Privacy policy

The privacy and security of Personal Data (a more detailed description of Personal Data is set out in Section 3 below) is very important to Crop’s. This privacy policy describes what Personal Data we collect, for what purpose and for how long as well as further information about our obligations and your rights in this regard (hereinafter referred to as “Privacy Policy”). If you have any further questions about this Privacy Policy, your Personal Data, or other privacy-related questions in connection with our company, please email us at privacy@crops.be

1. About Crop's

Crop's NV, is a company with registered office at Oostrozebeeksestraat 148, 8710 Ooigem (Belgium) that is registered in the register of legal entities in Ghent, Kortrijk division, under company number 0417.502.549 (hereinafter referred to as “Crop’s”) and will collect and process Personal Data in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Crop’s has several (in whole or in part and directly or indirectly) national and international subsidiaries that together form the “Crop’s Group”.

Crop’s is a data controller of Personal Data within the meaning of the applicable data protection legislation and determines as such the purposes for which and the means by which Personal Data is processed (hereinafter referred to as “Controller”). 

The data processor that processes the Personal Data on behalf of the Controller can be Crop’s itself or a third party (hereinafter referred to as “Processor”).

2. How do we collect Personal Data?

When you visit our website, we collect some information related to your device, your browser and to the way you navigate our content. We may use cookies to collect Personal Data. More detailed information about our cookies and how we handle them can be found in our Cookie Policy on our website. Other ways in which we may collect Personal Data are, inter alia:

  • when you visit a facility of the Crop's Group (e.g. through camera surveillance or if you leave information at the reception);
  • when you contact us by phone, in writing, through social media canals or by other means;
  • when you subscribe to our newsletter or events or fill in web forms (e.g. hereby providing certain information such as your name, email address and phone number);
  • when you visit the Crop’s stand at a trade fair (e.g. leaving information to contact you afterwards).

3. What Personal Data do we collect?

Personal data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable living individual. Different pieces of information, which collected together can lead to the identification of a particular person, also constitute personal data (hereinafter referred to as “Personal Data”).

Crop's may collect or obtain the following Personal Data from you:

  • Identification data (e.g. name, gender, email address, cell phone number, address, social media account, identification card number);
  • Data relating to your visit to our website (e.g. IP address, the date and time of access to our website, the parts of the website that you visit);
  • Professional data (VAT number, bank account number);
  • Photograph and video footage and visitor information (e.g. when participating in our events and fair trades, if you visit a facility of the Crop’s Group);
  • Data relating to a job application (e.g. current job title, education and career);
  • Survey results (e.g. your responses to questions in our surveys)
  • Complaints you submit or requests you make through our website, e-mail or other means;

Information that is not to be considered as Personal Data is, for example, a company registration number, a business info-mail address (privacy@crops.be) or anonymized data.

Crop's does not intend to collect data on persons under 16 years of age. However, we cannot always verify whether or not someone is older than 16 (e.g. when visiting our website). We therefore encourage parents to be involved in their children's online activities to avoid the collection of data about children without parental consent. If you believe that we have collected personal information from a minor without such consent, please contact us at privacy@crops.be  and we will delete this information immediately.

4. Why do we collect Personal Data?

Crop's collects and processes Personal Data only for the purposes set out below and this, depending on the circumstances, based on your consent or if necessary for our legitimate interest:

  • To manage our website and optimizing the user experience (e.g. analyzing the way our pages are visited, analyzing trends, observe and measure how our visitors engage with our website, etc.) and the quality of the content provided to you (e.g. job posting); 
  • For system administration purposes (e.g. for diagnosing technical problems, analyze the traffic to our website);
  • For marketing purposes (e.g. to send you a newsletter, offer, survey or information in order to better understand the needs of our customers and to improve our services and to build and maintain a good relationship with our customers);
  • For efficient business operations (e.g. for sending offers for our services to you if you are working for a company with which we are conducting, or intending to conduct business) and to administer and manage the contractual relationship between Crop’s and its customers and suppliers 
  • For communications purposes (e.g. to be able to contact or answer you directly when you fill in our contact form or when you request information);
  • To comply with our legal or regulatory obligations (e.g. in the context of our accounting, fiscal and social security obligations or when some authorities or administrations ask information including personal data);
  • To prevent, detect and investigate fraud;
  • For HR purposes (e.g. to recruit new employees);
  • For security reasons (e.g. we use camera surveillance and register our visitors to safeguard and secure our assets, facilities, information systems and employees);
  • To conduct corporate transactions (e.g. in the event of mergers, acquisitions and divestments).

If you no longer wish to give your consent, you can always change it in accordance with the provisions as set out in Section 7 (e.g. by opting out of newsletters, signing out of mailing lists).

5. How long do we keep Personal Data?

Personal Data will not be kept longer than reasonably necessary for the purposes as set out in this Privacy Policy. Crop’s may keep certain Personal Data longer than necessary:

  • In connection with any actual or potential dispute (e.g. we need this Personal Data to establish or defend legal claims), in which case we will keep your Personal Data until the end of such dispute;
  • To comply with any legal or regulatory obligation (e.g. for tax or pension purposes), in which case we will keep your Personal Data for as long as required by that obligation.

6. How do we protect Personal Data?

Crop's undertakes to the best of its ability to take all reasonable measures to ensure the protection of Personal Data by, inter alia:

  • Installing and implementing sufficient technical and organizational security measures to protect Personal Data from accidental loss, use, alteration, destruction, disclosure or access by unauthorized means;
  • Restrict access to Personal Data to only those who have a genuine business need to know it. Our processing of Personal Data is subject to all applicable legal and internal data protection regulations and guidelines. 

Although we have taken these measures to protect Personal Data, it is important to understand that an absolute and complete security is technically impossible to guarantee. Therefore, we have established procedures to address data security incidents and comply with all legal requirements applicable to the detection, handling and notification of Personal Data breaches.

7. Your rights regarding the Personal Data that we collect

With respect to Personal Information, you have the following rights:

  • Right to be informed. You have the right to be provided with clear, transparent and easily understandable information about how we use Personal Data and your rights. This is why we are providing you with this Privacy Policy. 
  • Right of access. You have the right to access the Personal Data we keep about you (e.g. to verify which Personal Data we keep about you and to check whether it is correct and we process it in accordance with applicable data protection laws and regulations).
  • Right to rectification and deletion. If your Personal Data is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to request a rectification. You also have the right to request a deletion or removal of your Personal Data as far as there is no legal obligation for Crop’s to keep it (see Section 4 above). 
  • Right to object to processing. You have the right to object to the following types of processing:
    • the right to object to the processing of your Personal Data based on our legitimate interests or on public interest grounds;
    • the right to object to processing for direct marketing purposes (including profiling);
    • the right to object to the use of your Personal Data for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in certain circumstances.
  • Right to restrict processing. You have rights to block or suppress further use of your Personal Data in certain circumstances. When processing is restricted, Crop’s can still store your Personal Data, but may not use it further.
  • Right to data portability. You have the right to obtain and reuse your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format in certain circumstances. In addition, where certain conditions apply, you have the right to have such Personal Data transferred directly to a third party.
  • Right to withdraw consent. If our processing of your Personal Data is based specifically on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

You may request any or all of the above rights by sending Crop’s an e-mail at privacy@crops.be . Crop’s will treat your request as soon as reasonably possible. We may ask you for proof of identity to ensure that we are not sharing your Personal Data with anyone else but yourself.

8. Job applicants

Crop’s may collect and process the following Personal Data during an application process at or on behalf of Crop’s:

  • Identification information (e.g. name, email address, phone number, education, career);
  • Professional information (e.g. past/current job title, remuneration, references). 

This Personal Data is either provided by the applicant himself or obtained from publicly available sources and/or from third parties such as recruitment agencies.

This Personal Data is collected and processed with the purpose of possibly providing the applicant with an employment contract (at the end of the recruitment process or in the future) and may lead to:

  • Identification and evaluation of the application;
  • Assess competencies, qualifications, and interest towards a job at Crop’s;
  • Contact through phone, e-mail, social media or other means;
  • Organize interviews;
  • Assess, select and recruit applicants;
  • Perform background screening and evaluation;
  • Contact references;
  • Maintain administration related to the application process;
  • Inform the applicant of available vacancies.

This Personal Data will be added to a specific recruitment database of Crop’s during the application process and will be retained for possible subsequent similar vacancies at Crop’s. Access to this Personal Data is restricted to those who need it for the collection and processing in accordance with the purposes as set out in this Privacy Policy.

If the applicant accepts an offer of employment, the Personal Data collected during the pre-employment period will become part of the personnel records and will be retained in accordance with the legal requirements. 

At any time, the applicant has the right to request to access, rectify, delete and restrict the collection and processing of this Personal Data in accordance with the provisions of Section 7.

9. Access by and transfer to third parties

Crop's does not disclose Personal Data to third parties unless needed for the purposes as set out in this Privacy Policy. Personal Data may, inter alia, be provided to:

  • other companies of the Crop’s Group (e.g. for efficient business management, compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and to provide the best possible services to our customers);
  • with third party service providers (e.g. third parties hosting the website and webshop, collection agencies in case of non-payment, provider of logistics services with respect to sending our products);
  • with banks and insurance companies (e.g. in the event of an insurance claim);
  • with providers of professional services (e.g. auditors, tax and legal advisors);
  • with public authorities (e.g. social security authorities and tax authorities);
  • with law enforcement authorities, courts and regulatory authorities (e.g. if disclosure is required as part of an investigation).

Such third parties may only use Personal Data for the performance of the agreement between the third party and Crop’s and shall not be entitled to use the data for any other purposes. In such agreements, Crop’s will ensure that these third parties are obliged to process Personal Data on the same level of security and confidentiality as set out in this Privacy Policy.

In the event that Personal Data is transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to a third country that does not have equal or similar data protection rules, Crop’s will only do so in accordance with applicable law and will require compliance with following safeguards:

  • There is an adequate level of protection for Personal Data in that country;
  • The recipient has appropriate security measures in place;
  • The transfer is subject to standard data protection clauses approved by the European Commission

10. Miscellaneous

The Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. We advise you to review the Privacy Policy on a regular basis so that you are aware of any changes.

If you have any questions about the Privacy Policy or would like to exercise your rights as set out in Section 7, or obtain further information about the safeguards we employ to ensure that Personal Data is adequately protected, please contact us at privacy@crops.be .