Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains what data BuildElo collects, how we use it, and the choices you have. We keep the surface area deliberately small: we want the data we need to run fair competitions and distribute prizes — nothing more.

Data We Collect

• Account data — username, email, display name, avatar, and optional profile fields (bio, GitHub username, X handle). Authentication is handled by Clerk; we receive the profile Clerk makes available and store a copy in our database.
• Billing data — Stripe handles all payment card information. We only store a Stripe customer ID, subscription status, current period end, and high-level payout/earnings records. We never see or store your card number.
• Hackathon activity — hackathons you host or join, submissions, reviews, self-reviews, ELO history, integrity signals, and AI review analysis scores.
• Repository metadata — if you submit a public GitHub repository, we call the GitHub API to analyze commit history, cadence, and authorship signals for integrity scoring. We do not clone or store your code.
• Operational logs — request logs, error traces, and audit events used to operate and debug the service.

How We Use Data

• Run hackathons, compute scores, update ELO, and distribute prizes.
• Detect and prevent fraud, cheating, and abuse.
• Process payments and payouts via Stripe.
• Send transactional emails (sign-in, hackathon reminders, redemption updates).
• Improve the product by analyzing aggregated usage.

We do not sell your data. We do not run third-party ads or embed tracking pixels from advertising networks.

Cookies & Local Storage

We use cookies to maintain your session (via Clerk) and localStorage for UI preferences (for example, sidebar collapse state). We do not use tracking or advertising cookies.

Third Parties

We rely on a small set of subprocessors to run the platform. Each has their own privacy policy:

• Clerk — authentication and session management
• Stripe — payments, subscriptions, and billing
• Neon — Postgres database hosting
• Vercel — application hosting and edge infrastructure
• Inngest — background job execution (lifecycle, scoring, payouts)
• Google Gemini — AI analysis of review text
• GitHub — public repository metadata for integrity analysis

Data Retention

We retain account and hackathon data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, we remove your profile, participation history, reviews, and credits within 30 days, except where we are required to retain records for tax or fraud-prevention purposes (e.g., payout history).

Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, export, correct, or delete your personal data, and to object to certain processing. Request any of these by contacting us via the support page.

Security

We use industry-standard encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest, scoped database credentials, least-privilege access, and audit logging on sensitive operations. No system is perfectly secure — if you believe you've found a vulnerability, please report it via the support page.

Children

BuildElo is not intended for users under 13. If you are between 13 and the age of majority, you may only use the platform with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

Changes

We may update this policy. Material changes will be announced with at least 14 days notice before they take effect.

Contact

Questions? Reach out via our support page.