Privacy Policy

Your privacy matters to us. We believe you should be able to explore good design without being tracked, profiled, or monetized.

Our Privacy Philosophy

At IS8, privacy is a foundational principle, embedded in the architecture of our platform from the beginning. We built this directory to showcase award-winning design, and we intentionally designed our systems to operate with minimal data collection.

Our business is connecting people with good design. That mission requires a functional, well-organized directory. It does not require collecting, storing, or monetizing your personal information.

What We Do Not Do

Minimal Data Collection

We collect the minimum information necessary to operate our website securely and provide you with a functional browsing experience. The legal basis for this limited processing is our legitimate interest in maintaining a secure, functional web directory.

Server Logs

Like virtually all web servers, ours automatically record basic technical information when you visit a page. This may include your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring page, pages visited, and timestamp. These logs are used solely for security monitoring, troubleshooting technical issues, and generating aggregate, non-identifying usage statistics. They are not used to identify or track individual users and are periodically purged in the ordinary course of operations.

Essential Cookies

We may use strictly necessary cookies required for basic website functionality, such as maintaining a browsing session or remembering accessibility preferences. These are functional cookies that do not collect personal information for marketing or analytics purposes. They typically expire when you close your browser or shortly thereafter.

Search Queries

When you use our search function, your search terms are processed to return relevant results. We may retain anonymized, aggregated search data to improve directory organization and search relevance. This data is not associated with individual users and is not used for profiling or marketing purposes.

Advertising

IS8 may display advertisements to support the operation of the directory. All advertising on our platform is contextual, meaning it is determined by the content of the page or the directory category you are viewing. Advertisements are served based on context, and they do not rely on personal data, behavioral tracking, or user profiling.

We require that any advertising partners who display content through our platform respect our privacy-first standards. We do not permit advertising partners to place tracking cookies, deploy tracking pixels, or collect personal data about our visitors through advertisements displayed on IS8.

Service Providers

We may engage trusted service providers to assist with the technical operation of our website, such as hosting infrastructure and content delivery. These providers process data solely on our behalf, under our instructions, and are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of any information they process. We do not authorize service providers to use data processed on our behalf for their own purposes.

External Links and Third Parties

IS8 contains links to external websites, including the websites of designers, brands, and studios whose work is featured in the directory. When you click an external link and leave our site, you become subject to the privacy policies and practices of those third-party websites.

We encourage you to review the privacy practices of any external site you visit. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, data collection policies, or content of third-party websites. The presence of a link on IS8 does not constitute endorsement of that website's privacy practices.

Designer and Brand Information

IS8 displays information about award-winning designers, brands, and studios, including their names, countries, award histories, and descriptions of their award-winning work. This information is sourced from publicly available records of the A' Design Award competition, in which these individuals and organizations voluntarily participated and through which they consented to public recognition of their achievements.

If you are a featured designer or brand representative and have questions or concerns about your listing, or if you wish to request a correction or removal, please contact us using the information provided below. We will review and respond to such requests promptly.

Legal Obligations

In limited circumstances, we may be required to disclose information we hold in response to valid legal processes, such as court orders, subpoenas, or lawful requests from public authorities for law enforcement or national security purposes. In such cases, we will disclose the minimum information necessary to comply with our legal obligations.

Do Not Track Signals

Some web browsers transmit "Do Not Track" signals to websites. Because our standard practice is to collect minimal data and to refrain from tracking visitors, we treat all visitors with the same privacy-first approach regardless of whether a Do Not Track signal is received.

International Visitors

IS8 serves a global audience. Our servers may be located in jurisdictions different from your own. By accessing and using the directory, you acknowledge that the limited technical data described in this policy may be processed in the country where our servers are located. We apply the same privacy protections to all visitors regardless of their geographic location.

Your Rights

Because we collect minimal data and do not maintain user accounts or profiles on this directory, there is typically very limited personal information associated with any individual visitor. Nonetheless, we fully respect your privacy rights under applicable laws.

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict processing of, or object to processing of your personal information. California residents have additional rights under the CCPA, including the right to know what personal information is collected and the right to request deletion. European visitors have rights under the GDPR, including the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information provided below. We will respond to legitimate requests within the timeframes required by applicable law.

Data Retention

We retain the limited technical data described in this policy only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, primarily security monitoring and technical troubleshooting. Server logs are periodically purged in the ordinary course of operations. We do not maintain long-term archives of visitor data.

Security

We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect the limited information we process. Our website uses HTTPS encryption to secure data transmitted between your browser and our servers.

No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. However, our minimal data collection approach significantly reduces privacy risks by limiting the scope of information that could be affected by any potential incident.

Children's Privacy

IS8 is a general-audience website featuring information about design products, services, and professionals. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16 (or under 13 in jurisdictions where that threshold applies). If you believe that a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so we can take appropriate action to delete such information.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or for other operational reasons. When we make material changes, we will update the "last updated" date at the bottom of this page. Your continued use of IS8 following any changes to this policy constitutes your acknowledgment of those changes. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us through our official communication channels listed on our Impressum page.

We are committed to addressing your privacy concerns and will respond to inquiries in a timely manner.

This Privacy Policy was last updated in April 2026.