Information concerning processing of your personal data

Ministry of Business and Competitiveness as the data controller

The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness is the data controller in accordance with the data protection regulations and the Data Protection Act. This means that the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness is responsible for ensuring that data received by the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness from you or about you, in connection with a matter or any other enquiry, is only processed in accordance with applicable regulations.

What is personal data?

Personal data is any form of information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. i.e. all forms of information that can be directly or indirectly associated with a person. For example, this may be a first name or surname, private address, email address or a National identification number.

Where does the data come from?

The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness processes personal data that you yourself provide to us, or that we receive from other authorities, companies or citizens. The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness can also obtain personal data from other authorities, companies or citizens itself when this is necessary for the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness to be able to conduct its appointed tasks.

If you, as a citizen, have a specific case with the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness, information will be collected in the form of name, address and possibly Danish civil registration number (CPR number), as well as information about the specific inquiry. All documents on the case will be covered by the Access to Public Administration Files Act, including the rules on access to documents. This means, among other things, that if we receive a request for access to the case in which your personal data is included, we will normally have to transfer the information, unless the information is confidential.

When do we need to use your data?

The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness processes, inter alia, your personal data in order to be able to answer your inquiry, process requests for access to documents, process complaints, etc., which is done as part of the Ministry's legal obligations, cf. Article 6 (1) (c) and Article 9 (2) (f) of the General Data Protection Regulation, public exercise of authority, cf. Article 6 (1) (e) of the General Data Protection Regulation, as well as for the performance of the Ministry's tasks, cf. section 8 of the Data Protection Act.

Where is your personal data processed?

At the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness, your personal data may be processed in the Ministry's IT systems, e.g. in the case management system and in the joint state IT systems.

Who has access to your personal data?

Employees of the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness have access to your personal data to the extent necessary to process your case.

Employees of the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness must sign non-disclosure declarations upon starting employment to ensure the confidentiality of your personal data.

Agency for Governmental IT Services is the data processor for the majority of the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness processing of personal data. State IT has access according to instructions from the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness to the extent necessary to be able to manage and operate IT systems.

How and for how long do we retain your personal data?

Your personal data is stored securely and confidentially in IT systems with controlled and restricted access and on servers located on specially secured premises. We work continually to protect the confidentiality of the data we process and to secure data against unauthorised access, changes, publication or destruction.

Your personal data is stored for as long as necessary to comply with our mandatory tasks as a public authority and to comply with applicable legislation, including the Archives Act.

Under what circumstances do we pass on your personal data?

We will only pass on your personal data when it is necessary to comply with our general duty as a public authority. The data that you provide to the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness will often be passed on as part of processing your enquiry, where the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness may pass it on to the Ministry's agencies to assist in responding to your enquiry.

The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness' agencies are: The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness, Competition and Consumer Affairs, Danish Maritime Authority, Danish Appeals Boards Authority, Patent and Trademark Office and the Danish Safety Technology Authority.

The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness will also transfer your information to other public authorities that are deemed relevant for the processing of your inquiry.

Your rights

What are your rights?

The data protection regulations provide you with a range of rights. These rights are specified in detail in article 13-18 and article 20-22.

The following describes your rights in more general terms. If you wish to read the details of the regulations, they are available here: Guidelines concerning the rights of registered persons from the Data Protection Authority or you can enquire via our Data Protection Officer at: dpo@em.dk.

Notification that your personal data will be processed

The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness must provide you with a range of information if we process your personal data. This applies both when we receive information from you, also when we receive information from a person other than yourself.

You must be given information concerning:

• The data controller
• Contact information for the Data Protection Officer
• The purpose and legal basis for processing the information
• Details of the data being collected
• Where the data originates from
• Who is receiving the data
• How long the data will be stored, or the criteria applied to determine how long the data will be stored
• Your right to request corrections to, or deletion of, personal data, or request restrictions on the use of your personal data
• Your right to appeal against the use of personal data

The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness can decline to provide information if it is impossible or will require a disproportionate use of resources or when it is considered that you can be assumed to be familiar with the information.

Insight into the data being processed

You can request insight into the data about you that is processed by the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness. This means that you have the right to see the personal data about you that is held by us, and you have the right to the following information concerning whether, how and why we process information about you:

• The purpose and legal basis for processing
• The categories of personal data, and if possible, where these originate from
• The recipients of the data
• How long the data will be stored, or the criteria applied to determine how long the data will be stored
• Your right to request the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness to make corrections to, or delete, personal data, or request restrictions on the use of your personal data

The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness can decline your request for insight into your personal data if you will thereby receive information that may breach another person's right or freedoms.

The right to correct the data being processed

You have the right to have incorrect personal data amended as quickly as possible and you have the right to add supplementary information if it is incomplete.

The right to delete data being processed

You have the right to have personal data deleted as quickly as possible. However, in principle, it is not possible to delete data that is subject to administrative laws, public information laws and archival laws that apply to public authorities. You cannot have the data deleted for as long as it is required in order to comply with the purposes of the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness' processing, or if deletion will breach the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness' duties according to the applicable laws.

The right to restrictions on the data processed

Under certain circumstances, you have the right to place restrictions on the data processed, e.g. whilst it is being investigated whether the data is correct, or whether the data is required to determine a legal claim.

Information security

The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness places high importance on the protection of citizens against unauthorised access, changing, publication or destruction of information held by us. We have particular focus on the security of your data. Within the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness, there will therefore be an appropriate level of security for all employees and all cooperating partners, and also for the use of IT resources, including IT systems, hardware and electronic data media.

The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness has implemented the ISO 27001 standard, an international standard for the establishment of a management system for data security, to ensure a uniform and appropriate level of data security. 

Right of appeal and advice 

Right of appeal

You can submit an appeal to the Data Protection Authority concerning the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness' processing of your personal data, if you believe that the processing is in breach of data protection regulations.

The Data Protection Authority can be contacted by email: dt@datatilsynet.dk. The address of the Data Protection Authority is: Borgergade 28, 5., 1300 Copenhagen K., Denmark

The Data Protection Authority is the independent national authority that ensures that the regulations laid down in data protection legislation are upheld. The task of the Data Protection Authority is to provide advice and guidance to authorities in the processing of personal data. The Data Protection Authority also processes appeals in relation to the processing of personal data and carries out inspections within authorities and private companies.

Data Protection Advisor

The Ministry of Business and Competitiveness has appointed Ronnie Sunil Sodhi as the Data Protection Officer. The task of the Data Protection Officer is, among other things, to inform and advise the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness and those of its employees who handle personal data about their obligations under data protection regulations and the Data Protection Act. It is the Data Protection Officer's task to monitor the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness' seven administrations and the Ministry's compliance with data protection regulations and to ensure that they comply with the rules about how personal data is processed lawfully and securely.

The Data Protection Officer can provide further information concerning the rules for data protection. The Data Protection Officer can also advise you on your rights regarding the processing of personal data within the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness.

The Data Protection Officer can be contacted by email at the address: dpo@em.dk or by telephone at: +45 33 92 33 50. Please note that if you wish to send a secure digital message, it must be sent to the Ministry of Business and Competitiveness' main email inbox. It will then be forwarded to dpo@em.dk