Sharing

Data sharing

There are many valid reasons for an organisation to share your data with other parties. The label requires organisations to select specific options where possible, and otherwise fall back to the more generic "third parties" option.

In the label, the higher one of these categories is listed, the more types of data are shared with this type.
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Processors	A very common one. You could say in this case certain processing is outsourced to a sub-contractor. A data processor is under contract to only process your data in a way that was explicitly mentioned in the contract. For example, a bank can ask another company to verify the identity of someone that wants to open a bank account. Importantly, the responsability for the safety of the data still lies with the hiring party. They remain accountable, so the contracts with processors are usually quite strict.
Service providers	In this case a third party is providing a service, but there is no contract governing the exchange. This means the service provider has more freedom to use the provided data for their own purposes. Examples are companies such a Google, which provide scripts or fonts that a lot of organisations have embedded in their websites. The cost of offering these 'free' services must be paid in some way, so this can mean that your surfing behaviour could be tracked and monetised by the service provider.
Customers	in this case third parties are paying for access to data. This could be as a literal purchase of data, but in reality it's more likely that data is 'rented' or gained access to indirectly. For example, the organisation may provide a subscription to a piece of software through which the data is made available on demand, without actually gaining legal ownership.
Government organisations	Sometimes data is shared with government organisations, for instance because there is a legal requirement to do so.
Parent, sibling or daugher organisations	The organisation that is processing your data may be part of a larger conglomerate. For example, a store might be a part of a larger chain of stores, which share data about customers between them.
Advertising organisations	This is a very specific case where your data is shared in order to facilitate an advertising process. For example, if you're an existing customer or a company, that company might want to catch your eye again through online advertising. In this case they might provide some information about you, such as your email address, in order for this targetting to work.
Third parties	If none of the above categories are a match, this category may be used.