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Terms of Use

Terms of Use

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall not be held liable for causing damage to users due to use of, access to, or use of information contained on this Website.

The information made available through this Website is intended to act simply as a guide for interested parties, while a substantial effort is made to keep its content up to date and accurate.

The documents provided through this Website are for informational purposes. Compared to the official documents provided directly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the latter shall be considered applicable.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not liable for the content or for updating the content found on third-party websites, links to which are provided through this Website.

Intellectual Property

All content and information made available through this Website is the intellectual property of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For this reason it is protected by the relevant legal framework, according to which copying, amending, altering or selling for profit or other purposes is not permitted.

Personal Data

Use of the portal

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledges that the protection of the personal data of visitors/users of the Portal is a matter of the utmost importance and it takes all necessary measures to ensure visitor/user privacy and security.

The management and protection of personal data of visitors/users of the Portal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is subject to the terms of this announcement, as well as to the provisions of national, EU, and international law on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data, as applicable.

Any potential future relevant regulation will be the subject of this announcement. In any case, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reserves the right to change the personal data protection terms in accordance with the relevant legal framework as applicable.

These personal data protection terms may therefore be revised and updated at any time and without notice. Portal users are requested to check these terms regularly for any changes, as the continuous use of the Portal implies that they accept all possible amendments thereto.

Purposes and Legal Bases of the Processing Operation

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs collects Portal visitor/user personal data only when provided voluntarily, in order to provide the services available electronically. Such processing of personal data is based on the prior consent of Portal visitors/users, as a result of free choice and following prior notification regarding the planned processing and its purpose. Personal data is information that can be used to identify or communicate with a person, as well as other information concerning that person.

Definitions

‘Personal Data’: any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

‘Processing’: any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction.

‘Restriction of Processing’: the marking of stored personal data with the aim of limiting their processing in the future.

‘Filing System’: any structured set of personal data which is accessible according to specific criteria, whether centralised, decentralised or dispersed on a functional or geographical basis.

‘Controller’: the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data; where the purposes and means of such processing are determined by Union or Member State law, the controller or the specific criteria for its nomination may be provided for by Union or Member State law.

‘Processor’: the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the Controller.

‘Recipient’: the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or another body, to which the personal data are disclosed, whether a third party or not. However, public authorities which may receive personal data in the framework of a particular inquiry in accordance with Union or Member State law shall not be regarded as recipients; the processing of those data by those public authorities shall be in compliance with the applicable data protection rules according to the purposes of the processing.

‘Third party’: any natural or legal person, public authority, agency or body other than the data subject, controller, Processor and persons who, under the direct authority of the Controller or processor, are authorised to process personal data.

'Consent’ of the data subject: any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her.

‘Personal Data Breach’: the breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.

‘Special Category Data’: personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, religion or beliefs, trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of unique identification of a person, data concerning the health status or data concerning sexual life of a natural person or sexual orientation.

The personal data collected on the Portal are the following:

Full name

Email address

Location

With regard to the above personal data which are to be collected for the above purpose, adequate measures shall be taken to protect them from accidental or unlawful destruction, alteration, prohibited disclosure or access, and any other form of unlawful processing, such as controlled access to the sound recording system.

The data will be stored on a server of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' ST2 Directorate, with no time limit or until you request their deletion.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall not make available for sale or otherwise transmit or make public personal data of visitors/users of the Portal to third parties not related to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, without the consent of the visitor/user, with the exception of the implementation of relevant legal requirements and only to the competent authorities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs may process part or all of the data sent by visitors/users for statistical purposes and to improve the services and information provided. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall never use your personal data for any other purpose without your having previously granted your written consent, which you may revoke at any time, without, however, affecting the lawfulness of the processing prior to such revocation or when required by law.

Data Subject Rights

You may exercise the rights recognised by national and EU law regarding the collection and processing of your personal data (the right of access, the right to rectification, the right to erasure, the right to restriction of processing, the right to data portability, the right to object) and which are applicable in this case, in accordance with the requirements and restrictions laid down by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/679/2016) and Law 4624/2019, by sending an email to the address webteam@mfa.gr, as well as by sending an email the Data Protection Officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dpo@mfa.gr. Visitors/users also retain the right to lodge a complaint with the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (1-3 Kifissias Ave., 11523 Ampelokipoi, Τel. No 210.647.5600, www.dpa.gr) or with the supervisory authority of the EU Member State where they reside or work, or with the supervisory authority of the location of the alleged infringement.

Cookie Policy

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs may collect identification data from Portal users through corresponding technologies, such as cookies and/or IP address tracking. Cookies are small text files stored on the hard disk of visitors/users and cannot access any document or file on visitor/user computers. They are used to facilitate visitor/user access with regard to the use of specific services and/or pages of the Portal, for statistical reasons, and to determine useful or popular areas. This information may also include the type of browser used by a visitor/user, the type of computer, the operating system, the internet service providers, and other such information. Moreover, the Portal’s information system automatically collects information concerning the sites visited by visitors/users and links to third-party websites that they may choose via use of the Portal. 

This website www.mfa.gr uses the following Cookie categories:

Session Cookies

These are used to temporarily store information while users are browsing, to allow for normal interaction with the website. For example, these cookies ensure that the login information or user preferences are retained as users move from page to page.

Security Cookies

These are necessary for WordPress security, such as preventing malicious attacks (e.g. brute-force attacks) and protecting the management environment.

User Preference Cookies

In some cases, WordPress uses cookies to remember a user’s preference settings. These may include viewing preferences of the admin dashboard or storing language preferences for future visits.

Performance and Functionality Cookies

These are used to support basic website functions that may impact the user experience, such as loading images, website loading speed, and to ensure the smooth operation of WordPress.

Portal visitors/users can set their browser to warn them about the use of cookies in specific services or not to allow the use of cookies to be accepted under any circumstances. If visitors/users of the specific services and pages do not wish to use cookies for their identification, they cannot have further access to these services.

This Portal includes links to other websites which are under the responsibility of third parties (natural or legal persons). Under no circumstances is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for the terms of personal data protection that these websites follow.

For the virtual assistance service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as controller, processes the following personal data, which it holds for a period of 24 months:

  • The IP address assigned to the device with which the user is using the service.
  • Details of the connection device (operating system, software, browser version, language).
  • The questions users submit to the virtual assistance system, as well as the virtual assistance system digital files they use (pdf, word files).
  • If the service is used via the Viber and Facebook Messenger digital channels, the name declared by the user on these digital channels and the password created by the digital channels for sending/receiving messages to/from the virtual assistant system (page scope id) are processed.

RSS Feeds

This Website provides RSS 2.0 press releases that you can view through your browser and that you can use freely on your Blog or Website, provided that their source is stated.