Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Overseas Vietnamese Pte. Ltd., a company registered in Singapore, runs this website and decides how your personal data is used ("OV", "we", "us"). Under the GDPR, we are the controller.

Our company in Vietnam, Công Ty TNHH Overseas Vietnamese, handles partnerships. If you send a partner enquiry, it may also receive your details and use them to reply to you and work with you.

For any question or request about your data, email legal@overseasvietnamese.com. This address also reaches our Data Protection Officer.

2. What we collect

When you apply to join

• Your name, city and country
• Your job title and company
• Your career stage, your connection to Vietnam, your level of Vietnamese and whether you are thinking about moving to Vietnam
• Why you want to join and what you would bring
• How you heard about OV and, if a member referred you, their name
• Your LinkedIn profile link, or another link if you have no LinkedIn
• Your email address

We also look at the LinkedIn profile or link you give us, to review your application.

When you send a partner enquiry

Your name, work email, company and role, what you are interested in (talent, brand or both) and your message.

When you recommend a podcast guest

The guest’s name, a LinkedIn or website link, and why you recommend them. If you recommend someone else, also your name and email. If you recommend yourself, your email.

If someone recommended you: we received your name, a link and their reasons from the person who recommended you. We use them only to decide whether to invite you. If we contact you, we tell you how we got your details. You can ask us to delete them at any time.

When you nominate someone

Your name and email, and the person’s first and last name, email, LinkedIn or another link, and why you nominate them.

If someone nominated you: we received your name, email, a link and their reasons from the person who nominated you. We do not email you automatically. If we think you fit, we invite you to apply, tell you who nominated you and may follow up once. You can ask us to delete your details at any time.

When you contact us

The topic, your name, email and message, and your company if you write about a partnership.

When you sign up for Summit updates

Your name, email, the city you live in and whether you are an OV member. If you choose to answer, whether you are thinking about moving to Vietnam. We keep the sign-up in our contact database with any other record we already hold about you; if we hold none, we add one with your name, email and city.

When you subscribe to OV news

Your email address, the date, the page and form you used, and the exact wording you agreed to. We keep your address in our contact database with any other record we already hold about you, such as an application or your membership, and check whether you are an OV member. If we hold no other record, we add one with just your email address.

When we send OV news, our email provider records whether it was delivered and which links you clicked. We do not track whether you open it.

When you register for an OV event on Luma

Luma, the platform we use for event registration, shares with us your name, email, the events you registered for and attended, and your answers to the registration questions. We keep them in our contact database with any other record we hold about you. If you tick the box to receive OV news, we add you to OV news.

When you list an offer in OV Perks

Your company’s name, website and logo, what it does and who the offer suits, the offer, how members redeem it (the code or link, or the name, phone number and email of the person members contact), its conditions, end date and places, your name and email, and whether you are an OV member. If you name a contact person, please make sure they agree to be shared with OV members.

When you sign up on OV Jobs

Your email address, the sign-in code we send you, and, if you are not an OV member, your first name, the city you live in, whether you have lived, worked or studied outside Vietnam, whether you would move to Vietnam for the right role, and, if you give them, your LinkedIn profile and the kinds of roles you want. You also choose whether OV may introduce you to employers hiring for roles like these. We keep these answers in our contact database with any other record we already hold about you. If we hold no other record, we add one.

When you set up a job alert

The role areas, levels, places and keywords you choose, and which roles we have sent you. When we send the alert, our email provider records whether it was delivered and which links you clicked.

When you post a role

Your company, the role, its link, location, work type and level, the description if you paste one, why it suits Overseas Vietnamese, and your name and work email. We check the email domain against the company’s website and look for duplicates before we publish the role.

When you ask a member for a chat

For OV members only: your note, the role or company it is about, and the member you asked. The member sees your name, title, company, city, OV profile and LinkedIn, and your note. Your email is shared with them only if they accept.

When you apply to OV Ventures

• Founders: your name, email and LinkedIn, your company’s name, website, one-line description, location and stage, your connection to Vietnam, what you have raised and are raising, your pitch deck (a link or an uploaded PDF) and who referred you.
• Investors: your name, email, LinkedIn, title, company and city, your connection to OV, how you want to join (OV Ventures only, or OV and OV Ventures), why you want to join, who referred you, your confirmation that you are an accredited investor and that you understand the risks of early-stage investing.

With every form

The page and button you used, and any campaign tags in the link that brought you to the site (such as utm_source). This shows us which pages and campaigns bring applications.

When you browse the site

• Visit statistics (Vercel Web Analytics): the page, the site that sent you, your country and region, your device type, browser and operating system, and actions such as opening the application form, reaching a step or sending a form. It uses no cookies and does not store your IP address. A visit is recognised by a code made from your request, which is thrown away after 24 hours. We only see totals.
• Page speed (Vercel Speed Insights): how fast pages load on your device. No cookies.
• Bot protection (Vercel BotID): when you send a form, an invisible check reads technical signals from your browser to tell people from automated bots.
• Perk links: when you open a perk through its link (overseasvietnamese.com/perks/go/...), we record the time, the page that sent you and your country, so we can tell partners how many members open their offer. We do not record your IP address with it. Link previews and automated visits are not counted.
• Job board visits: when you open the job board, we store the date of your visit in a cookie for 30 days. If you later apply to join OV, we note that you saw the job board, so we know whether it brings members. It holds no name or other personal detail.
• Location guess: when the application form opens, we use the country and city our host derives from your IP address to fill in the location question for you. You can change it. It is saved only if you keep it as your answer.
• Server logs: our host keeps technical records of requests, such as IP address, time and page, to keep the site secure and running.

Stored in your browser

The site sets no advertising or tracking cookies. It uses cookies only on OV Jobs: one that keeps you signed in for 30 days (and one that holds your sign-in code for 10 minutes), and the job board visit cookie described above. Otherwise the site uses your browser’s own storage for three things:

• Your application answers while you fill in the form, so nothing is lost if you close the tab. They are deleted when you send the form, or after 30 days.
• Drafts of the other forms on the site, until you send them or close the tab.
• Campaign tags from the link that brought you here, until you close the tab.

None of this reaches us until you send a form. You can clear it at any time in your browser settings.

3. Why we use it

• To review your application, decide on it and contact you about it. People at OV make every decision. We do not use automated decision-making.
• To reply to partner enquiries and work with partners.
• To consider podcast guests and invite them.
• To consider nominations and invite nominees to apply.
• To answer messages you send us.
• To email you about the OV Summit, when you asked us to.
• To send you OV news, when you subscribed, and to see which stories readers click.
• To run OV gatherings and know who comes to them.
• To run OV Jobs: show you the roles, send the job alerts you asked for, publish roles that employers and members post, and pass on chat requests between members.
• If you said yes, to ask whether you would like an introduction to an employer hiring for a role that fits you. We introduce you only after you say yes to that introduction.
• To understand, in totals, who uses OV Jobs, for example how many have lived abroad or plan to move to Vietnam. We publish only totals, never names or lists, and we never sell or share the list.
• To review startups for OV Ventures and investors who want to join the syndicate.
• To review offers for OV Perks, publish them for members and tell partners how many members open them.
• To understand, in totals, how visitors use the site and which pages and campaigns bring applications.
• To keep the site and forms secure and working, including blocking bots and keeping a backup copy of a form when our database is unavailable.
• To meet our legal obligations and to establish or defend legal claims.

We do not sell personal data. We do not use your form answers for advertising.

Legal basis in the EU and UK (GDPR)

• Applications: taking steps you asked for before you become a member.
• Partner enquiries, guest recommendations, nominations, messages, event registrations, OV Ventures applications, OV Perks offers, perk link counts, visit statistics and security: our legitimate interests in running and growing OV, replying to people who contact us and protecting the site. You can object at any time.
• Your connection to Vietnam and your level of Vietnamese can say something about your heritage. We use these answers only with your explicit consent, which you give when you answer and send the form. You can withdraw it at any time.
• Summit updates: your consent. You can withdraw it at any time by replying to any Summit email.
• OV news: your consent. You can withdraw it at any time with the unsubscribe link in every email.
• OV Jobs sign-ups, job alerts and employer introductions: your consent. You can stop the alerts with the link in every alert and withdraw the rest at any time. Posted roles and chat requests: our legitimate interests in running the job board.
• Legal obligations, where the law requires us to keep or share data.

Singapore (PDPA) and Vietnam (Personal Data Protection Law)

We use your data with your consent, which you give when you send a form after reading this policy, and otherwise only where the law allows it without consent. You can withdraw consent at any time.

4. Where your data goes

Your data is seen only by the OV team members who need it for the purposes above. We also use service providers who handle data for us under contract and only on our instructions:

• Vercel (United States): hosts the site and provides the visit statistics, page speed data and bot protection. It also runs a private backup store: if a form cannot reach our database, a copy is kept there and retried every hour, then deleted once it is saved, usually within an hour. We keep a small marker with the form’s ID and database record ID, without your answers, so the same form is never saved twice. Pitch decks uploaded on the OV Ventures form, and logos uploaded on the OV Perks form, are kept there for up to 7 days, after they are copied to our database.
• Airtable (United States): our database. Every form and every OV news subscription is saved here.
• Resend (United States): sends the email that tells our team about each form, which contains your answers. It also sends OV news, OV Jobs sign-in codes and job alerts, and for that it keeps your email address, whether you are subscribed, and delivery and click records for each email.
• Luma (United States): runs registration for OV events. Its own privacy policy covers your Luma account.
• Google Workspace: our team email, which receives those emails and sends invitations to people who were nominated.
• Zapier: connects our database to the emails we send you about your application.
• Sanity: stores the text and images of this site. It receives no form data. Members’ names, photos and quotes appear on the site with their permission.
• Our member app: the site reads the names, cities and dates of upcoming gatherings from it to show what is next. It reads no member names, attendee lists or addresses, and the site sends none of your data to the app.
• Fillout (backup form, switched off): if our own form ever stops working, we can switch the application form to Fillout for a while. Applications then pass through Fillout before reaching our database.

We may also share data with our professional advisers, with authorities when the law requires it, and with a buyer or successor if OV is sold or merged. They must protect it as this policy describes.

5. If you become a member

What we collect

• Your member profile: name, photo, headline, location, city chapter, title, company, industry, role, career stage and goal, connection to Vietnam, level of Vietnamese, interest in moving to Vietnam, what you can help with and need help with, bio, interests and links to your social profiles
• Your answer to whether we may contact you about job opportunities
• Payment details: your plan, payments, refunds, billing name, country and address. Card details are handled by our payment provider. We never see your full card number.
• Your activity in the member app, such as posts, comments, messages, events you sign up for and when you sign in
• Coffee Chats introductions and the gatherings and sessions you attend
• Photos and video from gatherings, when you appear in them

Who can see your profile

Other members can see your profile in the member app, including your email address. Your profile is not public and search engines cannot see it. Some fields, such as the job opportunities answer, are visible only to the OV team.

How we use it

• To run your membership: give you access, bill you, send receipts and handle cancellations and refunds
• To introduce you to other members, for example through Coffee Chats, using the help-with answers in your profile
• To tell you about gatherings, sessions and programs for members
• If you said yes, to contact you about job opportunities that fit you
• To keep the community safe and enforce the Membership Terms
• To respond to payment disputes. If you dispute a charge, we share the records that show what happened with our payment provider and your bank: your acceptance of the terms, your payments and receipts, your cancellation and your sign-in activity.

We ask before we feature you, your story or your posts outside the member app.

Where it goes

Besides the providers listed above, membership uses our member app provider (United States), which hosts the app and your profile, and Stripe (United States), which processes payments. We keep membership records in Airtable.

How long we keep it

We keep your profile while you are a member. After you leave, we remove your access and keep a record of your membership. Payment records are kept for as long as tax and accounting law requires, usually 5 years. You can ask us to delete your data at any time, apart from what the law requires us to keep.

The legal basis for membership data under the GDPR is the contract between us (the Membership Terms), our legitimate interests for introductions and safety, your consent for the job opportunities answer and your heritage answers, and legal obligations for payment records.

6. International transfers

OV is based in Singapore, most of our providers are in the United States and our members live in more than 50 cities around the world. Your data may therefore be stored and used outside your country.

When data leaves the EU, the UK, Singapore or Vietnam, we use the safeguards the law requires, such as the standard contractual clauses in our providers’ data processing terms, and we keep the transfer records Vietnamese law requires. You can ask us for a copy of the relevant safeguards.

7. How long we keep it

We keep personal data only as long as it serves the purposes in this policy:

• Applications: while you are a member. If you do not join, we keep your application so we can recognise you if you apply again, follow up on referrals and understand who applies to OV.
• Partner enquiries: while we work together, and afterwards as a record of our partnerships.
• Podcast recommendations: while we may still invite the guest.
• Nominations: while we may still invite the person to apply.
• Summit sign-ups: until you ask us to stop emailing you about the Summit.
• OV news: while you are subscribed. After you unsubscribe, we keep your address marked as unsubscribed, so we never email you by mistake. You can ask us to delete it completely.
• Event registrations: as a record of the gatherings you registered for and attended.
• OV Jobs sign-ups and job alerts: while you use them. After you stop an alert, we keep it marked as stopped, so we never email you by mistake. You can ask us to delete your details completely.
• Posted roles: while the role is open, and afterwards as a record of the role.
• Chat requests between members: as a record of the request and its answer.
• OV Perks offers: while the offer is listed, and afterwards as a record of our partners.
• Perk link counts: kept as a record of clicks per offer, with no name or IP address.
• OV Ventures applications: while they are relevant to a possible deal, and afterwards as a record of our deals and investors.
• Messages: in our team email, and in our database for partnership messages.
• Backup copies of forms: deleted as soon as the form is saved to our database, usually within an hour.
• Visit statistics: kept only as totals that do not identify you.

The emails that tell our team about a form stay in our team email alongside the record.

You can ask us to delete your data at any time, and we will, unless the law requires us to keep it or we need it for a legal claim.

8. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• Tell you what personal data we hold about you and how we have used it
• Correct it
• Delete it
• Stop using it, or withdraw your consent

Withdrawing consent does not affect what we did before. If you withdraw it during an application, we cannot continue to review the application.

In the EU and UK you can also ask us to restrict how we use your data, object to our use of it, and receive a copy in a common format to take elsewhere. In Vietnam you also have the rights the Personal Data Protection Law gives you, including to be informed, to object and to claim compensation.

To make a request, email legal@overseasvietnamese.com. We may ask you to confirm who you are. We reply within 30 days, or sooner where the law requires. Requests are free in most cases.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first so we can fix it. You can also complain to the Personal Data Protection Commission in Singapore, the data protection authority where you live in the EU or UK, or the Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention (A05) of the Ministry of Public Security in Vietnam.

9. Security

The site uses encrypted connections (HTTPS). Access keys to our providers stay on our servers, never in your browser. Only team members who need your data can see it. Backup copies are kept in a private store. Bot protection and checks on every form keep automated abuse out.

No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach affects you, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

10. Children

This site and OV are for adults. Please do not send a form if you are under 18. If we learn that we received data from someone under 18, we delete it.

11. Links to other sites

The site links to other services, such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, Facebook and the member app login. They have their own privacy policies, and this policy does not cover them.

12. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update this page and the date at the top. If a change is significant, we say so on the site, or email you if we have your address and the change affects you.

13. Contact

Overseas Vietnamese Pte. Ltd., Singapore. Email legal@overseasvietnamese.com.