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Privacy policy

If you visit or communicate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry will process your personal data in order to carry out our activities as a Danish public authority. This applies, for instance, when you contact the Ministry’s Consular Services department or when you get help from a Danish Mission abroad

What information?

The Ministry processes the data that you send us. If it is necessary for our case handling, we will procure data from third parties, e.g. through public registries, including the Danish Civil Registration System (CPR), and/or from other public authorities.

The Ministry undertakes a broad range of activities and therefore processes various categories of personal data. For the most part, the Ministry processes ordinary personal data, such as names and contact information. In certain cases, and particularly in consular cases, the Ministry also processes sensitive personal data, including health data.

If you are at premises of the Ministry, you could be filmed by our surveillance cameras. As part of illustrating the Ministry’s everyday work, events, and highlights, we also sometimes take pictures and record films at the Ministry’s premises and at events organised by the Ministry. This mainly encompasses situational and ambience pictures. Pictures and film will be published on our website and on social media, depending on the circumstances (outlets might include the Ministry’s social media profiles, print publications, posters, info screens, newspapers, and television).

If you do not wish to be photographed or filmed, please notify the photographer. In addition, you should consider staying out of situations that are photographed or filmed. If you are mistakenly photographed or filmed and the picture or film is published on our website, you can always request that the Ministry remove it.

When you visit the Ministry’s websites and accept cookies, the Ministry will collect data about you. You can read our cookie policy here.

For how long will the Ministry keep my personal data?

The Ministry will only process your personal data as long as it is necessary for us to carry out our activities and to comply with our obligations as a Danish public authority.

Once the Ministry has completed the processing, your personal data will be deleted or archived in accordance with applicable legislation unless the Ministry is obliged to keep the data due to other rules, e.g. the rules on registration of public records.

Will anybody else receive my personal data?

In certain cases, the Ministry will share your personal data with other public authorities. The Ministry will not share more data than is necessary and will always do so in accordance with the general rules on the sharing of information between public authorities. If we receive a request for access to public administration records in a case containing your personal data, the Ministry is usually obliged to disclose the data unless it is confidential.

In certain justified cases, the Ministry will transfer personal data to partners that may be located abroad. This is to provide the best possible consular assistance, e.g. in connection with hospitalisation or imprisonment abroad, and/or to assist private companies in the areas of exports, innovation, internationalisation, and investment promotion.


Legal basis

As a Danish public authority, the Ministry processes personal data in compliance with a number of general rules which apply to all public authorities, e.g. the rules on the registration of public records and archiving.

In addition to the general rules, specific legislation applies to the Ministry’s activities. This body of legislation is available (in Danish) at lov om Udenrigstjenesten af 13. april 1983 (amended), lov om visse aspekter af Danmarks Eksportråds virke af 31. januar 2001 (amended) and lov om internationalt udviklingssamarbejde, jf. seneste lov af 18. juni 2012.

Your rights

In connection with the Ministry’s processing of personal data, you have the right to:

  • Request for access to your personal data
  • Request the rectification of inaccurate personal data
  • Request that your personal is personal data erased in special cases
  • Request that the Ministry’s processing is restricted
  • Object to the Ministry’s otherwise lawful processing
  • File a complaint with the Danish Data Protection Agency. Complaints must be addressed to: Datatilsynet, Borgergade 28, 5. sal, 1300 København, e-mail: [email protected]

Formal requirements

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the data controller of the processing of personal data described above.

If you have any questions or wish to invoke your rights as described above, please contact the Ministry’s data protection officer at [email protected].