Public Privacy Policy 

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and its affiliates are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes how IGDA collects, uses, and shares your information when you use and interact with our Services and applies to all persons who use our Services (“Users”). Our Privacy Policy governs your access to and use of all IGDA operated and controlled websites including http://www.IGDA.org (the “Website”), all other publicly available online services controlled or provided by IGDA (collectively, the “Services”).

If you have questions about IGDA’s Privacy Policy or practices, or if you need to contact us about the information we collect about you, our contact information is at the end of this Privacy Policy or please contact us at help@IGDA.org.

Applicability and Eligibility

This Privacy Policy applies only to the Services, and IGDA’s collection, use, disclosure, and protection of your data. It does not apply to third party websites, applications, or services.

Before accessing, using, or interacting with the Services you should carefully review the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy.

The Services are not directed to children under the age of 16. You may not use the Services if you are under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under the age of 16. If we learn that Personal Data of persons less than 16 years-of-age has been collected through our Site, we will take the appropriate steps to delete this information. If you are a parent or guardian and discover that your child or a minor under the age of 16 has posted, submitted or otherwise communicated Personal Data to our Site without your consent, then you may alert us at help@IGDA.org so that we may take appropriate action to remove the minor’s Personal Data from our systems.

Information Collection and Use

“Personal Data” refers to information that relates to you and may be used to identify you, such as your first name, last name, title, email address, phone number, and location. 

IGDA collects data, including Personal Data, about you and your use of the Services through various means, including when you provide information to us such as when you join, sign up for a membership, donate, register for events and webinars, and when we automatically collect information about you when you access, use, or interact with the Services. We use this information for a variety of different reasons, including to improve the Services and to tailor the Services to you but always for the purpose for which the Personal Data was collected.

IGDA processes Personal Data collected through the Services and may rely, where appropriate, on  the following lawful basis:

  • legitimate interest to provide the Services to you. Such processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by IGDA or by our Service Providers related to the Services; 
  • the processing is necessary for the fulfilment of a contract we have with you; and/or 
  • the processing is necessary to comply with the law.  

The types of information IGDA may collect about you include:

Information You Provide

IGDA Membership & Event Information: IGDA collects certain Personal Data from you when you join the IGDA or register for IGDA events. IGDA uses this information to provide your membership, register you for events, provide information about memberships and events, and administer your registrations with IGDA.

IGDA Account Information: IGDA may require you to register for an account (an “IGDA Account”) in order to use certain Services. We do not require you to register to use all of our Services. However if you do register for Services offering an IGDA Account, you will gain access to those areas and features of the Services that require registration. IGDA will collect certain information about you in connection with your registration for your IGDA Account, which may include Personal Data and other information such as a username, password, personal profile, pictures, your location, and information about your career. Some of your IGDA Account information may be displayed publicly. You are not required to provide your Personal Data; however, if you choose to withhold certain Personal Data, we may not be able to provide you with certain Services.

Payment Transaction Information: We may collect and store information related to purchases and donations made through the Services. You may provide certain information to complete payments via the Services, including your credit or debit card number, card expiration date, CVV code, and billing address (collectively, “Payment Information“), along with your name and billing, delivery and shipping address, to complete payment transactions through certain Services.

Please note IGDA works with Service Providers (as defined below) to handle payment transactions. IGDA does not maintain your credit card or other financial account information; this information is handled for IGDA by our Service Providers. You are subject to the Privacy Policies and Terms and Conditions of our Service Providers when purchasing an IGDA membership, shopping for IGDA products, or making donations, the terms of which may differ from those of IGDA for the IGDA Services. Please review the Service Providers’ Privacy Policies and Terms and Conditions before using their services.

Form Information: We may use online forms to request certain information from you in order to perform certain Services, such as your location to assist you in locating our products, or your contact information to assist with contacts or service requests. This information may include Personal Data.

Correspondence Information: If you sign up for a membership, attend a conference or event, email us, subscribe to our newsletters mailing lists, publications, or blogs, we may keep your message, email address, and contact information to respond to your requests, provide the requested products or Services, and to provide notifications or other correspondences to you. If you do not want to receive email from us in the future, you may let us know by sending us an email or by writing to us at the address below. We may also still contact you as needed to provide important announcements or notifications regarding the Services where authorised by applicable law. .

Support Information: You may provide information to us via a support request submitted through the Services. We will use this information to assist you with your support request and may maintain this information to assist you or other Users with support requests. Please do not submit any information to us via a support submission, including confidential or sensitive information that you do not wish for IGDA or our Service Providers to have access to or use in the future.

Automatically Collected Information 

Cookies, Web Beacons, Links, And Other Tracking Technologies: IGDA may keep track of how you use and interact with the Services through the use of cookies, web beacons, links, and other tracking technologies.  We do this to help analyze the use of and improve the Services. Through these technologies we may automatically collect information about your use of the Services and other online activities, including our email correspondences, third-party services, and client applications, and certain online activities after you leave the Services. Link information is generally only analyzed on an aggregate basis. Some Services may not function properly if you disable cookies. Such data may include analytics information, sites visited before visiting the Services, browser type, operating system, and tracking of your interactions with our content and emails.

Log File Information: When you use our Services, we may receive log file information such as your IP address, browser type, access times, domain names operating system, the referring web page(s), pages visited, location, your mobile carrier, device information (including device and application IDs), search terms, and cookie information. We receive log file data when you interact with our Services, for example, when you visit our websites, sign into our Services, or interact with our email notifications. IGDA uses log file data to provide, understand, and improve our Services, and to customize the content we show you. IGDA may link this log file to other information IGDA collects about you via the Services.

Public Information: IGDA may also collect information about you from publicly available sources. Information you make publicly available in any public or open forum, such as on a social network, may be considered public information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy, and may be accessed and collected by IGDA. Please be aware that any content or information you share with or provide to third parties using or related to your use of the Services is neither private, nor confidential. IGDA is not responsible for any content or information you post or share with third parties. If you do not wish for certain information to be public, please do not share it.

Information Sharing

IGDA Personnel: IGDA’s personnel may have access to your information as needed to provide and operate the Services in the normal course of business. This includes information regarding your use and interaction with the Services.

Service Providers: IGDA works with various organizations and individuals to help provide the Services to you (“Service Providers“), such as website and data hosting companies and companies providing analytics information, like Google Analytics. We may share your personal information with our Service Providers for the purpose of providing the Services. The information we share to our Service Providers may include both information you provide to us and information we collect about you, including Personal Data and information from data collection tools like cookies, web beacons, log files, Unique Identifiers, and location data, where we are legally authorised to do so. IGDA takes reasonable steps to ensure that our Service Providers are obligated to reasonably protect your information on IGDA’s behalf, as required by applicable law. If IGDA becomes aware that a Service Provider is using or disclosing information improperly, we will take commercially reasonable steps to end or correct such improper use or disclosure.

Business Transactions: IGDA may purchase other businesses or their assets, sell our business assets, or be involved in a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets (a “Business Transaction“). Your information, including Personal Data, may be among assets sold or transferred as part of a Business Transaction.

Lawful Requests: We may be required to disclose User information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We generally do not disclose User information unless we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards. We may share your information when we believe it is necessary to comply with applicable laws, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the Services or using the IGDA name, or to protect the safety of any person. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents, or government agencies. Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to limit any legal defenses or objections that you may have to a third party’s, including a government’s, request to disclose your information.

Your Rights

Relevant data protection laws provide you certain rights regarding the protection of your data, including:

  • the right to access – Upon request, IGDA will confirm any processing of your Personal Data and, and provide you with a copy of that Personal Data in an acceptable machine-readable format;
  • the right to rectification – You have the right to have IGDA correct any inaccurate Personal Data or to have IGDA complete any incomplete Personal Data;
  • the right to erasure – You may ask the IGDA to delete or remove your Personal Data and we will do so in some circumstances, such as where we no longer need it (we may not delete your data when other interests outweigh your right to deletion);
  • the right to restrict processing – You have the right to ask IGDA to suppress the processing of your Personal Data but IGDA may still store your Personal Data;
  • the right to object to processing – You have the right to object to your Personal Data used in the following manners: (a) processing based on legitimate interests or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority (including profiling); (b) direct marketing (including profiling); and (c) processing for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics;
  • the right to data portability – you have the right to obtain your Personal Data from us that you consented to give us or that is necessary to perform fulfilment of member benefits with you. We will give you your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format;
  • the right to complain to a supervisory authority –   You have the right to file a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement if you consider that the processing of Personal Data relating to you infringes upon your rights; and
  • the right to withdraw consent – We rely on your consent to process your Personal Data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on your prior consent.

More information about your rights relating to IGDA and the Services is provided via this Privacy Policy.

Access Your Information

IGDA provides certain tools and settings within the Services to help you access, correct, delete, or modify your personal information associated with the Services.  IGDA welcomes you to contact us regarding the information we have collected about you, including regarding the nature and accuracy of the data that has been collected about you, to request an update, modification, or deletion of your information, to opt-out of certain Services that use your information, or to withdraw any consent you may have granted to IGDA. If you need any assistance with your information, please contact us at help@IGDA.org. 

Please note that if you choose to delete your information or opt-out of the collection and use of your information, you understand that certain features, including but not limited to access to the Services, may no longer be available to you.

We may store the information we collect about you indefinitely in relationship to your IGDA membership and use of services, but information generally will be retained only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which the information was collected, or as otherwise required by law. Following termination or deactivation of an IGDA Account, IGDA may retain your information and content for backup, archival, and audit purposes.

Opting-Out of Communications 

Users may opt-out of receiving certain communications from IGDA by following the unsubscribe process described in an email communication, or by contacting us using the contact information provided in this Privacy Policy. However, please note you may not opt-out of Services-related communications, such as account verification, changes or updates to features of the Services, or technical and security notices unless you are no longer using our Services.

Do Not Track 

IGDA does not currently employ a process for automatically responding to “Do Not Track” (DNT) signals sent by web browsers, mobile devices, or other mechanisms. Per industry standards, third parties may be able to collect information, including Personal Data, about your online activities over time and across different websites or online services when you use Services. You may opt out of online behavioral ads at http://www.aboutads.info/choices/. You also may limit certain tracking by disabling cookies in your web browser.

Third Party Sites and Services 

The IGDA website and its digital publications and communications provide links to content from third party websites, services and applications not operated by us. These links are provided as a service and do not imply any endorsement by us of the views, opinions, statements or content of these sites, services or applications nor any association with their operators. It is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of any information, opinion or content available through the IGDA website, or any of its digital or print publications. IGDA is not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of any third party including websites or services directly linked to by IGDA. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third party site that you link to from our website, digital publications or communications.

Information Security 

IGDA takes reasonable efforts to secure and protect the privacy, accuracy, and reliability of your information and to protect it from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. IGDA implements security measures as we deem appropriate and consistent with industry standards and applicable law. As no data security protocol is impenetrable, IGDA cannot guarantee the security of our systems or databases, nor can we guarantee that personal information we collect about you will not be breached, intercepted, destroyed, accessed, or otherwise disclosed without authorization. Accordingly, any information you transfer to or from Services is provided at your own risk.

Please do your part to help us keep your information secure. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and IGDA Account, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or IGDA Account. IGDA specifically reserves the right to terminate your access to the Services and any contract you have with IGDA related to the Services in the event it learns or suspects you have disclosed your IGDA Account or password information to an unauthorized third party.

Transfer and Storage of Information

Please note information IGDA collects about you may be transferred, processed and/or accessed by us in the United States, or another country where we, or our Service Providers operate. Please be aware Personal Data may be transferred to, and maintained on, computers located outside of your state or country where privacy laws may differ from and may not be as protective as those where you live. If you are located outside the United States and choose to allow us to collect information about you, please be aware that IGDA may transfer your Personal Data to the United States and process and store it there.  All transfers of personal data shall be undertaken in compliance with all applicable data protection laws. 

If you are located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), the United Kingdom, or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that we may transfer information to a country or jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction, as disclosed in this Privacy Policy. It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA or UK who work for us or for one of our Service Providers, also as disclosed.

Website Hosting: IGDA works with The Affari Project, LLC and Amazon Web Services as its web hosting services providers. The IGDA uses YourMembership and Google Analytics to provide additional web services. IGDA shares your data, including Personal Data, with our website hosting Service Provider for the purposes of processing your data pursuant to your use of the Services.

Data Hosting: The IGDA uses YourMembership to store member data. Mailing communications and surveys are also handled through Google Workspace, MailChimp and SurveyMonkey. IGDA shares your data, including Personal Data, with our website hosting Service Provider for the purposes of processing your data pursuant to your use of the Services.

Safely Using IGDA’s Services

Despite IGDA’s safety and privacy controls, we cannot guarantee the Services are entirely free of illegal, offensive, pornographic, or otherwise inappropriate material, or that you will not encounter inappropriate or illegal conduct from other Users when using the Services. You can help IGDA by notifying us of any unwelcome contact by contacting us using the information below.

Your California Privacy Rights

Under California Civil Code Section 1798.83 (known as the “Shine the Light” law), IGDA members and customers who are residents of California may request certain information about our disclosure of personal information during the prior calendar year to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please write to us at the address below or at help@IGDA.org with “Request for California Privacy Information” on the subject line and in the body of your message. We will comply with your request within thirty (30) days or as otherwise required by the statute. Please be aware that not all information sharing is covered by the “Shine the Light” requirements and only information on covered sharing will be included in our response.

Changes to Privacy Policy

IGDA may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most current version of this Privacy Policy will govern our use of your information and will be located at https://igda.org/about-us/public-privacy-policy/. You may contact us to obtain prior versions.