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General Terms of Use for the BEAM-Application for Belgian Government Employees

These general terms of use establish the rules for utilizing the Belgian Secure Communications (BSC) Beam communication application (hereinafter “BEAM”) for Belgian government employees, offered by Belgian Secure Communications (hereinafter referred to as “BSC”).

BEAM is an instant messaging application of the Belgian government, intended exclusively for professional communication. Access to the application is limited to government agencies and selected organizations. A user profile is created in BEAM as soon as the user logs in for the first time.

BEAM is accessible via:

  • A browser through the web client;

  • An application for IOS;

  • An application for Android.

Access to BEAM is via the internet. Users must protect themselves against the consequences of hacking by employing an appropriate and secure computer or smartphone configuration. Users must also have a sufficiently recent and up-to-date configuration of software and hardware.

Limitations of Liability

BSC cannot be held liable for any damage that the user may suffer directly or indirectly in connection with the use of the BEAM-application. BSC will strive to ensure maximum availability of BEAM and to safeguard the security of the IT system. However, BSC cannot be held liable for temporary or complete unavailability of BEAM, nor for an attack on the IT system. The unavailability or malfunctioning of the services shall under no circumstances entitle the user to compensation.

BSC reserves the right to modify, update, or interrupt BEAM without prior notice, for example, for maintenance, updates, or other necessary reasons.

BSC explicitly excludes liability for all direct and indirect consequences of:

  • Incompatibility between BEAM and the equipment, applications, procedures, or infrastructure of the user or third parties;

  • A security breach originating from the user or a third party, or any security breach that cannot be directly attributed to BEAM;

  • Errors and/or fraud committed by the user or a third party;

  • Any unavailability or malfunctioning of electronic communications systems or networks;

  • Any damage resulting from receiving messages and files through the BEAM application.

Security of Your Account

You are responsible for the security of your device and your BEAM account. Immediately report any unauthorized use or security breach. You can do this by notifying contact@securecommunications.be.

Costs and Taxes

You are responsible for all costs from your telecommunications provider related to data plans, internet costs, and other charges or taxes associated with using our services.

Obligations and Responsibilities of Users

Users are encouraged to communicate and share via BEAM with respect for one another and in accordance with applicable laws, including (but not limited to) privacy protection, intellectual property rights, and criminal law. Each user agrees not to communicate illegal or harmful content, including personal data of others without consent or legal framework. It is prohibited to disseminate or retain illegal, offensive, racist, sexist, or objectionable content without a legal framework.

It is prohibited to share harmful content or links to harmful content, including but not limited to malware, (spear)phishing, and computer viruses with the intent to harm others’ equipment or privacy. Given the end-to-end encryption of BEAM, the receiving user is fully responsible for taking necessary measures to protect their device from attacks.

The use of BEAM is strictly reserved for individuals who possess the status of Belgian government personnel at the time of use, whether at the federal, regional, community, provincial, or municipal level. Once a user loses their status as a Belgian official or undergoes a role change that affects certain communication authorizations, they are required to:

a. Immediately notify relevant contacts within BEAM;

b. Adjust all profile information, username, and access rights to accurately reflect their status and function;

c. Transfer any administrative rights or other critical functions in existing conversations to a qualified colleague or successor, so that the operation of BEAM and conversations are not hindered;

d. Only deactivate the account after completing these steps.

Identity and Usernames

  1. BSC does not provide any guarantee regarding the identity or status of other users of BEAM.

  2. Users are fully responsible for verifying whether other users actually possess the required status of a Belgian official before communicating with them.

  3. BEAM allows users to freely choose a name (“Display Name”). This freedom comes with the following obligations and guarantees: a. Users must adhere to the guidelines set by BSC for choosing a username. These can be found within the BEAM application. b. It is prohibited to choose a username that creates a false impression of identity, role, or status. c. BSC reserves the right to modify or delete misleading, inappropriate, or confusing usernames without prior consent. d. Each user is responsible for the accuracy, clarity, and transparency of their username.

Confidential Information and Professional Secrecy

Since BEAM is an internal professional messaging service for the government, the user acknowledges being subject to the duty of discretion and professional secrecy, as defined in Articles 17 and 18 of the Royal Decree of October 2, 1937, concerning the status of state personnel, in Article 458 of the Criminal Code, as well as in the corresponding provisions of applicable regional, provincial, and municipal regulations regarding the status of personnel in public administration, applicable to any use of BEAM and all information exchanged via BEAM.

Classified Documents

It is prohibited to share classified documents via BEAM. BEAM may only be used for exchanging unclassified documents. However, it is permissible to exchange “sensitive -unclassified” information. The electronic transmission of classified documents is subject to the law of December 11, 1998, regarding the classification of documents and security clearances.

Protection of Personal Data

The processing of personal data of users of BEAM is carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 27, 2016, and the Belgian law of July 30, 2018, on the protection of natural persons regarding the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data, and according to the modalities specified in the information statement on the processing of personal data.

Personal data is processed as explained in the privacy notice available on the BEAM website.

It is technically impossible to transfer your account and all associated data to another communication application, but you can export the contents of your BEAM account at any time. For questions regarding the processing of your data by BSC, you can contact the Data Protection Officer (privacy@securecommunication.be).

Intellectual Property Rights

BEAM, all components (including layout), as well as the information and services, are protected by intellectual property and copyright laws.

BSC is the exclusive owner of all intellectual property rights related to both the structure and content of the application, unless expressly stated otherwise.

These general terms of use do not grant any intellectual property rights to the user regarding the structure or content of the application and its services.

The user agrees that the use of the application does not infringe in any way on BSC’s rights, and in particular, does not constitute infringement or lead to unfair or parasitic competition.

Parts of the application that fall under an “open-source” or “free software” license are governed by the terms of the respective licenses. These general terms of use neither limit nor grant more rights to users than those allowed by these licenses.

All texts, graphic elements, icons, images, illustrations, and more generally all parts of the application may not be displayed, reproduced, exploited, or extracted in whole or in part in any medium without the express written consent of BSC.

License for Use

BSC grants the user a free license to use the application, exclusively for strictly professional use. Thus, the user may not use the application for commercial purposes.

“Commercial use” includes, among other things:

  • Any advantage or commercial income from the commercialization of the application or from competing use;

  • Any use of the application with a commercial enterprise and/or a third party, if it leads to the commercialization of the application.

This license is non-exclusive, revocable at any time, non-transferable, and non-tradeable.

Modification of General Terms of Use

These general terms of use may be modified or supplemented at any time and without prior notice, depending on changes in the BEAM-application, developments in legislation, or for other necessary reasons. The user is expected to regularly consult the current version of the terms of use on the official website.

Management and Oversight

BSC may analyze aggregated and anonymized data to improve the use and security of the application.

Retention Periods & Data Storage (“Fair Use Policy”)

  1. Purpose and Scope This Fair Use Policy (“FUP”) describes the conditions for the use of the BEAM-application offered by BSC. The purpose of this FUP is to ensure that BEAM remains fair, efficient, and available to all users.

  2. Normal Use Users may use the storage space within the Services for reasonable, legal professional use, such as storing documents, photos, videos, audio, and other digital files. This use is considered “normal use.”

  3. Exceptional Use Exceptional or excessive use that imposes an undue burden on BEAM is not considered normal use. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Storage of extremely large amounts of data or files that are not normally needed within the scope of professional behavior.

  • Continuous uploading or downloading of large amounts of data for the purpose of archiving files.

  • Actions that adversely affect the technical stability or performance of the Services for other users.

Measures for Noncompliance or Irresponsible Use of BEAM

Since BEAM is an internal professional messaging service for the government, the user acknowledges that any non-professional use, including use that violates the obligations described above, may be reported to the head of the user’s administration for appropriate measures to be taken. This report does not preclude any technical measures to prevent misuse.

If a user exceeds the limits of normal use, BSC reserves the right to take one or more of the following measures:

  • Limiting upload or download speeds.

  • Temporarily suspending the ability to upload new files.

  • Setting a storage limit for the user.

  • Removing the oldest or largest files exceeding the limit, after prior warning.

Restriction, Suspension, or Termination of Access to Use of BEAM

BSC reserves the right to limit, suspend, or permanently terminate your access to (any part of) BSC services if:

  • You violate our terms of use or applicable laws and regulations;

  • You misuse the service, for example, by disseminating hateful, discriminatory, illegal, or harmful content;

  • Your behavior jeopardizes the integrity, security, or operation of our platform, our systems, or other users;

  • We are legally obligated to do so or receive a court order;

  • A complaint, report, or automated detection leads to reasonable suspicion of violating these terms;

  • You violate any other of the above conditions.

When we take a measure that removes your content or limits, suspends, or terminates your access to (any part of) our service, we will promptly inform you in a clear and understandable manner. This notification will include:

  • The specific reason(s) for the decision;

  • Whether the decision is based on a report from another user, an automated system, or a human assessment;

  • The facts or circumstances that underlie the measure;

  • Information on how you can appeal the decision or lodge a complaint.

In exceptional cases, we may choose not to inform you in advance or directly if:

  • It is legally prohibited (for example, in the context of a criminal investigation);

  • Informing you would seriously hinder enforcement;

  • It would endanger the rights or safety of other users.

Although some notifications may be generated automatically, any decision to limit, suspend, or terminate an account will be made manually by BSC. Such decisions will never occur entirely automatically.

If you disagree with a measure taken, you can appeal within 14 days through our complaints procedure. Your complaint may be directed to complaints@securecommunications.be.

Applicable Law and Competent Courts

These general terms of use are governed by Belgian law. Any dispute related to the use of BEAM falls under Belgian law and is exclusively subject to the jurisdiction of the courts in the judicial district of Brussels.