Privacy Policy

This policy applies to:

• Talent / Developers — individuals who apply to JuniorForge, complete our technical or behavioural assessments, or are active in our talent pool.
• Startups / Clients — companies and founders who register on the platform to search for and hire talent.
• Bootcamp Partner referrals — talents who join the platform via a Bootcamp Partner referral link.
• Recruiters and visitors — anyone who accesses a Verify Page, uses the Recruiter Lookup feature, or otherwise visits any JuniorForge digital property, without necessarily holding an account.

From Talent (assessment applicants and active accounts):

• Full name and contact email
• LinkedIn profile URL
• Preferred role and area of specialisation
• Technical skills, tech stack, and self-declared years of experience
• CV and cover letter files (uploaded at application)
• Assessment responses — technical questions, written answers, and code submissions
• Coding assessment results, including sandbox-evaluated execution output
• Behavioural assessment responses (Tier 1 only)
• Assessment scores, tier classification, percentile ranking, and identified skill gaps
• Profile information (Tier 1): bio, tech stack, work preferences, availability, location, salary expectations
• Profile photos — up to multiple photos for Tier 1 and Bootcamp Partner-referred talent
• Work experience, education history, certifications, and portfolio links
• Social feed content: posts, comments, and reactions you publish on the platform
• External job application history: which external jobs you applied to through JuniorForge
• AI-generated CV history: job listings for which you requested a tailored CV
• Privacy settings: your chosen visibility preferences for profile, photo, location, and last active status
• Platform behaviour data: response patterns, communication history, interview attendance, and follow-through

From Startups:

• Company name, industry, and size
• Contact person name, role, and work email
• Startup details: funding stage, tech stack, hiring needs, team composition preferences, and culture information
• Hiring preferences, role requirements, and session-mirrored settings (where applicable)
• Escrow payment and transaction data (amounts, payment gateway references, platform fees)
• Platform usage data: talent views, searches, hiring requests sent, and match interactions
• Communication records with matched talent

From recruiters and Verify Page visitors (no account required):

• IP address and approximate location
• Browser type, device, and operating system
• The Verify Page ID accessed (used solely for analytics — we do not identify individual visitors)

Automatically collected from all logged-in users:

• IP address and approximate location
• Browser type, device, and operating system
• Session activity and platform navigation patterns

For Talent:

• To administer and score your technical assessment — including coding questions evaluated in a sandboxed environment — and determine your tier placement
• To identify skill gaps in your assessment profile (used for Tier 2 course recommendations)
• To generate your behavioural assessment and build your profile for matching (Tier 1)
• To match your profile to appropriate startup opportunities using our AI matching engine
• To publish and maintain your publicly accessible Verify Page displaying your verified credentials
• To generate AI-tailored CVs for specific external job roles you request, using your profile data and the job description
• To score the relevance between your skills and external job listings for the "For You" personalised job feed
• To send transactional emails including assessment results, tier notifications, cooldown notices, and reapplication eligibility reminders
• To maintain platform behavioural records that inform match quality and acceptance likelihood predictions
• To enforce blacklist and cooldown periods for Tier 3 assessments or expired assessment links
• To notify a Bootcamp Partner when you (a referred talent) receive or accept a hiring offer through the platform

For Startups:

• To create and manage your startup profile and hiring preferences
• To generate AI-powered talent matches using our four-factor composite scoring system (technical, behavioural, cultural, and mutual fit)
• To process escrow payments and manage engagement financial records
• To send transactional emails including payment confirmations, escrow status updates, and match alerts
• To track usage analytics and improve matching accuracy over time

For all users:

• To maintain platform security and prevent fraudulent or abusive use
• To comply with our legal obligations under UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR)
• To improve our platform, services, and AI models over time

All talent applicants are assessed and placed into one of three tiers based on their technical assessment score. Each tier has different implications for how your data is handled.

Tier 1 talent have a publicly accessible Verify Page at juniorforge.com/verify/[id]. This page is accessible to anyone with the link — including recruiters, employers, and members of the public — without requiring a JuniorForge account.

Data always shown on the Verify Page:

• Full name
• Technical assessment score and percentile ranking
• Tier status and verified badge
• Verified skills list
• Behavioural assessment summary: category scores, primary work style traits, leadership signals, and AI-generated assessment narrative
• Education history
• Work experience (job titles, companies, and dates)
• Bootcamp Partner badge (where applicable)

Data shown based on your privacy settings:

• Profile photo(s)
• Location / city
• Last active status

You can adjust your privacy settings at any time from your account dashboard. Changes take effect immediately on the Verify Page. If you delete your account, your Verify Page is removed immediately. JuniorForge is not responsible for any cached versions retained by third-party systems or search engines.

Recruiters who access your Verify Page may enter their email address to register a free JuniorForge recruiter account. We do not share your identity with recruiters who view your page; we track only aggregate page view statistics.

JuniorForge aggregates external job listings to display within the platform. We query third-party job APIs (Adzuna, Remotive, RemoteOK, Arbeitnow) and store relevant job data in our database for up to 6 hours before expiry. We do not share your personal data with these job platforms when displaying listings.

When you apply to an external job through JuniorForge, we record the application in your account history so you can track which roles you have pursued. This application history is used solely for your own reference and to prevent you from being shown jobs you have already applied to.

AI CV generation: When you request an AI-generated CV for a specific role, your profile data (skills, work experience, education, assessment score, behavioural tags) and the job description are sent to the Anthropic Claude API to generate a tailored CV. The generated CV text is returned to you and is not stored on our servers beyond the duration of your session. We do not retain copies of generated CVs.

Job relevance scoring: We compute a relevance score between your skill profile and each job listing algorithmically, without external API calls. This score is used only to personalise your job feed and is not stored or shared.

JuniorForge uses AI-powered tools — including the Anthropic Claude API — across the following platform functions:

• Generating and evaluating technical assessment questions and written responses
• Grading coding questions in a sandboxed execution environment (this grading is automated and does not involve Claude)
• Generating and scoring behavioural assessment responses
• Producing AI analysis narratives for Verify Pages (work style profile, cultural fit insights, key strengths)
• Powering our four-factor composite matching engine
• Generating role-tailored CVs for external job applications upon request

AI-generated assessment scores and match outputs are used to inform — not replace — human hiring decisions. All final hiring decisions rest with the Startup or external employer.

We do not use your assessment responses to train external AI models. Anthropic's own data handling practices are governed by their API usage policies and data processing agreements.

You have the right to request a summary of your assessment outcome and how your composite score was derived by contacting us at contact@juniorforge.com.

For Tier 1 talent, JuniorForge tracks certain platform behaviour to improve match quality and to predict hiring outcomes for startups. This includes:

• Whether you respond to communications from startups, and how quickly
• Whether you attend scheduled interviews
• Whether you follow through on accepted hiring requests
• Overall communication pattern (e.g. responsive, slow, or non-responsive)

This behavioural data influences your match ranking and affects predictions such as "likelihood to accept" and "estimated tenure." It does not result in automatic disqualification but does affect your visibility and ranking in matches. You can request a summary of your behavioural profile at any time by contacting us.

The JuniorForge social feed allows Tier 1 talent to publish posts, comments, and reactions visible to other registered platform users. Content you publish on the social feed is considered non-confidential and is processed as follows:

• Your name and profile photo are displayed alongside your posts and comments
• Posts and comments are visible to other registered Talent and Startup users on the platform
• The social feed is not publicly accessible outside the platform (login required)
• JuniorForge may remove content that violates our Terms and Conditions
• Upon account deletion, your posts and comments are removed within 30 days

When a startup funds an escrow for an accepted hiring request, payment is processed through Stripe (for international payments) or Paystack (for African markets). JuniorForge does not store full payment card details. Transaction metadata — including invoice numbers, amounts, engagement type, platform fees, and payment gateway references — is stored for accounting, dispute resolution, and audit purposes.

Escrow amounts and platform fee breakdowns (15% for employment engagements, 20% for project gigs) are recorded against each hiring request for the duration of the engagement and are retained for 7 years for legal and accounting compliance.

We share your data only in the following circumstances:

• The public (Verify Page): Tier 1 talent credential data — including name, assessment score, percentile, verified skills, and behavioural summary — is publicly accessible via the Verify Page to any person with the link, including recruiters who have not registered on JuniorForge.
• Matched startups: Tier 1 talent profiles are shared with startups through the matching process. Full profile details are accessible to startups that have submitted a hiring credit request.
• Bootcamp Partners (limited): Where you joined the platform via a Bootcamp Partner referral, we notify the referring partner when you receive or accept a hire through the platform. No other personal data is shared beyond hire confirmation.
• Payment processors: Stripe and Paystack process payment data for credit purchases. They operate under their own privacy policies and are not permitted to use your data for unrelated purposes.
• Infrastructure providers: We use Render (cloud hosting), MongoDB Atlas (database), Cloudinary (file and media storage), and Zoho Mail (email delivery). These providers process data strictly on our instruction.
• AI service providers: Assessment generation, behavioural analysis, CV generation, and matching involves the Anthropic Claude API. Assessment and CV generation data is processed by Anthropic's infrastructure. Anthropic operates under its own privacy and data processing policies.
• Legal authorities: We may disclose your data if required by law, court order, or regulatory authority, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of JuniorForge or its users.

We do not sell your data. We do not share your data with advertisers or data brokers.

• Tier 1 talent profiles: Retained while your account is active. If you delete your account, your profile, assessment data, and Verify Page are removed within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.
• Tier 2 talent data: Retained for up to 24 months from the date of assessment to support course completion tracking and assessment retakes.
• Tier 3 talent data: No data is deleted. Your full account and assessment data are retained. Your profile is hidden from startup discovery for a 30-day cooldown. Once the cooldown passes and you retake, your data carries forward.
• External application history: Retained while your account is active. Deleted with your account within 30 days of deletion.
• AI-generated CV sessions: Generated CV text is not stored on our servers. Your request history (which jobs you generated CVs for) is retained while your account is active.
• Social feed content: Retained while your account is active and for up to 30 days after account deletion.
• Startup account data: Retained while your account is active. Upon account deletion, your company profile and hiring history are removed within 30 days. Payment records are retained for 7 years for legal and accounting compliance.
• Communication records: Retained for up to 3 years for operational and dispute resolution purposes.

Both Talent and Startups can delete their accounts directly from their respective dashboards at any time without needing to contact us. Deleting your account will:

• Remove your profile from the platform immediately
• Remove your Verify Page immediately (returns a not-found response)
• Prevent your profile from appearing in any future matches
• Trigger deletion of your personal data within 30 days, subject to any legal retention obligations
• Remove your social feed posts within 30 days
• Cancel any pending hiring requests associated with your account

For Startups: deleting your account does not automatically trigger a refund of unused hiring credits. Please contact us before deleting your account if you have a credit balance you wish to discuss. For Talent: if you are currently the subject of an active hiring request at the time of deletion, we will notify the relevant startup that you are no longer available.

Depending on your location, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at contact@juniorforge.com. We will respond within 30 days. You may also exercise the right to erasure directly via your dashboard.

• Consent: Where you have actively submitted your information through our application, registration, or assessment forms. For Tier 1 talent, consent also covers the publication of your credential data on your public Verify Page, which you confirm by maintaining an active account.
• Contract: Where processing is necessary to provide you with the service you have requested — such as running your assessment, generating a CV, or processing a hiring credit transaction.
• Legitimate interests: Where processing is necessary for platform operations, security, match quality improvement, behavioural consistency tracking, and public recruiter verification — provided those interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Legal obligation: Where we are required to process or retain your data to comply with applicable law, including financial record-keeping requirements.

JuniorForge uses only essential cookies necessary for platform authentication and security. We do not use advertising, tracking, or analytics cookies from third parties. You may disable cookies through your browser settings, though this may affect platform functionality such as staying logged in.

JuniorForge operates in the United Kingdom and Nigeria. Our infrastructure providers may process data in other jurisdictions, including the United States (Anthropic, Cloudinary, MongoDB Atlas). Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with UK GDPR, including standard contractual clauses where required.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email and by posting a notice on the platform. The date at the top of this policy reflects the most recent update.

If you are based in the United Kingdom and are unsatisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.