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On this page, you will find the privacy policy of WorldofJosh.be, the general conditions of use, legal information and other tips.

The information, policies and conditions described on this page are subject to change at any time without notice.

Table of contents

I. Privacy policy

A. Introduction

1. The confidentiality of visitors to the website WorldofJosh.be (hereinafter referred to as "website") is very important to us, and we are committed to protecting it. This policy details what we do with your personal information.
2. Consenting to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy when you first visit the website permits us to use cookies every time you visit the website.

B. How we collect your personal data

The following types of personal information may be collected, stored, and used :

1. Information about your computer, including your IP address, geographic location, type and version of your browser, and your operating system.
2. Information on your visits and your use of this website including the referring source, the duration of the visit, the pages viewed, and the navigation paths of websites.
3. Information such as your e-mail address, which you provide to us when using comments or when you contact the webmaster.
4. Information such as your name and email address, which you enter to subscribe to our emails and/or comments.
5. Information generated when using our site, including when, how often and under what circumstances you use it.
6. Information that you publish on the website with the intention of publishing it on the internet, and which includes your username, your profile photos and the content of your publications.
7. Information contained in all communications that you send to us by email or on the website, including their content and metadata.
8. Any other personal information that you communicate to us.

Before disclosing personal information to us about another person, you must obtain that person's consent to the disclosure and processing of that personal information under the terms of this policy.

C. Using Personal Information

Personal information submitted to us through the website will be used for the purposes specified in this policy or on the relevant pages of the website. We may use your personal information for the following reasons :

1. For administrative purposes, in case of need to contact you.
2. To be notified of new comments, you must subscribe to receive notifications.
3. Allow your use of the services offered on the website.
4. Send you email notifications that you have specifically requested.
5. Process requests and complaints relating to the website made by you or concerning you.
6. Maintain website security and prevent fraud.
7. Check compliance with the general conditions governing the use of the website and other uses.

If you submit personal information on the website for the purpose of publishing it, we will publish it and may use that information in accordance with the permissions you grant to us.

Your privacy settings can be used to limit the publication of your information on the website and can be adjusted in your privacy settings on the website.

Without your express consent, we will not provide your personal information to third parties for their direct marketing, or that of other third parties.

D. Disclosing personal information

We may disclose your personal information :

1. To the extent that we are required to do so by law.
2. In connection with any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings.
3. In order to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention).
4. To any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that personal information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that personal information.

Except as provided in this policy, we will not provide your personal information to third parties.

E. International data transfers

1. Information that we collect may be stored, processed in, and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this policy.
2. Information that we collect may be transferred to the following countries which do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in force in the European Economic Area : the United States of America, Russia, Japan, China, and India.
3. Personal information that you publish on the website or submit for publication on the website may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use or misuse of such information by others.
4. You expressly agree to the transfers of personal information described in this Section E.

F. Retaining personal information

1. This Section F sets out our data retention policies and procedure, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations regarding the retention and deletion of personal information.
2. Personal information that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
3. Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section G, we will retain documents (including electronic documents) containing personal data :
   1. To the extent that we are required to do so by law.
   2. If we believe that the documents may be relevant to any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings; and
   3. in order to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention).

G. Security of your personal information

1. We will take reasonable technical and organizational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse, or alteration of your personal information.
2. We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure (password- and firewall-protected) servers.
3. You acknowledge that the transmission of information over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.
4. You are responsible for keeping the password you use for accessing the website confidential.
   We will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to the website).

H. Amendments

We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on the website. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you understand any changes to this policy. We may notify you of changes to this policy by email.

I. Your rights

You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you; provision of such information will be subject to the following :

• The supply of appropriate evidence of your identity.

We may withhold personal information that you request to the extent permitted by law.

You may instruct us at any time not to process your personal information for marketing purposes.

In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes.

Without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your usual residence, place of work or place of the alleged violation if you consider that the processing of your Data violates the GDPR.

Data Protection Authority (ex-Belgian Privacy Commission)
Drukpersstraat 35
1000 Brussel
België
+32(0)2.274.48.00
+32(0)2.274.48.35
contact@apd-gba.be
www.dataprotectionauthority.be

In addition, the user has the option of lodging a complaint with the Mons Court of First Instance. For more information on complaints and possible remedies, please consult the information available from the Data Protection Authority.

J. Third party websites

The website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties.

K. Updating information

Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.

L. Applicable law and competent jurisdiction

This policy is governed by Belgian law.
Any dispute relating to the interpretation or execution of this policy will be submitted to the courts of the judicial district of Mons.

M. About cookies

The website uses cookies to improve your experience and optimize this website.
A cookie is a small text file transferred from a web server to your web browser or your hard drive when you visit a website.
Cookies can be "persistent" or "session" : a persistent cookie is stored by the browser and remains valid until its expiration date, unless it is deleted by the user before this expiration date; as for a session cookie, it expires at the end of the user session, when the browser is closed. Cookies generally do not contain any information that personally identifies a user, but the personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in cookies and obtained by cookies.
If your web browser is configured to accept cookies, they will be stored in the web browser or hard drive until the expiration date has passed or until you delete the cookies yourself (see below).

1. The names of the cookies that we use on the website, and the purposes for which they are used, are set out below :

   Cookie	Details	Name (deadline)	Finality
   GDPR	This cookie is used by the privacy policy and the cookies policy to avoid the user to accept them again. To find out more about the legislation, click on Principles of the GDPR.	wwpc (1 year)	Legislation
   PHPNET-MNO WEBMO-MNO	These cookies are generated and used only by the load balancing servers of certain web hostings, they are neither saved nor transmitted to the servers processing the requests. These cookies contain an ID corresponding to the last server that processed a request for a given domain in order to be able to send requests from the same client to the same site to the same server in a short period of time, in order to optimize performance. These cookies are invalidated after 40 seconds without access to the domain by the client, either after 80 seconds, or because the server entered in the cookies is no longer available or is overloaded. It is not possible to deactivate these cookies.	PHPNET-MNO (end of the browser session) WEBMO-MNO (end of the browser session)	Performance
   PHPSESSID	This cookie establishes the communication between the web server and the browser, and temporarily stores information about your session. For example, it ensures that you do not have to complete a form again if you reload the page or make a mistake.	PHPSESSID (end of the browser session)	Performance
   Google Analytics™	We use these cookies to collect information about how visitors use this website, including the details of the site the visitor has visited before arriving on this site, and the total number of times a visitor has visited this website. We use the information to optimize this website and services, and to improve the experience of users. Cookies don't identify you personally. They merely collect anonymous information that is transmitted and stored by Google™ on servers in the United States in accordance with its privacy practices. To learn more about Google Analytics™ privacy practices, click Protect your data - Google Analytics™.	_gat_gtag (10 minutes) _gid (1 day) _ga (2 years)	Performance Analysis
   Yandex Metrica™	Same purposes as Google Analytics™ cookies. To learn more about Yandex Metrica™'s privacy practices, click Yandex Metrica™ Legal Documents.	_ym_visorc (20 minutes) _ym_isad (1 day) _ym_uid (1 year) _ym_d (1 year)	Performance Analysis
   Commentics	When you write a comment on this website, the data entered in the comment form, but also your IP address and the user agent of your browser are collected to help us detect spam comments. A cookie is also created to avoid users having to re-enter their identifiers (if the "Remember me" box has been checked).	Commentics-Users (1 year)	Ergonomics

2. Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies.
   You can enable or disable cookies by changing the settings in your browser.
   Find out how and find more information about cookies by clicking on AllAboutCookies.org. You can also install an extension to your browser that will manage and/or prevent the use of cookies.
3. You can delete cookies already stored on your computer.
   1. In Internet Explorer, follow the procedure indicated here;
   2. in Mozilla Firefox, follow the procedure indicated here;
   3. in Microsoft Edge, follow the procedure indicated here;
   4. in Google Chrome, follow the procedure indicated here;
   5. in Opera, follow the procedure indicated here;
   6. in Brave, follow the procedure indicated here.
4. Blocking or deleting cookies will have a negative impact on the use of many websites.
   If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the functionality of the website.

II. Terms & conditions

These terms and conditions contain rules on the use of comments on the WorldofJosh.be website.
This platform is a space for the exchange of ideas and opinions in a spirit of plurality, openness and mutual respect. These comments are s ubject to the rules of conduct for any democratic debate as well as to Belgian law, in particular with regard to freedom of the press and intellectual property.

With this in mind, the webmaster of the website has chosen to fully exercise his editorial responsibility by moderating comments. The publication of the messages is subject to a prior or a posteriori reading assumed by the webmaster, brought to validate each of the contributions.

The webmaster has the right to modify, move or delete without notice :

• comments of a racist, xenophobic, revisionist, negationist or propagandist nature,
• threatening, hateful, defamatory or aggressive comments,
• incitement to racial hatred, calls for violence or murder,
• comments of a pornographic, pedophile or obscene nature,
• comments insulting stakeholders,
• comments knowingly false, harassing, invading the privacy of other participants or third parties,
• advertising messages, press releases from political or trade union organizations,
• comments that are off-topic, incomprehensible or in SMS language,
• comments sent in multiple copies,
• comments written in a language other than French,
• comments which do not add any element likely to advance the debate in question,
• repeated links to other websites.

By submitting a comment you represent that you acknowledge that all comments express the views and opinions of the original author and not those of the webmaster.

The webmaster reserves the right to apply these rules of conduct by deleting a message. Internet users who flagrantly and/or systematically violate this code will be temporarily or permanently excluded from comments.
The decisions of the webmaster are sovereign. The Internet user agrees to respect these rules of conduct by validating his message.

The right of quotation is respected. However, "copy and paste" of articles or texts considered to be plagiarism are not published.

The comments are a place of debate which imposes to advance and to support your own arguments. You can criticize the arguments of others, not individuals.

Each Internet user has the possibility of alerting the webmaster if a message appears to them to be contrary to the charter for the use of comments. All you have to do is send a message to the webmaster specifying the webpage (title or link) and the comment in question.

Comments posted on the WorldofJosh.be website fall under the application of the Belgian law of 8 December 1992 on the protection of privacy.

Participation in comments on the WorldofJosh.be website implies acceptance of all the rules set out above.

The webmaster thanks for your enriching and constructive contributions.

This service is provided by Commentics.

III. Other legal information

 The webmaster of WorldofJosh.be in no way encourages the practice of urban exploration and declines all responsibility in the event of an accident or legal actions.

The website WorldofJosh.be (hereinafter referred to as the "website") is a personal website and has no commercial or advertising purpose.

The website is subject to Belgian and international legislation on copyright and intellectual property. All rights of reproduction are reserved, including iconographic and photographic representations.

The general presentation of the site is also protected. You are not authorized to reproduce the HTML code of the pages of this server for the purpose of public dissemination. Nevertheless, the original template is free of rights (available here, the conditions of usage are summarized here).

In case (improbable) of complaint about the content of this site, comment or other, I suggest you send me an email on this page and I will examine (when I have the time but with kindness and rigor) the legitimate of your claim.

The press extracts are accompanied by a link to the original article, or by default, by the name of the author and the place where the said extract was published.

Reproduction of all or part of this site on any medium whatsoever, is strictly prohibited without the express authorization of the webmaster, and for educational use (I can dream...).
Reproduction of texts or photographs on paper or digital is allowed in a pedagogical framework and non-commercial, subject to the following four conditions :

• free of charge.
• ask the webmaster for permission to use part of this website so that he can judge the merits of this use.
• respect for the integrity of the documents reproduced (no modification or alteration).
• clear and legible quotation of the source in the following form :
  Document from the website "WorldofJosh.be". All rights reserved.

The original photographs are available from the webmaster, with justification.
Any request without justification will be automatically rejected.
He will study the requests and will in turn motivate his acceptance or refusal.

• Explorations, photos, texts & webmaster : Josh.
• Owner & website creator : Josh.
• Publication manager : Josh.
• To contact the webmaster, click here.

The website WorldofJosh.be is hosted by Nuxit.

Nuxit - Groupe Magic Online
130-134 Avenue du Président Wilson
93512 Montreuil Cedex
France
+33.4.86.57.60.00
+33.1.56.72.93.30
www.nuxit.com

IV. Tools, codes & scripts

The WorldofJosh.be website uses the following tools :

• Commentics
  PHP commenting script used in the different pages of this website.
• Create Cookie Consent Banner
  Script for creation of the consent banner of acceptance of cookies.
• FileOptimizer
  Lossless compression tools for pictures, useful for website optimization.
• Font Awesome
  A set of icons that adorn this website.
• LightGallery
  Slideshow script, lightweight version integrated into the Styleshout template.
• Let's Encrypt
  Free SSL certificate provided to my web host and allowing you a secure connection (https://).
• PHP Object search engine
  PHP search engine written by Mathieu Chartier.
• Plyr
  Customizable HTML5 video player.
• Styleshout
  Template used and modified on this website.
• Visual Watermark
  Pictures watermarking of this website.
• XML-Sitemaps.com
  Online sitemap generator.

For your security on the Internet, keep your browser and your computer/smartphone up to date !
This website has been tested and is correctly displayed on the following browsers :

V. Urbex and the Belgian law

There is a lot of uncertainty (ignorance ?) about the legal context of urban exploration. However, it's interesting to know your rights if you encounter problems during an urbex adventure.
Before addressing the law itself, let's start with a little common sense : if you're in trouble, stay calm, friendly, and respectful. If you show your good will, it is likely that you will also be treated with good will. Respect works both ways.

Some detailed legal articles :

CRIMES AND OFFENSES AGAINST PROPERTIES

Art. 484. The break-in consists in forcing, breaking, degrading, demolishing or removing any kind of exterior or interior fence of a house, building, any construction or its dependencies, of a boat, a wagon, a car; force closed cabinets or furniture, intended to stay in place and protect the effects they contain.

DESTROYING FENCES, MOVING OR REMOVAL OF CORNERS

Art. 545. Will be punished by an imprisonment of eight days to six months and a fine of twenty-six euros to two hundred euros, or one of these penalties only, whoever has, in whole or in part, filled the ditches, cut or torn open or dry hedges, destroyed rural or urban fences, whatever materials they are made; moves or removes landmarks, corner stems or other trees planted or recognized to establish the boundaries between different inheritances.

It should be noted that the legislator makes no distinction as to what should be taken into account as "closure". In the case of locking means, simply moving a fence (for example, putting a Heras™ fence aside, even if you don't break anything) is enough to fall under the scope of this article.

CLIMBING

Art. 486. Is qualified climbing : Any entry in houses, buildings, courtyards, backyards, any buildings, gardens, parks, enclosures, executed over walls, doors, roofs or any other kind of fence; Entrance through an underground opening other than that which was established to serve as an entrance.

Climbing is not a crime in itself, but an aggravating factor in the crime of theft.

ATTACKS ON INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM AND THE INVIOLABILITY OF THE HOME, COMMITTED BY INDIVIDUALS

Art. 439. Will be punished by imprisonment for fifteen days to two years and a fine of twenty-six euros to three hundred euros, whoever, without an order of authority and except in cases where the law allows entry the domicile of individuals against their will, [either will have entered a house, an apartment, a room or a dwelling inhabited by others, or their dependencies, by means of threats or violence against people, by means of breaking and entering , climbing or false keys, either will occupy this property, or will stay there without authorization of the inhabitants.] Art. 479. Is deemed to be an inhabited house, any building, any apartment, any accommodation, any lodge, any cabin, even a mobile one, or any other place used for habitation. Art. 480. The outbuildings of an inhabited house are deemed to be courtyards, barnyards, gardens and all other enclosed land, as well as barns, stables and all other buildings enclosed therein, whatever their use, when even they would form a particular enclosure in the general enclosure.

Note that as soon as you enter an uninhabited building, there is not necessarily a home invasion. To be considered a violation of domicile, the intrusion must take place in a building which must be actually inhabited. Entering abandoned churches, factories, underground structures, etc. can in no case be the subject of a home invasion.
However, it does not have to be a traditional house. In the eyes of the legislator, a hangar can also serve as a residence. In addition, entering an outbuilding (shed, barn, garage, etc.) of an inhabited building also comes under the concept of home invasion. An empty house in which a squatter has taken up residence can also be considered an inhabited building.

THEFTS AND EXORSIONS

Art. 461. Anyone who has fraudulently removed something that does not belong to him is guilty of theft. (Theft of someone else's thing fraudulently for the purpose of temporary use is treated as theft.) Art. 505. Will be punished by imprisonment from fifteen days to five years and a fine of twenty-six euros to one hundred thousand euros or one of these penalties only :
1° Those who have concealed, in whole or in part, things removed, diverted or obtained with the aid of a crime or an offense;
2° Those who have bought, received in exchange or free of charge, owned, kept or managed things referred to in article 42, 3°, while they knew or should have known the origin of these things at the beginning of these operations;
3° Those who have converted or transferred things referred to in article 42, 3°, in order to conceal or disguise their illicit origin or to help any person who is involved in the commission of the offense from which these things originate, to escape the legal consequences of his actions;
4° Those who have concealed or disguised the nature, origin, location, arrangement, movement or ownership of the things referred to in article 42, 3°, while they knew or should have known the origin of these things at the beginning of these operations.
(The offenses referred to in paragraph 1, 3° and 4°, exist even if their perpetrator is also the author, co-perpetrator or accomplice of the offense from which the things referred to in article 42, 3° originate. referred to in paragraph 1, 1° and 2°. exist even if their perpetrator is also the author, co-perpetrator or accomplice of the offense from which the things referred to in article 42, 3° originate, when this offense was committed abroad and cannot be prosecuted in Belgium.)
The things referred to in paragraph 1, 2 °, of this article constitute the object of the offense covered by this provision, within the meaning of article 42, 1 °, and will be confiscated, at the expense of each of the perpetrators. , co-perpetrators or accomplices of these offenses, even if the property does not belong to the convicted person, without this penalty being able however to prejudice the rights of third parties on the property liable to be the subject of confiscation. If his things cannot be found in the convict's patrimony, the judge will carry out their monetary valuation and the confiscation will relate to a sum of money which will be proportional to the convicted person's participation in the offense.)
The attempt of the offenses referred to in 2°, 3° and 4° of this article will be punished by imprisonment of eight days to three years and a fine of twenty-six euros to fifty thousand euros or one of these penalties only.

It goes without saying that as urban explorers, we do not take objects from a place we visit. Take only pictures ! But beware, because here is a nice trap : the law of June 25, 1964 added a second paragraph to article 461 of the Penal Code. This happened in response to the phenomenon of "joy riding", in which a car for short-term use was stolen and later returned. Since then, consumer theft (short theft) has also been punished by law. And here's the rub : the staging during an urbex shoot can be interpreted as a brief appropriation of this material. In other words, if your photos show that, for example, you moved things (even if you replaced them later), it could be seen by an unfriendly judge as theft, including aggravating circumstances mentioned above (break-in, climbing). It is therefore worth leaving everything as it is !
As to the concealment, no further comment is necessary.

Burglary or burglary are not in themselves separate crimes, but are aggravating circumstances of the crime of theft. However, the destruction of property (vandalism) is of course a criminal offense in itself (Articles 534 ter, 528 and seq. of the Criminal Code).

Art. 528. Any destruction, any damage to the property of others executed with the help of violence or threats, will be punished by imprisonment from eight days to three years and a fine of twenty-six euros to five hundred euros , or one of these sentences only. Art. 534 bis. § 1st. Will be punished by imprisonment from one month to six months and a fine of twenty-six euros to two hundred euros or one of these penalties only, whoever performs unauthorized graffiti on movable or immovable property.
§ 2. The maximum of imprisonment is increased to one year of imprisonment in the event of recidivism on an offense referred to in paragraph 1 within five years from the date of a previous judgment on conviction and enforceable. tried. Art. 534 ter. Will be punished by imprisonment from one month to six months and a fine of twenty-six euros to two hundred euros or one of these penalties only, whoever has voluntarily degraded the property properties of others.

CONSEQUENCES
Even if at first glance there appear to be little or no criminal consequences for urban explorers who take leisure seriously and respect common sense, it cannot be excluded that an offense set out above may have consequences for his author. If an owner in a bad mood files a complaint because of your presence on his property, a judge can sentence you. So there is still a need for prudence and discretion.
It seems obvious to us, but we emphasize it once again : don't break anything and take nothing ! Take only pictures !
If the police or the owner ask you to leave the building or land, it is recommended that you act immediately on this request.
Finally, the Belgian municipalities and the local police have for some time been able to impose a municipal administrative sanction. Some municipalities apply them directly when illegal entry to private property is found. The fine for quickly reaching a minimum of 250 euros. An warned explorer is worth two !

Last update : March 12, 2022
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