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Effective Date: January 2025
At Academic Fellows, we respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and your rights.
By using our Website or Services, you agree to this Privacy Policy.
When you register or use our services, we collect:
We aggregate publicly available academic information from the web, including:
Important: This public data is already available online. We organize and display it on our platform to help connect researchers and facilitate academic collaboration.
We do not collect or request sensitive personal information such as:
If you accidentally submit such information to us (e.g., in a forum post or message), you consent to us processing it. However, we strongly recommend you avoid sharing sensitive information on our platform.
When you create an account or submit information:
Violation of these terms may result in immediate suspension or termination of your account.
We use your information to:
We do not sell your data to third parties.
We may share your information with trusted service providers who help us operate our platform (e.g., hosting providers, authentication services like Tuakiri), but only to the extent necessary and under strict confidentiality obligations.
We may also disclose your information:
Personal account data (email, login credentials, private messages, personal preferences) will be deleted within 90 days of account closure.
Public academic data (publications, ORCID profile, research networks, citations) may remain on the platform because it is:
When you delete your account, we will:
You can request us to remove your name from public data by emailing support@academicfellows.com. However, we cannot delete information that is already publicly indexed elsewhere on the web (e.g., in institutional repositories, ORCID, Google Scholar).
Before closing your account, you may request to export your personal data by contacting support@academicfellows.com. We will provide your data in a portable format within 30 days of your request.
We use cookies to improve your experience and keep the site functional. Here's what we use:
We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking tools (e.g., Google Analytics).
You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings, but this may affect site functionality (e.g., staying logged in). Disabling essential cookies may prevent you from using certain features of the Website.
If you subscribe to a paid plan, we use secure payment processing with 256-bit SSL encryption to protect your payment information.
We do not store your credit card details. Payment information is securely handled by our trusted payment gateway providers, who comply with industry-standard security practices (PCI-DSS compliance).
We may store:
We do not have access to your full credit card number, CVV, or other sensitive payment details.
All payment-related transactions are encrypted to ensure your financial information remains secure.
We may email you for:
You can unsubscribe from non-essential emails anytime via your account settings or by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email.
We will never send you spam or share your email with third parties for marketing purposes.
We allow login and registration via Tuakiri and LinkedIn. When you use these services:
We may also include social sharing buttons or widgets (e.g., "Share This" or social media icons). These features may be hosted by third parties and may collect your IP address or set cookies to function properly.
Your interactions with these third-party features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing them. We recommend reviewing their policies.
You have the right to:
To exercise these rights, email us at support@academicfellows.com. We aim to respond within 20 working days.
Note: We cannot delete public academic data that is already available on the web, but we can mark your account as inactive and remove your name from our platform upon request.
We use secure authentication (Tuakiri), encrypted connections (SSL), and reasonable technical and organizational security measures to protect your information from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse.
However, no online system is 100% secure. While we take precautions to protect your data, you use our services at your own risk.
Our website may contain links to external websites (e.g., institutional repositories, research databases, partner organizations, published papers).
We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these external sites. When you click on an external link, you leave our Website and are subject to that website's privacy policy.
We recommend reviewing the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.
Academic Fellows is for users 18 years of age and older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.
If we become aware that a user is under 18, we will immediately terminate their account and delete their personal information.
If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a minor, please contact us immediately at support@academicfellows.com.
Our platform is primarily designed for New Zealand's academic and research communities. Our services comply with New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020.
Users outside New Zealand may access the Website at their own discretion and must comply with their local privacy and data protection laws.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. When we make changes, we will:
Your continued use of the Website after changes take effect means you accept the updated Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the changes, you must stop using our Services and may close your account.
For privacy questions, data requests, or complaints, please contact us at:
Academic Fellows
📧 Email: support@academicfellows.com
🌐 Website: https://academicfellows.com
📍 Address: [Your NZ postal address]
We take privacy seriously and aim to respond to all inquiries within 20 working days.