Privacy policy

Effective Date: March 10, 2021

We at Devpost, Inc. (“Devpost,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) have created this Privacy Policy because we know you care about how information you provide to us is used and shared. This Privacy Policy relates to the information collection and use practices of Devpost in connection with our services (“Services”), which are made available to you through our website located at www.devpost.com (the “Site”).

Description of User and Acceptance of Terms

This Privacy Policy applies to visitors to our Site, who view only publicly-available content (“Visitors”), individuals who have signed up to access and use our Services to take part in Hackathons (“Users”), and individuals and organizations who have signed up to access and use our Services to post and/or sponsor Hackathons (“Posters”).

By visiting our Site, Visitors are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy and the accompanying Terms of Service.

By signing up, accessing, and/or using the Services: (i) each User acknowledges that the User has read, understood and agrees to be legally bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy and the accompanying Terms of Service for Hackathons; and (ii) each Poster acknowledges that the Poster has read, understood and agrees to be legally bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy and the accompanying Terms of Service for Hackathons.

Capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Policy shall have the meaning set forth in our Terms of Service.

GDPR Privacy Notice:

Natural persons located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) should review the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and Privacy Notice here.

In addition, the Privacy Shield Notice should be reviewed if your personal information is transferred from the EEA or Switzerland to the US, pursuant to the E.U.-U.S. or Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield.

What Information We Collect/Receive; the Purpose of Collection and Use

We collect and/or receive the following categories of information:

Contact Information: When you register as a User or a Poster to access and use our Services, when you contact us using the “Contact Us” feature, or when you sign up to receive our newsletter, you will be asked to provide certain information which may include your name, email address, and company name. If you sign up for and/or access our Services through Facebook, LinkedIn, GitHub, or any other single sign-on service, you are authorizing Devpost to collect, store, and use, in accordance with this Privacy Policy, any and all information that you agreed that Facebook, Inc., or such other single sign-on service would provide to Devpost through its applicable Application Programming Interface (“API”). Such information may include, without limitation, your first and last name, social media user name, social media profile picture, unique social media identifier and access token, and e-mail address. All information we collect and/or receive under this section is collectively called “Contact Information.” The Contact Information is used to provide the requested Services, and to contact Visitors, Users, and Posters for purposes of direct marketing of our current and future products and services.  

Profile Information: You may voluntarily provide additional information to create a profile associated with your account (“Profile”). You may include your biography, links to your social media profiles, link to your personal website, profile image, software projects you have done, photos, screen name, skills, college or university, degree type, major, grade point average, graduation date, and other information. We use this information to create your account Profile.  

Billing Information: Posters who wish to purchase our Services will be required to provide certain additional information which may include a credit card number, debit card number, expiration date, billing address, and other payment related information (collectively, the “Billing Information”). Billing Information is collected and processed by our third-party payment processor operating as our agent (See Sharing with Third Parties). We do not directly obtain or process any Billing Information.

Hackathon Registration Information: If you are a User and you register to participate in a hackathon through our Services, you will need to provide your name, e-mail address, names of your team members and any other information required by the applicable Poster of the hackathon (collectively, the “Hackathon Registration Information”). We may share the Hackathon Registration Information you provide in connection with your hackathon registration with the applicable Poster of the hackathon. We may also use such Hackathon Registration Information to give you more tailored recommendations regarding future hackathons.

Hackathon Submission Information: If you are a User who has registered for a hackathon, when you provide your submission materials for the hackathon through our Services, you will need to provide your name, e-mail address, the name of your submission, description of your submission, names of your team members and any other information required by the applicable Posters (collectively, the “Hackathon Submission Information”). We may share the Hackathon Submission Information with the applicable Posters. We may also use such Hackathon Submission Information to give you more tailored recommendations regarding future hackathons.

Other Information: In addition to the Contact Information, Profile Information, Hackathon Registration Information and Hackathon Submission Information, we may collect and/or receive the following information (“Other Information”):

  • From Your Activity. In an ongoing effort to improve the Site, and Services we automatically collect certain information when Visitors visit the Site and when Users, and Posters access the Services. This information consists of IP addresses, browser type and language, referring and exit pages and URLs, date and time, amount of time spent on particular pages, what sections of the Site Visitors visit, and similar information concerning your use of the Site, and Services.
  • From Cookies. We also collect information by using “cookie” technology. Cookies are small packets of data that a website stores on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device to “remember” information about your visit. We may use session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer/device until you delete them) to better understand how you interact with the Site and our Services, to monitor aggregate usage by our users and web traffic routing on the Site, and to improve the Site and our Services. If you do not want us to place a cookie on your hard drive, you may be able to turn that feature off on your computer or mobile device. Please consult your Internet browser’s documentation for information on how to do this and how to delete persistent cookies. However, if you decide not to accept cookies from us, the Site, and/or Services may not function properly.
  • Third-Party Analytics. We may use one or more third-party analytics services (such as Google Analytics) to evaluate your use of the Site, compile reports on activity, collect demographic data, analyze performance metrics, and collect and evaluate other information relating to the Site, Services and mobile and Internet usage. These third parties use cookies and other technologies to help analyze and provide us the data. By accessing and using the Site and/or Services, you consent to the processing of data about you by these analytics providers in the manner and for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. Please be advised that if you opt out of any service, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the Site and the Services.

Below is a list of analytics providers that we use; however, such list may be subject to change based on how we wish to understand the user experience. You may use the accompanying links to learn more about such providers and, if available, how to opt-out from their analytics collection.

For Google Analytics, please visit: https://www.google.com/analytics  

For Mixpanel, please visit: https://mixpanel.com/legal/privacy-policy/  

For Zendesk, please visit https://www.zendesk.com/company/customers-partners/privacy-policy/

Information Collected by or Through Third-Party Advertisers/Remarketers

We may share Other Information about you with third parties, including, but not limited to, advertising and remarketing providers, or other brand partners, for purposes of personalizing or otherwise understanding how you engage with ads or other content. These third parties may use cookies, pixel tags (also called web beacons or clear gifs), or other technologies to collect Other Information in furtherance of such purposes, including to tailor, target (i.e., behavioral, contextual, retargeting, and remarketing), analyze, report on, and/or manage advertising campaigns or other initiatives. For example, when a browser visits a site, pixel tags enable us and these third-parties to recognize certain cookies stored within the browser to learn which ads or other content bring a user to a given site. In addition, we may receive Other Information from these third parties, including through their service providers, such as advertising identifiers, IP addresses, and post-conversion data.

Below is a list of advertising/remarketing providers that we use; however, such list may be subject to change based on the campaigns that we run. You may use the accompanying links to learn more about such providers and, if available, how to opt-out from their targeted ads or other personalization features. Please note you will not necessarily be opted-out of advertising or content generally; you may still receive generic ads or content.

For Google Adwords, you can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Preferences page.

For LinkedIn, you can set preferences for how LinkedIn advertises to you using the General advertising preferences page.

In addition, you may opt-out of interest-based advertising by participating providers by visiting http://www.networkadvertising.org and http://www.aboutads.info/choices for details on how to do so.

Your Profile Information

Your Profile is freely available for viewing by any user of the Services.

Additional Information Related to Hackathons

Individual hackathons may require you to submit additional information on the submission form and may include additional terms and conditions relating to privacy. If there is a conflict between this Privacy Policy and the terms posted or emailed for, or applicable to, a specific hackathon, the latter terms shall control with respect to that hackathon only.

Aggregate Data

In an ongoing effort to better understand our Visitors, Posters, Users and our Services, we may analyze your information in aggregate form in order to operate, maintain, manage, and improve the Site and/or the Services.  This aggregate information does not identify you personally. We may share this aggregate data with our affiliates, agents, and business partners. We may also disclose aggregated user statistics in order to describe our products and services to current and prospective business partners and to other third parties for other lawful purposes.

Additional Uses

We also use information collected pursuant to this Privacy Policy to provide our Site and Services to you; to personalize your experience; to maintain and improve our Site, and Services; to solicit your feedback; to update you about the hackathons we power; to award prizes related to our Services; and to inform you about our products and services and those of our third-party marketing partners.  

Sharing with Third Parties

Like many businesses, we contract with other companies to perform certain business-related services. We may disclose Information, including personal information in some cases, to certain types of third-party companies, but only to the extent needed to enable them to provide such services, including, without limitation, hosting provider, analytics tools, customer support services, marketing and transactional email services, and payment processing. We may share Hackathon Registration Information and Hackathon Submission Information with applicable Posters. We may also disclose your information, including any personal information, to any of our parent companies, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with us in order to support delivery of our products and services.

Opt-Out for Direct Marketing

You may opt out at any time from the use of your personal information for direct marketing purposes by e-mailing the instructions to this email address: support@devpost.com. Please allow us a reasonable time to process your request

Accessing and Modifying Personal Information and Communication Preferences

You may access, review, and/or make changes to the personal information that you have provided to us by logging in on the Site, clicking on your username, and then clicking "settings".  

In addition, you may manage your receipt of marketing and non-transactional communications by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link located on the bottom of any Devpost marketing e-mails.  We will use commercially reasonable efforts to process such requests in a timely manner. You should be aware, however, that it is not always possible to completely remove or modify information in our subscription databases.  You cannot opt-out of receiving transactional e-mails related to your account with Devpost. If you provide personal information to us that is contained in a submission to a hackathon, such information may not be edited after the competition submission deadline until the conclusion of the hackathon, per the rules of each competition. Requests to remove such information from a submission may be made after a hackathon is over by emailing us at support@devpost.com.

Business Transfers

In the event of a merger, dissolution, or similar corporate event or the sale of all or substantially all of our assets, we expect that the information that we have collected and/or received, including personal information, would be transferred to the surviving entity in a merger or to the acquiring entity.  All such transfers shall be subject to our commitments with respect to the privacy and confidentiality of such personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

Disclosures to Public Authorities

In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. We may also disclose personal information to other third parties when compelled to do so by government authorities or required by law or regulation including, but not limited to, in response to court orders and subpoenas.

Children

Devpost is not directed at children under thirteen years of age, the Site does not knowingly accept registrations from children under thirteen years of age and we do not intend to collect any personal information from children under thirteen years of age. We recommend that children under the age of thirteen ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet. If you suspect that your child under the age of thirteen has created an account on the Site and/or provided us any personal information, please let us know by e-mailing support@devpost.com, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases.

Although Devpost does not knowingly accept registrations from children under the age of thirteen through the Site and the Services, children under the age of thirteen minors can still enter and win contests by having their parents or guardians register on the Site on their behalf. In cases where a hackathon is open to children under the age of thirteen, those representing children under the age of thirteen will be required to submit a parental consent notice before their child’s submissions will be eligible to win the contest.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. Devpost takes reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction, taking into account the risks involved in processing and the nature of such data, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. You should keep in mind, however, that no internet transmission is 100% secure or error-free. In particular, e-mail sent to or from the Site may not be secure, and you should therefore take special care in deciding what information you send to us via e-mail or other electronic means. You, too, need to strive to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer by signing off once you have finished using a shared computer.

Retention of Personal Information

We will retain your personal information in a form that identifies you only for as long as it serves the purposes for which it was initially collected as stated in this Privacy Policy, subsequently authorized, or as allowed under applicable law.

Archives

Devpost may keep copies of user information, or other content provided by you, after their removal from the Site in archive storage, but in no event for more than 30 days. This archive storage may include past versions of stored items that have since been modified or deleted.

Links to External Sites

Our Site may contain links to external websites of interest (“External Websites”). However, once you have used these links to leave our Site you should note that we do not have any control over the External Websites. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such External Websites and such External Websites are not governed by this Privacy Policy. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy policy applicable to the External Website in question.

Important Notice to Non-U.S. Residents

It is important to note that the Site, Services, and their servers are operated in the United States.  If you are located outside of the U.S., please be aware that any information provided to or collected by us, including personal information, will be transferred from your country of origin to the U.S.  We are certified under the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, and continue to comply with the requirements of each framework. Except in the case of data transfers from the EEA, the United Kingdom or Switzerland to the United States under a valid transfer mechanism, appropriate safeguards or exceptions as described in the GDPR Privacy Notice, your decision to provide such data to us, or allow us to collect such data through our Site, and Services, constitutes your consent to this data transfer.

California Residents

If you are a resident of California you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”). For more information about your rights under the CCPA, please visit our CCPA Privacy Notice to California Residents.

In addition, Devpost does not monitor, recognize, or honor any opt-out or do not track mechanisms, including general web browser “Do Not Track” settings and/or signals.  

Changes to our Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is effective as of the date stated at the top of this Privacy Policy. We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time, and will post any changes on the Site as soon as they go into effect. By visiting and/or accessing the Site, and/or Services after we make any such changes to this Privacy Policy, you are deemed to have accepted such changes. Please refer back to this Privacy Policy on a regular basis.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our Site in general, please contact us at support@devpost.com or via mail to Devpost, Inc., 222 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10038.