Privacy statement

Who are we and why does this privacy notice apply to you?

Volt Europa is a pan-European political party. Together with our sub-organisations and affiliated organisations (we call these our chapters), we are “Volt”. At Volt, we respect your privacy and are committed to managing your personal data fairly and safely. 

This Privacy Notice applies to:

  • The users of our websites, services or our tools, or anyone interacting with us (“External Users”); and

  • Volt members and other persons with access to our internal platforms, including employees, freelancers and certain supporters (“Internal Users”).

This Privacy Notice informs you why and how we process the personal data of our External and Internal Users (“you”).

Depending on the interaction with us, and unless otherwise indicated, Volt Europa or any of its chapters is the responsible entity or data controller for processing your personal data as described in this Privacy Notice. 

Content of this Privacy Notice

  • What personal data do we process?

  • For what purposes?

  • Legal basis

  • When do we collect your data?

  • How do we store your data and for how long?

  • How do we share personal data, who has access to your personal data? 

  • What are your rights?

  • Cookies

  • How to contact us

  • How to lodge a complaint

What personal data do we process?

We process personal data that we receive either directly from you or, in certain cases, from third parties, agencies and public sources. In this notice, the term "personal data'' refers to any information that relates to an identified or identifiable person. This data can include your name, address, e-mail, IP address, date of birth, etc.

For External Users

Depending how you interact with us, we process the following personal data:

  • Contact or identification data such as name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, country of residence, as well as company or residence.

  • Payment information such as bank details and other data necessary to send and receive payments.

  • Credentials such as usernames, (encrypted) passwords, and log files.

  • Information from the use of websites and services such as the hostname and IP address of your device, browser type and version, operating system, pages visited, time and duration of your visit to the website, and the website from which you were redirected to us. 

  • Any other data that is either necessary to provide our services to you or as required by law.

If you refuse to provide us with some data (or your consent to process your data) in specific contexts, you may not be able to use or benefit from these services or tools.

For Internal Users 

Below you will find a list of personal data categories that Volt may process. Whether a category applies to you, depends on your interaction with Volt (for example, other categories apply if you are a member or  employee of Volt).  

  • Identification data: name, date and place of birth, age, civil status, language, nationality, gender. 

  • Contact details: phone number, personal email, address, emergency contact details.

  • Membership data: date of application, date of joining, membership of teams, data on your skillset, preferences for volunteering and interactions with others. 

  • Financial details: bank account details.

  • User-generated content: such as your contributions to posts, forums, wikis, and other social media applications and services we provide/use.

  • IT usage data: data on the use of IT assets, such as username, computer name, emails, internet traffic, data related to the use of fixed and mobile phones.

For (prospective) employees, this may also include:

  • Further identification and personal data: identification numbers (such as government identifier or tax numbers), national insurance number or country equivalent, work and residence permit status, employment-related benefits information, dependants, and family composition.

  • Career details: tenure, education, training, competency profile, professional experience, personal data contained in cover letters, resumes, and employment applications.

  • Contract performance details: presences and absences, performance appraisals, talent profile, qualifications, training, learning history, timesheets, business travel details, and incurred expenses.

In specific circumstances, the above categories may include sensitive or special categories of personal data, including health-related data (such as sick days, information on disabilities, or other data required for the management of employment), party membership data, or photographs.

Where applicable, we indicate why you must provide us with your personal data and what happens if you refuse to share this data. If you provide us with other peoples’ personal data, such as by adding emergency contacts or beneficiaries, you should inform them about why and how their personal data may be used, and ask for their consent. If you have any questions about this, please see the section "How to contact us" below.

For what purposes?

Below you can read why we process your personal data.

External User

We process your personal data for or in relation to the following purposes:

  • Service delivery. For operation, maintenance, improvement of platforms used including but not limited to communication platforms and websites.

  • Internal and external communication. To answer requests, comments, to provide information that you have requested from us or expressed interest for, to send newsletters and surveys, and to process any applications. To personalise our communication with you, we may also use data from previous interactions with us.

  • Orders. To process product orders and carry out associated activities such as invoice management. 

  • Support. To maintain our relationship with you, including by providing information about or invitations to our actions, campaigns, events, and activities.

  • Analysis. To conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis. In this case, we will make sure that your identity is kept confidential, and your data is used solely for research for the purpose of Volt’s activities.

  • Political campaigns. For political campaigning and policy research purposes, including to evaluate the effectiveness of our policies and campaigns.

  • Governance. For our everyday organisational and membership management, party governance, auditing, and reporting.

  • Payments and donations. When making payments or donations, we may use an intermediary for your transaction, who then acts as a controller for your payment data. We will still process the data about your donations, invoices, and receipts to comply with our legal and billing duties under applicable law. We will also process this data to personalise our communication with you. If your donations reach a cumulative amount exceeding € 3,000 over the period of a year you must also agree to us making your you must also agree to us making your identity publicly available on our transparency website. Failure to do so will result in us refusing or refunding your donation minus administrative fees, as per our donation policy.

Internal User 

Generally, for members and supporters, we store and process the data you provide us in order to provide you with information about Volt activities and to enable you to join and participate in our organisation. More specifically, the purposes for processing your personal data may include:

  • Operating our party: managing our everyday business activities by providing tools, platforms, and systems, including social media, ensuring tools, platforms, and systems used by Volt are properly maintained and administered.

  • Membership management: managing member communications and relations , conducting training and talent development, performing internal investigations, implementing Volt’s internal policies, managing member count, administering a central member database, and project planning. We may use your physical address to send you merchandise or updates via post.

  • Media campaigns: for communications with our members, supporters and subscribers to our newsletters, we will use your personal data  to send you relevant updates. We will monitor the outreach of our messages to inform  our media campaigns. We will also register certain information related to Volt-member communications, and we will save and use data from interactions you have with us. For example, when signing our petitions, we will use the data you provide us to add you to the supporters list of the petition you signed. 

  • Fees, payments and donations: collection and registration of (membership) fees and donations, ticket sales, expense claims, and receipts. When making payments or donations, we may use an intermediary for your transaction, who then acts as a controller for your payment data. We will still process the data about your donations, invoices, and receipts  to comply with our legal and billing duties under applicable laws. We will also process this data to personalise our communication with you. If you donate a cumulative amount of money that exceeds the value of € 3,000 over the period of a year, you must also agree to us making your identity publicly available. Failure to do so will result in us refusing or refunding your donation minus administrative fees, as per our donation policy.

  • HR and finance administration (mainly for employees and freelancers): personnel administration, including salaries, wages, fringe benefits, medical or other benefit schemes, the reimbursement of expenses, managing employee termination process, administering employee grievances and claims, conducting ethics, and disciplinary investigations.

  • Management of access controls: managing access to offices and software applications.

  • Compliance: to comply with applicable legal requirements and our policies, to perform audits and investigations.

  • Data analytics: We may use your data in an aggregated and anonymised way to conduct data analyses. If you are an employee, we may also use your data to understand and improve the performance and productivity of our workforce, and to analyse future workforce needs.

Legal basis

We will only process your personal data if there is a valid legal basis. These could be any of the following:

  • Your consent for the processing of your personal data for one or more specific purposes. This applies, for example, if you agree to the use of cookies on a Volt website or to the sending of advertising material.

  • Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party. For example to process orders you have placed or any other transaction with us.

  • Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject. For example to comply with our tax and accounting obligations.

  • Volt or third parties have a legitimate interest in the processing of your personal data. For example, Volt has a legitimate interest in processing personal data for policy purposes, activity development, and internal analyses. To use your data on this basis, we will always consider whether our legitimate interest outweighs your privacy interests.

  • If it concerns sensitive or other special categories of personal data: in the course of our legitimate activities as a political organisation, based on your consent or any other applicable exemption provided for in Article 9(2) GDPR. 

When do we collect your data? 

You directly provide Volt with most of the data we process. For example, we collect and process data when you:

  • Register online or place an order for any of our events or services;

  • Sign up for a newsletter;

  • Make a donation or other payment; 

  • Voluntarily complete a survey or provide feedback on any of our message boards or via email;

  • Apply for an open position at Volt or apply to become a member;

  • Become a volunteer in the European or local teams; 

  • Use or view our website(s) via your browser;

  • Reach out to our helpdesk. 

Volt may also receive your data indirectly from the following sources: 

  • Social media accounts: whenever you interact with us through our social media accounts or contact us the information you provide to us may include personal data. We may process this personal data in order  to manage those accounts. If you share any information about us via social media, the information you share, which may include personal data, will be visible to visitors of your personal pages (profiles). 

Volt is not responsible for the content, privacy and security of any other websites, apps or social media channels. Such websites and apps are not covered by this Privacy Notice and we therefore recommend that you carefully read the privacy and cookie statements on those websites and apps and of the social media parties that apply to this processing of your personal data by these third parties.  When you click on these links, you may beare redirected to different websites, on which our privacy policy does not apply. We cannot guarantee these links direct you to the most up to date versions.  

How do we store your data and for how long? 

We store your data on servers managed by Volt and/or our IT service providers. We adequately secure your personal data in accordance with our legal, technical and organisational measures to protect personal information from unauthorised use, access, tampering, loss or destruction.

Your data will be stored for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. After that, we will immediately delete or anonymise your data, unless we are legally obliged or entitled to keep your data, for example for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. When determining the retention period, we take into account various criteria, such as the type of contract we concluded with you, the nature and length of our relationship with you, mandatory retention periods provided by law, and the relevant statutes of limitations.

For the purpose of data analysis, aggregated or anonymised subsets of your data may be processed and stored separately. Since this data does not contain personally identifiable data, it may be stored and processed after your original dataset has been deleted.

If you are a member, supporter or employee and you have received access to a Volt account and/or any other online tools that we use to collaborate and communicate internally, and you have not used this account or these tools for a significant period of time or your employment contract has ended, we reserve the right to delete your account and/or restrict your access to Volt’s online tools as deemed necessary. Any personal data stored may be lost as a result thereof. 

How do we share personal data, who has access to your personal data? 

We may share information with third parties with your consent or in the following situations:

  • Service providers or sub-processors. We may share your personal data with external service providers that we engage with regarding application development, hosting, operations or other services. These third parties may be given access to or process personal data as part of the services they provide. We limit the personal data provided to these service providers to that which is reasonably necessary for them to perform their functions, and we require them to agree to maintain the same level of security and confidentiality of the personal data. The service providers or sub-processors are required to protect your personal data appropriately and in accordance with agreements that meet the requirements of legal regulations, also when processing your data outside of the European Economic Area.

  • Compliance with laws and enforcement. We may disclose your personal information if we are required to by law or believe it is necessary (i) to maintain the security or integrity of our services, (ii) to protect Volt's legitimate interests, rights and property, or the safety of Volt, its members, or other persons, (iii) to comply with legal process requests, court orders, requests from authorities or regulators, or (iv) to respond to other legal proceedings against us.

  • Aggregated data. We may share aggregated data with third parties. This does not include any information that could identify you.

In addition, for Internal Users, certain people both in- and outside our organisation must be able to access your personal data in the course of our operations. We make sure such access is secure and on a need-to-know basis.  

  • Members of staff and Board of Directors: have access to your data to the extent that is needed to carry out their respective tasks (for example, the HR team for the purpose of taking a decision about an application, the Communications team  or General Secretaries Office to deliver updates, or the IT team to run, maintain and provide access to our IT infrastructure). Our staff is contractually bound by confidentiality and will never disclose any of your personal information outside Volt, unless you have consented to it. 

  • Volt teams: we may disclose certain personal data such as our contact details to other members of  Volt, if this is necessary for them to carry out their respective tasks (for example, the city lead of your city to onboard you or a local campaign team or communications team to contact you).

Data transmission abroad

We may transfer your personal information to recipients in countries outside the European Union and the United Kingdom whose laws may not provide the same level of data protection. In such cases, we will ensure that appropriate security measures are taken to protect your personal information in order to comply with our legal obligations. An appropriate security measure may be a data protection agreement with the recipient containing the standard contractual clauses approved by the competent authorities for the transfer of personal data to third countries. For more information about the transmissions described above and the appropriate security measures to protect such transmissions, please contact us using the contact information below.

What are your rights?

We would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. You are entitled to the following:

The right of access. You have the right to obtain information regarding your personal data processed by us.

The right to rectification. You have the right to request that Volt corrects or completes any information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.

The right to erasure. You have the right to request that we erase your personal data under certain conditions. You can invoke this right when we process your personal data based on our legitimate interests, such as general HR administration, disclosures for auditing and reporting purposes, internal investigations, management of network and information systems security, or protection of Volt assets. This does not include instances where personal data is used under a legal or contractual obligation. Please be aware that Volt may have legitimate grounds beyond this scope, which may justify the refusal of the request.

The right to restrict processing. You have the right to request that Volt restricts the processing of your personal data under certain conditions.

The right to object to processing. You have the right to object to Volt processing your personal data under certain conditions. This may apply, for instance, if your information is outdated; if the processing is not necessary or is unlawful; if you withdraw your consent; or if we determine we should accommodate an objection you have raised to our processing. In some situations, we may need to retain your personal data pursuant to a legal obligation, or for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

The right to data portability. You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organisation or directly to yourself under certain conditions and acceptable formats.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us by sending an email to: [email protected]. 

Please note that there are exceptions and restrictions to your rights. We can for example charge a reasonable fee or reject unfounded or excessive requests. This is the case for unjustifiably repeated requests. In certain circumstances, we may refuse to process your request or limit your rights if your request is likely to affect the rights and freedoms of third parties, impede the implementation or enforcement of laws, impede pending or future litigation, or violate applicable law. You have the right to file a complaint with your national data protection authority at any time. 

Cookies (where applicable)

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log and visitor behaviour information. We aim to use as few cookies as possible, but cannot go completely cookie-free. We only use functional and essential cookies, which do not store any personal data. Please refer to our Cookieless Notice to get more information on the type of cookies we use.

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and place any updates on this web page. Please check back periodically to see changes and additions. The revision date will indicate when the changes have been made, and will be used to inform you about the changes to this Privacy Notice. The new modified or amended Privacy Notice will apply from that revision date. 

This privacy policy was last updated on 25 October 2024.

How to contact us

If you have any questions, and for every complaint or request to exercise your rights, you can contact our Data Protection Officer at [email protected]. Any requests will usually be responded to within 30 days. You can also reach us via:

For Internal Users: if your inquiry relates to a local Volt chapter, we will ensure your query is forwarded to the relevant contact person of that Volt chapter. If you would like to contact your local Volt chapter directly, please consult this list. 

Our postal address is:

VOLT EUROPA A.I.S.B.L.
Boulevard Bischoffsheim n° 39 boîte 4
1000 Bruxelles
BE 0730.949.438

How to lodge a complaint

You have the right to recourse to the National Supervising Authority of your country. A list of the National Authorities of every EU Member State and their contact details can be found here.