This Privacy Policy describes the way ICOES will process, store and protect your personal data and all information provided. Your rights as a user and how you can exercise those rights are of utmost importance to us.
ICOES is committed to working proactively to ensure the protection and privacy of all visitors to our website.
While interacting with ICOES, organizations and people will provide personal information and non-personal information.
We may collect the following information from you:
We assure you that all information recorded is protected accurately and securely through the use of the latest cloud services, firewall and anti-virus software.
The use of the information collected is exclusively for the purpose of the accreditation process with us, to send you the ICOES certificates when ordered by you through your accredited course provider, internal record keeping, to send you promotional information that we think is in your interest using the email you have provided, to improve our services, our products and your experience.
We guarantee that we will not share your information with any other party, individual or organization except with your own course provider, if needed to render our services to you or to that course provider. We may also disclose your personal information if required by law, such as to comply with a court order or similar legal process, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request.
We have in place secure systems and procedures to avoid and prevent unauthorized access to or disclosure of any information collected online.
Your security when using our payment terminals is of the utmost importance to us. When making your payments you can be sure that all steps are taken to protect all information provided. We do not collect or store any payment details i.e. credit or debit card details. All payment transactions are securely done through Paypal, our payment gateway, or through our bank ABNAMRO in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Payment for your ICOES certificate is done through your course provider. Our payment system is continually updated to make sure we are using the most advanced and recent technology.
Even though we apply the utmost caution to display only links which are of good quality, are safe and significant, it is important that you use any of such external links with prudence. It is at your discretion and risk to choose to click those links. Make sure you carefully read the privacy policy of any external websites.
Any communication or engagement through social media follows the privacy policy adopted by each media platform. Make sure you are aware of their privacy policies before using our social sharing buttons. You will use them at your own discretion and responsibility.
Be cautious also when clicking any shortened URLs published in social media. We are careful in displaying safe and genuine URLs but we ask you to also bear in mind the possibility of social media hacking and unauthorized use of the ICOES logo and trademark by third parties. When in doubt, please contact us and we can confirm whether an external party is a legitimate partner of ICOES.
Users visiting and interacting with our website www.icoes.org do so at their own choice and responsibility when providing their personal information. We recommend that you verify the sender’s identity before replying to email requests and opening attachments or clicking on links, even if they appear to come from ICOES or another legitimate source. ll emails from ICOES will always have “@icoes.org”. When you receive any marketing information or correspondence from or through ICOES, you can unsubscribe by using the link and instructions provided in the marketing emails.
Notwithstanding our precautionary measures and best practices applied, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about the security of your personal information, you can contact us at admin@icoes.org.
A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. We use cookies or similar technologies on the ICOES website. However, we do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site.
We use session ID cookies and/or persistent cookies. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. Our cookies help us determine which content on our site is most effective. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser’s “help” directory. If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some areas of our site may be limited.
ICOES complies with its obligations under the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR). Within the scope of the GDPR, ICOES acts as a Data Controller with respect to personal data obtained directly from you or through any other legitimate source. ICOES also acts as a Data Processor where it concerns the processing of your personal data insofar as needed to render its services of issuing ICOES certificates their verification on the ICOES webpage and the processing of any other request made by you directly or through your course provider. For these purposes, ICOES has executed Data Processing Agreements with its accredited course providers where required.
If any part of the personal information we hold about you is incorrect or needs to be updated or deleted, you can send us your request with all desired changes to admin@icoes.org. You also have the right to restrict processing by us, to ask for portability of your data, to object to marketing or other communication, and to withdraw any earlier (implied) authorization to us. We will promptly process your request in connection with any of the above rights and we will keep you informed about its progress.
In principle, we do not store or process personal data that we collect about you in countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). However, your course provider may be located outside the EEA. In those circumstances, please note that your personal data will only be transferred outside the EEA on one of the following bases:
We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the relevant purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and in order to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
If you have any comments, suggestions or questions in regards to our privacy policy please do not hesitate to Contact us
From time to time, we may make changes to our privacy policy. All updates will be posted on our website and will take effect from the moment when they are disclosed. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.
Amsterdam, February 2023.
These legal terms apply to the use of the ICOES Website and to the use of ICOES ́ services as accreditation institute and issuer of certificates in connection with the completion of on-line courses that have been accredited by ICOES. These terms are an integral part of the contracted services and products of ICOES, and apply to all of ICOES ́ transactions.
Stichting ICOES (“ICOES”) is a foundation, incorporated under the laws of the Netherlands and established in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
ICOES has no shareholders or beneficiaries who are entitled to participate in any distribution from ICOES. All of ICOES ́ undertakings are and must be in accordance with its statutory objective, which is “to improve and assure the quality of online education institutes and their products; and furthermore, to do anything which is directly or indirectly related to that or which is supportive thereto, in the widest sense of the word.” ICOES ́ revenues are used to pay its staff and service providers, to support educational initiatives of a charity nature, and to reserve for further deployment in line with its legal purpose.
ICOES is an independent accreditation institute and does not engage in any activities which could compromise its impartiality. It does not provide consultancy to conformity assessment bodies, nor does it undertake any conformity assessment activities itself or have links with bodies providing consultancy to the conformity assessment sector, and it does not promote the services of any such body.
Likewise, ICOES is not part of, linked with, dependent of or endorsed by any governmental educational body or institute. This underlines its independence, but also implies that the ICOES accreditation and its certificates are not by definition recognized or certifiable by any governmental authority in the Netherlands or elsewhere.
The accreditation standards as applied by ICOES have been established by its Advisory Board, which is a committee consisting of several academics with relevant expertise. The ICOES standards address the critical areas for an on-line course to be reviewed, which include administrative accountability, integrity and transparency, program structure, quality, assessments and examinations, and learners, tutors and staff. The content of the course is reviewed for its apparent academic quality and authenticity. However, a wide array of topics is covered in its accredited courses, and ICOES ́ reviewers cannot be in-depth subject matter experts in all of those areas. Therefore, ICOES does not warrant in any way or form that the completion of an accredited course would imply that the student has attained sufficient skills and knowledge to be able to work professionally in the relevant field of the course, or be qualified as such under the standards or requirements that may have been established by any governmental, industrial or trade sector organization in any country. The same applies to the issuing of certificates of completion by ICOES to students of the accredited courses. The ICOES certificate is an authentic, unique and verifiable document which demonstrates the successful completion of an on-line course that is accredited by ICOES.
All rights in the copyright in this website are owned by ICOES and are hereby reserved. ICOES hereby authorizes you to make a single copy of the content displayed on this website for your use in learning about, evaluating, or acquiring ICOES ́ services or products. You agree that any copy made must include the notice “ICOES. All rights reserved’’. No other permission is granted to you to print, copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, upload, download, store, perform, display in public, alter, or modify the content contained on or in this website.
This Website contains the ICOES trademarks, service marks and trade names. ICOES accredited course providers are licensed to display the ICOES logo on their webpage and other marketing communications, subject to the guidance provided by ICOES. Restrictions of such display may apply depending on whether some or all courses of the course provider have been accredited. All such marks and names are the property of ICOES. Accredited course providers, nor their students, have any right, title or interest in the trademarks, and by using ICOES ́ services or products, they acknowledge that they will take no action to register or otherwise interfere with such rights, including without limitation by registering any mark that is confusingly similar to any ICOES mark or trade name. Trademarks of other parties are identified wherever possible and ICOES acknowledges their rights. The ICOES legal department can be contacted for any doubts the user may have in this respect through the Contact section of the ICOES website.
All information provided on this website is subject to change without notice. While efforts have been made to make this website helpful and accurate, due to the open nature of this website, and the potential for errors in the storage and transmission of digital information, ICOES does not warrant the accuracy of information provided on this website.
ALL MATERIALS POSTED ON THIS WEBSITE, AND ALL ACCREDITATION CERTIFICATES ISSUED ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. ICOES DOES NOT WARRANT OR REPRESENT THE USE OF THE MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE IN TERMS OF THEIR CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL THE USER OR CUSTOMER BE ENTITLED TO RECOVER FROM ICOES ANY INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE OR SPECIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS, LOSS OF PROFITS OR LOSS OF USE), WHETHER OR NOT BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR OTHERWISE ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THIS WEBSITE OR ANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES PURCHASED USING IT, DIRECTLY OR THROUGH A COURSE PROVIDER, EVEN IF ICOES HAS BEEN INFORMED OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF WARRANTIES OR OF LIABILITY, SO SOME OF THE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS IN THESE TERMS MAY NOT APPLY TO A PARTICULAR USER OR CUSTOMER.
Amsterdam, February 2023.