Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 2026

1. Information We Collect

VennGrad collects information you provide directly, including your name, email address, research interests, and degree goals when you create an account. We also collect usage data to improve our matching algorithms and service quality.

  • Account data: email, name, degree target, research interest
  • Usage data: searches, professor views, emails generated
  • Payment data: processed securely by Stripe or Paystack — we do not store card numbers
  • Device data: browser type, IP address (for rate limiting and security)

2. How We Use Your Information

  • Provide and improve the professor matching service
  • Generate personalized cold email drafts
  • Process payments and manage your subscription
  • Send product updates and relevant announcements (you may opt out at any time)
  • Detect and prevent fraud and abuse

3. Professor Data

Professor profiles are compiled from publicly available academic sources including university websites, Semantic Scholar, arXiv, and NSF grant databases. This data is used solely to help students identify relevant research advisors. Professors may request removal or correction of their profile by emailing privacy@venngrad.com.

4. Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal data. We share data only with:

  • Supabase — database and authentication infrastructure
  • OpenAI — for generating match summaries and email drafts (your research interest text may be processed)
  • Stripe / Paystack — payment processing
  • Sentry / PostHog — error monitoring and anonymized analytics

5. Data Retention

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. You may delete your account at any time from the Account Settings page. Upon deletion, your personal profile data is removed within 30 days. Anonymized usage statistics may be retained for analytics.

6. Your Rights

You have the right to:

  • Access a copy of your personal data
  • Correct inaccurate information
  • Delete your account and associated data
  • Opt out of marketing emails at any time

To exercise these rights, email privacy@venngrad.com.

7. Security

We use industry-standard security measures including TLS encryption, JWT-based authentication, and database-level row security. Payment information is never stored on our servers.

8. Contact

For privacy-related questions, contact us at privacy@venngrad.com.