Version: 11 October 2026
1. Who we are
The Maffia is a community of professionals in marketing, communication, digital and HR. Through www.themaffia.be we connect professionals (freelance and employed) with organisations looking for them.
The controller of your personal data is: The Maffia BV, Pijpweg 1, 9340 Lede (Belgium), company number BE 0797.905.271.
Privacy questions or requests about your data: emma@themaffia.be. We reply within 30 days.
2. Whose data we process
- Professionals who create a profile or were registered with us in the past.
- Contact persons at organisations that give us an assignment or vacancy, request an AI scan or are clients.
- Contact persons at organisations we have no relationship with (yet), whom we approach for business purposes (see 4.6).
- Visitors to our website, including those who use the website chat.
- Newsletter subscribers.
3. Which data
| Type | Examples | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Identity and contact | name, email, phone, city or address, LinkedIn profile | you |
| Professional profile | job title, experience, education, skills, languages, availability, day rate or salary expectation, status, VAT number, portfolio, photo | you |
| Documents | CV and other documents you upload | you |
| Assignments and briefings | vacancies, briefings, your responses, messages with our team, notes by our team on follow-up | you, your organisation or our team |
| Business contact details | name, job title, business email and phone of contact persons at organisations | the organisation, you, or public sources (e.g. vacancies on the organisation's website, LinkedIn) |
| AI scan | your answers to the questionnaire, your name, job title and email | you |
| Website chat | your messages, and the name, company and contact details you give in the chat | you |
| Usage | login data, time of activity, technical data (IP address, browser) for security | automatically |
We do not ask for sensitive data (such as health or beliefs). Please do not include it in your profile, CV or messages.
4. Purposes and legal bases
- Managing your profile and account, and connecting you with assignments and vacancies that suit you. Basis: performance of the contract you enter into when you register.
- Helping organisations find the right professional: proposing profiles, sending and following up briefings, sending reminders. Your profile is only shared with an organisation with your name and contact details after you have confirmed your interest or responded yourself. Basis: performance of the contract.
- Matching and AI assistance. We use AI to compare vacancies and profiles, translate or anonymise texts and draft briefings. A member of The Maffia team always decides who is proposed to an organisation; there is no fully automated decision-making. Basis: performance of the contract and our legitimate interest in fast, high-quality matching.
- Newsletter and vacancy emails. Basis: your consent. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in every email or via /uitschrijven.
- The chat and the AI scan on the website: answering your question and, if you wish, contacting you. Basis: your request (pre-contractual measures) and our legitimate interest in following up enquiries.
- Business prospecting: contacting organisations that have a vacancy or assignment with a proposal from The Maffia. We only use business contact details and only send messages related to the contact person's role. Basis: our legitimate interest. You can object at any time; we then add you to a list so you are no longer contacted.
- Security, fraud prevention and proper functioning of the platform. Basis: legitimate interest.
- Legal obligations (e.g. accounting and invoicing). Basis: legal obligation.
5. Who we share data with
- Organisations with an assignment or vacancy: only the profile you agree to have proposed to them (see 4.2).
- Service providers working for us (processors), with whom we agree on security and confidentiality:
| Service | Purpose | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | database, login, document storage | United Kingdom (London) |
| Hostinger | web server | Germany |
| AI-Studio | development and management of the platform | Belgium |
| Anthropic | AI for matching, translation, briefings, chat | United States |
| OpenAI | AI for search (embeddings), anonymisation, images | United States |
| Resend | sending emails | United States / EU |
| Mailchimp (Intuit) | newsletter | United States |
| Meta (WhatsApp Business) | WhatsApp messages, if you choose this | United States / EU |
| Firecrawl, Apify | collecting public vacancies | United States / EU |
| Microsoft 365 | email and online meetings (Teams) | EU |
We never sell your data.
6. Transfers outside the EEA
Some services process data outside the European Economic Area. For the United Kingdom, an adequacy decision of the European Commission applies. For services in the United States, we rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses. You can request a copy of these safeguards at the address in section 1.
7. How long we keep your data
- Professional profile: as long as your account exists. After 24 months of inactivity (no login and no response to an assignment), we ask whether you want to stay; without a reply within 30 days, we delete your profile and documents.
- Briefings, proposals and messages about an assignment: 24 months after the assignment ends.
- Notes by our team: together with the profile.
- Business contact details (prospecting): 24 months after the last contact; immediately if you object (we then only keep your email address on a do-not-contact list).
- Website chat: 12 months.
- AI scan answers: 24 months.
- Newsletter: until you unsubscribe.
- Technical and security logs: 90 days.
- Invoicing: 7 years (legal period).
8. Your rights
You have the right to access your data, have it corrected or deleted, restrict its processing, take it with you (portability), and object to processing based on legitimate interest or for direct marketing. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
You can do a lot yourself in your account: edit your profile, download your data and delete your account (Settings). If that does not work, email us at the address in section 1.
If you disagree with how we handle your data, you can lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority, Rue de la Presse 35, 1000 Brussels, www.dataprotectionauthority.be.
9. Security
Your data is kept in secured systems with encrypted connections. Documents such as CVs are stored in protected storage that only you and our team can access. Access for our team is limited to the people who need it.
10. Cookies
How we use cookies is explained in our cookie policy.
11. Changes
We update this policy when the way we work changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. For significant changes, we will let you know by email or on the website.