Voting ended August 6th.

MVC Choice Awards Data Protection Policy in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The Military and Veteran Community Choice Awards (“MVC Choice Awards”) is a DBA (doing business as) of DOD Services, LLC (“DOD Services”), which is a registered business in the State of Texas. PCSgrades is also a DBA (Doing Business As) of DOD Services, LLC and is a Hosting Partner to the MVC Choice Awards.

The MVC Choice Awards data protection policy is in place to ensure the utmost protection for our users and all personal data collected by the MVC Choice Awards platform. Special attention is placed on protecting the operational security of our active and retired service members and their families.

This document presents our policy, not only in compliance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but also to provide proof of compliance to those we serve.

MVC Choice Awards compliance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) allows us to continue to serve those users with dual citizenships, and those who are located overseas.

Hosting Partners

Hosting Partners (“Hosting Partners”) of the MVC Choice Awards are defined as one or more parties who maintain an Agreement with DOD Services to facilitate the MVC Choice Awards by contributing their unique services and expertise in exchange for shared benefits. As of 22 April 2019, the Hosting Partners include Task & Purpose, GovX, Military Influencer Conference, Blue Star Families, and PCSgrades.

Security policy and responsibilities of MVC Choice Awards

A. Data Protection Goals

  • To collect the minimal amount of sensitive data needed to verify military affiliation
  • To provide a clear Terms of Service defining to members how their data is used
  • To allow members access to their data and control over which data is retained by MVC Choice Awards and used for the purposes of
    • Military Verification – birth dates, service members names, dates of military service
    • Review Integrity – military rank, location, PCS experience, vendor information
    • Marketing – location, email addresses

We will only share your Personal Information with the Hosting Partners of the MVC Choice Awards, to use for their own purposes in accordance with their respective Terms of Service, Privacy Policies, and all applicable law.

We will not otherwise share, sell or rent your Personal Information to third parties, except with your consent or as described in this Agreement. We follow applicable laws and industry best practices with respect to the disclosure of Personal Information to third parties.

You will be provided the opportunity to unsubscribe to any materials sent to you by the MVC Choice Awards or any of the individual Hosting partners AND the Hosting Partners are specifically restricted from selling, renting, or sharing access to your data with any other third parties.

B. Data Protection Officer

The DOD Services Data Protection Officer is responsible for instituting and ensuring the guidelines of the Data Protection Policy are adhered to. The Data Protection officer is committed to the continuous improvement of the data protection policies and procedures. Additionally, the Data Protection Officer is charged with the training, continued education, and obligation of the staff of DOD Services when handling the personal data of members.

The Data Protection Officer will conduct internal and external inspections once each quarter, with the last one occurring on 1 April 2019.

During our quarterly inspections we will review all requests for data deletion and ensure all relevant data has indeed been completely deleted

C. Data Handling Framework

Data is only to be used for purposes expressly outlined by the MVC Choice Awards in our privacy policy. High level administrative permissions are restricted and data may only be accessed by those with express permission. Data may only be accessed by staff members on devices approved by DOD Services.

D. Technical Security

DOD Services restricts access to the codebase for our software with tight control over permissions of who has access to said codebase. DOD Services also encrypts sensitive information in order to protect your data in the event of a data breach. In addition, we encrypt all communications between your device and our platform via SSL.

In the event of a data breach, DOD Services will notify users of our platform(s) in a timely manner. Appropriate countermeasures will be taken to ensure that such a data breach will be protected against in the future.

Registered users of the MVC Choice Awards maintain at all times both access and control over their data. Users maintain the ability to edit the information in their user profile.

Users of the DOD Services platform(s) have the right to request a copy of their data or have it removed at any time by emailing the DOD Services Data Protection Officer at [email protected]