Privacy Policy

HBCU Community ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our platform. Please read this policy carefully. If you do not agree with the terms of this policy, please do not access the platform.

1. Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and authentication credentials. You may also provide additional profile information such as your HBCU affiliation, graduation year, degree, and professional details.

Profile Information

You may choose to provide additional information to enhance your profile, including a biography, profile photo, location, professional experience, skills, and areas of expertise. This information is shared with other community members according to your visibility settings.

Uploaded Files

You may upload files to the Platform, including resumes, verification documents (such as campus photos or degree certificates), and profile photos. These files are stored securely and are accessible only to you and authorized personnel (such as administrators reviewing verification requests). You may delete uploaded files at any time through your account settings.

Usage Data

We automatically collect certain information when you access or use the platform, including your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, pages viewed, and the dates and times of your visits.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Create and manage your account
• Facilitate connections between HBCU alumni, students, and supporters
• Display your profile to other community members
• Send you notifications about relevant community activity
• Improve and optimize the platform
• Respond to your inquiries and provide support
• Comply with legal obligations

3. Information Sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information in the following circumstances:

• With other members: Your profile information is visible to other authenticated members of the community based on your privacy settings.
• With service providers: We may share information with third-party service providers who assist us in operating the platform (e.g., hosting, analytics).
• For legal reasons: We may disclose information if required by law or in response to valid legal process.
• With your consent: We may share information when you give us explicit permission to do so.

4. AI and Automated Processing

Certain features of the Platform use artificial intelligence (AI) to process your data. We use Anthropic's Claude to power the following features:

• Resume parsing: When you upload a resume, we use Claude to extract education and work experience information. Before processing, personal identifiers such as email addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers are redacted from the text sent to the AI provider. Your original resume file is never shared.
• Bio generation: We may use Claude to generate suggested biography text based on your resume content. The same redaction measures apply.

Anthropic does not train its models on data submitted through its API. AI-generated content is provided as suggestions only. You are responsible for reviewing and approving any AI-generated content before it is added to your profile. We do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of AI-generated output.

5. Third-Party Services

The Platform uses the following third-party services to operate. Each service processes only the data necessary for its function:

• Supabase: Database hosting, user authentication, and file storage. Stores your account data, profile information, and uploaded files.
• Cloudflare: Content delivery, security, and hosting. Processes request data (IP addresses, headers) to protect the platform from attacks.
• Anthropic (Claude): AI-powered resume parsing and bio generation. Receives only redacted resume text — no personal identifiers or original files.
• Resend: Transactional email delivery. Receives your email address to send verification codes, notifications, and account-related messages.
• Sentry: Error monitoring and performance tracking. May capture technical data (browser type, error details) to help us diagnose issues. Does not collect personal profile information.
• OpenStreetMap (Nominatim): Geocoding service. Converts city and country names to coordinates for location-based features. No personal data is sent.
• Google and Microsoft Calendar: You may optionally connect your calendar for scheduling and availability features. When authorized, we access only free/busy times — we do not read event content. You may revoke access at any time through your account settings or directly through your calendar provider.

Third-party services are bound by their own privacy policies. We select providers that maintain appropriate security and privacy standards and do not sell your data.

6. Institutional Data Sharing

HBCU Community may provide participating Historically Black Colleges and Universities ("Institutional Partners") with access to certain alumni and student data to support alumni engagement, institutional advancement, and community development.

What Is Shared

By affiliating with an institution on the Platform, your profile information and community engagement activity are visible to that institution. This includes your name, HBCU affiliation, graduation year, degree, location, employer, job title, bio, skills, profile photo, and engagement activity such as mentorship participation, offerings, and community involvement. Aggregated, anonymized engagement metrics may also be shared with Institutional Partners.

What Is Never Shared

The following information is never shared with Institutional Partners: your email address, phone number, private messages, blocked users list, and account security details.

Your Control

You choose what information to include on your profile. If you do not provide certain information, your affiliated institution will not have access to it. By affiliating with an institution on the Platform, you agree that the profile information you have provided and your engagement activity are accessible to that institution.

How Institutions May Use Your Data

Institutional Partners are permitted to use shared data only for:

• Measuring and improving alumni engagement
• Supporting institutional advancement and fundraising initiatives
• Understanding career outcomes and community impact
• Facilitating alumni-to-student mentorship and networking

Restrictions on Institutional Use

Institutional Partners are contractually prohibited from selling, sublicensing, or redistributing your data to third parties. They may not use your data for unsolicited marketing or any purpose not described above. HBCU Community may audit institutional data use and revoke access at any time for violations of these restrictions.

7. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Your Rights

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

• Access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction: Request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Deletion: Request that we delete your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
• Data portability: Request a copy of your data in a structured, machine-readable format.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at hello@thehbcu.community.

9. Cookies and Tracking

We use cookies and similar technologies to maintain your session, remember your preferences, and understand how you interact with our platform. You can control cookies through your browser settings, though disabling cookies may limit your ability to use certain features.

10. Children's Privacy

Our platform is not intended for individuals under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have collected such information, we will take steps to delete it promptly.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the updated policy on this page and updating the effective date. Your continued use of the platform after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at hello@thehbcu.community.