Data protection center

DATA PRIVACY POLICY

Effective Date: 25 May 2018

1. Introduction

The protection of your personal data is important to us.

We are committed to collecting only the data that we need to provide you with the best possible service, to ensuring its confidentiality and security, including when we use service providers, and to making it easy for you to exercise your rights regarding your data.

Capitalized terms have the meaning set forth in the Malt Terms and Conditions of Use.

Our primary commitment is to comply with applicable data protection legislation.

We comply with the obligations of the General Data Protection Regulation(also known as "GDPR") and all national laws implementing this regulation in the states in which we operate. In particular, we ensure compliance with the so-called "Law on IT and Freedoms" of 6 January 1978, as amended, for France, the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) for Germany, the Law on the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Processing of Personal Data of 30 July 2018 for Belgium, and the Spanish Organic Law 3/2018, of 5 December 2018, on the Protection of Personal Data and Guarantee of Digital Rights, and Personal Data Protection Act 25 892 of 7 June 2000 for the Netherlands.

Here we describe what we do with your data.

This policy describes the personal data we collect, how it is used and, if applicable, shared, and your rights concerning this. It applies to all users of Malt services. We advise that you read it carefully. We have done our utmost to make it clear, easily understandable, and accessible at any time while using the website.

We strive to be as clear as possible.

However, if you are not familiar, for example, with the terms "vigilance", "freelancer", "cookie, " or "factoring/cash advance", you can find definitions of these key terms by consulting our glossary at the end of this charter.

Should you require clarification or have any questions for us regarding the policy, you can contact our DPO team at [email protected]

Be aware that features to help manage your data and protect its privacy and security are available in our Data Protection Centre, which is available at the following address: https://www.malt.fr/about/privacy.

Effective date:

The updated Privacy Policy takes automatically effect for all active users as of 25 May 2018.

We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time. The most current version of this Policy governs our use of your data and will always be kept available at https://www.malt.fr/about/privacy/policy

Should we make any substantial changes to this privacy policy, we will notify you using the email address you provided via the site.

2. Data controller: Malt Community

Malt Community, a public limited company with a Board of Directors, listed on the Paris Trade and Companies Register under no. 791 354 871, with its registered office located at 241 rue Saint Denis, 75002 Paris.

Malt Community SA acts on behalf of and for its subsidiaries, namely: Malt Community SL, Malt Community GmbH, Malt Community SRL, Malt Community BV, and Malt Community Ltd, as identified in the Malt Terms and Conditions.

3. Contact information for our DPO

You may address any questions regarding the protection of personal data at Malt, or send a request to exercise your rights to access, rectify, oppose, delete, limit, transport, or determine what happens to your data after your death, to our Data Protection Officer:

- by email at: [email protected]

- by post, addressed to: DPO, Malt Community, 241 rue Saint Denis, 75002 Paris

4. Data we process

Summary:

Within the context of your use of our services and your navigation of our website, Malt processes several categories of data, which are detailed below. This data originates from:

Information that you provide to us when you create your account.

Information resulting from your use of our services.

We do not process certain categories of data (sensitive data), such as data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs or trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, data concerning health, or data concerning people's sex life or sexual orientation.

4.1 Freelancer data

We will inform when requesting data whether the information is mandatory.

4.2 Client employee data

We will inform when requesting data whether the information is mandatory.

4.3 Statistical information regarding your use of our services

For example, we collect statistics:

• Relating to the use of the secure messaging system we offer (percentage of messages answered, response time);

• Relating to end-of-assignment evaluations (comments left by clients and freelancers, average ratings);

• Statistics based on user login and navigation data;

• On the use of the search engine and the freelancer contact form;

• On your use of the different modules such as the quotation tool, the contract module, the payment module; the features made available to companies (reporting, team pages, barometer);

• Relating to commercial data, such as the number of assignments completed, business volumes by freelancer category, or by client category.

5. Cookies

We use authentication cookies, security and site integrity cookies, location cookies, cookies relating to site functionality and services, analytics and search cookies, and cookies to deliver advertising messages. You can accept, decline, or set your cookie choices when you first log into the Marketplace, and you can amend your choices at any time by visiting the cookies section in our data protection centre, available here: www.malt.fr/about/privacy/cookies. You will also find a more detailed description of the cookies we use.

6. Legal Foundations and Aims

Summary:

Malt processes most of your personal data as part of the service agreement you entered into when you registered on the site, by accepting our terms and conditions. However, we may process certain data relating to you on the basis of your consent, on account of legal obligations, or in line with our legitimate interest in the processing of this data.

The data we collect allows us to provide, manage, protect, and improve our services, to develop new services, and to protect both our users and ourselves against potential fraudulent use of our Marketplace.

Details:

In particular,

6.1 Data processing to execute the service contract

Based on the execution of the service contract you entered into when registering on the site, by accepting our terms and conditions of use (if you wish to review our terms and conditions of use again, you can find them at www.malt.nl/legal), by which we are bound, we use your data to provide you with our services.

In particular, within the context of the execution of the service contract, we process your data:

- To create and manage your account;

- To allow you to use the services offered on the site;

For the Freelancers:

• For the verification of your company based on your legal documents (see below for further information);

• In order to optimise your search engine listing;

• To ensure that the proposed assignments are relevant (lead moderation, anti-spam policy);

• We may present your profile to current or potential clients, who are searching for freelancers with your professional skills, in order to either promote your profile or promote Malt’s Services, as defined in our Terms and Conditions, provided that you have not changed your profile’s status to “unavailable".

For the Customers:

• In order to offer you the most relevant search results;
• To suggest a Freelancer's profile in response to a client's specific search: Malt may transmit the personal data of freelancers registered with the Marketplace to client companies, to assist them in their search for Freelancers or to introduce them to freelancers that meet their requirements. Therefore, if, following a request from one of our clients, the profile of a freelancer corresponds to his/her search, we may transmit the respective profile information to the client.
• To allow the client to consolidate ongoing assignments with freelancers within a dedicated interface (Malt Insight);

For all the Users:

• To enable communication between users (freelancers and clients) regarding an assignment, through the provision of an integrated secure instant messaging system;
• To send you communications concerning your actions within the Marketplace (transactional emails);
• To keep your documents (invoices, contracts, etc.) available in your Malt account;
• To enable the payment of your assignments directly through the Marketplace and via our partner, Mangopay. As such, your data is processed to ensure the management of the cash flow running through the Marketplace and, in particular, the invoicing of assignments and payments as well as, in accordance with the law, the fight against terrorism and money laundering;
• To enable your use of the factoring and advance payment service offered by our different payment providers;
• To allow you to leave a review/comment at the of the Assignment;
• To assist you in the use of the platform by providing a client/freelancer service to respond to your requests.

6.2 Data processing to ensure Malt's legitimate interest

To ensure our legitimate interest, we use your data in order to :

• When registering with Malt, we ask that Freelancers provide a number of documents relating to their identity, as well as legal documents concerning their legal structure. This data and these documents serve two purposes:

- To facilitate contact between Freelancers and Customers by presenting the Freelancer's pre-verified legal structure to the Client. Malt conducts a preliminary verification of a freelancer’s legal documents in order to provide a guarantee to the Clients they work with via the Marketplace that they are legitimate independent professionals who meet the criteria of “Freelancer” (as defined by our Terms and Conditions). Clients can see that this pre-verification has been successfully completed when the label "documents up-to-date" appears on a freelancer’s profile. By pre-verifying these documents, Malt makes it possible for Freelancers to avoid having to show proof of their legal status (as a freelancer) and, instead, stay focused on discussions with their Clients about the projects being requested of them. Unless there is a legal obligation permitting it, for example, as it relates to the “obligation de vigilance” under French law, with which the Client is required to comply, a freelancer’s Clients will not have access to these documents.

- To accelerate the payment of Assignments by having the verification information concerning your legal structure forwarded to our provider, MangoPay, ahead of time: when you use Malt as a freelancer, you benefit from an online payment service that allows you to receive payments from your clients. This payment service is provided to you by our payment solution provider, Mangopay SA, an authorised payment institution. In this capacity, Mangopay SA has legal vigilance obligations in terms of the fight against fraud, the funding of terrorism, and money laundering. In accordance with the requirements of the regulations that apply to Mangopay, when creating your account and using the payment service, the payment provider must identify you and verify your identity. Malt therefore requests details relating to your identity and that of your legal structure on behalf of the payment provider, Mangopay.

• To protect our freelancers from spam;

• To carry out personalised follow-up so as to send only relevant communications, adapted to your needs directly relating to the site's services (for example: to propose adapted assignments, to invite you to update/complete your profile in order to maximise your chances of being awarded an assignment...).

• To safeguard the Malt.com website and its variants: Malt.fr, Malt.es, Malt.de, Malt.be, Malt.nl, Malt.uk, and to secure the data and communication taking place on the site;

• To develop our services with a view to offering new features, and to adapt these to your needs: to this end, we compile statistics on the use of our services, based on the tracking of the audience of our website pages and the monitoring of commercial activities and user behaviour in the Marketplace. These statistics are anonymised whenever possible;

• To evaluate your satisfaction and, subject to your consent, to contact you to further discuss matters.

• To guarantee profile quality, to combat fraud, and to verify profile information (e.g. location).

• To combat fraud when sending messages and, in the event of detected anomalies, to issue a reminder of the applicable rules or to block messages you send. We also use automatic ad content analysis technology to detect unsolicited content, including fraudulent content;

• To calculate your average response time to messages sent to you, and to display this to your contacts;

• To assist you in case of difficulty in using the platform or in case of a help request, especially in the event of a dispute with another user.

• To send you notifications concerning your activity on the site for instance, when you have received a message, a quote, or a payment;

• To ask you to participate in surveys (e.g. satisfaction, opinion, study on freelancers in your country or within the European Union). You are free to participate and can decline in accordance with the terms outlined at the time of the survey.

• To communicate with you: Malt may use the information collected to communicate with you regarding products, services, promotions, studies, surveys, news, updates, and events.

• Benefit from commercial opportunities offered by the affiliates of Malt Community SA (as identified in the General Terms and Conditions of Use), in particular by Comatch Gmbh: Malt may use the Freelancers' data to offer them assignments initiated by clients using the marketplace operated by Comatch.

• Propose to Clients profiles of independent consultants registered on the Comatch marketplace that correspond to their business needs.

• Participate in a test panel: While browsing through the Marketplace, we may invite you to test or provide your opinion on Malt product features from time to time. You can choose whether to participate (or not). Whatever your choice, no personal data will ever be collected.  After completing a test, we will give you the option to register in our panel of testers by providing your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time/

6.3 Data processing based on your consent

We may also collect your consent prior to processing certain data,

• for example, for the reuse of your profile photo, created by our services, on commercial media

• or if you have not created an account on the Marketplace but wish to receive our commercial offers/newsletter.

6.4 Data processing to ensure our legal obligations

Finally, we process certain data on account of the legal obligations imposed on us within the context of the management of payments made via the Marketplace, and, in particular, with regard to the fight against the funding of terrorism and money laundering.

7. Recipients or category of recipients and transfers to countries outside the EEA

Summary:

Malt is the recipient of personal data collected via the Site.

Some of the services and features made available to you by Malt require us to share information with other users or with our business partners. We may also share this information for legal purposes or in the event of litigation.

Details:

Malt is the recipient of personal data collected via the Site.

We will only share your personal data with third party companies, organisations, or individuals in the following circumstances:

7.1 Sharing with clients

Sharing of the freelancer's identifying information and, if applicable, data identifying his company, with clients, when the freelancer sends them a business proposal and legal documents relating to his services and, if applicable, data identifying their company when an assignment is launched.

7.2 Sharing with trusted partners and providers

When necessary, for external processing purposes, and only in this case, we pass on this data to our partners, such as MangoPay and Finexkap, and to trusted service providers; our subcontractors. They will process your data on our behalf, as instructed by us or as contractually agreed, in accordance with this policy and in compliance with any other appropriate security and confidentiality measures.

a) Data localisation

All our servers on which your data is stored are located in Europe. In very exceptional cases, some of our service providers whose principal place of business is in a country outside the European Union may need to transfer your data to that country. In this case, we check beforehand that they are respecting their obligations in terms of the protection of our users' data, and we put in place a "transfer tool", such as standard contractual clauses, to ensure that your personal data benefits from a level of protection equivalent to that offered within the European Union.

b) Our service providers

Below you will find the names of our partners and service providers and, where applicable, the link to their website and their data protection policy, the contact address for data protection issues, the purpose for which they are involved and the location of the data, and the transfer tool used to ensure a level of protection equivalent to that offered within the European Union if they are located outside the European Union or are likely to transfer data outside the European Union.

We will only share your personal data with them for the purposes set out below.

7.3 Sharing with our investors, accountants, and auditors within the context of potential fundraising

Malt may share information about freelancers and client employees who are registered with the Marketplace and use our services, in order to respond to requests for information from our investors, accountants, and any auditors, including in conjunction with any fundraising or auditing of the use of funds raised.

7.4 With authorised third parties

We may retain or disclose your information if we believe that it is reasonably necessary to satisfy any legal or regulatory obligation, legal process, or administrative request, to protect the safety of any person, to address any fraudulent, security-related, or technical issues, or to protect the rights or property of our users.

7.5 Among the entities of the Malt Group

The Malt Group is composed of Malt Community SA (head company), and its subsidiaries, namely the following companies: Malt Community S.L (Spain), Malt Community Gmbh (Germany), Malt Community BV (The Netherlands), Malt Community SRL (Belgium), Malt Community Ltd (UK), and Comatch GmbH (Germany).

In March 2022, Malt acquired the company Comatch GmbH, a marketplace of independent management consultants and industry experts.

Thus, Malt may share information about the Freelancers and Client’s employees registered on the Marketplace and using the services in order to provide Users with business opportunities that may match the professional skills of the Freelancer and the business needs of Clients.

For this purpose, Malt and Comatch will reconcile their users' data bases, including the personal data that you have entered on your profile.

Important: Malt does not resell your data/information and documents you entrust to us to third parties, and we do not disclose personal and private information other than in the instances described in this Data Protection Policy.

8. Retention period or criteria for determining retention periods

As a general rule, we retain your information for the following periods:

If you have completed assignments, Malt will retain your billing information for a period of 10 years from the closing/deletion of your user account in order to comply with our accounting and social security payment obligations, as well as our reporting and documentation obligations with the tax authorities.

For freelancers only, Malt also retains, for a period of 10 years, the legal documentation enabling the verification of your company in order to meet the legal obligations of clients (project initiators / principals) to demonstrate that they have satisfied their obligation of vigilance with respect to you, in accordance with the requirements of French law.

Depending on the specific situation, we can retain your personal data for longer periods. In particular, this will be the case if any of the following periods are longer: (i) as long as necessary for the activity or service involved; (ii) any retention period required by law; or (iii) the statute of limitations during which legal proceedings may be brought for the purpose of defending our interests.

9. Data security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the continued security, confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience of our information system and your data, and to protect the personal and other data we process against destruction, loss, alteration, and unauthorised disclosure of / access to data that is transmitted, stored, or otherwise processed.

• We undertake to use all available means to ensure the security and confidentiality of this data, in particular:

• We encrypt most of our services using SSL technology;

• We verify your email address when you create your account;

• We conduct internal audits regarding data collection, storage and processing, including physical security measures, to prevent unauthorised access to our systems;

Access to personal data is strictly limited to Malt employees and contractors who require access in order to process it on our behalf. These individuals are subject to strict confidentiality obligations and may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal, in the event of a breach.

10. Rights

In accordance with the GDPR and the provisions of the French law on the protection of personal data, known as the "Law on IT and Freedoms" of 6 January 1978, as amended, and the applicable national laws on the protection of personal data applicable in the states in which we operate, you have the right the following rights :

You can find descriptions of each of your rights in the data protection centre, which we make available at www.matl.fr/about/privacy/rights. The means by which to exercise these rights are also outlined there.

10.1 Access rights

You have a right to access the data concerning you that is processed by Malt. This entitles you to view the data we hold in relation to you and, if you wish, to request a copy, within the limits of respect for the rights of third parties whose personal data may be included in the data concerning you.

10.2 Rights to rectification

Under the applicable data protection regulations, you may request that we correct any personal data concerning you that is inaccurate. You may also request that incomplete personal data concerning you be completed, including by providing a supplementary statement.

In order that you can exercise this right as easily as possible, we invite you to apply these changes and additions directly within your profile. If you feel that other data relating to you requires changing or completion, and you are unable to make this change yourself, we invite you to submit your request directly in the 'Your rights' section in our data protection centre, or by writing to us at [email protected]

10.3 Deletion rights

You have the right to request the deletion of personal data concerning you within the shortest possible timeframe, subject to our legitimate interest, or any legal obligation requiring us to retain such data.

For security reasons, and to avoid undesired account deletion, we invite you to perform this step independently when logged into your account, by following this link: www.malt.fr/account/cancellation

With respect to your profile data, you should keep in mind that search engines and other third parties may still retain copies of your public profile information for some time after you have agreed to be listed, even after you have deleted the information from the Malt site or disabled your account. However, Malt is not responsible for any such processing of your data by third parties. If you wish, you can exercise your right to dereferencing directly with these search engines. For example, to submit such a request to Google, you can use the tool provided by the search engine here.

10.4 Right to the limitation of processing

You may request that Malt limit the processing of your data (for example, the act of making your profile temporarily unavailable on the site), where any of the following apply:

a) You dispute the accuracy of your personal data. In this case, we will conceal your data for a period of time sufficient to allow us to verify its accuracy;

b) You believe that your data is being processed unlawfully and you object to its deletion, instead demanding the limitation of its use;

c) We no longer require your personal data for the purposes of processing, but it is still required to enable you to establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim;

d) You have exercised your right to oppose under Article 21(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation. We will restrict the processing of your data while we verify whether the legitimate reasons we are pursuing take precedence over your right.

If we decide to lift the restriction on the processing of your personal data, we will inform you accordingly.

10.5 Right to oppose

You can object to the sending of communications, including commercial communications, by Malt. To this end, we provide an unsubscribe link in all of our emails to you, and you can manage your notification preferences directly in our data protection centre under the 'Your rights' tab, www.malt.fr/about/privacy/rights.

You may also object, on legitimate grounds, to the processing of your data for which Malt relied on legitimate interest. Malt will then discontinue its processing, unless there are compelling legitimate grounds for the continuation of the processing (e.g. tax returns, social security returns, etc.) or for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

10.6 Right to portability

You can request the portability of your Malt data at any time. By exercising this right, we undertake to transmit to you, within a reasonable time and in a machine-readable format, the data you have provided to us, whether declared by yourself or generated by your activity within the Marketplace.

10.7 Right to withdraw consent

To the extent that the processing of your personal data is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. However, this would not affect the validity of your past consent.

10.8 Ability to determine what happens to your personal data after your death

In France, the new Article 40-1 of the Data Protection Act allows individuals to specify directives regarding the retention, deletion, and disclosure of their data after their death.

A person may be appointed to carry out these instructions. The latter shall then be entitled, when the person is deceased, to take note of any directives and request their implementation with the concerned data controllers.

These guidelines are:

General, when it concerns all the data concerning a person;

Or specific, when these guidelines only concern certain specific data processing.

When these directives are general and concern all of the deceased's data, they can be entrusted to a trusted third party, certified by the CNIL.

Where specific instructions are involved, they may also be entrusted to data processors (social networks, online messaging services) in the event of death. They are subject to the specific consent of the person concerned and cannot result from the latter's mere approval of the general conditions of use.

In the absence of directives issued by the individual while alive, heirs will have the opportunity to exercise certain rights, including:

The right of access, if necessary for the settlement of the deceased's estate;

The right to object to the closure of the deceased's user accounts and to object to the processing of their data.

10.9 Right to file a complaint with a supervisory authority

Malt Community's main office is located at 241 rue Saint Denis, 75002 Paris. As such, the supervisory authority competent to deal with any request concerning us, including, if applicable, any user complaints, is the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL). However, you may direct your request to any data protection authority, in particular within your country of residence, in the country where you work, or in the country of which you are a citizen, and the latter will forward your request to the CNIL.

If you wish to submit a request to the CNIL, you will find the contact information below:

CNIL (NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBERTIES)

3 Place de Fontenoy - TSA 80715 - 75334 PARIS CEDEX 07

Tel. : 01 53 73 22 22

(Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. / Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.)

Fax : 01 53 73 22 00

Please note! The CNIL is not open to the public and does not provide information on site.

If you wish to file a complaint with the CNIL, you can fill out the online complaint form available at https://www.cnil.fr/fr/plaintes

If you have a question concerning your rights and freedoms with regard to data, you can consult the CNIL website: www.cnil.fr.

To contact any other data protection authority in the European Union, you can refer to the European Commission directory. It lists all the contact details of the data protection authorities in EU Member States and is available here: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm

LEARN MORE

You can find other useful resources relating to the protection of your data in our Data Protection Centre:

- Our commitments and the actions we take to best protect your data;

- A tool to manage your preferences regarding notifications and communications;

- Information about how we use cookies and other tracking devices;

- Information on how to exercise your rights;

- A tab dedicated to exercising your right to portability.

If you have any questions about the protection of your personal data processed by Malt or if you wish to exercise your rights to access, rectify, erase, oppose, limit or transport your data, or to determine what happens to your data after your death, you can contact our DPO:

- By email: [email protected]

- By post: DPO, Malt Community, 241 rue Saint-Denis 75002 Paris

Glossary

• Vigilance: when a French company uses a service provider, it must ensure that the service provider is a registered company and is up to date with its tax and social security contributions. This is the duty of care as provided for under French law.

• Freelancer: a freelancer is a self-employed person (not an employee, and does not have any employees) who is engaged in an intellectual (non-artisanal) profession. According to our General Terms & Conditions of Use, this refers to any individual or legal entity, that has either a SIRET number (French business ID number) and is registered with the Trade and Companies Register, the Trade Directory, the House of Artists, Agessa, with the status of micro-entrepreneur, or is practicing as a freelancer in accordance with the respective legal conditions, operating within France or abroad, and who offers its services to clients/project initiators via the site.

• Cash advance: also known as "factoring." The cash advance is a service offered by Malt that allows a freelancer to be paid within 5 days from the end of their assignment (validation of the invoice by the client), even if the clientustomer has payment deadlines of up to 60 days. More information