Last updated: 20 September 2026

1. Purpose and Scope

The International Center for Combating Media Disinformation (ICCMD, we, us, or our) is committed to protecting personal information and handling it transparently, lawfully, fairly, and securely.

This Policy explains how ICCMD collects, uses, stores, verifies, shares, protects, retains, and deletes information when a person visits our website, contacts us, uses our services, submits an Individual Media Professional Signatory application, submits an Organization Signatory application as an authorized representative, signs the International Charter for Media Integrity and Countering Disinformation, receives or verifies a registration number, certificate, or badge, or is included in the International Signatories Registry.

This is one unified policy for individual applicants, organization applicants, authorized representatives, signatories, website visitors, correspondents, and other persons whose information is processed by ICCMD.

2. Who Is Responsible for Your Information

ICCMD is responsible for determining why and how personal information covered by this Policy is processed, except where a third party independently determines its own purposes and methods under its applicable privacy terms.

Questions or requests concerning this Policy may be sent to the General Secretariat at sg@iccmdcenter.org.

3. Information We Collect

Depending on how you interact with ICCMD, we may collect the following categories of information:

• Identity information, including full legal name, title, nationality or country, date of birth where required, photograph, and identification-document details
• Contact information, including email address, telephone number, mailing address, registered address, headquarters location, and preferred contact method
• Professional information, including job title, employer or organization, professional category, field of work, biography, qualifications, memberships, employment history, portfolio, published work, and professional profiles
• Organization information, including official name, organization type, sector, registration or licence number, establishment date, branches or offices, website, LinkedIn page, profile, ownership or legal-status information where relevant, and official contact details
• Authorized-representative information, including position, authority to act, authorization letter, board resolution, appointment letter, power of attorney, employee identification, or equivalent evidence
• Verification documents, including national identity cards, passports, professional identification, licences, registration certificates, incorporation documents, and other supporting records
• Application and declaration information, including answers, consents, confirmations, review notes, correspondence, decisions, rejection or revocation reasons, and information supplied in response to verification requests
• Electronic-signature information, including the signature image or stroke data submitted through the signature pad, the signed declaration, and associated date, time, and technical records
• Certificate and Registry information, including application ID, registration number, certificate ID, issue date, status, verification history, badge status, and approved public profile information
• Communications, including emails, contact-form submissions, complaints, inquiries, feedback, and records of our responses
• Technical and usage information, including IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, language, referring pages, visited pages, timestamps, cookie identifiers, approximate location derived from IP, security logs, and website analytics
• Any other information you voluntarily provide or that is reasonably required to assess, verify, administer, secure, or review an application or signatory status

4. Sensitive and High Risk Information

Applications may require documents containing sensitive or high-risk information, particularly identity documents, signatures, legal authorization records, and registration documents. ICCMD requests only information reasonably necessary for the relevant assessment or verification purpose.

Applicants should not provide unnecessary information, passwords, financial account details, payment-card data, medical information, or unrelated personal records unless ICCMD specifically and lawfully requests them. Where a document contains unnecessary information, the applicant may redact it if the remaining document is sufficient for verification and ICCMD has not instructed otherwise.

5. How We Collect Information

We may collect information directly from you through applications, uploads, signature fields, contact forms, emails, telephone calls, and other communications; from an organization or authorized representative submitting information about you; automatically through the website, cookies, logs, and security technologies; from public professional profiles and official registers; from document issuers, employers, organizations, references, or authorities contacted for verification; and from service providers supporting our systems and processes.

A person submitting information about another individual must have lawful authority to do so and must ensure that the individual receives any privacy information required by applicable law.

6. Purposes of Processing

ICCMD may process information to:

• Receive, record, acknowledge, and administer applications
• Confirm identity, professional background, organization status, and authority to represent an organization
• Review eligibility and compliance with Charter participation requirements
• Verify documents, declarations, signatures, and information through appropriate sources
• Request corrections, clarification, replacement documents, or additional evidence
• Prevent impersonation, forgery, fraud, misuse, security incidents, and unauthorized certificate or badge use
• Communicate application status, decisions, updates, reviews, suspension, withdrawal, rejection, or revocation
• Issue and administer registration numbers, certificates, badges, and signatory records
• Maintain and publish the International Signatories Registry as described in this Policy
• Operate certificate verification and display current certificate status
• Investigate credible complaints and conduct proportionate compliance or status reviews
• Protect the website, applications, records, users, and ICCMD's legal rights
• Respond to inquiries, complaints, requests, and official communications
• Improve our website, services, accessibility, security, and user experience
• Produce aggregated or anonymized statistics, reports, and service insights
• Comply with legal, regulatory, judicial, audit, recordkeeping, and law-enforcement obligations
• Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims and enforce applicable terms and policies

7. Lawful Grounds for Processing

Where required by applicable law, ICCMD relies on one or more lawful grounds, including your consent; steps requested by you before entering into a participation arrangement; performance and administration of that arrangement; compliance with legal obligations; protection of vital or important interests where applicable; and ICCMD's legitimate interests in verification, fraud prevention, information security, Registry administration, certificate integrity, service improvement, and protection of legal rights, provided those interests are not overridden by applicable rights.

Where processing relies on consent, you may withdraw consent by contacting us. Withdrawal does not affect processing already lawfully completed and may prevent ICCMD from continuing an application or providing a feature that necessarily requires the information.

8. Individual and Organization Applications

For an individual application, ICCMD processes the applicant's personal, professional, verification, declaration, signature, certificate, and Registry information.

For an organization application, ICCMD processes organization information and personal information relating to the authorized representative, directors, officers, beneficial owners, employees, contacts, or other persons identified in submitted documents only to the extent relevant and lawful. The submitting representative must be authorized to provide this information.

The same privacy safeguards in this Policy apply to personal information received through both application types. Information relating solely to a legal entity may not constitute personal information, but ICCMD protects confidential organization records using appropriate security and access controls.

9. Verification and Decision Making

ICCMD may compare submitted information with official registers, public professional sources, document metadata, prior records, and information confirmed by issuing bodies or relevant organizations. ICCMD may contact an applicant, authorized representative, document issuer, employer, professional body, or public authority where reasonably necessary and lawful.

Technology may assist with document handling, duplication checks, security screening, or workflow management. ICCMD does not intend to make a decision producing legal or similarly significant effects solely through automated processing without appropriate human review where such review is required by applicable law.

10. Electronic Signatures

Electronic signatures are collected to record the applicant's or authorized representative's confirmation, declarations, consent, and authority to submit and sign the application. Signature data is used for application administration, authenticity checks, audit records, dispute resolution, and protection against misuse.

Electronic signatures and underlying signature data are not published in the International Signatories Registry. Access is restricted to authorized personnel and service providers with a legitimate operational need.

11. Public Registry Certificates and Badges

If an application is approved, ICCMD may publish limited information in the International Signatories Registry and certificate-verification system.

For an individual signatory, public information may include the signatory's name, professional title or category, country, approved profile information, registration or certificate number, issue date, and current status.

For an organization signatory, public information may include the organization's official name, organization type or field, headquarters country or location, approved profile information, registration or certificate number, issue date, and current status. The authorized representative's personal identity documents, private contact details, and signature are not published unless separately authorized or legally required.

A certificate or Registry entry may show Active, Suspended, Withdrawn, Revoked, Expired, or another appropriate status. Limited historical status information may remain available where necessary to prevent misleading reliance on an invalid certificate or badge.

Only information identified during the application process as public, or otherwise authorized or legally permitted for publication, will be displayed.

12. When Information Is Required

Fields marked as required are necessary to submit or assess an application. If required information or documents are not provided, ICCMD may be unable to process, verify, or approve the application; issue a registration number, certificate, or badge; maintain Registry status; or respond to a request.

Optional information may be left blank unless it later becomes reasonably necessary for verification or administration.

13. Sharing and Disclosure

ICCMD may share information only as reasonably necessary with:

• Authorized ICCMD personnel, reviewers, administrators, and professional advisers
• Website hosting, cloud storage, email, security, analytics, document-processing, signature, certificate-generation, and technical-support providers
• Document issuers, employers, professional bodies, organizations, official registries, or public authorities for verification
• Auditors, insurers, legal advisers, and consultants subject to appropriate confidentiality duties
• Courts, regulators, law-enforcement bodies, government authorities, or other parties where disclosure is legally required or necessary to protect rights, safety, systems, or the public
• A successor or relevant counterparty in a lawful restructuring, merger, transfer, or similar transaction, subject to appropriate safeguards

ICCMD does not sell personal information. Service providers may process information only for authorized purposes and are expected to apply appropriate confidentiality, security, and data-protection measures.

14. International Data Transfers

Because ICCMD operates online and may use service providers or verification sources in different countries, information may be processed or stored outside the country in which it was collected. Data-protection standards may differ between countries.

Where required, ICCMD will use an applicable lawful transfer mechanism and reasonable contractual, organizational, or technical safeguards. These may include adequacy decisions, approved contractual terms, binding obligations, consent where legally valid, or another permitted transfer basis.

15. Data Retention

ICCMD retains information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including application review, verification, certificate and Registry administration, security, audit, dispute handling, enforcement, and legal compliance.

Retention periods depend on the record type, application outcome, signatory status, sensitivity, verification need, limitation periods, legal requirements, and risk of misuse. Identity and supporting documents will be restricted and deleted or securely anonymized when no longer required, subject to lawful recordkeeping needs. Approved signatory, certificate, consent, declaration, and audit records may be retained for the duration of participation and for an appropriate period afterward. Limited certificate and status records may be retained to verify historical validity and prevent fraudulent continued use.

Where an application is incomplete, withdrawn, or rejected, ICCMD may retain necessary records for a proportionate period to document the decision, address inquiries or disputes, prevent abuse, and meet legal obligations. When retention is no longer justified, records will be securely deleted, anonymized, or placed beyond ordinary use.

16. Security Measures

ICCMD uses reasonable technical and organizational safeguards appropriate to the nature and risk of the information. Measures may include access controls, role-based permissions, authentication, encrypted transmission, secure hosting and storage, backups, logging, malware protection, vulnerability management, staff confidentiality duties, service-provider review, incident procedures, and controlled deletion.

No internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure. Applicants should use a trusted device and connection, keep application references confidential, avoid sending documents through unapproved channels, and notify ICCMD promptly if they suspect unauthorized access or misuse.

17. Personal Data Incidents

ICCMD will assess suspected loss, unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or misuse of personal information and will take proportionate steps to contain, investigate, document, and remediate the incident. Where applicable law requires notification to an authority or affected person, ICCMD will provide notice in accordance with the relevant requirements.

18. Cookies Analytics and Technical Data

The website may use necessary cookies and similar technologies for operation, security, preferences, and session management, and may use analytics technologies to understand performance and usage. Non-essential cookies will be managed in accordance with applicable consent requirements and ICCMD's Cookies Policy.

You may control cookies through the available consent tool or browser settings. Disabling necessary cookies may affect website or application functionality.

19. Third Party Links and Services

The website may link to third-party websites, social platforms, verification sources, or services. Those parties are independently responsible for their own privacy practices. ICCMD encourages users to review the privacy information of a third party before providing information to it.

This Policy does not govern information processed independently by a third party, although ICCMD seeks appropriate safeguards when a third party processes information on ICCMD's instructions.

20. Your Rights

Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to request access to your personal information; obtain information about its processing; correct or update inaccurate information; request deletion; restrict or object to certain processing; withdraw consent; receive eligible information in a portable format; object to certain direct communications; request human review of an eligible automated decision; and complain to a competent data-protection authority.

Rights are not absolute. ICCMD may retain or continue processing information where permitted or required for legal compliance, verification integrity, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, freedom of expression, public interest, or the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

To protect confidentiality, ICCMD may request proof of identity and sufficient details to locate the relevant records. ICCMD will respond within the period required by applicable law.

21. Correcting Application and Registry Information

Applicants and signatories are responsible for keeping submitted information accurate and current. Requests to correct an application, public Registry entry, certificate detail, or contact information should identify the application or certificate reference and the information to be corrected.

ICCMD may require supporting evidence before changing verified information. A correction request does not require ICCMD to remove an accurate historical status, decision, or audit record where retention is lawful and necessary.

22. Children

ICCMD application and signatory services are intended for adults aged 18 or above unless ICCMD expressly establishes a separate lawful process for younger participants. We do not knowingly request identity documents or signatory applications from children through these forms. If you believe a child has submitted personal information improperly, contact us so that we can review and take appropriate action.

23. Confidentiality and Public Disclosure

Application files and verification documents are treated as non-public and accessed only by persons with an authorized need, except where disclosure is permitted by this Policy, consented to, required by law, or necessary to protect legitimate rights and interests.

Public Registry and certificate information is intentionally public and may be viewed, copied, indexed by search engines, or retained by third parties. ICCMD cannot control copies made lawfully from public pages, but it will update the official Registry and verification system when a status or approved public detail changes.

24. Changes to This Policy

ICCMD may update this Policy to reflect changes in applications, verification procedures, certificates, the Registry, technology, security practices, service providers, or legal requirements. The current version will be posted on the website with an updated effective or revision date.

Where a change materially affects how previously collected personal information is used, ICCMD will take reasonable steps to provide notice and obtain consent where required by applicable law. Continued website use alone will not replace consent where consent is legally required.

25. Contact and Requests

For privacy questions, rights requests, corrections, complaints, or concerns about the handling of personal information, contact:

General Secretariat

International Center for Combating Media Disinformation (ICCMD)

Email: sg@iccmdcenter.org

Please include enough information to identify your request, but do not send identity documents by ordinary email unless ICCMD specifically requests them through an approved secure process.