, please contact the DPO at dpo@farys.be.

Farys takes and enforces appropriate technical, organisational and contractual measures to safeguard your rights and freedoms. These security measures serve to adequately protect personal data against loss or any form of careless, incompetent or unlawful use or processing or access. This will take into account the nature of the personal data to be protected, the risk of processing, the state of the art and the implementation costs of the measures.

We make every effort to protect your personal data and privacy on our network, in our infrastructure and in our information systems.

Our employees are trained to handle personal data correctly. For privacy-sensitive projects, an assessment is also made on the level of security and the protection of personal data. For the security of your personal data, we employ specific persons who supervise compliance with the law. We also employ specialised persons who guarantee the security of our network, our infrastructure and our information systems.

Furthermore, we use various technical measures to protect your personal data, such as password protection, hard disk encryption software, firewalls, antivirus, intrusion and anomaly detection and access controls for our employees. 

The number of Farys employees in our company who have access to your personal data is limited, and they are selected with care. These employees are granted access to your personal data insofar as they need that personal data in order to be able to perform their duties properly.

Farys is committed to informing the user that the website may contain links, hyperlinks or references to other sites that Farys does not control and to which this privacy statement does not apply. Farys is not liable for the contents of these sites nor for offers, products or services mentioned on them. Read their privacy statement concerning the protection of your personal data with care.

The European Economic Area (EEA) includes the countries of the European Union, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland. The GDPR requires additional safeguards if your personal data is transferred to countries outside the EEA (such as entering into agreements based on the European Commission’s model provisions). 

Farys does not transfer your personal data to countries outside the EEA. If this is the case, in specific processes, e.g., cookies, it will be explicitly included to inform you of this.

You have the following rights in relation to the processing of your personal data:

• Right to information and access: You have the right to obtain confirmation as to whether or not Farys processes your personal data and, where appropriate, to access the personal data that Farys processes. We try to allow you to exercise this right yourself as much as possible through our privacy statement (right to information) and our customer portal (right to access), where you will always find the latest version of the data we have about you. 
• Right to rectification: You have the right to have inaccurate or incomplete personal data corrected by Farys without undue delay. Through our customer portal, we try to make it possible to change data quickly. 
• Right to deletion: You have the right to have your personal data deleted by Farys.
• Right to restriction: You have the right to obtain from Farys the restriction of the processing of your personal data to the extent possible.
• Right to object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data on the legal basis of public interest and to the use of your personal data for direct marketing purposes. Farys will assess in each specific case whether it can meet this objection.
• Right to data portability: You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to obtain your personal data to transfer it to another controller or processor when we process your personal data based on your consent. You can also ask Farys to make this transfer on your behalf, to the extent this is technically possible. 

If you exercise these rights, Farys will handle your request within a month, except in cases where this would require an unreasonable effort on the part of Farys.

To exercise your rights, you can submit a written request by email to dpo@farys.be or by letter to Farys, Attn: DPO, Stropstraat 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium. 

Before Farys can process your request, Farys will ask you to identify yourself. In this way, Farys ensures that you are the right person and that your personal data is not provided to the wrong person. You can do this by providing us with the following information: your surname and first name, customer number, date of your visit/contact, etc. If required, Farys may ask you to provide a copy of your identity card, as well. You can cover or obscure the personal data on your identity card that are not necessary for your identification on this copy. If you as a parent exercise these rights on behalf of your minor child, Farys can also request additional identification data from you.

If you have any reason to believe that Farys has not or not correctly or insufficiently processed your request, please take this up first with our DPO via dpo@farys.be so that we can review the options together with you.

You can also always request mediation via our internal ombudsman. The internal ombudsman ensures an objective and independent approach along with a broad knowledge of Farys. You can contact us via this web form.

If Farys does not respond to your request, refuses it or if the response does not meet your expectations, you always have the right to submit a complaint to:

• The Flemish Supervisory Committee [in Dutch: Vlaamse Toezichtcommissie, VTC] (https://overheid.vlaanderen.be/vlaamse-toezichtcommissie) 
  This can be done by returning the completed complaint form to be found on the VTC website to the VTC via email (contact@toezichtcommissie.be) or by post (Koning Albert II-laan 15, 1210 Brussels).
  The VTC will then intervene in the context of its mediation assignment.
• The Data Protection Authority (DPA) (www.gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit.be) 
  The DPA can be reached by email (contact@apd-gba.be) or by post (Drukpersstraat 35, 1000 Brussels).

Farys is sometimes compelled to disclose your personal data if required by law or, if Farys judges in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with a court order or to protect the rights of Farys, its employees and/or customers.

Farys therefore wishes to inform you that your personal data can be disclosed to competent police or judicial authorities or other official government authorities if Farys, at its sole discretion, considers it necessary or useful in connection with an investigation of any harmful activity, or if Farys can reasonably suspect that such activity may expose Farys or yourself to liability.

In the event of a court investigation or a police inquiry, data can be transferred in accordance with the GDPR without your prior consent. This will always take place under the supervision of the judicial and police authorities, and your data will never be transferred for other (e.g., commercial) purposes.

Under certain conditions, data must be transferred to administrative authorities responsible for the recovery of tax and social law claims.

In accordance with applicable privacy laws, Farys must enter into a protocol for any electronic communication of personal data to and from another public authority. A protocol is an agreement between bodies that exchange personal data in which agreements are made regarding the exchange of personal data. These agreements cover, among other things, the purposes, lawfulness and security of personal data. 

See the overview of our protocols

More information on protocols can be found on the website of the Flemish government.

We keep this privacy statement up to date. The date of the most recent version is shown at bottom of this web page.

We ask that you always consult the most recent version of this privacy statement on our website.
Latest update: 8 May 2023