Privacy Policy

This Policy applies to personal information we process about members, chapter leads, prospective members, event participants, and visitors to the Service. It does not apply to the separate websites operated by the global Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates organisation (globaltechadvocates.org and techlondonadvocates.org.uk), or to any third-party site or service that links to or from the Service. Those are governed by their own privacy policies.

• “Personal information” means information that identifies, relates to, or could reasonably be linked with you.
• “Member” means an individual with a GTA account.
• “Chapter” means a geographic community group within GTA (for example, Tech Boston Advocates).
• “Chapter lead” means a member designated to organise and moderate a chapter.
• “Content” means anything you submit through the Service, including profile details, posts, comments, updates, messages, and uploads.
• “Service provider” means a third party that processes personal information on our behalf under contract.

We collect only what the Service needs to work.

We process this data to operate the Service you have asked us to provide and for our legitimate interest in running, securing, and improving it. We do not use your data for third-party advertising.

Global Tech Advocates is a community network, so some information is shared with other members by design:

• Your name, photo, headline, skills, chapters, and company profile appear in the member and company directory and on your profile.
• Posts, comments, and updates you publish are visible to the relevant community or the network.
• Chapter leads can see the roster of members who have joined their chapter.
• A listing you publish, and a company you mark as raising, are visible to members browsing the network, along with your name as the person who posted it. If you express interest in a listing, the member who owns it can see who you are.
• Material in a data room is visible to the people the room owner grants access to. If you sign a room’s non-disclosure agreement, the owner receives your signature record.

Once another member can see something, we cannot retrieve it from them. Deleting a listing, a document, or your account removes it from the Service going forward, but does not undo access someone already had.

Your email address is never exposed in the directory. You control what optional profile information you add, and you can edit or remove it at any time.

We share personal data only with service providers that help us run the Service, under contract and only as needed:

• Clerk: authentication and account management.
• Supabase: our database and file storage.
• Vercel: application hosting and content delivery.
• Resend: sending transactional email (for example, message and announcement notifications).
• Deal Flow Xchange, Inc.: as the operator of GTA, DFX provides the underlying platform infrastructure on which the Service runs, and DFX personnel and systems operate, maintain, and secure it.
• AI providers: where you use an optional AI-assisted feature, the third-party provider that generates the response (see Section 4.4).

We may disclose information if required by law, to comply with legal process, to protect our rights or the safety of users or the public, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets. We do not sell your personal data and we do not share it with data brokers.

We use industry-standard measures to protect your data, including encryption in transit, access controls, and the security controls provided by our infrastructure providers. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and to respond promptly to any incident. See Section 15 for how we handle data breaches.

We keep your information for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we delete or de-identify your personal data within a reasonable period, except where we must retain it to meet legal obligations, resolve disputes, or enforce our agreements. Content you posted in communities may remain visible unless you remove it before deleting your account.

• Access and update your profile at any time in the app.
• Delete your account and associated personal data by contacting us at privacy@uedfx.com. See how to delete your account for the steps, what we delete, and what we keep.
• Data portability: request a copy of your personal information in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Notifications: control push notifications in your device settings and manage email notifications from the app.
• Depending on where you live (for example, the EEA, the UK, Canada, or California), you may have additional rights to access, correct, delete, or port your data, and to object to or restrict certain processing. Contact us to exercise these rights, and see Sections 12, 13, and 14.

We will verify your identity before acting on a request, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

We use strictly necessary cookies and similar technologies to keep you signed in, to remember your preferences (such as language), and to keep the Service secure. We use limited, privacy-respecting analytics to understand aggregate usage. We do not use advertising cookies and we do not permit third parties to track you across other sites through the Service. Most browsers let you control cookies through their settings.

We operate globally, and your information may be processed in countries other than your own, including the United States, where DFX and several of our service providers are located. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for these transfers, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

If you are a California resident, you have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act:

• Right to know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, the sources, the purposes, and the parties with whom we share it.
• Right to delete your personal information, subject to exceptions.
• Right to correct inaccurate personal information.
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing: we do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.
• Right to non-discrimination for exercising your rights.

Categories of personal information we collect under the CCPA include identifiers (name, email, account and device identifiers, IP address); internet or electronic activity (Service interaction and diagnostic data); professional information (job title, company, skills); audio/visual data (profile and company images); and inferences drawn to operate community features. To exercise these rights, contact privacy@uedfx.com.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have rights under the GDPR and UK GDPR, including the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection, and the right to withdraw consent and to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. The data controller is Deal Flow Xchange, Inc. You may contact us at legal@uedfx.com.

Global Tech Advocates operates chapters worldwide. The following region-specific terms supplement this Policy for members in those regions. Where a regional law grants you a stronger right, that right applies.

We maintain an incident response process. If a breach of security leads to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to your personal information, we will investigate promptly, take steps to mitigate it, and notify the relevant supervisory authorities and affected individuals where required by applicable law and within the timelines those laws prescribe.

The Service is intended for professionals and is not directed to children under 16 (or the minimum age in your country). We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we will remove it.

The Service may link to third-party websites and services, including the global GTA and Tech London Advocates organisation sites, event pages, and members’ own links. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third parties. Review their policies before providing personal information.

We may update this Policy from time to time. We will change the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, provide notice in the app or by email.

Questions or requests about your privacy? Email privacy@uedfx.com, or write to us for legal and data protection matters at legal@uedfx.com.

Deal Flow Xchange, Inc., a Delaware corporation, operator of Global Tech Advocates.