Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) respects your right to privacy and the protection of your personal data. For BIM to effectively deliver and administer the public services entrusted to us, it is necessary to collect and process personal data about you. The purpose of this Privacy Notice is to provide you, the data subject, with information about the processing of your personal data by BIM, and the rights that you have over your data. Personal data is information capable of identifying you as an individual, for instance, your address or telephone number.
Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), Crofton Road, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, as the Data Controller, is a State Agency whose mission is “To support and enable an increase in value creation of a sustainable Irish seafood sector across the supply chain, from catch to consumer”. As a data controller, BIM is responsible for determining how and why your personal data will be used under the applicable EU data protection laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 .
Where links contained on our websites redirect you to another website (for example, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, etc.) your personal data in such cases will be processed in accordance with their privacy notices and policies.
Full contact details of BIM are as follows:
Name: An Bord Iascaigh Mhara
Address: P.O. Box 12, Crofton Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.
If you have any questions about this privacy notice or our privacy practices, please email BIM at dataprotection@bim.ie.
BIM processes your data for the purpose of providing the services we offer, including providing grants, training, industry projects, advisory services and sustainability and certification across the fisheries, aquaculture and seafood processing sectors. The fisheries department also provides a fisheries management chart and a species directory. The seafood processing department includes a seafood innovation hub. Below is the non-exhaustive summary of our data processing activities:
| Processing Activity | Personal data collected |
| To issue licenses and certifications | Name, contact number, email, organisation name and contact details, vessel name, port registration number, common fleet register number, PPSN, bank and tax details |
| To register for training courses | Name, email address, phone number, date of birth, photo, signature, Seafarer’s Medical Certificate, or Doctor’s Note, employer, PPSN, course name, certifications held, Gender, Nationality |
| To open customer/supplier accounts | Name, address, phone no., Date of Birth, Gender, VAT/Tax Registration no., email, signature, role/title, vessel name, vessel registration no., and ice plant details. |
| To collect data in order to respond to data calls, e.g., through the National Seafood Survey | Name, address, company name, contact details, demographic information (e.g., nationality, sex) |
| To ensure the effective functioning of the website | IP Address, cookie data, and any information about your use of the website |
| To circulate our newsletters | Name and contact details |
| To monitor our premises with CCTV when you visit our offices | CCTV footage |
| To register for events and conferences | Name and contact details, including payment details for paid events, photographs if applicable |
| To verify references provided for recruitment and other similar programmes | Name and contact details of referee, job title, place of work, relationship to applicant |
| To respond to complaints and queries | Name, contact details, details of your query/complaint |
Please note that we have prepared a separate Grants Privacy Notice which is available here.
You have a right to object to our use of your personal data, and we will respect that right should you exercise it; however, you should be aware that we may not be able to provide services to you.
The personal data which we process is generally about individuals who are involved in the Irish and international seafood and fisheries industries. We also process personal data concerning employees, candidates, participants in educational programmes, governmental stakeholders and members of the public.
If in the future, we intend to process your personal data for a purpose other than that which it was collected, we will provide you with information on that purpose and any additional relevant information.
We will handle the personal data you share with us in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Under Article 6 of the GDPR, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. The lawful bases we rely on are as follows:
If we process any special category personal data the lawful basis under Article 9 would apply. To gain a more granular level of understanding on how BIM may process your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@bim.ie or, where applicable, please consult the specific guidance documents, code of conducts or handbooks for these activities.
We collect your personal data in a number of ways, including, but not limited to:
We ensure that any data we collect is relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purposes described above.
We use a range of physical, electronic, and managerial measures to ensure that we keep your personal data secure, accurate and up to date. These measures include education and training to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of our data protection obligations when processing personal data, administrative and technical controls to restrict access to personal data to a need to know basis, technological security measures, including firewalls, encryption, and anti-virus software; and physical security measures, such as staff security passes to access our premises.
All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.
We retain your information in accordance with our Data Retention Policy. Subject to your rights, we will ordinarily process your personal data throughout the course of your relationship with us and will then retain it for a period after that. The precise length of time will depend on the type of data, our legitimate interests and other legal or regulatory rules that may require us to retain it for certain minimum periods.
In determining the appropriate retention period for different types of personal data, the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data in question, as well as the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of that personal data, the purposes for which we need to process it and whether we can achieve those purposes by other means are considered.
We may share your personal data with other bodies, including, but not limited to, government departments, Irish governmental agencies or EU bodies with responsibility for the marine, online application administration, grant administration, training awards or accreditation where it is necessary and relevant, for example, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). Details of projects may be shared with the Managing Authority for the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), and details of any supports provided will be published online as required by Regulation (EU) 2021/113 of 7 July 2021 establishing the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/1004.
We may also share your personal data with services providers to assist us in delivering our services, such as our IT providers. We will only permit our service providers to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. Only the minimum personal data necessary will be shared. We ensure staff members who are trained in data protection and are bound by confidentiality agreements and contracts will have access to your personal data on a need-to-know basis.
We may in limited circumstances transfer your personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA). However, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information with additional safeguards in place, namely the use of the data transfer mechanisms outlined in the GDPR.
Cookies are little pieces of text stored by your browser on your computer at the request of our servers. These often enable a specific functionality or enhance your user experience of visiting our website. These help to keep the website secure and analyse website traffic and how people use our website. You are always free to decline our functional and other similar cookies anytime you visit our website. Certain cookies classified as strictly necessary are installed on your device by visiting our website. To update your consent preferences, you can also visit our consent preference page. For more information on what cookies are used on this website, please visit our Cookies Policy.
If you have any questions or concerns on cookies, please contact our Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@bim.ie.
Your rights as a data subject are provided under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. They are as follows:
These rights may be subjected to certain exemptions or limitations that are available under the GDPR and the Irish Data Protection Act. If you wish to exercise any of your rights or want to know about the applicable exemptions, please contact the Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@bim.ie. If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your request by BIM, you may also raise your concern by way of a representation to the Data Protection Commission, Ireland through their website.
If you would like to learn more about how BIM processes your personal data or want to exercise your rights and raise any concerns, you can write to us at dataprotection@bim.ie or Data Protection Officer, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Crofton Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, A96 E5A0.
We may update this notice from time to time. If we make any changes, we will post those changes here and update the ‘Last Updated’ date at the bottom of this Privacy Policy.
Last Updated: 23 Oct. 24