The International Virtual Aviation Organisation (further identified as IVAO) places the highest priority on handling your personal data with respect and confidentiality. IVAO adheres to all applicable data protection laws and regulations. The following privacy policy outlines what data is collected from you, who has access to that data, and how it can be used. The IVAO network (further identified as IVAN) is a service provided by IVAO VZW, an NPO with main offices located at:
IVAO VZW
Werfstraat 89
1570 Galmaarden
Belgium
When registering with IVAO, it is necessary to provide your real name, country of residence, email address, and date of birth. Your name and country and city of residence will become part of your public profile that can be viewed by any registered user. Your email address will be used to send you notifications such as newsletters, important service announcements, or to facilitate a staff member directly contacting you. You always have the option to unsubscribe from any mass mailings provided by IVAO from your profile page. Your date of birth will be used to verify that you meet our minimum age requirements for membership and/or staff positions. Your IP address will also be captured and stored as a part of this process. Any additional optional information that you choose to provide will also be visible to any registered user.
In addition, upon registration, a forum user account will be created for your use. Information provided during registration will be transferred to the forum (forum.ivao.aero) in order to create and administer your account.
When you log onto IVAN, the server automatically collects data regarding your connection including date and time of connection, provided name, and public IP address. Additional information is also collected from the flight plan of the IvAp pilot client and the ATIS section of the IvAc air traffic control client. This information is stored within the user’s connection history. Furthermore, private IP address, operating system information, as well as MAC addresses of the client connection, are captured, however, are not stored in our databases. When sending and receiving UNICOM messages and private messages which are sent via the clients, these are collected and stored on the server for the purposes of adjudicating suspensions and monitoring examination coordination and will be automatically deleted after a period of fourteen days.
IVAO also provides a Forum for use by its members. Information regarding your connection including date and time and IP address is collected and stored. The forum also provides several user customisable fields that can be filled out by the user which may become viewable to any registered user. Additionally, due to the nature of a forum, any posts made by you will be stored for viewing.
In order to provide you with services related to IVAO and adhere to our rules and regulations, certain information is retained by our servers including user exam history and user account suspension history. This information is only visible to staff and the user themselves. Virtual airline affiliation and staff details are visible to any registered user.
Cookies are tiny text files stored on your computer. Most frequently, cookies are stored for the duration of the current session, i.e. until you close your browser, but in some cases, they are stored longer than this. IVAO uses cookies as follows:
When you sign in to your IVAO account via the website or via the forum, IVAO sets a cookie to recognise your browser, a session cookie, upon your request. This allows you to enter your password only once per session when you log in, without being asked repeatedly to do so while utilising the website. Most browsers accept cookies by default, but it is possible to change your browser settings to refuse all cookies. You can delete cookies at any time, however, but will have to sign in again the next time you wish to log in to the IVAO website.
When you visit an IVAO website, the server automatically saves the information that your browser sends whenever you visit this site. The information includes your request, IP address, browser type and language, and the date and time of your request. The information is used solely for analysing and maintaining the technical operation of the servers and network as a whole. It is generally deleted after a 3 month period.
Should you have questions, you can contact us at any time via email. Certain departments utilize a mail ticketing service so as to reply as quickly as possible and to track our support service. Your information will only be used to process your request.
IVAO generates and stores a unique identifier on the user's computer to ensure network security and prevent duplicate accounts. Additionally, IVAO collects multiple device IDs and monitors IP addresses to verify unique user identities and prevent fraudulent activities such as account spoofing. While techniques like IP and MAC address spoofing exist, these methods provide a comprehensive and effective approach to safeguarding our network. The legal basis for the processing of thethis data is Art.6 1(f) GDPR
IVAO processes personal data based on legitimate interests, which include:
The processing of personal data, such as generating unique identifiers, collecting multiple device IDs, and monitoring IP addresses, is necessary to achieve the aforementioned legitimate interests. This data is essential for identifying unique users, preventing unauthorised access, and maintaining the operational efficiency and security of our network.
IVAO is committed to ensuring that the processing of personal data does not override the fundamental rights and freedoms of data subjects. Measures are in place to protect user privacy, including the use of unique identifiers, data anonymization, secure storage practices, and strict access controls. Users have the right to access, correct, or delete their data as per GDPR regulations.
To improve our services on our website, IVAO utilises the Google Analytics API. To do this cookies are being stored on your computer by our website. For more information about how Google Analytics handles user data, see Google’s privacy policy: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.
IVAO Divisional websites may also utilise additional 3rd party plug-ins. Divisional websites are not under the direct administration of IVAO; however, are required to comply with this privacy policy when using or processing your data. Divisions however cannot request or store any other personally identifiable information than this privacy policy indicates.
Users may make use of 3rd party recording applications in order to broadcast and/or archive their actions on the network. Rules and regulations regarding this action are in place and reasonable steps have been taken to ensure no personally identifiable information is available; however, it is outside the scope of control for IVAO to monitor how this information is used or disseminated. IVAO does not condone nor accept responsibility for the actions of users acting on their own private behalf.
Names, ATC and pilot ratings, ID numbers are known as VID, and statistical information such as country and division, optional information such as Skype name and user comments, profile information such as ranks, awards, and virtual airline affiliation, and network information such as last online time are visible to any registered IVAO member. As an IVAO staff member, your name may also be visible as a point of contact regarding your position.
Information that you provided during the registration process will be visible to certain staff members of IVAO who have signed the appropriate confidentiality agreement with the exception of names and country of residence which are visible to any registered user.
Of course, you have the ability to view all of your own information.
Information that you provided while connecting to the IVAN including your ID Number, IvAp flight plan information and IvAc ATIS information will be publicly viewable during your online session. The basic information provided by yourself and collected as a part of your online history will be visible to staff members and yourself. Information collected automatically by the server such as IP addresses and MAC addresses will be visible to certain staff members of IVAO who have signed the appropriate confidentiality agreement.
Certain information regarding your forum account is visible to other registered forum users including your VID, location, age, and gender when provided by the user as well as statistical information such as join date and the number of posts. Additional information derived from the use of the forum service and from your IVAO registration is only visible to certain staff members who have signed the appropriate confidentiality agreement. Due to the nature of a forum, any posts that you may make will become visible to any other user who has access to the same board.
IVAO provides a publicly accessible website for viewing network activity which shows your connection information including VID, flightplan or ATIS information, connection time and location on the network to any visitor. Your name, in place of your VID, will be visible to logged in IVAO users. If you choose to opt-in through your profile settings, your name will be displayed to any visitor.
IVAO provides a publicly accessible data feed for third parties to view network activity. This data feed contains your VID, flightplan or ATIS information, connection time and location on the network. Registered third parties may also obtain a data feed containing your first and last name if you choose to opt-in through your profile settings. IVAO ensures that all registered third parties have stringent privacy policies in place to protect your data.
Certain information regarding your account is visible to staff members who have signed the appropriate confidentiality agreement.
These staff members are authorised to make changes to your account information in accordance with the scope of their duties with your consent, or as required to ensure compliance with the Rules and Regulations. Furthermore, these staff members may have access to personal information such as user suspension and disconnection history.
Your information will never be sold to third parties. We will not disclose any personal data without your consent, unless:
Certain data may be shared with third parties; however, prior to disclosure, IVAO will ensure that the third party has signed an appropriate agreement with IVAO and that the data does not contain any of your personal information or other information which could potentially reveal your identity. This disclosure is limited to statistical data or technical data for research purposes.
IVAO is happy to give you a summary of all data we have collected from you as required by law. This request for information is free of charge and will be processed as soon as it is received. Normally, we deliver such requests via email, but you can also request it be sent via regular mail. If you want a detailed breakdown of the collected data, please let us know precisely which data you would like to learn about. We want to make sure that you are really you and not someone pretending to be you, so we will need a copy or scan of a valid government-issued photo ID to fulfill a request for information. We only use the scan or copy to check your ID and respond to your request. Upon fulfillment, the copy will be destroyed.
In accordance with the law, you are entitled to request that any data we collect from you be corrected, deleted or blocked from further use in cases that fall under the terms of the article. Deletions which are requested during a suspension period shall be honoured, however, permanent removal of all information associated with an account shall not take place until the suspension period is fulfilled in order to protect the interests and rights of the organisation in accordance with EU-GDPR.
If you do not consent to this privacy policy in whole or in part, now or at a later point in time, you will no longer be able to use our services. In this case, you are required to inform us immediately and we will take the appropriate steps to delete your account and all associated data held by our servers. IVAO will take all reasonable actions to ensure full deletion of your data with registered third parties, however, IVAO cannot guarantee that publically accessible obtained information is removed by any unregistered third party.
In order to provide its service, or in case of doubt about the user’s provided information, IVAO may request a user to send proof of identity to the Membership Department. This proof can be a state-issued passport or identity card. After verification of the user’s identity, a note will be made on the user’s profile and the submitted information will be destroyed. This note will not contain any information from the provided proof of identity.
We may change our privacy policy from time to time. Your rights, however, will not be reduced without good reason. All changes to the privacy policy will be listed on this page. Any changes will be announced to our users via email and forum notifications.
If you have questions or concerns about this privacy policy, you can email us at vzw@ivao.aero or contact us by mail at:
IVAO VZW
Werfstraat 89
1570 Galmaarden
Belgium
If you choose not to accept any changes to our privacy policy, you have the opportunity to decline them within one month. After this period of time, the changes are considered to be accepted. Please communicate your objection via email to members@ivao.aero.