Privacy Notice & Terms of Use

This Privacy Notice governs the collection, storage, use and other processing of personal data carried out by us, ISTQB®, during our activities, whether via our website at www.istqb.org, awards.istqb.org, partner.istqb.org, scr.istqb.org, glossary.istqb.org (“Website”) or via other ways. It provides you with details about the personal information we collect from you, how and why we use your personal information and your rights to control personal information we hold about you. Please read this Privacy Notice carefully.

This Privacy Notice was last updated on April 2nd, 2026. Please check back regularly to keep informed of updates to this Privacy Notice.

Who we are

ISTQB® is a not-for-profit association registered under Belgian law with registration number 0889.625.305, and with its registered office at 47, Avenue des Arts, 1000 Brussels. We respect your right to privacy and will only process personal information you provide to us in accordance with applicable data protection laws, which include (i) the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation 2016/679) on 25 May 2018 (“GDPR”); and (ii) other applicable privacy laws.

If you have any questions about how we process your personal information, or if you have any other privacy-related questions, please contact us via the ISTQB® Secretariat by any of the following means:

  • E-Mail: secretary.backoffice@istqb.org
  • Post: Avenue des Arts 47, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

We do not and will not knowingly collect information from any unsupervised child under the age of 16. If you are under the age of 16, you may not use this website unless you have the consent of, and are supervised by, a parent or guardian.

The personal information we collect about you

This Notice applies to the visitors of the Website (including when you submit personal information to us, e.g. through data entry fields on the Website), – candidates, partners, award nominees and service providers working with ISTQB. We may collect the following information from you:

  • Personal identification data (full name, telephone number);
  • Electronic identification data (e-mail address, IP address);
  • Personal characteristics (country of residence);
  • Professional data (employer, function, CV, etc.);
  • Any additional personal information relating to the Successful Candidate Register, including candidate certificate number, certificate date, name of the exam provider and level of the exam passed;
  • In the event that you are nominated for an ISTQB® award, we may process certain personal information such as your full name, career history, etc.
  • Any other personal information that you provide us with, such as via the contact us form from our website.

How and why we may store and use your information

We (and third-party data processors, acting on our behalf) may collect, store and use your personal information listed above for the following purposes:

  • to make this website and its content (including the Successful Candidate Register) available to you;
  • upon your consent, to include your name and relevant information in the Successful Candidate Register for the purposes of preventing uncertified people from posing as certified and allowing third parties to swiftly check the validity of credentials online;
  • for ISTQB® award nominees, we collect your full name and information regarding your career history for the purpose of obtaining nominations via the website;
  • for ISTQB® award winners, to include the award winner’s full name, picture and relevant CV information in the Award Winners section of the website for communication purposes;
  • to respond to any queries or requests that you may submit to us through the Website (e.g. by using the online contact form);
  • to manage and maintain our business relationship with contractors and sub-contractors, including to coordinate services, projects, and day-to-day operations.

We process your personal information for the purposes mentioned above, insofar you have given consent to the processing (under B and D) or insofar the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract (under A, C and F). We process your Website queries and requests based on our legitimate interest to ensure proper communications with you and to provide the necessary information or assistance (under E).

We will not sell or rent your personal information to any third party. We may disclose your personal information where we are required to do so by applicable law, by a governmental body or by a law enforcement agency. Finally, we may also collect details about visitors to our website, including for the purposes of aggregate statistics or reporting purposes, based on your consent or our legitimate interest (under A) as further described in our Cookie Policy which can be accessed using the following link: https://www.istqb.org/cookie-policy.

Retention of your personal data

In accordance with the principles set out below, we will delete personal data once it is no longer required to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice. The retention periods differ depending on the type of processing activity and the purpose for which the personal data was collected. In all cases, personal data may be retained for a longer period if there is a legal or regulatory reason to do so, if it is needed to handle claims and resolve disputes, or for a shorter period if you object to the processing of your personal data and there is no longer a legitimate reason to retain it.

In particular, we keep personal data for the following periods of time:

  • For the retention period of any cookies used on this Website we refer to our Cookie Policy, which can be accessed through the following link: https://www.istqb.org/cookie-policy ;
  • The personal data relating to the Successful Candidate Register will be deleted where the person withdraws the consent to be included in the Successful Candidate Register;
  • Where a nominee is not selected for the ISTQB® award, their personal data will be kept pending the award determination period, after which it will be deleted;
  • The personal data relating to ISTQB® award winners will be deleted where the nominee withdraws their consent for the publishing of this information on the website;
  • Personal data submitted by you within the framework of any query or request through the Website (e.g. by using the online contact form) will be deleted once we will have responded to or dealt with your query or request.

International transfers

We may transfer personal information that we collect from you to our third-party data processors located in countries that are outside of the European Economic Area in connection with the above purposes. When transferring data to countries which are outside the European Economic Area and which do not offer an adequate level of protection, we will ensure to have appropriate data transfer safeguards in place.

Cookies

For further information on the cookies used in connection with the Website, we refer to our ISTQB® Cookie Policy, accessible via this link: https://www.istqb.org/cookie-policy

Security

ISTQB® has taken appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard the personal information that you provide us with, against unauthorized or unlawful processing and against accidental destruction, loss or damage.

Your rights

You have the following rights:

  • The right to access to personal information that we hold about you;
  • The right to ask us to update and correct any out-of-date or incorrect personal information that we hold about you free of charge;
  • Where the processing is based on your consent, the right to withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal;
  • The right to erasure where the conditions of article 17 of the GDPR have been met;
  • The right to restriction of processing where the conditions of article 18 of the GDPR have been met;
  • The right to data portability insofar the conditions of article 20 GDPR apply to you;
  • The right to object to processing of personal data concerning you, insofar applicable under article 21 GDPR;
  • The right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

If you wish to exercise any of the above rights, please write to us (either by post or by e-mail) at the address specified above.

Third party sites

This website contains links to other websites operated by third parties. Please note that this Privacy Notice applies only to the personal information that we collect through this website and that we cannot be responsible for personal information that third parties may collect, store and use through their website. You should always carefully read the privacy notices of each website you visit.