Privacy
Privacy and the protection of personal data of individuals are important topics in today’s society. Aqua Platform, the service provider responsible for Aqua Ad Server, has taken great care to design a technical platform and a set of operating procedures to ensure we can live up to the expectations of our clients and the requirements of the relevant legislation and regulations.
Our commitment to privacy
Aqua Ad Server is a service operated by Aqua Platform. Aqua Platform is a hosting provider. That means we take care of any and all technical aspects for our clients when it comes to hosting their systems. More specifically, we specialize in hosting the free, open source Revive Adserver software. Aqua Ad Server uses the Revive Adserver software at its core.
Contrary to so many other vendors in the ad tech industry, our business model does not rely on collecting, processing, analysing, storing, or selling personal data about users of the internet. Instead, our guiding principle has been Privacy by Default.
We create value by operating servers and networking as efficiently as possible, while still maintaining a high level of service for our clients, and by enabling our clients to use the software hosted on these facilities to run their advertising businesses. We do not get involved in the business of our clients, other than providing technical support for the software.
Our technical platform, meaning servers and networking facilities, have been designed to need as little personal data as possible. For example, in order for the staff members of our clients to be able to log in on their accounts, we provide usernames and store their e-mail addresses so we can send password reset emails, but we do not collect any other personal data about them. Simply, because we have no need for those.
About Aqua Platform
Who we are
Is this page for me?
Here are some guidelines to determine if this page has information relevant for you.
I'm a member of the public
If you’re concerned about how another business deals with your rights with regard to your personal data, you should contact that business directly, even if you have reason to believe that the business is a client at Aqua Platform.
I'm a client at Aqua Platform
I'm considering to join Aqua Platform as a client
As part of your research before signing up as our newest client, it could be beneficial to study the information below describing how Aqua Platform treats personal data, and how we’ve implemented our commitment to privacy and data protection. And of course, if you like what you see, then please feel free to Subscribe and join a long list of loyal clients.
GDPR – General Data Protection Regulations
If you work in the digital advertising industry, you must have heard about GDPR by now. So a very brief introduction should be sufficient. Here are a few questions you might have:
What is GDPR?
GDPR oversees the collection, processing, and movement, of personal data about individuals residing in one of the 28 EU states and 4 other European states that also adopted these regulations.
Where does GDPR apply?
Can't we just ignore GDPR?
What are the penalties for non-compliance?
Should we seek legal advice?
What is a Data Controller and a Data Processor?
- Data Subject: a natural person from whom data is available and who should be able to determine how their data will be collected, stored, and/or moved;
- Data Controller: a legal or natural person controlling the processing of personal data belonging to a Data Subject;
- Data Processor: a legal or natural person performing the processing of personal data belonging to a Data Subject;
Instead of trying to go into the details of what a Data Controller and a Data Processor is and how it is determined whether you are the former, the latter, or both, we recommend having a look at the article by Sagara Gunathunga on All you need to know about GDPR Controllers and Processors.
I want to learn about GDPR, where can I go?
- The full text of the GDPR has been made available in a search-enabled format with annotations by Algolia;
- There is a page about GDPR on Wikipedia.
The Roles of Aqua Platform
In light of the various roles defined above, we as Aqua Platform conduct them as follows:
Data controller, Data Processor, or both?
Aqua Platform is a Data Processor.
Please continue reading for a more detailed explanation.
Aqua Platform as a Data controller
Aqua Platform as a Data processor
Aqua Ad Server
Aqua Ad Server is a service operated by Aqua Platform, a specialist technical services provider for the free, open source Revive Adserver software. With regard to privacy and compliance with data protection regulations, we hope the following information is useful for our clients.
What is Revive Adserver?
How does Revive Adserver treat personal data?
How does Aqua Ad Server work with personal data?
For Aqua Ad Server, we use the Revive Adserver software without any modifications. As such, the treatment of personal data by the software is exactly as described on the Revive Adserver website. We have added a few plugins to increase performance and scale up the functionality for the collection of delivery statistics, but these have been designed and developed to function identically to the built-in functionality.
Processing of Personal data by Aqua Platform
As a business, it can not be avoided that we process a certain amount of personal data. Our guiding principle in such cases is always: Privacy by Default.
Does Aqua Platform process any personal data of internet users?
As an example: the servers we use to deliver the ads for our hosting customers do not have any log files enabled. When an ad request arrives on the platform, it obviously comes with an IP address from the requestor. The ad server could use that IP address for geolocation, but the ad server does not log the IP address. The web server software underneath uses the IP address in order to be able to send the response back to the requester, but it does not log the web server event either. The reason is that we do not need these log files, which are traditionally being used for things like website statistics or performance measurement. Essentially, our servers process and then immediately forget any personal data they might see.
There are just a few exceptions, when it comes to interacting with organisations and individuals with whom we have a direct business relationship. This is detailed in the next block.
Does Aqua Platform process personal data about clients?
But, as noted before, the concept of Privacy by Default was essential here as well.
As an example: to be able to send our customers their monthly invoices, we need to collect and store their names and e-mail addresses. Fiscal legislation also dictates that we store and use their business names, postal addresses and in some cases tax registration numbers. As a matter of fact, tax authorities dictate that we keep a record of every financial transaction and the associated personal data (if any), for at least 7 years. We’re not even allowed to delete any of those.
However, dictated by Privacy by Default, we never collect any personal data that we do not absolutely need.
Does Aqua Platform use cookies?
We use Google Analytics to count how many visits and pageviews we get on our website, and which pages are being viewed. To comply with GDPR, we’ve enabled the anonymizeIP setting in Google Analytics, so no personal data is ever collected, let alone shared with Google.
Please refer to the detailed Cookie Declaration generated automatically by the Cookiebot scanning service.
Disclaimer
GDPR is an extremely complicated set of rules, and it is actually much more a legal matter than a technical matter. The Aqua Platform team is not qualified to provide legal advice, so this page should be considered to be simply informative when it talks about how others should comply with GDPR. We recommend that you consult with a lawyer or a qualified expert in order to be fully compliant with GDPR yourself.
Any remaining questions or concerns?
If you feel that something is unclear or missing with regard to how we handle privacy, please feel free to contact us.
Our customers can contact their assigned account manager or just open a ticket using the regular channels for support.
If you’re a member of the public, please consider using the form presented here to contact us.