Privacy

1. Controller and contact

This Policy applies to the public AOA pages, enrolment, membership, support and delivery of the service.

2. Data we process

Depending on your use, we may process:

• your name, email address, language, country and contact or account details;
• information about your artistic practice, discipline, working methods, career stage, portfolio, profile and professional background;
• preferences concerning locations, disciplines, deadlines, opportunity types and other matching criteria;
• interactions with recommendations and relevance feedback;
• membership, transaction, invoice and payment status, price, billing period and Stripe customer or subscription references;
• where you provide it, a business or trading name, billing country, VAT/Tax ID and relevant registration information;
• IP address, device, browser, log, security and error data;
• support requests, complaints and other correspondence.

AOA does not store full card or bank details. Stripe processes payment-method details.

3. Purposes and legal bases

We process data to perform our contract: to manage your profile, research and match opportunities, deliver recommendations, administer your subscription and support, and communicate with you. We also process data to meet legal accounting and tax obligations.

Where appropriate, we rely on our legitimate interests in security, fraud prevention, quality improvement and operating a reliable service, balanced against your interests. We request consent for optional communications or non-essential technology where legally required. You may withdraw consent at any time without affecting earlier lawful processing.

4. Matching and personalisation

AOA uses your practice, profile and preferences to select and rank opportunities by relevance. We may use your feedback to improve recommendations. This supports research and information delivery; AOA does not make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects. You always decide whether to investigate or apply for an external opportunity.

5. Payments through Stripe

Stripe processes payment-method details and supports Checkout, invoicing, refunds, fraud prevention and security checks. For this purpose, we share necessary customer, billing, transaction and, where relevant, tax information. Stripe also processes certain data under its own responsibilities and terms. Available payment methods can vary by country, currency, browser or device.

6. Recipients and service providers

We disclose personal data only for the stated purposes to parties that need it, including Stripe for payments and Vercel for hosting and technical delivery. Carefully selected IT, communications, administration and professional service providers may process data on our behalf where needed. We may also disclose data to competent public authorities where legally required. We do not sell personal data.

7. International transfers

Some providers may process data outside the European Economic Area. Where required, we rely on an adequacy decision, European Commission-approved standard contractual clauses or another lawful safeguard. Contact us for more information about applicable safeguards.

8. Retention

We retain data no longer than necessary for membership, matching, support, security and potential legal claims. Profile and preference data is deleted or anonymised when no longer needed, unless a valid reason requires longer retention.

We retain administrative, invoice and tax records for the statutory period—generally seven years in the Netherlands and longer where a specific legal rule requires it. We then delete or appropriately anonymise the data.

9. Your privacy rights

Under applicable law, you may request access, rectification, erasure, restriction and portability. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests and withdraw consent where it is the legal basis. Send requests to info@b-essential.nl. We may request reasonable information to verify your identity.

You may also complain to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) or, where applicable, the authority in your country of residence. We welcome the opportunity to resolve your concern first.

10. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures, including restricted access, secure connections, provider management and monitoring where appropriate. No system is entirely risk-free; if an incident occurs, we follow applicable notification and remediation duties.

11. Cookies and tracking

The current public AOA pages do not use marketing or advertising cookies. The site and its protection layer may use strictly necessary security or session technology. Stripe may use its own necessary and other technology when you visit Stripe Checkout, in accordance with its privacy and cookie information. If AOA later adds non-essential analytics or marketing technology, we will first update this Policy and any consent choice required.

12. Children

AOA is intended for adults and professional users and is not directed at children. Contact us if you believe a child’s data has been processed without an appropriate basis.

13. Changes

We may update this Policy when the service, providers or law changes. We will communicate material changes appropriately. The date above identifies the current version.