Legal Notice

The Members’ Portal is an internet-based technology providing FSC Members with a tool of interaction and engagement with FSC Group’s processes, allowing you to make decisions, comment, upload or download your materials via internet for FSC or for other users. The duties of hosting, maintenance and data processing are conducted by FSC International IT Services and their implementation partners on behalf of FSC AC. 

FSC AC is a ´controller´ of the personal data you provide to the Members’ Portal and FSC International IT Services acts as a ‘processor’ in providing the technical infrastructure of the platform.

In order to provide these services, we may need to collect some personal data. The data we collect can include the following:

• Full name (first name, last name)

• Member ID

• Email address

• User name

• Encrypted password

• Salutation

• Job title

• Company name

• Relation to FSC

• Type of Membership

• Chamber and sub-chamber

• FSC License code

• Telephone number

• Address

• Country

• Language

• State of activities

• Log in times to the platform 

• IP address

• Users’ personal opinions and further materials

• Skills, chosen by the user

• Areas of expertise, chosen by the user

• Tell us something about yourself, free text field to be filled out by the user

You directly provide us with most of the data you collect.  As User of the Members’ Portal you are responsible of providing accurate, complete and up-to-date information during registration on the Members’ Portal and completion of the access request form. 

This information includes your full name (first name, last name), email address, salutation, job title, company name, relation to FSC, FSC License code, country and language. The registration allows the User to access content and services of the Members’ Portal that are offered only to the registered Users. Registered Users have the option of changing or deleting the data specified during registration at any time. 

During the use of the Members’ Portal we will collect data concerning your activities and log-in times to the Members’ Portal.

We need to know your basic data in order to provide service of the Members’ Portal or for the reasons that might be reasonably expected. 

We use your data to do things like provide our services, improve and update our services, communicate with you, secure against fraud and abuse, analyze how people use our Services, troubleshoot issues, and as is required by law or necessary for safety and integrity.

All the personal data we process is processed by FSC International IT Services, however for the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance this information is located on servers in West Europe (Netherlands).

We will not collect any personal data from you that we do not need to provide and oversee this service to you.

Your personal data will be accessible to the data controller FSC AC and to the data processor FSC International IT Services with servers in West Europe (Netherlands). We will not share your information with other third parties, unless required to do so by law.

We will keep your personal data for 5 years following the termination of your account on our Members’ Portal. In some cases, we may be legally obliged to keep your data for 10 years.

FSC AC is committed to ensuring the privacy of your personal information. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

FSC would like to make sure you are fully aware of all your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

• The right to be informed
• The right of access
• The right to rectification
• The right to erasure
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

Upon your request, we provide you with information about the personal data we hold about you. You have the right to access or verify your personal data FSC AC is holding and to have your personal data modified, corrected or deleted under certain conditions at any time.   If you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us privacy@fsc.org.

What are cookies?

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behavior information. When you visit our websites, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies or similar technology. 

How do we use cookies?

Like many other websites, we also use "cookies".  Cookies are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. This automatically gives us certain data, such as IP address, browser used, operating system from your computer and your connection to the Internet. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your anonymized IP address) will be transmitted and stored on our servers in France and Germany. FSC AC will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Unless the law requires so, in no case will the data collected by FSC AC be passed on to third parties or a link with personal data will be established without your consent, unless the law requires so.

Only the people from within the FSC Network (which may include affiliates of FSC AC (collectively, "FSC") who need it to respond to your communication will use this information. We do keep track of the countries and domains from which people visit us, the browser and/or Internet Service Provider used and other related data. We analyze this data for trends and statistics. We do not collect any personal data and user sessions are anonymous.

You can view our website without cookies. You can refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings (“do not accept cookies”) on your browser. Please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by FSC AC in the manner and for the purposes set above. 

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. 

The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. For all other types of cookies we need your permission.

This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.

You can at any time change or withdraw your consent from the Cookie Declaration on our website.

Learn more about who we are, how you can contact us and how we process personal data in our Privacy Statement.

If you have any request for access, rectification, blocking and/or erasure of your personal data or if you have a complaint, please contact our Data Protection Officer directly (see below) in the first instance so that we can address your request and/or complaint.

If you have questions about this Privacy Statement, the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Email us at:   privacy@fsc.org 

Postal Address and further company details:

Forest Stewardship Council A.C., 

Calle Margarita Maza de Juárez # 422, Col. Centro, 68000 Oaxaca, Mexico 

Phone: +52 951 502 6533, +52 951 502 6594

Director General: Dr. Subhra Bhattacharjee and Marion Barriskell 

Public Registry of Property and Commerce: Oaxaca • Mexico • Registration No. 38602

IT Development and Maintenance:

FSC International IT Services

Adenauerallee 134 · 53113 Bonn · Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 228 367 66-0, Fax: +49 (0) 228 367 66-30

Managing Director: Dr. Subhra Bhattacharjee and Marion Barriskell 

Commercial register: Bonn HRB 15990

VAT-Ident-No: DE258067376

If you have a complaint about our use of your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer to address your complaint:

Rolf Poschmann
Sanddornweg 8, 45481 Mülheim
E-mail: poschmann@iitr.de 
Phone: +49 2102-87 99 181

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy Statement from time to time to ensure that it complies with current legal requirements or to implement changes to our services in the Privacy Statement, for example, when introducing new services. In this case your further visit will be subject to the new privacy policy. Be sure to check back here periodically for any changes.

This Privacy Policy Statement does not extend to anything that is inherent in the operation of the internet, and beyond the control of FSC and is not to be applied in any manner contrary to applicable laws, rules or regulations. 

This Privacy Statement was last updated on 18  November 2019.