This Privacy Policy governs the processing of your personal data by IVA whenever you visit our website or communicate with us via e-mail, telephone or social media (such as our LinkedIn channel).

1. General

1.1 Your personal data are processed by International VAT Association IVZW, with registered seat at Kleine Moerstraat 5b, 8000 Bruges, Belgium, with enterprise number 0840.204.397 (“IVA”), acting in the capacity of data controller.

If you have any remarks or questions, please contact our Secretariat at [email protected].

1.2 The terms within this Privacy Policy must be interpreted in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU Regulation 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46/EC).

1.3 We reserve the right to modify or amend this Privacy Policy on our own initiative. Each change or modification shall be communicated via the membership portal.

2. General information on the processing of your personal data

2.1 Whenever you use our website and/or social media channels (such as our LinkedIn page), we collect:

• technical information associated with the device you use, such as your IP address, browser type, geographical location and operating system;
• information concerning your browsing behavior, such as how long you visit, what links you click on, what pages you visit and how many times you visit a page.

2.2 When you fill out the contact form on our website, we collect:

• basic identity information, such as your name, e-mail address, telephone number;
• the content of your communication; and
• any other personal data you choose to provide us with.

2.3 When you register for a conference or other event via our website, we collect:

• basic identity information, such as your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number;
• other general information, such as the company you work for, your location, company contact name and number;
• information about accommodation requirements, such as information about your stay;
• travel information; and

2.4 When you contact us via e-mail, telephone or social media (such as via our LinkedIn page) with a concrete question, complaint or remark, we collect:

• the basic identity information you provide us with, such as name, e-mail address, correspondence address, telephone number;
• the content of your communication and the technical details of the communication itself (with whom you correspond at our end, date and time, etc.);
• publicly available information of your social media profile and
• any other personal data you choose to provide to us.

3. Why do we process your personal data and what is our legal basis?

3.1 IVA may process your personal data to make it possible to communicate with you.

This processing is necessary to pursue our legitimate interest, i.e. to be able to respond appropriately to you and to communicate with you.

3.2 IVA may process your personal data to organise and arrange your attendance at our conferences and other events.

This processing is necessary to pursue our legitimate interest, i.e. to be able to organise the event and properly arrange your attendance.
For processing information about your dietary requirements and allergies, we ask for your consent.

3.3 IVA may process your personal data to take pictures at our conference or other events and exhibit these, such as in brochures and on our website and social media channels.

This processing is necessary to pursue our legitimate interest, i.e. to exhibit images of the event.

3.4 IVA may process your personal data in order to be able to defend IVA in judicial or other proceedings.

This processing is necessary to pursue our legitimate interest, i.e. to defend ourselves in the event of a dispute.

3.5 IVA may process your personal data for the preservation of the legitimate interests of IVA, its partners or a third party if your use of the website, our social media channels (such as our LinkedIn page) or other communication channels can be considered (a) a violation of any applicable terms of use or the intellectual property rights or any other rights of a third party, (b) a threat to the security or integrity of the website, (c) a danger to the website or any of IVA’s or its subcontractors’ underlying systems due to viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, malware or any other form of malicious code, or (d) in any way hateful, obscene, discriminating, racist, slanderous, spiteful, hurtful or in some other way inappropriate or illegal.

This processing is necessary for to pursue our legitimate interest and the legitimate interest of third parties, namely to protect our website and our LinkedIn channel from misuse and illegal activities.

3.6 IVA may process your personal data to comply with legal obligations or to comply with any reasonable request from competent law enforcement agents or representatives, judicial authorities, governmental agencies or bodies, including competent data protection authorities. Your personal data may be transferred upon IVA’s own initiative to the police or the judicial authorities as evidence or if there are justified suspicions of an unlawful act or crime committed by you through the use of the website, our LinkedIn channel or other communication with us.

This processing is necessary to comply with our legal obligations.

4. How long will we keep your personal data?

4.1 As a general principle, we keep your personal data for as short as possible and no longer as necessary to achieve the purposes described in Article 3 or until you withdraw your consent. When your personal data are no longer necessary, they will be safely deleted.

We would like to emphasize that we provide the necessary appropriate safeguards for the security and integrity of your personal data.

5. Who receives your personal data?

5.1 Except for the situation described in this Article, IVA does not send your personal data in an identifiable manner to any third party without your explicit consent to do so.

5.2 IVA relies on third parties, such as IT service providers, to provide you with this These third party processors may only process your personal data on IVA’s behalf on the basis of explicit written instructions from IVA. IVA guarantees that all external processors are selected with due care and IVA obliges them to respect the security and integrity of your personal data.

5.3 If you use our social media channels to contact or communicate with us, your personal data are also processed by the social media providers (such as LinkedIn). You can find more information on how social media providers process your personal data in their respective privacy policies.

5.4 In principle, your personal data will only be processed within the European Economic Area (i.e. the European Union, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein). Should the aforementioned purposes require that your personal data is processed outside the European Economic Area, we ensure that your personal data will be protected to the fullest extent possible.

6. What are our quality assurances?

6.1 IVA considers and treats personal data as confidential information.

6.2 IVA will take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against the loss, alteration or unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, transmitted, stored or otherwise processed data, whether accidentally or unlawfully.

6.3 IVA will de-identify your personal data when they are no longer necessary for the purposes outlined in the purpose for processing, if appropriate.

7. What are your rights?

7.1 As a data subject you have certain rights. Please note that not all rights will necessarily apply to you.

You have the right of access, the right to rectification, the right to erasure, the right to data portability, the right to object and the right to restriction of processing. You also have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal consequences for you or similarly affects you. In addition, you have the right to withdraw your consent. This only applies to situations where the processing is based on your consent.

7.2 To exercise your rights as described in this Privacy Policy, you can contact our Secretariat. To that end, you can submit a written request to [email protected], stating the right to which your request relates. In addition, you have add a copy of your valid identity card, on which the validity date and your signature are clearly visible, in order to prevent illegal or fraudulent requests. As soon as your request is received by our Secretariat, you will receive an acknowledgement of receipt. Your request will then be dealt with within a reasonable period of time. If you are still dissatisfied, you have the right to contact the supervisory authority.