Privacy Policy

Information We Collect

We collect information you choose to provide, including:

• Name, email address, and account credentials
• Education history, work experience, skills, and career preferences
• Optional candidate matching details — GPA, work authorization status, expected salary, and relocation willingness. These fields are never shown to companies searching the candidate pool; they are used only to help match you with relevant job postings and are visible to you in your own profile.
• Resume — visible to companies whose jobs you apply to, and, unless you turn off resume downloads in your account settings, to Oak/Sequoia member companies browsing the candidate pool (see “Candidate Visibility to Employers” below). Also visible to COLAB Connects staff for support purposes.
• Profile photo — visible to other signed-in users of the platform; a company's profile photo and company profile page are publicly viewable, including to visitors who are not signed in
• Employer or company profile information (for employer accounts)
• Billing information when a company makes a one-time membership payment. Memberships are a single payment, not a recurring or auto-renewing charge. Full payment card details are entered directly with our payment processor, Stripe, and are not stored on our servers.
• Messages you send or receive through the platform's messaging feature

We also collect limited information automatically:

• IP address and request activity, used to secure accounts and prevent abuse (for example, limiting repeated login or password-reset attempts)
• Basic usage data (such as pages visited) collected through Vercel Analytics

How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Create and maintain your COLAB Connects profile
• Match users with relevant career opportunities
• Enable employers to discover early-career talent
• Deliver messages sent between companies and candidates
• Process membership payments and manage member benefits
• Communicate important account or platform updates
• Improve platform functionality and user experience
• Secure the platform and prevent fraud or abuse

We do not share your personal data with third parties for their own marketing purposes, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

Candidate Visibility to Employers

Companies on a paid Oak or Sequoia membership can search and browse a pool of candidate profiles, not only candidates who applied to their job postings. If your profile is included in this pool, an employer who finds you can see your name, email address, profile photo, headline, desired location, open-to-work status, degrees, certificates, work experience, skills, and Career Forum history. Your GPA, work authorization status, expected salary, and relocation willingness are never shown to employers browsing or searching the pool — those fields stay visible only to you.

An employer can download your resume or include you in a candidate export only if you allow it. If you apply directly to one of a company's job postings, that company can always access your resume for that application regardless of this setting.

You control this from your account settings:

• Hide your profile from employer search — removes you from the searchable candidate pool for Oak/Sequoia employers. This does not affect companies whose jobs you've applied to.
• Resume downloads & exports — controls whether employers who find you in search can download your resume or include you in a candidate export.

Third-Party Service Providers

We share limited information with a small number of service providers who help us operate COLAB Connects. Each is only given the information it needs to perform its function, and none are permitted to use your data for their own purposes.

• Stripe — processes membership payments on our behalf. We do not store your full card details.
• Pusher— delivers real-time messages sent through the platform. When a company messages a candidate, that candidate's name, email address, and the message content pass through Pusher to deliver it; messages themselves are stored in our database, not Pusher's.
• Resend — sends account-related emails, such as password resets, email verification, and notification digests.
• Vercel — hosts the platform, stores uploaded profile photos and resumes, and provides basic usage analytics.

Cookies

We use a session cookie to keep you signed in to your account. We do not use third-party advertising or tracking cookies.

Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide services. You may delete your account at any time from your account settings, or by contacting us at the email address below; deleting your account removes your personal data from our systems unless retention is required by law.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access your personal data
• Correct or update your information
• Request deletion of your account and associated data
• Opt out of non-essential email notifications at any time from your notification settings
• Control whether your profile appears in employer search results and whether employers can download your resume, from your account settings (see “Candidate Visibility to Employers” above)
• Withdraw consent for optional data sharing

Requests can be made by contacting us at the email address below.

Data Security

We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse.

Contact Us

If you have questions or requests regarding privacy or data usage, contact us at:

Email: coordinator@colabconnects.org

COLAB Connects, 1844 N Wolcott, Chicago, IL 60622