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Privacy Policy

Last Updated: May 8, 2026

Contents

Introduction

We understand that you care about your personal privacy, and we take that seriously. We want to be transparent about how we collect, use, and process your data. This Privacy Notice describes our policies and practices in that regard and sets forth your privacy rights. The processing of personal data — such as your name and email address — shall always be in line with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Swiss Data Protection Law.

We recognize that information privacy is an ongoing responsibility, and so we will update this Privacy Notice from time to time as we undertake new personal data practices or adopt new privacy policies.

Data Protection Officer

Starmind is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Starmind has appointed an internal Data Protection Officer for you to contact if you have any questions or concerns about Starmind's personal data policies or practices. If you would like to exercise your privacy rights, please direct your query to Starmind's Data Protection Officer:

Joanna Matuszewska-Flierl
Starmind
Muehlebachstrasse 162–164, 8008 Zurich, Switzerland
[email protected]

How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information

We collect and process data about you when you provide it to us, when other sources (such as your employer) provide it to us, or when you use our services.

Data You Provide to Us

Account and Profile Data

You may provide your first name, last name, email address, job title, department, profile image, and other information. We also keep track of your preferences when you select settings within Starmind. In some cases, this data is provided to us directly by another source, such as your employer.

Your account and profile data is visible to other users in the same network. It helps other users know who you are and provides more context to the question poser when you write an answer.

Content You Create Through Our Services

Examples of content we collect and store include: questions, solutions, and comments created on Starmind; attachments and inline images uploaded to enhance a question or solution; personal messages included when sharing a question; and any feedback you provide to us. This content includes any personal data you choose to provide.

Data We Receive from Other Sources

Other Users of Our Services

Other users may provide data about you when they submit content through our services. For example, you may be mentioned in a question or solution created by someone else.

Data We Collect Automatically When You Use Our Services

This data includes: what content you are looking for, frequently used search terms, when you are typically active, the links you click, with whom you interact, which language you typically use to publish content, and which content you like.

This list is not exhaustive, as we are always looking for new ways to better understand your interests and areas of expertise.

Device and Connection Information

We may collect information about the device on which you use our services, including device type, operating system, device settings, and unique device identifiers. The information we collect often depends on the type of device you are using and its settings.

When you use our services, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website. This may include your IP address, the address of the web page directing you to our services, your browser type and settings, the date and time of your request, information about your browser configuration and plug-ins, language preferences, and cookie data.

Data We Do Not Collect

We do not collect any payment or billing information from you as a user of the Starmind Platform. Such information is collected only with respect to our customers — whose network you may be using — and with whom we have a contractual relationship for the provision of services.

How We Use Your Data

We use this information to provide prospects and customers with our services.

To Find the Best Possible Expert for a Topic or Question

Starmind is built around identifying the best possible expert to answer your question at a given point in time. Automatically processing the data we collect when you use our services is therefore essential. A few examples:

  • What questions and topics you typically search for can tell us more about your interests and expertise.
  • Your solutions and how they are rated tell us whether you are an expert in a given topic.
  • When you are typically active determines whether we select you as a potential expert — it makes sense to prioritize someone who is active over someone who may be unavailable.

We are constantly looking for new ways to improve our algorithms.

To Personalize Your Experience

We try to identify the topics you have a special interest in and which users are in your inner circle. This data allows us to provide you with a personalized experience that highlights information relevant to you.

To Communicate With You

We use your contact data to send updates via email, mobile app (if activated), and/or within the services. We send notifications when, for example: someone has written a solution to your question, we think you can help answer a question, someone has mentioned you in a post, you have reached a new gamification level, or an administrator has posted an announcement.

You are always in control of which notifications you receive and which you want suppressed. From time to time we may also send you tailored emails based on your activity and interactions with Starmind. You can opt out of these emails at any time.

What We Don't Do

We will never email you to ask for your password or any account data. If you ever receive such an email, please contact us or your Starmind administrator immediately so we can investigate and protect your colleagues.

We do not sell personal information to anyone and only share it with third parties who facilitate the delivery of our services.

Use of the Starmind Website

Like most websites, Starmind's website automatically collects certain information and stores it in log files. This may include IP addresses, the general location from which your device is accessing the internet, browser type, operating system, and other usage information, including a history of the pages you view. We use this information to help us design a site that better suits our users' needs. We may also use your IP address to help diagnose server problems, administer our website, analyze trends, track visitor movements, and gather broad demographic information that helps us identify visitor preferences.

Starmind has a legitimate interest in understanding how members, customers, and potential customers use its website. This helps us provide more relevant products and services, communicate value to our sponsors and corporate members, and provide appropriate staffing to meet member and customer needs.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies — such as your web browser's local storage — to authenticate you when you return to our services and to remember certain preferences, such as your preferred language. Some third-party services we use, such as Piwik (a data analytics tool hosted by Starmind), may place their own cookies in your browser.

You may prevent cookies from being set at any time by adjusting your browser settings, and you may delete existing cookies through your browser or other software. If you disable cookies, not all functions of our website may be fully available.

When and How We Share Information with Third Parties

We store your personal data in ISO 27001-certified data centers with high security standards, which are maintained through ongoing certification renewal.

These third parties do not use or have access to your personal information for any purpose other than cloud storage and retrieval. A full list of our third-party sub-processors can be found at starmind.ai/subprocessors.

We do not otherwise disclose your personal data to non-Starmind persons or businesses for their independent use unless:

  1. You or the customer requests or authorizes it.
  2. The information is required to comply with the law (for example, in response to a search warrant, subpoena, or court order), to enforce an agreement we have with you or the customer, or to protect our rights, property, or safety, or those of our employees or others.

We may also gather aggregated data about our services and website visitors and share the results — which are not personally identifiable — with partners, service providers, advertisers, and/or other third parties for marketing or promotional purposes.

For more information or if you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

Data Subject Rights

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other privacy laws provide certain rights for data subjects.

Right of Access

You have the right to know what data we process and store about you. You may request a complete export of your data in a human-readable format.

Please note that we cannot breach any confidentiality agreements in place with the owner of your network. We therefore ask that you initiate this request directly with the network owner, who will handle it in coordination with the Starmind Data Privacy Team.

If you have unresolved concerns, you may have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority in the country where you live, work, or where you feel your rights were infringed.

Right to Rectification

If your personal data contains an error, you have the right to correct it. This includes your first and last name, email address, profile image, gender, job title, department, office location, about-me text, and other personal data we may store.

Please note that results generated by our automated processing algorithms cannot be corrected.

Right to Be Forgotten and Right to Restrict Processing

You may delete content you have published through our services. Once deleted, it will no longer be accessible to other users.

However, the network owner may have a legitimate interest in retaining this content. Rather than immediately and permanently deleting it, we allow the network owner to review and recover valuable content before permanent deletion. The network owner may choose to remove any connection between your user account and the content, or to delete it permanently.

The same applies to your user profile. If you choose to leave the network, your account will be deactivated, but your profile data will not be automatically deleted. Depending on network settings, your name may still appear alongside content you published.

You may instruct us or the network owner to delete your personal data at any time. We will do so by replacing your first and last name and email address with randomly generated identifiers and securely deleting all other data from our servers.

Please note that deleted data cannot be removed from existing backup archives, as it is technically not feasible to check every daily archive. We protect data within these archives by encrypting them and restricting access to the encryption key. Backups are deleted after six months.

Security of Your Information

Starmind has technical, organizational, and physical safeguards in place to help protect against unauthorized access to, use of, or disclosure of user data.

Access to personally identifiable information is authorized only for those with a business need for it. Sensitive records are retained only as long as necessary for business or legal purposes and are securely destroyed before disposal.

If you become aware of any unauthorized attempt to access, use, or disclose personal data, please email us immediately. We will work to address any issues without delay.

If you wish to confirm that Starmind is processing your personal data, or to request access to the personal data we may hold about you, please contact us. You may also request information about: the purpose of processing; the categories of personal data concerned; who outside of Starmind may have received your data; the source of the information (if not provided by you directly); and how long it will be stored.

You have the right to correct inaccurate personal data, request erasure or restriction of processing (subject to certain exceptions), and request that Starmind cease using your data for direct marketing purposes. In many countries, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority.

Where technically feasible, Starmind will provide your personal data to you upon request at no cost. If access cannot be provided within a reasonable timeframe, we will confirm when it will be available. If access is denied for any reason, we will provide an explanation.

For questions or complaints, please contact us at [email protected]. If you are located in the European Union, you may also contact the European Data Protection Supervisor or your national data protection authority.

Data Storage and Retention

Starmind retains service data for the duration of the customer's business relationship with Starmind, and for a period thereafter for operational analysis, historical, and archiving purposes. Prospect data is retained until it no longer has business value, at which point it is purged from our systems.

All personal data controlled by Starmind may be deleted upon verified request from data subjects or their authorized agents. For more information on where and how long your personal data is stored, or to exercise your rights of erasure and portability, please contact us at [email protected].

Children's Data

We do not knowingly solicit or collect information from children.

Additional Information for California Residents

This section applies only to our processing of personal information subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA"). Under the CCPA, California residents have the right to know what categories of personal information Starmind has collected about them and whether that information was disclosed for a business purpose in the preceding 12 months. For details on the categories of personal information we collect, please refer to the sections "Data You Provide to Us" and "Data We Receive from Other Sources" above.

Additional Rights for California Residents

  • Right to know. Learn about the categories of personal information we have collected about you (see above).
  • Right to access. Request a complete export of the data we have stored about you.
  • Right to deletion. Ask Starmind to delete the personal information we have collected from you. Starmind does not sell your personal information and shares it with third parties only to provide our services.
  • Right to correction. Ask Starmind to correct any inaccurate personal information we hold about you.
  • Right to opt out. Opt out of the sharing of your personal information for cross-contextual behavioral advertising, or its sale for monetary or other valuable consideration.
  • Right to non-discrimination. All rights described in this Privacy Notice may be exercised free from discrimination. You will not face negative consequences — such as price increases or service disruption — simply for exercising your rights.

To exercise your California privacy rights, please submit a request to [email protected].

Questions, Concerns, or Complaints

For any questions, concerns, or complaints regarding this Privacy Notice or our data practices, please contact us at [email protected].


Updated 1 day ago