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

PP.1 Introduction

  1. Upon registration, IVAO collects and stores some personal information, which includes: first name; last name; date of birth; country of residence; e-mail address and the IP address. During use of our network in any way we may also collect your network activity, IP and MAC addresses, operating system information.
  2. IVAO collects and stores this data for statistics, research or technical purposes. IVAO provides an anonymised data feed to any third party. IVAO provides a data feed containing the user’s first and last name if the user agrees to share his first and last name in this data feed. IVAO will ensure that these third parties have an appropriate privacy policy in place.
  3. IVAO uses the stored information to operate and maintain the network, including, but not limited to, all administrative requirements and delivering services you requested.
  4. IVAO shall provide all users with the right to see, correct or delete their profile and information we have stored on their behalf, within the framework of the law.
  5. IVAO can disclose all information, without notice, if required by the law or if necessary to conform to the edicts of the law, to the appropriate Belgian authorities.

PP.2 What Information is stored and how is it used?

PP.2.1 Information you provide on registration

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 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.

PP.2.2 Information you provide through use of our services

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 co-ordination 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.

PP.2.3 Information retained through the use of our services

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.

PP.2.4 Storage of cookies on your computer

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:

  • Session Cookies for identification:

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.

  • Log Information

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.

PP.2.5 Communication between you and IVAO

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.

PP.2.6 Storage of the MAC address

IVAO stores the MAC address of all users for the sole purpose of preventing duplicate accounts, along with the acquisition of the IP of the user discussed in PP.2.2. The legal basis for the processing of the data is Art.6 1(f) GDPR. The data, in this context, will be deleted as soon as the processing is no longer required or, if there is a legal obligation to retain this data, the processing will comply with this legal obligation.

PP.3 Third Party Services

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.

PP.4 Visibility and publicly accessible information

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 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.

PP.4.2 IVAO Network – IVAN

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.

PP.4.4 Webeye and Whazzup

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 verifies that registered third parties have an appropriate privacy policy in place.

PP.4.5 Administrative access to your account

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.

PP.4.6 Sharing your data

Your information will never be sold to third parties. We will not disclose any personal data without your consent, unless:

  • We are required by law to do so.
  • We are obliged to do so to enforce our Rules and Regulations or the rights of IVAO.
  • If IVAO is ever acquired by another company, user information could be transferred to the acquiring party.

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.

PP.5 Your Rights

PP.5.1 Information

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 fulfil a request for information. We only use the scan or copy to check your ID and respond to your request. Upon fulfilment, the copy will be destroyed.

PP.5.2 Correction, deletion or blocking

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.

PP.5.4 Identity Verification

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.

PP.6 Changes to the Privacy Policy

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.

Terms of Use

TU.1 General

  • TU.1.1 →The IVAO network is offered to you free of charge conditioned on your acceptance of the IVAO rules and regulations, terms of use and privacy policy published on our website. Your use of the network constitutes your agreement to these documents. IVAO reserves the right to change or update these documents and will notify users if it does.
  • TU.1.2 → Users not meeting user requirements, abuse or violating the rules and regulations, unauthorized accessing, tampering, altering, disseminating or jeopardizing the network environment or disclose user information to third parties may face sanction up to and including referral for criminal prosecution to be the sole determination of the IVAO Executive Council.

TU.2 Account Registration

TU.2.1 User Accounts

One-time registration with IVAO, with the full and real name at www.ivao.aero, grants usage of IVAO services provided the user is minimal 16 years of age at the time of registration, registers a continuously valid working e-mail address and chooses an IVAO division. Accounts may be subject to approval by the IVAO membership department, should doubts about the identity of the user rise. Users shall not create multiple accounts and are responsible to keep their accounts up to date. Users shall never share account passwords with other persons nor allow others to use their account and shall only use their own account.
A user shall not register again with IVAO, when they have previously registered and have had their account deleted as a result of a completed GDPR request. IVAO reserves the right to apply a permanent suspension on the newly created account if this is detected.
Users can register an account if they are between 13 and 16 years old provided their legal guardians have given consent for this registration. Upon registration, the user is asked to confirm this consent.

TU.2.2 Organisation Accounts

  • TU.2.2.1 → Application for an Organizational Account shall be done via e-mail to the Membership Department. The application shall contain, at minimum, the legal and trade name of the organization, physical location that means the ordinary place of business, the nature of the organization including services provided, legal/taxation status as an example non-profit, corporation, etc. and how they wish to utilize IVAO services. Organizations shall provide contact information for at least two individuals considered to be managers. This information shall be made available to supervisory staff. The managers are at all times responsible for the account. The name listed on the account shall be the registered name of the company or organization. Organizational Accounts shall be listed as members of the division in which their primary place of business is located.
  • TU.2.2.1 → Organizations agree that they shall not profit from the use of IVAO services as an example: An organization which charges a fee to its clients for instruction time or use of equipment may do so, however, is prohibited from charging an additional fee for the use of any IVAO service. Organizations agree to promote IVAO through the use of a visible IVAO logo and URL on their website. IVAO agrees to promote the organization through the affiliate program.

TU.3 Account Activity

Active accounts require network activity minimal once every 3 months. Inactive accounts after initial registration will be removed after nine months. Active accounts becoming inactive remain inactive or can be removed. Inactive accounts as described in the membership department procedures.