Privacy policy.

Founder Coded is an online community platform created to help founders connect, collaborate, discover businesses and events, and share practical knowledge.

In this Privacy Policy, "Founder Coded," "we," "us," and "our" refer to the Founder Coded platform and the team that operates it. Founder Coded is based in Ontario, Canada.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, retain, and protect personal information when you access or use the Founder Coded website, platform, services, forms, communications, and related features.

For privacy inquiries, contact hello@foundercoded.ca.

The information we collect depends on how you use Founder Coded.

A. Account information

When you create or manage an account, we may collect information such as:

• Your name
• Email address
• Login and authentication information
• Profile photograph
• General location
• Account preferences
• Availability information
• Information you add to your member profile

B. Business profile information

When you create or submit a business profile, we may collect:

• Business name
• Founder name
• Business description
• Business category
• Business location
• Website and social-media links
• Business photographs and logos
• Products, services, or opportunities offered
• Founder story and other information you choose to provide

Some business-profile information may be published after review. Please do not submit information that you do not want displayed publicly.

C. Collaboration information

When you create, respond to, or participate in a collaboration opportunity, we may collect:

• Collaboration details
• What you are offering or requesting
• Availability
• Messages or responses connected to the opportunity
• Participation status
• Reports or feedback relating to the collaboration

D. Community event information

When you submit or save an event, we may collect:

• Event name and description
• Date, time, and location
• Event images
• Organizer information
• Registration or external links
• Saved-event preferences
• Calendar-related actions initiated by you

E. Playbook and community contributions

When you submit a lesson, article, story, comment, report, or other contribution, we may collect:

• The content you submit
• Your name and account information
• Relevant business information
• Communications regarding editing, review, or publication
• Images or supporting materials you provide

F. Communications

When you contact Founder Coded, we may collect:

• Your name
• Email address
• The contents of your message
• Attachments you choose to provide
• Records of our response

G. Technical and usage information

When you use the platform, we or our service providers may automatically collect limited technical information such as:

• Internet Protocol address
• Browser type
• Device type
• Operating system
• Referring pages
• Pages viewed
• Dates and times of access
• Error and diagnostic information
• Cookie or similar technology identifiers
• General interaction and usage information

H. Information from third parties

We may receive information from services you choose to connect to Founder Coded, such as authentication, calendar, email, or social-platform services.

The information received will depend on the service, the permissions you provide, and the feature you choose to use.

We may collect personal information:

• Directly from you
• Through forms, account settings, and submissions
• When you communicate with us
• Through your use of platform features
• Automatically through cookies or similar technologies
• From service providers acting on our behalf
• From third-party services you choose to connect
• From publicly available sources where permitted by law

We may use personal information to:

• Create, authenticate, and manage member accounts
• Build and display approved profiles
• Review business, event, collaboration, and Playbook submissions
• Operate community and collaboration features
• Connect members with relevant opportunities
• Save events or support calendar actions requested by members
• Communicate about accounts, submissions, inquiries, and platform updates
• Provide administrative and member support
• Moderate content and enforce community guidelines
• Investigate reports, misuse, security concerns, or prohibited activity
• Protect members, Founder Coded, and the integrity of the platform
• Improve platform performance, accessibility, and user experience
• Understand general platform usage
• Diagnose technical issues
• Comply with legal and regulatory obligations
• Obtain consent for new purposes where required

We will not use personal information for a materially different purpose without obtaining additional consent where required by law.

Founder Coded includes features designed for community discovery and participation.

Information you choose to submit for publication may become visible to:

• Other Founder Coded members
• Visitors to publicly accessible pages
• Search engines, where public pages are indexed
• People who receive or access shared links

Public information may include approved business-profile details, founder names, business photographs, event listings, collaboration opportunities, and published Playbook contributions.

Profiles and submissions that are still pending administrative approval should not appear publicly.

Please carefully review information before submitting it for publication. Do not include private, confidential, or sensitive personal information in a public profile, event, collaboration, or community contribution.

Removing content from Founder Coded may not remove copies that were previously captured by search engines, archived, shared, or saved by other people.

We do not sell or rent personal information.

We may disclose personal information in the following circumstances:

A. With your direction or consent

We may share information when you ask us to, authorize a feature, publish a submission, connect an external service, or otherwise provide consent.

B. With service providers

We may provide information to trusted service providers that help us operate Founder Coded, including providers of:

• Website and database hosting
• Authentication
• Cloud and file storage
• Email delivery
• Analytics
• Security and error monitoring
• Customer support
• Calendar or integration features
• Other platform infrastructure

These providers may process personal information only as necessary to provide their services to us, subject to their agreements and applicable law.

C. Business or organizational changes

Information may be transferred as part of a proposed or completed financing, reorganization, merger, acquisition, sale, or transfer of all or part of Founder Coded or its assets, subject to applicable legal requirements.

D. Legal and safety reasons

We may disclose information where reasonably necessary to:

• Comply with applicable law, regulation, court order, or lawful process
• Respond to a legally valid request
• Investigate fraud, misuse, or security incidents
• Protect the safety, rights, or property of members, Founder Coded, or others
• Enforce our Terms of Use or Community Guidelines
• Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims

Founder Coded and its service providers may use cookies or similar technologies to:

• Keep members signed in
• Remember preferences
• Maintain platform security
• Understand how the platform is used
• Diagnose problems
• Improve performance and user experience

Where applicable, cookies may be classified as:

• Strictly necessary cookies
• Preference or functionality cookies
• Analytics cookies
• Marketing cookies, only if actually used

Members may control cookies through their browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect platform functionality.

By providing personal information and using Founder Coded, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of information as described in this Privacy Policy, where consent is the appropriate legal basis.

Depending on the circumstances, consent may be express or implied.

You may withdraw consent to certain uses of your personal information, subject to legal, contractual, and operational restrictions. Withdrawing consent may prevent us from providing certain features or services.

Where information is not necessary for the core operation of the platform, members will be given a clear choice wherever required by law.

You may update many profile and account details through your account settings.

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to:

• Provide the platform and requested features
• Maintain accurate account and submission records
• Resolve disputes
• Investigate reports or security concerns
• Meet legal, accounting, or regulatory requirements
• Enforce agreements
• Maintain appropriate business records

Retention periods may differ depending on the type of information and the purpose for which it was collected.

When personal information is no longer required, we will delete, anonymize, or securely dispose of it, subject to applicable law and reasonable backup-retention practices.

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information against loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, alteration, or destruction.

Safeguards may include:

• Account authentication
• Access controls
• Secure hosting and storage
• Encryption where appropriate
• Software updates and security monitoring
• Restricted administrative access
• Service-provider reviews
• Backup and recovery measures

No internet-based platform or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Members are responsible for protecting their passwords and account credentials and should notify us if they believe their account has been accessed without authorization.

You may request:

• Confirmation of whether we hold personal information about you
• Access to personal information we hold about you
• Information about how it has been used or disclosed
• Correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal information

Some legal exceptions may apply.

To submit a request, email hello@foundercoded.ca with the subject line Privacy Request.

We may need to verify your identity before completing a request. We will respond within the timelines required by applicable law.

Members may request deletion of their account and associated personal information by using any available account-deletion feature or by contacting hello@foundercoded.ca.

Deleting an account may remove access to the platform and may result in the removal or anonymization of associated content.

We may retain limited information where reasonably necessary or legally required, including for security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, legal compliance, or recordkeeping.

Founder Coded or its service providers may process or store personal information outside your province or outside Canada.

When information is processed in another jurisdiction, it may be subject to the laws of that jurisdiction and may be accessible to courts, governments, law-enforcement authorities, or regulatory bodies in accordance with local law.

Founder Coded remains responsible for personal information under its control and uses contractual or other measures appropriate to the circumstances when service providers process information on our behalf.

Founder Coded is intended for business founders and is not designed for children under the age of 13.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13 without legally valid consent.

If we learn that personal information was collected from a child in a manner that does not comply with applicable law, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

Founder Coded may contain links to websites, registration pages, social-media profiles, services, or platforms operated by third parties.

We do not control the privacy or security practices of third parties. Their collection and use of personal information are governed by their own policies.

Members should review third-party privacy policies before providing information through an external service.

We may update this Privacy Policy as Founder Coded changes or as legal and regulatory requirements evolve.

When changes are made, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of the page.

Where a change is material, we will provide additional notice or request renewed consent where required by law.

Previous versions may be made available upon request.

Questions, access requests, correction requests, deletion requests, or privacy complaints may be sent to our Privacy Officer:

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