Privacy notice

Who we are

We are EVEC Kocani — in full, the European Voluntary and Educational Center Kocani (ЕВРОПСКИ ВОЛОНТЕРСКИ И ЕДУКАТИВЕН ЦЕНТАР Кочани), a citizens’ association registered in North Macedonia — and we are the data controller for the information described here. Our seat is Ul. Boris Trajkovski 42, 2300 Kocani, North Macedonia. This notice covers the website evec.org.mk.

If you have any questions about your privacy or this notice, write to us at contact@evec.org.mk — we reply within 3 working days. For reference: we were founded on 15 February 2014 and entered in the Central Registry of the Republic of North Macedonia on 11 March 2014; our registration number (EMBS) is 6938566, our tax number (EDB) is 4013014510973, and our EU identifiers are OID E10119353 and PIC 943554018.

One clarification that avoids confusion: our sister organisation EVEC Athens runs evec.org.gr in Greece. It shares our name and methods, but it is a legally separate organisation and its own data controller — what you read here applies only to evec.org.mk.

What information we collect

We only collect what we need, and most of the time that means information you choose to give us. This includes:

• Messages you send us. Most contact with us happens by e-mail to contact@evec.org.mk, in which case we hold your e-mail address and whatever you put in the message. The enquiry form on our contact page asks for more than that: your first and last name, your e-mail address, your organisation, your country, which Erasmus+ field your enquiry concerns, what stage your project is at, the dates you have in mind, and the description of the project you write in the message box. It also records that you ticked the box agreeing we may keep these details in order to reply to you.
• Programme applications. If you apply to take part in one of our activities, we collect the details needed to assess and run your participation. These are handled under the specific call you are applying to.
• Safeguarding checks. For any role that involves working with people under 18 or with people with disabilities, we request a recent criminal-record certificate issued by the competent authority in your home country. This is information about criminal convictions and offences, and we treat it accordingly — we record only that a valid certificate was seen and the date it was checked. We do not retain a copy of the certificate itself.
• Safeguarding and complaints records. If you raise a safeguarding concern or make a complaint, we record what was reported, who was involved, and what we did about it. Depending on what is reported, this can include sensitive information such as health or wellbeing details. Access is limited to the people who need it to act on the report.
• Push notifications. If you allow browser push notifications (provided by OneSignal), a subscription identifier for your browser is stored so notifications can reach you. It is not linked to your name or e-mail address.
• Newsletter. We do not send an e-mail newsletter at the moment. If we launch one, we will update this notice first, we will use only an address you choose to give us, and every e-mail will include an unsubscribe link.
• Technical data. Like most websites, our host keeps standard server logs (such as your IP address, browser type, and the pages requested) so the site can run and stay secure.
• Cookies. Small files stored by your browser, described in the Cookies section below.

Why we use it and our legal basis

We use your information to reply to and handle your enquiries and applications. Depending on the situation, our legal basis is your consent and/or taking steps toward an agreement with you (for example, arranging your participation in an activity).

We also use technical data to keep the site secure and working properly, which is our legitimate interest in running a safe, reliable website.

Safeguarding. Where we ask for a criminal-record certificate, or record a safeguarding concern, we are acting to protect children and vulnerable participants. Our basis for the underlying processing is our legitimate interest, and where applicable our legal obligations, in keeping participants safe. For the sensitive categories involved, we rely on the grounds that the Law on Personal Data Protection of the Republic of North Macedonia — which follows the EU’s GDPR — provides for processing of this kind, and we keep it to the minimum needed — see How long we keep your information and our safeguarding policy.

To be clear: we do not sell your personal data. We do not show third-party advertising on the site. If that ever changes, we will update this notice first — see the Cookies and Third parties sections below.

Cookies

We use a small number of cookies. One of them is always set: pll_language, set by Polylang, the multilingual plugin that is active on this site now. It is written on every page you open, lasts one year, and records which language version you are viewing: en on the English pages, mk on the Macedonian pages at /mk/. It is used for nothing else — it does not track you. An ordinary visit is not limited to that one cookie, though: as explained below, Google Analytics can write its two cookies for visitors outside the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, which includes North Macedonia. WordPress security cookies exist too, but they are set only once you log in to the site.

Beyond that, we use Google Analytics, connected through Site Kit by Google, to understand how the site is used. We will be plain about where we stand: the site does not yet show a cookie consent banner, so analytics runs from the moment a page loads. Google’s consent signal is set to denied by default for visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, which stops Analytics writing its _ga cookie for them; that default does not cover visitors elsewhere, including North Macedonia, and it does not stop the measurement data being sent either way. We would rather tell you that clearly than describe a choice we have not built. You can block or delete cookies in your browser at any time, and Google offers a browser add-on that opts you out of Google Analytics on every website, including this one. We intend to add a consent banner so that analytics waits for your agreement; when it arrives, this notice will be updated.

The full list of cookies and similar technologies, and how to control each one, is on our cookie policy page.

Third parties and embedded content

The company that hosts this website acts as our data processor: it stores the site and its server logs on our behalf.

We use Google Analytics, connected through Site Kit by Google, to measure how the site is used. Google processes the related data under its own privacy policy.

We also use Google Fonts, and we should be exact about what that means. The typefaces this site is set in are not stored on our server: every page requests one stylesheet from fonts.googleapis.com and then three font files from fonts.gstatic.com. That happens as the page renders, on every visit, before you are asked anything, so your IP address and the address of the page you are reading reach Google whether or not you ever do anything else on the site. Google processes that data under the same privacy policy.

We use OneSignal for optional browser push notifications. Two things to know. First, notifications are strictly opt-in: nothing is ever sent unless you click “Allow” in your browser’s own permission prompt, and you can withdraw that permission at any time in your browser settings. Second — and we say this plainly — the OneSignal script loads as the page renders, before you make any choice, so OneSignal’s servers learn your IP address even if you never subscribe. The script also stores a page-view counter and a small database in your browser from your first visit, again whether or not you subscribe; our cookie policy lists those items by name. OneSignal processes this data under its own privacy policy.

When we e-mail you, the message travels through an e-mail delivery service that acts as our data processor.

Embedded content from another website behaves as if you had visited that site yourself, so it may collect data about you according to that provider’s own privacy practices.

How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected for, after which it is deleted or anonymised. In practice:

• Enquiries and messages — up to 24 months from your last contact with us.
• Applications that did not lead to a placement — up to 24 months, so we can consider you for a later call. Tell us if you would rather we delete them sooner, and we will.
• Participant records for EU-funded projects — five years after the final payment of the project. The EU grant rules ask for three years on grants under €60,000 and five years above that; we apply the longer period to every project, so the same rule protects everyone regardless of which project they took part in.
• Criminal-record checks — we keep only a note that a valid certificate was seen and the date, for the duration of the role plus 12 months. The certificate itself is not retained.
• Safeguarding and complaint records — kept for as long as needed to act on the matter and to meet our obligations to participants and funders. Records involving a child are kept longer, because concerns can surface years later.
• Server logs — kept by our host for a short rolling period for security and diagnostics.
• Push-notification subscriptions — until you withdraw the browser permission or unsubscribe.

Deletion on these schedules is our responsibility, not yours — and you never have to wait for a schedule. Ask us at contact@evec.org.mk and we will delete your information sooner wherever the law and our funders’ rules allow.

International transfers

Some of the providers we rely on (for example, Google and OneSignal) may process data outside North Macedonia and the European Economic Area. Where that happens, appropriate safeguards apply, such as the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.

Your rights

Under the Law on Personal Data Protection of the Republic of North Macedonia, which follows the EU’s GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Delete your data (the right to be forgotten).
• Restrict how we process your data.
• Object to certain processing.
• Portability — receive your data in a portable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where our processing relies on consent.

To exercise any of these, e-mail contact@evec.org.mk. You also have the right to complain to the Agency for Personal Data Protection of the Republic of North Macedonia, the national supervisory authority.

Children and young people

Many of our activities involve young people. Where a participant is under 18, they take part with parental consent, per our safeguarding policy, and people in roles that involve working with people under 18 or with people with disabilities go through the checks that policy describes.

How we protect participants, and how to raise a concern about someone’s safety, is set out in our safeguarding and participant protection policy. If you want to complain about how we handled something, including how we used your information, our complaints procedure explains how. If something on this site is hard to use, our accessibility statement sets out what we already know about and how to tell us.

Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top of the page always shows the current version.

Contact us

For any privacy questions, e-mail contact@evec.org.mk or call +389 78 275 770. We reply within 3 working days.

By post: EVEC Kocani, Ul. Boris Trajkovski 42, 2300 Kocani, North Macedonia.

EVEC Kocani · European Voluntary and Educational Center Kocani · OID E10119353 · PIC 943554018 · ESC Quality Label valid to 31/12/2027 · Kocani, North Macedonia · Contact: contact@evec.org.mk