Processing operation: ‘Mission Soil Activities and Platform’
Data Controller: European Commission, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, Unit F.2 – Research and Innovation, hereafter AGRI.F2
Record reference: DPR-EC-22151
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Why and how do we process your personal data?
3. On what legal ground(s) do we process your personal data?
4. Which personal data do we collect and further process?
5. How long do we keep your personal data?
6. How do we protect and safeguard your personal data?
7. Who has access to your personal data and to whom is it disclosed?
8. What are your rights and how can you exercise them?
9. Contact information
10. Where to find more detailed information?
1. Introduction
The European Commission (hereafter ‘the Commission’) is committed to protect your personal data and to respect your privacy. The Commission collects and further processes personal data pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data (repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001).
This privacy statement explains the reason for the processing of your personal data, the way we collect, handle and ensure protection of all personal data provided, how that information is used and what rights you have in relation to your personal data. It also specifies the contact details of the responsible Data Controller with whom you may exercise your rights, the Data Protection Officer and the European Data Protection Supervisor.
The information in relation to the processing operation “Mission Soil Activities and Platform”, undertaken by AGRI F.2, is presented below. This privacy statement concerns you in particular if you are a Mission Soil Ambassador, a member of the Mission Board, a speaker or a subscriber of the Mission Soil Podcast, or a person appearing in pictures, videos, articles or other communication products of the Mission Soil.
If you are working for the Commission or as contractor in the management of the activities described here, this privacy statement also applies also to you.
If you are featuring in the Mission Soil newsletter or subscribe to it, another record and privacy statement is available to explain to you the processing of your data in that operation. That privacy statement is available at this link:
https://mission-soil-platform.ec.europa.eu/newsletter-privacy-statement
2. Why and how do we process your personal data?
Purpose of the processing operation:
The EU Mission 'A Soil Deal for Europe' (Mission Soil) is a novel instrument under Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation framework programme. The Mission Soil is a large-scale initiative focused on protecting as well as restoring soils, and promoting sustainable management practices in urban and rural areas. The Mission aims to raise the stakeholders’ and general public’s awareness of soil health issues and to ensure the long-term health and productivity of soils on all types of land.
AGRI F.2 collects and uses your personal information to organise, manage and follow up on the Mission Soil activities. This privacy statement concerns in particular the following activities:
- Website: mission-soil-platform.ec.europa.eu
- Activities with and of Mission Ambassadors
- Mission Board and Mission visibility
- Mission Soil Podcast
- Communication products (excluding newsletter)
The detailed description by activity and the purpose of processing of personal data is explained below:
If you are a Mission Ambassador or a Mission Board member, the website may be used to publish your personal data. The purpose of this processing is to allow for better transparency of the activities connected to Mission Soil, and in particular to allow for networking and engagement with the wider public.
Additionally, if you are a Commission or contractor staff, we keep logs on your activity performed on the platform, which include your personal data (usernames, action performed). These logs are necessary for accountability purposes and to be able to retrace the activities carried out if necessary.
Activities with and of Mission Ambassadors
If you are a Mission Ambassador, the purpose is to promote the Mission Soil and its activities, as well as the protection and restoration of soil health. You should lead by example (showcase your dedication to soil topics), inspire others to act (promote individual and organisational action to get involved in tackling soil health issues), facilitate connections and networks (participate in and/or organise events, act as connectors for various stakeholders, contribute to knowledge exchange and piloting, network), and inform and reach out (raise awareness and improve the overall soil literacy of the general public).
For this reason, you are asked to provide personal data such as your name, surname, profession, country of residence, contact, declarations, photos, videos, voice recording. This data may be published on the Commission websites [1], in social media [2], and in any relevant online and physical publication. Your visibility is key to ensure the effectiveness of the scheme.
You are also asked to be part of a LinkedIn group with the purpose of facilitating information sharing (participation is voluntary).
We select and contact prospective candidates to the role based on publicly available data and, potentially, suggestions we may receive from Mission Board members, and other stakeholders. In order to assess the suitability of prospective candidates, we may ask for the opinion (based solely on publicly available information) of other AGRI colleagues (in particular unit F.1 communication and the international directorate), the Mission Board, the Permanent Representation of the Member State of the candidate, or the EU Delegation in their country (if the candidate is a national of a third country). If you are a prospective Ambassador that is deemed suitable, you are contacted to ask if you would like to take up the role.
Mission Board and Mission visibility
If you are a Mission Board member, among your activities, you are asked to promote the Mission Soil through communication and citizen engagement activities. You actively engage in policy advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and communication efforts. These efforts ensure the seamless alignment of the Mission with broader EU policies, enhancing its impact on sustainable land use in the European context. Thus, the process and publication of your personal data is necessary to ensure transparency and to effectively promote the Mission Soil. Your personal data may be published on the Commission websites [3], in social media [4], and in any relevant online and physical publication.
Mission Soil Podcast
If you are a speaker in the Mission Soil Podcast, your data will be processed for the purpose of the podcast, which is to promote the Mission Soil and its activities and reach out to the wider public in order to raise awareness and prompt action on the protection and restoration of soil health.
Your personal data are processed in the context of the realisation of the podcast and of its promotion, which means your data will be published on the Commission websites, in social media, and in any relevant online and offline publication, as well as in podcast platforms.
Podcasts are recorded either in person or through the Microsoft Teams application. The further processing of audio files is carried our manually though locally-run software. Podcasts are uploaded and published on YouTube through the account EU Food & Farming [5] and on the EC Audiovisual Service Portal [6] as well as in other podcast platforms such as Google Podcast, Apple Podcast and Spotify (though the European Commission accounts).
Communication products (e.g. videos, photos, articles, etc.)
If you are a person featuring in a communication product of the Mission Soil your data may be processed for the purpose of the Mission Soil communication activities. In fact, the Mission Soil has a strong communication and citizen engagement component. Thus, it produces several communication products such as videos, photos, and articles. These communication products may contain your personal data, such as name, surname, profession, country of residence, contact, declarations, photos, videos, and voice recording. These communications products may be published on the Commission websites [7], in social media [8], and in any relevant online and physical publication.
If you are featured in the Mission Soil newsletter you are not concerned by this statement. A separate privacy statement has been provided to you ( and is also available here: https://mission-soil-platform.ec.europa.eu/newsletter-privacy-statement), and you can contact us for any further details.
If you are a subscriber or a follower of the podcast or of other communication avenues (social media profiles etc.), in principle, DG AGRI will not collect or process your personal data. The only exception to this is in the case you send us a request or attempt to reach out to us, DG AGRI will endeavour to respond to you. No personal data of yours will be retained by DG AGRI; nonetheless, your data may remain available to us through the IT platforms utilised. You should refer to the specific privacy policy of the specific service / social media platform of your choice for more details.
3. On what legal ground(s) do we process your personal data
We process your personal data, because:
(a) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Union institution or body (art. 5(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725);
- The processing of personal data under Article 5(1)(a) is necessary to deliver communication and engagement activities in compliance with article 8.4(b) of the Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, laying down its rules for participation and dissemination, which states the following:
“Missions shall: […] be inclusive, encourage broad engagement and active participation from various types of stakeholders from the public and private sector, including citizens and end-users [...].”
If you are a potential Mission Ambassador, we collect your personal data if they are freely available online in order to assess your suitability to the role. We may also receive recommendations from Mission Board members, and other stakeholders. If needed, in order to assess your potential suitability to the role, we may also ask for the opinion (based solely on publicly available information) of relevant entities, such as Permanent Representations of Member States and EU Delegations.
- Additionally, if you are a staff member of the European Commission, we process your personal data of where it is necessary to ensure the good functioning of this operation, in line with the provisions of Article 298 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In particular, it is in the public interest to maintain (for a specific amount of time) information on who has performed certain actions (logs) so that the relevant people can be identified and consulted should any issues be discovered. Additionally, we also utilise access controls to ensure that access to personal data is restricted only to those who have a need to know by virtue of their function. For more information, you can refer to the record on Identity & Access Management Service (IAMS)- Internal Users (DPR-EC-08606). Moreover, your personal data is also processed when you are a speaker of the Mission Soil Podcast as it is in the public interest to know the Commission’s work and position (you are also asked to sign an authorisation form for the recording of the voice of an adult - Audiovisual Portal).
(c) processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract;
- Mission Board: If you are a member of the Mission Board, you are under contract to, among other duties, assist the Commission in its communication efforts about EU Missions. The Expert Group number is E03816 and the reference pool is 052169. You have signed an individual contract which regulates the processing of your personal data.
- Mission Soil Podcast:
- If you are a podcast host, you are contracted by the Mission Soil Platform to fulfil this role. Your personal data are processed in accordance with that contract. However, you are also asked to sign an authorisation form for the recording of the voice of an adult - Audiovisual Portal.
- Contractor staff: If you are a contractor staff your personal data is processed in accordance with service contract REA/2022/OP/0001, concluded between the Commission and its contractors.
(d) the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes;
Mission Ambassadors:
o Your personal data are collected through a EUsurvey [9] on the basis of consent (excluding those obtained in advance of your nomination, which are collected and processed for reasons of public interest).
Mission Soil Podcast:
o If you are an interviewee, you are asked to sign an authorisation form for the recording of the voice of an adult and their data are collected in a non-systematic manner. Your consent may be collected via manual signature of a form, or via EU Survey.
o If you are a subscriber, your data is not processed by DG AGRI, but may be visible in the platform(s) where the podcast is shared.
Communication products (e.g. videos, photos, articles):
o If you are an interviewee or a person appearing in photos, videos, articles or other communication products, you are providing your data on the basis of consent. Your data is collected in a non-systematic manner (i.e. based on the specific circumstances). Your consent may be collected via manual signature of a form, via EU Survey, or via another online platform.
o If you are a member of the public of an event, photos may be taken and used in public websites, articles, newsletters and other promotional materials. Photos of you are only collected and used on the basis of your consent (concerning photos where participants are identifiable - not panoramic photos of the wider public in general). Events are managed under a separate record.
You are not requested to provide any special categories of personal data (that is “personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation”).
If you nonetheless choose to do so, we will consider your sharing of this data as explicit consent to process it in the same manner as all other personal data in accordance with Article 10(2)(a) of Regulation 2018/1725. You can always contact us for more details.
4. Which personal data do we collect and further process?
In order to carry out this processing operation AGRI F.2 collects the following categories of personal data:
The following data are or may be collected from you if you are a Mission Ambassador (or a person who are being considered to be offered the role), a Mission Board Member or an interviewee / person otherwise depicted in communication products*.
- Name;
- Surname;
- Profession;
- country and place of residence;
- contacts (email address, telephone number);
- biography (which will include any relevant personal data you may choose to reveal);
- declarations;
- photos;
- videos;
- voice recordings;
- links to your social media profiles (the social media profiles may then include additional data, which is not controlled by the Commission). You choose which profiles you wish to share (if any).
*data collected from interviewees or other persons depicted in communication products may vary: the list includes all categories of personal data that may be collected at a maximum.
If you are a European Commission staff or a contractor, your login data as well as logs of the actions you perform on the Mission Soil platform (https://mission-soil-platform.ec.europa.eu) will be collected. For more detail on EU Login, please refer to its record (DPR-EC-03187).
If you are a social media user, depending on the platform chosen by you to follow our communication products, some of your data (username, for example) may be visible through the accounts we use to disseminate our communication products (including our podcasts). If you are a subscriber, we will not process any of your personal , unless you choose to directly engage with us (for example, we may reply to comments you leave in our posts online). We will not process your personal data for purposes other than responding to your efforts to engage with us. For more details on which personal data may in theory be available to us, you should refer to the privacy policy of the IT or social media platform in question.
You are not requested to provide any special categories of personal data (that is “personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation”). However, if you think that these data are relevant, you may still choose to share them with us.
5. How long do we keep your personal data?
AGRI F.2 only keeps your personal data for the time necessary to fulfil the purpose of collection or further processing, namely for:
- 5 years from the end of the activity for name and surname, profession, country and place of residence, contacts, declarations, biography;
- 10 years from the publication date for photos, videos, voice recording.
- 2 years for user logins and activity logs
- Data collected on potential candidates to the role of Mission Ambassador will be deleted:
- Aggregated (anonymised) data on the research on potential candidates will be retained in connection to the management of our contract with contractors.
- 1 month from the end of the selection procedure for Mission Ambassadors (not applicable to the persons who do become Mission Ambassadors).
- name and surname, organisation of selected Mission Ambassadors that declined the nomination will be retained until the end of 2025, in order to avoid re-contacting you for the same purpose.
6. How do we protect and safeguard your personal data?
All personal data in electronic format (e-mails, documents, databases, uploaded batches of data, etc.) are stored either on the servers of the European Commission or of its contractors. All processing operations are carried out pursuant to the Commission Decision (EU, Euratom) 2017/46 of 10 January 2017 on the security of communication and information systems in the European Commission.
The Commission’s contractors are bound by a specific contractual clause for any processing operations of your data on behalf of the Commission, and by the confidentiality obligations deriving from the transposition of the General Data Protection Regulation in the EU Member States (‘GDPR’ Regulation (EU) 2016/679).
In order to protect your personal data, the Commission has put in place a number of technical and organisational measures in place. Technical measures include appropriate actions to address online security, risk of data loss, alteration of data or unauthorised access, taking into consideration the risk presented by the processing and the nature of the personal data being processed. Organisational measures include restricting access to the personal data solely to authorised persons with a legitimate need to know for the purposes of this processing operation. Such staff abide by statutory, and when required, additional confidentiality agreements.
7. Who has access to your personal data and to whom is it disclosed?
Access to your personal data is provided to the Commission staff responsible for carrying out this processing operation and to authorised staff according to the “need to know” principle (mostly found in DG AGRI's unit F.2). Such staff abide by statutory, and when required, additional confidentiality agreements.
If you are a member of the expert group Mission Board for Soil Deal for Europe Mission, the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) manages your contract, and as such they may have access to your personal data.
If you are a Mission Ambassador, Mission Board member, interviewee or a person otherwise included in our communication products, your personal data included in those communication products will be published and become available to the general public (and to the social media platforms used for the publishing activities). We may also share this personal data with staff of the Directorate-General for Communication (DG COMM). DG COMM may choose to use this material for publishing on social media accounts it manages or on the audiovisual portal, in accordance with the respective records of processing.
If you are a prospective candidate to the role of Mission Ambassador, we may ask the following entities to express an opinion on your suitability to the role based on publicly available information:
- the Mission Board,
- the Permanent Representation of your Member State, or
- the EU Delegation in your country (if you come from or live in a non-EU country).
The Research Executive Agency (REA) staff can also have access to your personal data if necessary for the management of REA/2022/OP/0001, as they are responsible for the administration of the contracts with our processors (contractors). This is applicable in particular if you are a Mission Board member, a Mission Ambassador (and prospective), a podcast speaker and a person involved in the communication products. It is important to note that the administrative management of Mission Soil is a separate operation, covered by the record DPR-EC-01024, to which REA participates as a Joint Controller. More information, including the privacy statement / data protection notice, is available on REA's DPO public register here. However, the activities carried out in this operation are deliverables in the management of SERVICE CONTRACT NUMBER REA/2022/OP/0001between REA and our processors. While REA endeavours to minimise the collection of personal data in the context of the evaluation of deliverables, all personal data collected under this operation may be transmitted to them if it is necessary to prove compliance with the contractor’s obligations.
The Commission’s contractors for this operation are:
- Ecorys Brussels N.V.
Rue Belliard 12
1040 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32 2 743 89 49
Email: Brussels@ecorys.com
- RICARDO
Shoreham-by-Sea West Sussex BN43 5FG UK
Tel: +44 (0)1273 455611
Email: info@ricardo.com
- Ecologic Institute
Berlin Pfalzburger Strasse 43/44 10717 Berlin Germany
Tel. +49 30 86880-0
Fax +49 30 86880-100
Email: datenschutz@ecologic.eu
All three organisations carry out all activities as they work together as one consortium (the Mission Implementation Platform established under SERVICE CONTRACT NUMBER REA/2022/OP/0001). Microsoft Teams may be used as a communication platform in the context of Mission Soil activities, and specifically concerning the creation of the podcast.
As a Mission Ambassadors, Mission Board member, interviewee, or person depicted in communication products, some of your personal data may be published; for this personal data, the general public is a recipient.
If you are a Mission Ambassador, you may be asked to carry out some of your activities through LinkedIn, that platform may also receive some of your personal data in the context of this operation (use of LinkedIn is voluntary).
In the course of this operation, some of your personal data will be sent to the US and the UK. The list of data is the same as specified in Section III.2. For the processing, this data may be sent to the following Commission's contractor in the UK:
- RICARDO
Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex BN43 5FG UK
Tel. +44 (0)1273 455611
Email: info@ricardo.com
This transfer is covered by an adequacy decision (details below).
Teams may be used as a communication platform in the context of Mission Soil. Any transfers of your personal data to the US in connection to the use of this tool are covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (adequacy decision).
Use of social media: If you are a Mission Board member, you can (optionally) use LinkedIn, which is covered under EU-US Data Privacy Framework (adequacy decision).
Other social media platforms are used to publish and share communication contents. They are:
- Google Podcast
- Apple podcast
- Spotify
- Youtube
- X
These platforms are all either covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or are interacting with EU-based users (including all our accounts) via EU-based legal entities.
As such, the controller will transfer your personal data based on:
- adequacy decision of the Commission (Article 47 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725)
- Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/1772 of 28 June 2021 pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the adequate protection of personal data by the United Kingdom (notified under document C(2021)4800) (Text with EEA relevance)
- Commission Implementing Decision EU 2023/1795 of 10 July 2023 pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the adequate level of protection of personal data under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (notified under document C(2023)4745) (Text with EEA relevance)
Please note that request for an opinion from EU Delegations in third countries (in the context of the assessment of suitability for prospective Mission Ambassadors) is not considered an international transfer since EU Delegations are still subject to the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.
8. What are your rights and how can you exercise them?
You have specific rights as a ‘data subject’ under Chapter III (Articles 14-25) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, in particular the right to access, your personal data and to rectify them in case your personal data are inaccurate or incomplete. Where applicable, you have the right to erase your personal data, to restrict the processing of your personal data, to object to the processing, and the right to data portability.
As a potential Mission Ambassador or a European Commission staff member, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data, which is lawfully carried out pursuant to Article 5(1)(a) on grounds relating to your particular situation.
Insofar as you have consented to provide your personal data to AGRI F.2 for the present processing operation, you can withdraw your consent at any time by notifying us. The withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of the processing carried out before you have withdrawn the consent.
You can exercise your rights by contacting the Data Controller, AGRI F.2, or in case of conflict the Data Protection Officer. If necessary, you can also address the European Data Protection Supervisor. Their contact information is given under Heading 9 below.
Where you wish to exercise your rights in the context of one or several specific processing operations, please provide their description (i.e. their Record reference(s) as specified under Heading 10 below) in your request.
9. Contact information
- The Data Controller
If you would like to exercise your rights under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, or if you have comments, questions or concerns, or if you would like to submit a complaint regarding the collection and use of your personal data, please feel free to contact the Data Controller, EU-HORIZON-MISSION-SOIL@ec.europa.eu.
- The Data Protection Officer (DPO) of the Commission
You may contact the Data Protection Officer (DATA-PROTECTION-OFFICER@ec.europa.eu) with regard to issues related to the processing of your personal data under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.
- The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)
You have the right to have recourse (i.e. you can lodge a complaint) to the European Data Protection Supervisor (edps@edps.europa.eu) if you consider that your rights under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 have been infringed as a result of the processing of your personal data by the Data Controller.
10. Where to find more detailed information?
The Commission Data Protection Officer (DPO) publishes the register of all processing operations on personal data by the Commission, which have been documented and notified to him. You may access the register via the following link: http://ec.europa.eu/dpo-register.
This specific processing operation has been included in the DPO’s public register with the following Record reference: DPR-EC-22151
[1] https://ec.europa.eu, https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu; https://rea.ec.europa.eu; https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu; https://eu-cap-network.ec.europa.eu.
[2] Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI): https://x.com/EUAgri, https://www.facebook.com/EUAgri/, https://www.instagram.com/euagrifood/; Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (RTD): https://x.com/EUScienceInnov/, https://www.facebook.com/EUScienceInnov; European Research Executive Agency (REA): https://x.com/EUgreenresearch, https://x.com/REA_research, https://www.linkedin.com/company/european-research-executive-agency-rea/, https://www.instagram.com/eu_science/.
[3] see footnote 1 above.
[4] see footnote 2 above.
[5] https://www.youtube.com/user/euagri (owned and managed by the European Commission Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development).
[6] https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/ (owned and managed by the European Commission Directorate-General for Communication).
[7] see footnote 1 above.
[8] see footnote 2 above.
[9] For more details on how EUsurvey processes your personal data, you may refer to its record: DPR-EC-01488