Privacy Statement for the Consultation Platform

Introduction:

Thank you for participating in the public consultation platform (hereinafter “Consultation Platform”). We at FSC International Center gGmbH (“FSC IC”, “we”, “us”) respect your privacy and want you to understand how we collect, use, and share personal data about you in compliance with applicable data protection laws in relation to the use of the Consultation Platform.

This Privacy Statement covers our data collection practices and describes your rights to access, correct, or restrict our use of your personal data. Except where we provide you with a link to a different privacy statement or reference to other privacy documentation, this Privacy Statement applies when you participate in the Consultation Platform. By participating in the Consultation Platform, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Statement.

1. Description
2. What Personal Data We Collect
3. How We Collect Your Personal Data
4. How We Use Your Personal Data
5. Use of Your Email Address
6. Who We Share Your Personal Data With
7. How Long We Keep Your Personal Data
8. Security
9. Your Rights
10. Cookies & Similar Technologies
11. How To Contact Us
12. Changes in our Privacy Statement

1. Description
The consultation registration form is used to facilitate public consultations related to FSC policies and standards. Participants may register, review documents, and submit comments. FSC uses engagement-related information for internal analysis, and the data collected helps FSC better understand stakeholder participation patterns, improve outreach and engagement strategies, support communication about FSC services, and ensure inclusiveness and transparency in consultation and communication processes. Additionally, aggregated and anonymized participation data may be made publicly available through FSC platforms to illustrate levels of stakeholder engagement and support transparent communication efforts. (hereinafter “Purpose”).
FSC staff (FSC Global Development GmbH and FSC International Center) are the only authorized organizers and moderators of consultations. Only FSC staff will have access to your comments. The Platform is hosted and maintained by FSC International IT Services (FSC Global Development GmbH), with data stored on secure servers in Europe.
FSC IC is the ´controller´ of the personal data you provide under the Purpose of this Privacy Statement and the registration platform used (e.g., Consultation Platform). acts in a function of a ‘processor’ in performing the Purpose of this Privacy Statement.

2. What Personal Data We Collect

In order to fulfill the Purpose of this Privacy Statement, we may need to collect or store some personal data. The personal data we process can include the following:

E-mail address (mandatory)

Voluntary:

Full name (title, first name, middle name, last name)
Country
Region
Organization or company name
Gender identity: Female / Male / Non-binary / Prefer not to say)
Stakeholder category (e.g., FSC member, certificate holder, government, etc.)
FSC Certificate Holder type (if applicable)
FSC membership chamber (if applicable)
Gender identity: Female / Male / Non-binary / Prefer not to say)
Age group
Stakeholder Interest questions (Where did you hear about this consultation, materials used, and previous events attended)

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

When accessing the Platform, your device automatically transmits:

Date and time of access
IP address
Operating system
Type of device
Volume of data transferred

This data is processed for technical access purposes only.

3. How We Collect Your Personal Data

Personal data is collected:

When you register or create a user account
When you submit comments or feedback
Through a consultation form or follow-up communication
Automatically via your device (see section 2 above)

We process personal data provided to us directly by you or through the Consultation Platform or follow-up communication. By participating in the Consultation Platform, you provide us with your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para 1 lit. a GDPR to process your personal data for the Purpose indicated in this privacy statement.

If the personal data you provided needs to be corrected, please indicate the changes by sending an email to psu@fsc.org.

4. How We Use Your Personal Data

We are not using your personal data for anything else beyond the Purpose or the processing during the consultations described as follows:

4.1 You may participate in consultations on the Platform, which are conducted by authorized organizers. Organizers may only be staff of FSC International (FSC Global Development GmbH and FSC International Center).
4.2 You may participate in consultations on the Platform, which are conducted by authorized organizers. Organizers may only be staff of FSC International (FSC Global Development GmbH and FSC International Center).
4.3 Platform users may submit comments or input on the consultation topics. These comments are collected for analysis and decision-making.
4.4 Comments submitted by users will not be publicly published and are only accessible to the designated FSC staff organizing the consultation.
4.5 FSC organizers may contact you directly via the Platform or by email to follow up on your submitted comments.
4.6 FSC may use the data collected during consultations — including demographic data — for internal analysis to better understand stakeholder participation and improve consultation processes.

We are processing your personal data based on our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) except when FSC IC interests are overridden by your interests, fundamental rights and freedoms. In case FSC cannot process the data based on legitimate interest, FSC IC will collect your consent (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR) before processing your data or will process the data only if it is necessary for compliance with legal obligation (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. c GDPR).

5. Use of Your Email Address

We may use your email address to:

Notify you when a new consultation has been posted
Remind you when a consultation is about to start, end, or has ended
Contact you regarding your submitted comments if necessary
Send system-related notifications (e.g., password recovery emails)

We do not use your email address for marketing purposes without your explicit consent.

All personal data we process for the purposes of this Privacy Statement is processed only by FSC IC staff for the purposes described above.

If the personal data that we collect from you needs to be transferred to, and processed by a processor based outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), we will take steps, such as including contractual clauses into our contracts with such processors or controllers, that would ensure that your personal data is safe and treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Statement. Other than that, we do not share personal data with other third parties, unless described in this Privacy Statement or required to do so by law.

7. How Long do We Keep Your Personal Data

We will keep your personal data only for as long as it is necessary for the processing. However, in certain situations, FSC is obliged to keep the records for six (6) years if those records are business-related and for ten (10) years if tax-related. If the data is related to the certification information, in line with the FSC normative framework, we will keep it for ten (10) years beyond the termination of your relationship with FSC.

8. Security

We are committed to ensuring the privacy of your personal data. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the personal data we collect online.

9. Your Rights

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

The right to access enables you to receive information on whether we process your personal data, as well as a copy of the personal data we process about you.
The right to rectification enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate personal data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new personal data you provide to us.
The right to erasure enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason or legitimate interest for us to continue to process it.
The right to restrict processing enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data under specific circumstances.
The right to data portability enables you to request that we provide you or a third party of your choosing with the personal data which you have provided to us (in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format).
The right to object enables you to object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on our legitimate interest as a legal basis. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your personal data which override your rights and freedoms.
The right to make a complaint to the competent data protection authority. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns, so if you have any questions or concerns regarding our processing of your personal data, please contact us at privacy@fsc.org

If you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us at privacy@fsc.org or our Data Protection Officer at the contact details set out below.

10. Cookies and Analytics

This Platform uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses "cookies", which are text files placed on your computer, to help the Platform analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the Platform will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. As the IP-anonymization was activated on this Platform, your IP address will be truncated within the area of Member States of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the whole IP address be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. The IP-anonymization is active on this Platform. Google will use this information on behalf of FSC for the purpose of evaluating your use of the Platform, compiling reports on Platform activities, and providing us with other services relating to Platform activity and internet usage. The IP address that your Browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this Platform.

You can also opt out of the collection of your data created by cookies and relating to your use of the Platform (including your IP address) by downloading and installing the browser plugin available under the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

You may also opt out of the collection by Google Analytics by clicking the following link. An opt-out cookie will be placed, preventing the collection of data for the future when you visit the Platform.

For more information, please see the Google Privacy Policy under https://www.google.de/intl/ne/policies/privacy/.

11. How to Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Statement, the personal 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:

FSC International Center gGmbH,
Adenauerallee 134, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Phone: 0049 (0) 228 36766 0
Fax: 0049 (0) 228 36766 30
Managing Directors: Ms. Dr. Subhra Bhattacharjee and Ms. Marion Barriskell
Commercial register: Bonn HRB 12589
VAT-Ident-No: DE 814618194

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

Scheja & Partner Rechtsanwälte
Mr. Boris Reibach
Adenauerallee 136, 53113 Bonn
Tel.: +49 (0) 228-227 226-0
Fax: +49 (0) 228-227 226-26
E-mail: info@scheja-partner.de
Contact form: http://www.scheja-partner.de/kontakt/kontakt.html
Website: www.scheja-partner.de

12. Changes to our Privacy Statement

We reserve the right to unilaterally change this Privacy 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.

Please regularly check this Privacy Statement for possible updates

This Privacy Statement was last updated on 14/08/2025.