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Speech Repository

Privacy statement

PROTECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

This privacy statement provides information about

the processing and the protection of your personal data.

 

Processing operation: The Speech Repository – online distance learning tool for non-commercial purposes only, allowing interpretation students and professional interpreters to practise and improve interpretation skills.

Data Controller: DG Interpretation, Unit SCIC.B.1 

Record reference:  DPR-EC-00349

 

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 processing operation “The Speech Repository” which is DG Interpretation’s online distance learning tool, allowing interpretation students and professional interpreters to practise and improve interpretation skills, is presented below.

2. Why and how do we process your personal data?

Purpose of the processing operation: DG Interpretation provides financial and pedagogical support to interpreter training schemes in order to ensure that enough qualified conference interpreters are available to cover current and future needs. In this context, DG Interpretation developed the Speech Repository, managed by Unit SCIC.B.1.

The Speech Repository is an online distance learning tool for non-commercial purposes only, aimed at interpretation students and professional interpreters to practise and improve their interpretation skills. It contains video recordings of "real-life" public speeches and tailor-made pedagogical material made by speakers, internal or external to DG Interpretation. These speeches are in all 24 EU official languages, in accession countries' languages, Arabic, Chinese and Russian, as well as International Sign, and may be extended to include other languages.

Speeches are from different types of "sources":

 

  • public speeches or extracts of public speeches from Commission events (including seminars, press conferences, conferences or meetings) which have been originally recorded for webstreaming purposes. Webstreamings published on the Webcast portal are public documents in the meaning of Art.2 of Commission decision of 12 December 2011 on the reuse of Commission documents (2011/833/EU) and as such, can be reused freely to produce a video for instance. Conference organisers are obliged to inform participants and speakers should they request for a conference to be web-streamed and they should mention it in the privacy statement specific to the meeting in question;
  • public speeches or extracts of public speeches from National Parliaments, other European or International Institutions such as the European Parliament which are already available for download.
  • speeches recorded specifically for the Speech Repository either by internal (i.e. staff interpreters, trainees) or by external speakers (ACI (accredited Conference Interpreting Agents, also called free-lance interpreters), university trainers.

 

The Speech Repository is composed of two parts:

 

  1. "The Speech Repository" with open access to a wide range of video material in streaming mode only.
  2. "My Speech Repository", a restricted part of the tool with additional functionalities, which requires registration through EU Login (The European Commission's users authentication system). For more information on EU-Login see DPR-EC-03187 (Identity & Access management Service - IAMS). Access is given to DG SCIC's partner universities and international organisations upon request and with prior DG SCIC's approval.

 

Before being made available to users the recorded material (speeches and video files) is evaluated by experienced staff interpreters who introduce the following metadata in the system:

 

  • speaker's personal data: name, speaker's function, organisation represented (visible only to registered users of "My Speech Repository");
  • speech data: identifier, speech date and place, source of the speech, title, topic domain (shows the first and most relevant domain; domain according to current EU policy and a general domain for topics not covered by policy areas), description;
  • training data: - language used, difficulty level (basic, beginner, intermediate, advanced/test-type, very advanced), type of accent if the speaker has one ('foreign' used for non-native speakers, accents occasionally used for native speakers e.g. American English), type of use in training (simultaneous or consecutive interpretation), terminology (speech keywords - most important and relevant for the speech), type of speech (real life speech or pedagogical material), transcript (when available).

 

"My Speech Repository" is made available to a restricted number of "users". These registered users are either:

 

  • active students and trainers at universities which have been granted access (e.g. universities with which DG SCIC cooperates);
  • members of staff of a public body with an officially granted access (for example, staff from Public Authorities and other International Institutions which train interpreters, and with whom DG SCIC cooperates);
  • staff interpreters and ACIs (accredited Conference Interpreting Agents, also called free-lance interpreters) from European institutions.

 

Unit B1 in DG SCIC grants access, upon request, to universities and international organisations which DG SCIC cooperates with. The organisation appoints a delegate (i.e. a contact person) who gets a delegate account together with the standard e-mail and the user guide with instructions on how to provide access to "My Speech Repository" to the users of their respective institution. Every user (trainer, student, member of an organisation) creates his/her account through the EU Login (The European Commission's users authentication system). For every type of account attached to a specific organisation (delegate, standard user), the user data is as follows:

 

  • first name, last name, email address.

 

Once the users' accounts are set up, registered users can search videos according to the following criteria: language, difficulty level, domain, type of use in training, video identifier. Users receive a "Results" page listing all speeches according to the selected criteria, with the following headings: video identifier, title, domain, type, difficulty level, and duration. By clicking on the title of a specific video, users see the following information: video identifier, title, source, place and date of recording of the speech, description, type of use of speech, name and profile of the speaker (in "My Speech Repository" only), language, difficulty level, use, domains, terminology. Once a video is selected, users can decide to stream it. In "My Speech Repository" users can also download speeches and have access to the transcript, when available. In addition, in "My Speech Repository" users can share video files with other users and invite them to record interpretations of speeches with the use of SCICrec, a dedicated recording tool. Users can exchange feedback on recorded interpretation using a private one-to-one asynchronous chat feature.

 

Your personal data will not be used for an automated decision-making including profiling.

 

3. On what legal ground(s) do we process your personal data

We process your personal data, because:

  1. 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 (pursuant to Art. 5.1(a) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725).

The basis for the processing referred to in point (a) of the paragraph 1 has been laid down in the following Union law:

Regulation 1 of 1958 determines the official languages of the EEC, plus subsequent additions. Art 55 of Lisbon Treaty lists EU official languages. According to its mission statement, DG Interpretation (SCIC)'s role is to make possible multi-lingual communication, which is at the core of Community decision making by providing quality interpretation in meetings arranged by the Commission and the other Institutions served by DG SCIC.

The Communication 'A new framework strategy for multilingualism' COM(2005)596 (22/11/2005) outlines in p.14 that the Commission will 'continue to offer universities grants and teaching assistance in the field of conference interpreting, help develop distance learning tools and fund student bursaries and training visits'.

In its annual work programme on financial support for training in conference interpreting, which is submitted since 2007 each year to the Commission for approval, it is stated that 'as a provider of an inter-institutional service, DG Interpretation's mission is to ensure that a sufficient number of qualified conference interpreters are available to enable the Community institutions to function properly.' This is achieved by: ‘promoting quality and linguistic diversity in the teaching of interpreting in the official languages of the EU, including the less widely used languages, the languages of the candidate countries, and the languages of non-EU countries, where justified by current or future needs' (p.6, last Commission Decision C(2010)1616/1 of 22/03/2010).

Article 27.4 of the Financial Regulation to assess the impact of this tool.

 

4. Which personal data do we collect and further process?

 

In order to carry out this processing operation DG Interpretation collects the following categories of personal data:

 

  • Speakers' personal data: full name, speaker's function, organisation represented (visible only to registered users in "My Speech Repository"), audio-visual recording of the speech, transcript of the speech (if available).

Registered users: full name, e-mail address, name of the university/organisation users belong to. Registered users can make recordings of their interpreted speeches, which are then stored on DG Interpretation's servers and available on their private page of "My Speech Repository". In order to access the “My Speech Repository” page, registered users must have an EU Login.

  • Other data: logs with identification data.

 

The provision of personal data is mandatory to meet a statutory requirement, that is, in particular, to allow for the good management of content (speeches) and of the restricted part of the Speech Repository (i.e. “My Speech Repository”).  If you do not provide your personal data, possible consequences are: (a) for speakers: that your speech will not be published, and (b) for users otherwise entitled to have access to “My Speech Repository” (i.e. active students at universities which have been granted access; members of staff of a public body with an officially granted access; staff interpreters or ACIs (accredited Conference Interpreting Agents, also called free-lance interpreters) working for one of the EU institutions): you will not be able to access “My Speech Repository”.

 

5. How long do we keep your personal data?

DG Interpretation only keeps your personal data for the time necessary to fulfil the purpose of collection or further processing.

For speakers, unlimited, as long as the audio-visual material is kept in the system.

Registered users, as long as the account is valid (1 year by default, can be extended). 6 months after the expiry date, all data is deleted.

Logs with identification data, 1 year.

Database and files of the Drupal site, 1 year.

 

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. 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.

 

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. Such staff abide by statutory, and when required, additional confidentiality agreements.

Access rights are managed by DG Interpretation authorised staff (SCIC.B.1) and in partnership with the contact person (delegate) in universities/international organisations tasked with managing access rights to My Speech Repository for the registered users in their respective institution:

Access rights are managed by DG Interpretation authorised staff (SCIC.B.1) and in partnership with the contact person (delegate) in universities/international organisations tasked with managing access rights to "My Speech Repository" for the registered users in their respective institution:

  • Administrators of the Speech Repository (dedicated staff in SCIC.B.1) have access to first name, last name, email address of all registered users;
  • Delegates have access to first name, last name, email address of users of their respective organisation requesting access to “My Speech Repository”;
  • Registered users of "My Speech Repository" have access to: a) the first name and last name of the speaker of the speech and b) the user name of other users (only if these have communicated them previously to this user). Knowing the user name is needed to send friendship requests and requests for recording interpretations or for receiving feedback.

 

Registered users of "My Speech Repository" are:

 

  • DG SCIC staff interpreters; staff interpreters working in other EU Institutions;
  • ACIs (accredited Conference Interpreting Agents, also called free-lance interpreters) working for the EU Institutions;
  • staff interpreters working in other international organisations with granted access to the tool;
  • staff from public authorities and other international institutions which train interpreters, and with whom DG SCIC cooperates;
  • trainers and trainee interpreters from universities which train interpreters and with whom DG SCIC cooperates.

 

Employees of the external contractor in charge of the maintenance of the tool (i.e. project manager, developers) have access to first name, last name, email address of all registered users.

As the Speech Repository is hosted on the AWS cloud, the provisions of DIGIT FWC 2020-1742 (Cloud II DPS1) apply and some of the data might potentially be transferred to the US. The controller will transfer your personal data based on:

  • Adequacy decision of the Commission for a specific country / commercial sector (Article 47 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.

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.

You can exercise your rights by contacting the Data Controller, 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, scic-speech-repository@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) 201

8/1725 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-00349.

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