Privacy, explained in practical terms.

When the online application service is enabled, an active and complete website account is required. The application stores a snapshot of the verified account contact name and email address; a date of birth is copied only when the applicant is a person. It also stores the applicant type, requested category, applicant or organisation name, country or region, principal cultural field, the current group size for group applicants, an optional statement, the privacy notice version and acknowledgement times, status and technical timestamps. The application does not collect payment details, files or passwords. Submitting it does not create IOV membership and does not ask the applicant to pay.

The account holder can see only applications submitted from that account, update an application while IOV is waiting for initial or requested information, and withdraw it before it is transferred to the formal membership register. Authorised IOV administrators must complete an additional authenticator check before reviewing applications. They can change the review status and confirm the final category before transferring an application that is under review into the separate formal membership register. Every change creates an append-only event record with a pseudonymous actor reference; public content editors cannot access the application service.

Application information is used to assess and administer the membership request and, when approved, to create the corresponding formal membership record. IOV must approve the responsible entity, legal basis, recipients, any transfer to a National or Regional Section, retention periods for declined and withdrawn applications, the applicant request process, and whether minors may apply or require a parent or guardian before live applications are enabled. Until those decisions are recorded, the production switch remains off. Deleting a website account erases the application's personal fields and account link while retaining its random identifier, status, technical timestamps, pseudonymous event history and, after transfer, the non-personal link to the separate formal membership record for integrity. The formal membership record is governed separately below.

If operational email delivery is configured, the verified contact address can receive a receipt and later status or transfer updates through Resend as IOV's email processor. These service messages do not subscribe the applicant to the newsletter. IOV must include this processor and any related international transfer in its approval before enabling live applications.

Membership application privacy notice version: 8 October 2026.

The separate membership question form prepares an email on your device. Its entered name and email address are not uploaded or stored by the website; they leave your device only if you send the resulting email.

The formal membership register is separate from website accounts and applications. It can contain a member's name, member type, confirmed category, cultural field, status, optional organisation, email, date of birth, country or region, preferred language, National Section and cultural interests, together with annual-dues statuses and technical timestamps. It stores no card or bank details. A person may be linked to a matching website account only through an explicit administrator action; deleting that website account removes the link but does not delete the formal membership.

Only allowlisted IOV administrators with a current authenticator check can search the register, change details or status, record roles and regional responsibilities, manage follow-up tasks, add concise communication notes, and record whether dues for a year are due, paid or waived. Access can be separated by responsibility and limited to assigned regions. Changes create append-only events with pseudonymous administrator references; recorded communication history cannot be edited in normal workflows and is removed only through controlled erasure or duplicate consolidation. Authorised administrators can export approved register fields, import a reviewed CSV batch and merge an identified duplicate through a deliberate confirmation step. A linked member sees only a read-only summary of their own formal membership in the account area.

An active member appears in the public member directory only after IOV records explicit consent for that purpose. The public listing is limited to the approved display name, country or region, cultural field, optional biography and any role specifically marked public. It never publishes an email address, date of birth, dues information, tasks or communication notes. Visibility is removed when consent is withdrawn or the membership is no longer active.

The service can send operational emails when an application or formal membership changes status and can send individually addressed dues reminders after an authorised administrator confirms the reminder run. These messages use the stored account or membership address for membership administration and remain separate from optional newsletter marketing.

An authorised administrator can irreversibly erase the personal fields of a formal membership. This closes the record and removes the account link, names, contact data, date of birth, organisation, country or region, category and cultural field. Related roles, follow-up tasks and communication summaries are deleted as part of the same controlled action because they may contain personal free text. The random record identifier, non-identifying member type, closed status, annual-dues states, technical timestamps and pseudonymous event history remain for integrity. IOV must approve the legal basis, access and retention periods for active and closed formal memberships before production use.

When member-event registration is enabled, an authorised event administrator can publish an event with its title, description, time, location, capacity and registration status. An active member linked to a website account can register or cancel through the account area. The database stores the event, membership reference, registration or wait-list status and technical timestamps. It does not expose the member register publicly.

Event administrators with a current authenticator check can view and update the registration list, including attendance or speaker status. Capacity limits may move later registrations to a wait list. IOV must confirm event-specific retention, participant communication and cancellation procedures before using this function for a live programme.

The contribution and artist profile proposal forms can be prepared before sign-in. Nothing entered there, including selected files, is sent until the contributor continues to the protected upload login. Netlify Identity verifies the invited upload account; the server then checks the same email against the IOV website account database. Access is granted only when the website account is active, uses the annual type and has the current calendar year recorded as paid. Sign-in credentials are not written to Google Drive.

After verification, the account name and email address, contribution details or proposed name and biography, cultural context, source and rights information, filenames, file sizes and selected files are transferred to a private IOV Google Shared Drive intake area. Artist profile proposals also require confirmation that the represented artist, ensemble or cultural bearer has approved how they are presented. Large files travel directly from the browser to Google Drive through temporary upload sessions. Interrupted transfers remain marked incomplete; completed transfers remain pending editorial and security review. Nothing is published automatically.

The intake area is a quarantine location, not a trusted archive. File-type checks are not a malware scan, and editors must not open unscanned uploads locally. Access must remain limited to the service account and explicitly authorised IOV editors. Retention periods, deletion and scanning procedures, the responsible IOV entity and any international data transfers must be confirmed by IOV before public activation. Contributors may contact IOV World to ask about a submission or request deletion where applicable.