Submit an authorization request

The Privacy Act describes with great precision how and in which circumstances personal data may be processed or disclosed. Some processing operations are so delicate, however, that they are only possible with specific authorization.

Public authorities or private institutions working in the general interest can submit a request for authorization to the Commission, which will then decide which Sector Committee has to deal with it. The request also has to specify:

  • why access to the data is necessary;
  • who has to have access to the data;
  • how long access is necessary.

The Sector Committee will examine the request in detail and weigh the citizen's interests before it grants authorization (permission) or refuses to do so.

When the sector committee grants an authorization, its specific beneficiary/ies are mentioned in principle in the deliberation. That deliberation sets out the conditions for use of the data requested, e.g. the elaboration of a security policy or the designation of a security counsellor.

If the sector committee observes that several public or private institutions with a mission of public interest have similar needs regarding data from the Crossroads Bank of Social Security, it also grants authorizations to a certain category of beneficiaries without mentioning their names separately. These authorizations are called general authorizations. The committee determines the conditions a beneficiary from a certain category has to meet in order to benefit from the authorization.

All authorization requests have to be submitted in writing to the Sector Committee of Social Security and of Health, chaussée Saint-Pierre 375, 1040 Brussels. Since English is not an official language in Belgium, requests have to be submitted either in French or Dutch.

For certain general authorizations the sector committee has drawn up a model you can download and print by clicking one of the links below. Only requests in this form will be accepted.

Attention: this request concerns both the Sector Committee of the National Register and the Sector Committee of Social Security and of Health, but needs to be sent only once, to the address of the latter committee.