About Us

The Pancyprian Volunteerism Coordinative Council, (hereinafter referred to as “the PVCC”) is a legal entity in accordance with "The Pancyprian Volunteerism Coordinative Council Law 61(Ι)/2006 and 2025" and with registered office 11 Soudas Street, Strovolos, Nicosia.

This text aims at providing you with intelligible, transparent and direct information about the processing of your personal data collected and processed obtained in connection with your use of our website and services provided thereinto in the context of fulfilling the services, as PVCC is bound by the applicable legislation to secure and safeguard your right to protection against the illegal processing of personal data and your right to privacy, as well as to protect the personal data maintained by us and are of concern to you.

We understand that maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal data is a big responsibility which we take very seriously. For this reason we have drawn up this Policy, among other things, which aims at informing you about the kind of data we collect, why we collect them and how we use them.

This Policy is addressed to natural persons, who are current or potential organizers, volunteers, subject matter of the volunteer work, authorized persons, third persons and associates. By providing your personal information or the information of some other person, such as a beneficiary of the volunteer work or a person for whom you file a need and for whom you have consented or obtained authorization towards the processing of their personal data, you accept that we will use such information in the manner analytically explained in this Policy. You should refer a person whose personal data you give to the PVCC, to this Policy.

Further Processing Notices may be delivered to you at a later stage underlining specific uses of your personal information.

It is also likely that certain changes will be made to this Policy in order to keep it in line with changes in the legislation as well as with operational and technological developments. You must from time to time check the website of the PVCC for the latest version of the Policy.

In the Policy, your data may sometimes be referred to as “personal data”, “personal information” or “data.” For the purposes of the Policy, personal data are any information concerning a natural person, whose identity may be established whether directly or indirectly, particularly by reference to an identification detail, such as full name, identity card number or one or more factors relating to the physical, physiological, genetic, psychological, financial, cultural or social identity of the said natural person.

The term personal data also includes, among other things, certain sensitive data (or special categories data), as for example the data concerning a natural person’s state of health, any penal convictions and data revealing the racial or ethnic origin of the person.

When we say that your personal data are subject to “processing”, this term includes every action undertaken in relation to these data, such as the collection, registration, organization, structure, storage, adaptation, variation, recovery, search for information, usage, transmission, diffusion, disposal, correlation, combination, limitation, erasure and destruction.

In case you require more information on how we process your personal data, you may contact us by emailing info@volunteerism-cc.org.cy;

Personal Data Processing Principles

In collecting sensitive personal data we are bound by the General Regulation for the Protection of Personal Data (EU) 2016/679 and, taking into consideration the necessary organizational measures, we proceed to the processing stage, based on the following principles governing the processing of personal data:

•they shall be subjected to legitimate and lawful processing in a transparent manner,
•they shall be collected for specified and legitimate purposes and shall not be subjected to further processing in any way incompatible with the purposes for which these data are collected by the PVCC,
•only the appropriate and relevant data shall be collected, limited to the necessary purpose for which they have been collected,
•they shall be accurate and updated as necessary,
•they shall be retained only for as long as required and for the purposes for which they have been collected,
•they shall be subjected to processing in a manner guaranteeing their required security against non-authorised or unlawful processing and accidental loss, destruction or wear, among other things, through the use of suitable techniques and or organizational measures,
•when we transmit your personal data whether to another country or to a person who carries out the processing on behalf of the PVCC, the necessary measures shall be taken by us for the protection of your personal data, as for example through the conclusion of specialized contracts for data processing.

How we Collect your Personal Data

More often than not the collection of personal data is performed directly by you or through the website or relatives or a third person who submits a need for you. The relevant information may be received through a proposition submitted to us or by way of use of the website or by telephone or any other kind of communication with you.

Nevertheless, in some cases the collection of personal data may be effected by third parties, when for example you are named by someone as party to a volunteer work. Your personal details may be collected either by third persons or even by sources available to the public at large.

More analytically, personal data may be collected:

(a) Straight from you (directly or indirectly):

• Through the website/Portal;
• Personal details submission form
• Communication
• Through Bank
• In the context of submitting a request on your part or for a third party

(b) From various other/ “third” sources (indicatively):

• Through other user or volunteers or organizations or organizers
• From automatic technologies or interactions
• Through District Volunteerism Coordinative Councils
• Through our associates.
• Through legal consultants
• Through lawyers.
• Through banks
• By telephone, through fax, websites, Photograph
• Through an electronic email message.

What kinds of Personal Data are Processed by us?

PVCC collects and processes various kinds of personal data, depending on the services provided in each particular case. For all of the aforementioned reasons, PVCC processes personal data you uploaded on the Website or when you leave a request or a feedback for an organizer or a volunteer in the course of hosting the Portal as follows:

• Personal and Contact details (such as full name, Date of Birth, Identity Card/Passport/ARC Number, home address, email address, telephone, occupation, etc.)
  Biographical details, penal record, Academic Qualifications
• ΙΒΑΝ number, bank SWIFT number
• Work history information that you provide (for example in CVs, personal statements or your profile).
• Skills and volunteering related interests and availability.
• Feedback you provide us about your experience of using our website and services, for example, when you report content via our platform, send us emails, or reply to surveys about the impact of our service.
• Customer service requests or queries received from you, in relation to your use of our website or services via email, telephone or our website.
• Application data including information on applications or enquiries made by you, through our website, to/about volunteer roles advertised on our website.
• Placement data including information on the outcome of applications made by you, through our service; if you were placed into volunteering roles you applied for.
• Marketing preferences (for example, to receive our newsletter or alerts).
• Technical data such as your internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser information, operating system and platform and URL clickstream to, through and from our website.
• Usage data about how you use our website and services, for example, searches carried out, opportunities and profiles viewed, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, and page interaction information.
• Equality and diversity information; we collect data from volunteers who consent
• Monitoring information, in addition to the equality and diversity information we may collect from you we may also collect information for monitoring the use of service such as your employment status and where you heard about our services.

How we use your Personal Data

During our course of business when helping individuals,voluntary organizations/NGOs and other organizations to find volunteers with the skills they need or goods. We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• To communicate with you
• For the creation of account and profile.
• To assess your needs posted on the platform and the volunteer work or goods you are requesting.
• To apply for or receive volunteering opportunities and work.
• To use our website and services
• To make suggestions and recommendations to you about features, events or services that may interest you and that relate to skills-based volunteering, trusteeship or volunteering opportunities
• To improve the quality of products and of our services
• To handle complains
• For the prevention, detection and investigation of crimes, including fraud and the legalisation of the proceeds from illegal activities, as well as the appraisal and management of other trading risks.
• For promotional marketing and advertising activities. We may undertake the conduct of promotional activities in accordance with your preferences and upon your consent, using email message.
• For the compliance of our PVCC with the applicable laws and statutory obligations, European Union directives and guidelines, court decisions and other legal processes, and in order to respond to requests by public and state authorities, as stipulated in Cypriot and European legislation.
• To enforce and defend our and others legitimate rights. To protect our business activities, including those of our business associates, and to safeguard our rights, individual privacy, security or property assets, as well as the rights of our business associates, yours and those of other persons’ or third persons.

PVCC acts in the capacity of a Data Processor on behalf of the relevant Data Controllers (such as DVCCs or Organizers) when handling personal data through the Portal. In this role, PVCC processes personal data strictly in accordance with the instructions of the Data Controllers and only for the purposes necessary to provide and support the functionality of the Portal. PVCC does not determine the purposes or means of processing and does not use the data for its own purposes.

Sharing Your Personal Data

It might be necessary to share your personal data with our associates so that we could provide for you the required services, among others with other users, organizers, volunteer organizers government services, Public Authorities, Legal Authorities, Police, District Volunteerism Coordinative Councils, Banks, Authorised Representatives, Third party service providers and Analytics and search engine providers.
In no case, however, are we going to share your personal data for processing for purposes contrary to those described in this Policy without your prior notification.

In each case arising from our relationship, your personal data may be transmitted to legal and public authorities, researchers, who shall undertake to process them on behalf of the PVCC in the capacity of processors, on the basis of the agreement between us. Personal data may be transmitted abroad to associated third providers, accountants, lawyers and experts.

In each transmission to third parties every measure shall be taken beforehand so that only the necessary data shall be transmitted for the implementation of the contract, along with the effective requirements for their legitimate and lawful processing; moreover, the organizations to which the data are being transmitted shall undertake a written commitment that they shall on their part comply with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation. Exempt are those cases in which the communication of the data is effected due to some legal or statutory obligation.

In cases where it is necessary to communicate your personal data to countries outside the European Union, which do not offer adequate guarantees for the protection of your personal data, PVCC shall be obliged and hereby undertakes the responsibility to conclude contractual clauses between our PVCC and the PVCC to which the data are communicated, in order to safeguard the information transmitted.

Retention Period for your Personal Data

PVCC shall retain your personal data in its records only for the time period required for the fulfillment of the services, unless legal or statutory obligations provide otherwise. This also applies to those cases where our agreement has for any reason been interrupted.

Due to harmonization with the Regulation, we have determined the time periods for the retention of your personal data, depending on the processing to which they are being subjected. The parameters that have been taken into consideration for the determination of the time periods are your better service, our operational needs, our legal obligations and the safeguarding of our legal interests.

In order to be accurately informed on the retention periods, please contact the us at info@volunteerism-cc.org.cy.

What are your rights?

The General Data Protection Regulation defines your rights in regard to your personal data. On account of this, PVCC has developed a mechanism for the satisfaction of requests concerning your personal data, as follows:

I. Right to access: You have a right to access your data maintained by us and you may at any time obtain a copy thereof provided we possess them in electronic form.

II. Right to rectification: You have a right to access and rectify your personal details. You may at any stage of our relationship check and update your personal data, always presenting the necessary documentation and requesting the rectification or completion of inaccurate information.

III. Right to be forgotten: You have the right to ask for the erasure of the whole or part of the data that concern you. We would like to underline however that PVCC shall be obliged to erase only those personal data which can be erased as per our data erasure policy.

IV. Right to restriction: You hold the right to ask for the processing of your personal data to be restricted, even when the accuracy of the data is disputed or furthermore when the data are no longer useful to the PVCC but you request their retention due to legal claims.

V. Right to object: You may at any time whatsoever raise objections about the processing of your personal data. In case you make use of this right, the processing shall immediately cease, unless the PVCC can prove the existence of legal interest or the need to use the data in support of a legal/judicial case.

VI. Right to data portability: You have the right to portability, that is, to transfer your personal data to another organization in a legible and commonly used form. The said data shall be erased as specified in the erasure policy of the PVCC.

VII. Right to recall consent: You have the right any time to withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data, without however affecting the legality on which our policy was based prior to your withdrawal. We would like to inform you that the recall of your consent may possibly lead to the termination of the relevant services. .

VIII. Right to launch complaint: You have the right to launch a complaint with the Commissioner for the Protection of Personal Data, regarding the processing of your personal data.

If in filing your complaint you feel that you have been wronged by us or if you have any doubts about the outcome of your request, you may submit it in writing to the Commissioner for the Protection of Personal Data at the below address:

Office of the Commissioner for the Protection of Personal Data
Kypranoros 15,
1066 Nicosia
P.O. Box 23378
1682 Nicosia
Τel.: 22818456 Fax No.: 22304565
email: commissioner@dataprotection.gov.cy

In order to exercise your rights as above or in the case where you require more information concerning your rights, you may communicate with us at the address of our registered office or through the email address info@volunteerism-cc.org.cy;.

Changes to our Policy

Changes in the Legislation or technological developments impose corresponding modifications on our part.

You are kindly asked to keep apace with our Policy, which may at any time change in order to adapt to new developments and facts.

Our reviewed policy shall be posted on our website at the address www.ethelontis.net.

Finally, you may ask to be supplied with a copy of the most recent version of the Policy in printed form.