IKAg works with data about the agency sector. Some of it is personal data. This statement explains which data, what for, how long, and what you can do about it. No legal wallpaper: we write it the way we work.
- IKAg BV
- Company number / VAT: BE 1027.915.829
- Foreestelaan 1, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
- Email: bart@ikag.be
1. Who is responsible
The controller is IKAg BV, Foreestelaan 1, 9000 Ghent, Belgium, company number BE 1027.915.829.
We are not required to appoint a data protection officer. Privacy questions go straight to the managing director at bart@ikag.be.
2. What this statement covers
This statement applies to:
- our website ikag.be and the subdomains hosting the IKAg tools, including tools.ikag.be;
- the IKAg tools: our online instruments, reports and factsheets, including those behind an access gate;
- our newsletters and publications;
- our advisory, pitch guidance and M&A assignments;
- the agency and market database we build and maintain.
Our websites may link to third party sites. Those sites are governed by their own privacy policies.
3. What data, what for, and on what legal basis
We collect no more than we need. Per purpose, it looks like this.
4. Data we did not collect from you
Part of our database is built from public sources. Article 14 of the GDPR requires us to be transparent about that. Specifically, we draw on:
- the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Enterprises, for identification, address and mandate data;
- the Central Balance Sheet Office of the National Bank of Belgium, for filed annual accounts;
- the Belgian Official Gazette, for publications and changes to articles of association;
- publicly accessible websites of agencies and advertisers;
- public partner directories of technology vendors, where agencies register themselves as partners;
- public award and competition records;
- trade press, press releases and public professional profiles.
We use that data for sector analysis, benchmarking, factsheets and matching advertisers with suitable agencies. We extract no sensitive data, we do not combine it with private data, and we build no profiles about you as a private individual.
Found something about you or your company that is wrong, out of date, or that you would rather not see there? One email to bart@ikag.be is enough. We correct or remove it without arguing about who is right.
5. Agencies, companies and people
Most of our database is about companies, not about people. Data about a legal entity, such as revenue, headcount, client portfolio or awards, is not personal data and falls outside the GDPR.
It does become personal data as soon as information can be traced back to a natural person. That is the case with the name of a managing director, with a sole trader, or with a company so small that the figures effectively concern one person. In those cases we treat the data as personal data and all rights in point 13 apply.
6. Anonymisation and benchmarks
Our sector reports and benchmarks are built on aggregated figures. In building them we apply a fixed rule: we never show an average, median or other result for a group too small to stay anonymous.
Where we do publish per agency, it concerns only data that is already public, such as filed annual accounts. That publication duty rests with the legislator, not with us.
7. Use of AI services
We use AI tools to structure text, classify data and prepare analysis. An AI system never makes a decision about a person or an agency on its own. Every outcome is reviewed by a human.
8. Who we share data with
We work with service providers who process data on our instructions. We have a data processing agreement with each of them.
We also share data with our accountant, lawyers and insurers where necessary, and with authorities or courts where the law requires it. In pitch and M&A processes we share data only with parties you know and who are bound by confidentiality arrangements.
9. Transfers outside the EEA
Some of the providers above are established in the United States. Transfers take place under the adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or, where that does not apply, under the European Commission standard contractual clauses, supplemented with additional measures. You can request a copy of those safeguards at bart@ikag.be.
10. How long we keep data
11. Security
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures: encrypted connections on all our sites and tools, role based access control and two factor authentication on our central systems, separated development and production environments, confidentiality arrangements with staff and partners, and regular backups.
If a data breach is nevertheless identified with a risk to your rights and freedoms, we report it within 72 hours to the Belgian Data Protection Authority and, in case of high risk, directly to you as well.
12. Cookies
We use three types of cookies:
- Necessary. For session management, the access gate to the IKAg tools and security. These are always on, because the site does not work without them.
- Statistics. To see which pages and reports are read. We use Google Analytics 4 for this, loaded through Google Tag Manager (container GTM-P3MFPSVR). These cookies are only placed after you have given consent.
- Preferences. To remember that you already have access to a report, so you do not have to enter your email address every time.
Google Tag Manager places no cookies itself. It only loads the measurement tags, and does so only after you have given consent. Google Analytics 4 does not store a full IP address. We do not link Analytics to advertising services and place no third party marketing cookies.
Your choice applies to ikag.be and all of its subdomains, including the IKAg tools. You can change it at any time via the cookie settings link in the footer of every page, or through your browser settings. If you withdraw your consent, we delete the analytics cookies placed earlier.
13. Your rights
You have the right to:
- request access to the data we process about you;
- have inaccurate data corrected or completed;
- have data erased where we no longer need it or process it without a proper basis;
- have the processing restricted;
- object to processing based on legitimate interest, including inclusion in our agency database;
- receive your data in a common format or have it transferred;
- withdraw consent at any time, without affecting what happened before;
- object to direct marketing free of charge.
Send your request to bart@ikag.be. We answer within 30 days. For a complex request we can extend that by two months, and we will tell you if we do. We may ask for proof of identity where there is doubt about who is asking.
Not happy with how we do this?
Tell us first. It is usually resolved faster than through a procedure, and we take it seriously.
If we cannot work it out, you can lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority, Drukpersstraat 35, 1000 Brussels, contact@apd-gba.be. You can also go to the court of your place of residence.
Get in touchNo automated decision making
We take no decisions with legal effects based solely on automated processing. Our scores, signals and clusterings are aids to human judgement, nothing more.
14. Changes
Our tools evolve, and so does this statement. The current version is always on this page, with the date of the last change at the top. For a material change we will notify you actively, by email or through a notice on the site.
Questions about your data? Get in touch at bart@ikag.be or via our contact page.