Privacy Policy

When you use our platform, we may collect:

• Account info: Name, email, Discord username, and profile picture from your Discord OAuth login.
• Session metadata: IP address, location, browser, and device info (via Cloudflare) for security and abuse prevention.
• Hackathon data: Your registrations, survey responses, team info, project ideas, submissions, and team finder posts.
• Usage data: Page views, feature usage, and interaction events (via PostHog, EU-hosted).
• Session recordings: We record browsing sessions to improve the user experience. Passwords and sensitive fields are masked automatically.
• Cookies: We use cookies for authentication, analytics preferences, and session tracking.

For the complete field-by-field list, see our Data Policy.

• To run the hackathon and manage your participation.
• To display your projects and team info on the platform.
• To communicate with you about hackathon updates.
• To improve the platform based on usage patterns.
• To prevent abuse, rate-limit requests, and keep things fair.
• To generate anonymised community statistics (e.g. popular languages, participant geography).

We don't sell your data. Period. We may share limited info with:

• Judges: Your project submissions (anonymised by reference ID) for evaluation.
• Service providers: Cloudflare (hosting, storage, database), PostHog (analytics, session replay, EU-hosted).
• The community: Your public profile, team finder posts, and ideas board content that you choose to share.
• Discord: We may broadcast your team finder post to the Discord server if you opt in.

We use only one analytics service to understand how people use the platform:

• PostHog (EU-hosted): Product analytics, event tracking, and session replay. We track actions like registration, submissions, team finder usage, and errors to improve the experience.

You can opt out of non-essential analytics via the cookie banner when you first visit. We also respect the Do Not Track browser setting. Essential cookies for authentication are required for the platform to work properly.

We do not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or any advertising trackers.

Your data is stored on Cloudflare's infrastructure:

• Database: Cloudflare D1 (SQLite at the edge).
• File storage: Cloudflare R2 (for submission ZIP files).
• Analytics: PostHog EU servers.

We use industry-standard security measures to protect your information. That said, no system is 100% bulletproof, so we can't guarantee absolute security (nobody can, and anyone who says otherwise is lying).

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate data.
• Request deletion of your account and associated data.
• Opt out of non-essential cookies and analytics.
• Export your data in a portable format.
• Object to specific processing of your data.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at contact@thecodingkitty.com. We'll respond within 30 days.

We keep your data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the platform. Here's the summary:

• Account data: Deleted within 30 days of account deletion request.
• Submission files: Deleted 6 months after the hackathon ends.
• Session recordings: Automatically purged after 30 days.
• Analytics data: Retained for up to 1 year.
• Rate limit logs: Purged after 24 hours.

Some anonymised, aggregated data may be retained indefinitely for community statistics.

Our infrastructure runs on Cloudflare's global network. Your data may be processed in multiple countries depending on which edge node serves your request. PostHog data is hosted in the EU. We rely on Cloudflare's Data Processing Addendum and Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers outside the EEA.

Our platform is not intended for children under 13. If we learn that we've collected data from a child under 13 without parental consent, we'll delete it promptly. If you believe a child under 13 is using our platform, please contact us.

We may update this policy occasionally. We'll notify you of significant changes through the platform or via email. The "last updated" date at the top tells you when it was last revised.

Privacy questions or concerns? Reach out at contact@thecodingkitty.com