Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal information Founders’ Union collects, why we collect it, who can see it, how long we keep it, and what you can ask us to do with it. It forms part of our Terms of Use and is written with reference to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

1. What we collect

1.1 Information you provide when you register

• Email address. Used to sign you in. The domain after the @ determines whether your account is tied to a campus board or to the national board. We do not send marketing email.
• Name. Displayed on everything you publish, because other members are deciding whether to approach a stranger.
• WhatsApp number. Required, as every connection on the Platform takes place over WhatsApp. It is not public — see section 3.
• Institution, course and year of passing out, where you registered with an institutional email address. Members registering with a personal address are asked what they do instead.
• State and city, used to filter the national board.

1.2 Information you may choose to add

• A LinkedIn profile URL. Optional. Shown with your listings so that others can verify who you are.
• A profile photograph. Optional. It is cropped and resized in your own browser before upload, so the original file does not leave your device.
• Industry interests. Optional. The sectors you select during sign-up or from your profile page. Used to personalise the problem statements shown to you.
• Marketing communications preference. A record of whether you have opted in to receiving communications from us. You can change this at any time from your profile page.

1.3 Information generated by your use of the Platform

• Listings, problem statements, comments and likes.
• Your Spark balance and the ledger of how it changed — what was spent, and what was earned.
• Campus communities you have joined, and your referral code.
• The date on which you accepted these documents, and the version you accepted.

1.4 If you sign in with Google

Google provides us with your email address, your name and your Google profile picture. Nothing further. We have no access to your Gmail, your contacts, your Drive or any other part of your Google account, and we do not request permission to obtain it.

2. Why we process it

We process your information in order to operate the Platform: to create and maintain your account, to display your listings to other members, to determine which boards you may access, to allow a member who has unlocked your contact details to reach you, to administer Spark, and to respond to reports and grievances. We process it on the basis of the consent you gave when you created your account, which you may withdraw at any time under section 7.

We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising, profiling or behavioural tracking. There is no advertising on the Platform and no analytics or advertising trackers run on it.

3. Who can see what

• Visible to other signed-in members: your name, your photograph, your institution, and anything you publish.
• Your WhatsApp number and LinkedIn URL are withheld by default. They are removed on our server before a listing is delivered to anyone else’s browser. Another member can see them only after spending a Spark to unlock your contact details. This applies equally to everyone, including members at your own institution.
• Your email address is never displayed to other members.
• Campus listings remain within that campus. A listing published to an institutional board is visible only to verified members of that institution. This is enforced by database rules, not by the interface.
• Profile photographs are publicly readable by URL. The address is long and not guessable, but anyone who holds it can open the image without signing in. Do not upload a photograph you would not want seen outside the Platform.

4. Who else holds your information

We use three service providers to operate the Platform. None of them is permitted to use your information for their own purposes.

• Supabase — database, authentication and file storage.
• Vercel — hosting and delivery.
• Google — only where you choose to sign in with Google.

These providers may store data on servers outside India. We may also disclose information where we are required to do so by law or by an order of a court or competent authority.

5. How long we keep it

• Listings expire after 30 days. They stop being displayed at that point and are deleted in due course.
• Your account and profile are retained until you ask us to delete them, or until the account is removed under the Terms of Use.
• Records we are required to retain by law, or that are needed to resolve a live dispute or grievance, are kept for as long as that requirement lasts.

6. Correcting and deleting your information

Your WhatsApp number, LinkedIn URL and photograph can be changed or removed at any time from your profile page.

Your name, email address, institution and year of passing out are fixed, because they establish which campus you belong to. If any of them is incorrect, write to us and we will correct it.

To close your account, write to rohit@foundersunion.in from the address you registered with. We will delete your profile, your listings, your comments and your photograph, and we aim to do so within seven days.

One limitation, stated plainly: where a member has already unlocked your contact details and saved your number, we cannot remove it from their device. Deleting your account prevents anyone new from obtaining it.

7. Consent, and your rights

We hold your information because you provided it in order to use the Platform. When you registered, you confirmed that you had read this policy and the Terms of Use, and we recorded the date and the version you accepted. You may withdraw that consent at any time by asking us to delete your account.

Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 you may ask us to:

• confirm what information about you we hold, and with whom we have shared it;
• correct anything inaccurate, incomplete or out of date;
• erase your information, subject to anything we are required to retain;
• record a nomination, so that another person may exercise these rights on your behalf in the event of your death or incapacity.

Requests and grievances should be addressed to rohit@foundersunion.in. We will acknowledge within 24 hours and respond within 15 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

8. Members under 18

The minimum age for an account is 16. If you are under 18, Indian law treats you as a child for data protection purposes, and we may hold your information only with the consent of your parent or legal guardian — which you confirmed you had when you registered. A parent or guardian may withdraw that consent at any time by writing to us, and we will close the account and delete the information held.

We do not use any member’s information for behavioural tracking or targeted advertising, and no advertising is carried on the Platform.

We do not knowingly hold information about anyone under 16. If you believe a person under 16 has registered, tell us and we will remove the account.

9. Security

Contact details are removed on the server rather than concealed in the browser; campus boards are enforced by database access rules rather than by the interface; and there are no passwords on this Platform — access is by a one-time code sent to your email address, or through Google — so there is no password of yours for us to lose.

No system is completely secure. If you identify a vulnerability, please report it to us before disclosing it elsewhere. We will respond, and we will not be difficult about it.

10. Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or who can see it, we will update this page and the date and version shown at the top. Where a change materially affects your rights, we will notify members directly rather than amend this page quietly.

11. Contact

Founders’ Union — rohit@foundersunion.in

Founders’ Union is an independent platform and is not operated by or affiliated with any college, university or institution. This policy is written in plain language for readability and is not legal advice; if you require a formal assessment of compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 or any other law, consult a lawyer.