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.
• Waitlist registrants — startups who have expressed early interest in the platform ahead of full access.
• Visitors — anyone who accesses our website or any JuniorForge digital property.

From Talent (assessment applicants):

• Full name and contact email
• LinkedIn profile URL
• Preferred role and area of specialisation
• Technical skills and self-declared experience
• CV and cover letter files (uploaded at application)
• Assessment responses — technical questions and answers
• Behavioural assessment responses (Tier 1 only)
• Assessment scores, tier classification, and identified skill gaps
• Profile information updated on the platform (Tier 1): bio, tech stack, work preferences, availability, location
• 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 culture information
• Hiring preferences and role requirements
• Credit purchase and payment transaction data
• Platform usage data: talent views, searches, AI recommendation usage, hiring requests sent
• Communication records with matched talent

Automatically collected from all 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 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 send transactional emails including assessment results, tier notifications, course access details, cooldown period notices, and reapplication eligibility reminders
• To maintain platform behavioural records — communication patterns, interview attendance, follow-through — that inform match quality and acceptance likelihood predictions
• To enforce blacklist and cooldown periods for Tier 3 assessments or expired assessment links

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 hiring credit purchases and manage your credit balance
• To send transactional emails including payment confirmations, credit top-up notifications, 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.

JuniorForge uses AI-powered tools — including the Anthropic Claude API — to generate and evaluate technical and behavioural assessments and to power our matching engine.

Our matching engine scores each potential talent-startup pairing across four dimensions: technical fit, behavioural fit, cultural fit, and bidirectional fit (how well the startup meets the talent's own preferences and needs). These scores are combined into a composite score that determines match rankings.

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

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 privacy@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.

Startups purchase hiring credits to engage with talent on the platform. Payment transactions are processed through Stripe (for international payments) and Paystack (for African markets). JuniorForge does not store full payment card details. Transaction metadata — including invoice numbers, amounts, credit quantities, and gateway references — is stored for accounting, dispute resolution, and audit purposes.

When a startup sends a hiring request using a credit, that credit is held against the request. If the relevant talent accepts a different hiring request from another startup, the credit is returned to the original startup's account. Credits are not refunded at the moment a startup's own request is declined — the refund is triggered only when the talent's availability changes due to accepting another offer. Specific refund and expiry conditions are set out in the Terms and Conditions.

We share your data only in the following circumstances:

• Matched startups: Tier 1 talent profiles (partially anonymised initially) are shared with startups through the matching process. Full profile details are accessible to startups that have submitted a hiring credit request.
• 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 and matching analysis involves the Anthropic Claude API. Assessment responses are 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 and assessment data are deleted 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 restricted records: The restricted list entry (email and score summary) is retained for the 60-day cooldown period and then cleared. Full submission data (CV, cover letter, documents) is deleted immediately upon Tier 3 classification.
• 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.
• Waitlist data: Retained until you request removal or your waitlist entry is migrated to an active account.
• 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
• Prevent your profile from appearing in any future matches
• Trigger deletion of your personal data within 30 days, subject to any legal retention obligations
• 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 privacy@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, waitlist, or registration forms.
• Contract: Where processing is necessary to provide you with the service you have requested — such as running your assessment or processing a hiring credit transaction.
• Legitimate interests: Where processing is necessary for platform operations, security, match quality improvement, and behavioural consistency tracking, 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. 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.