Privacy Policy

Qollectiv, Inc. ("Qollectiv", "we", "us", or "our"), a Delaware corporation, operates a research platform that connects researchers, respondents, and organizations. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our website, applications, and related services (collectively, the "Platform").

By using the Platform, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. Where we process personal information on behalf of researchers or organizations, those parties may also have their own privacy obligations for study-specific data.

We may collect the following categories of information:

• Account information: name, email address, phone number, profile photo, demographic details (such as age, gender, education, occupation, location, and income band), interests, account type, and authentication credentials (including when you sign in via third-party providers such as Google).
• Research data: survey responses, eligibility answers, participation history, incentive and raffle records, and any media or attachments you submit as part of a study.
• Verification data: documents you upload to verify identity, education, employment, or organization status, together with extracted fields, verification scores, verification level, and review outcomes (see Section 3).
• Organization data: company or organization name, registration details, sector, business address, membership roles, billing activity, wallet balances, and token allocations.
• Usage and device data: log files, IP address, browser type, device identifiers, session activity, feature interactions, referral sources, and performance diagnostics.
• Communications data: support messages, notification preferences, and records of emails or in-app messages we send to you.
• Payment information: transaction records, top-up requests, and token balances. Payment card details are processed by our payment providers and are not stored by us in full.

Verification is optional unless required for a specific feature, survey, incentive tier, or organizational role. When you choose to verify, we may ask you to upload documents so we can confirm that profile information you provide is accurate.

Individual accounts may submit:

• Identity (Layer 3): A government-issued national ID, driver's licence, or valid passport (including country-specific IDs such as Fayda or Kebele ID where applicable).
• Education (Layer 4): degree or diploma certificate, official transcript, school leaving certificate, or professional qualification certificate.
• Employment or self-employment (Layer 5): employment contract, employer letter, recent pay stub, work permit, business or trade licence, commercial registration, or self-employment registration.
• Other supporting documents: any additional government-issued or professional document we accept for eligibility review.

Organization accounts may submit:

• Business licence or commercial registration certificate.
• VAT registration certificate.
• Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) certificate.
• Certificate of incorporation or equivalent legal standing document.

Documents may be submitted as JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, or PDF (typically up to 10 MB per file). We and our verification providers may use automated tools, including AI-assisted review, to extract information such as name, date of birth, gender, address, education level, employer, registration numbers, and document validity. Extracted data is compared against your profile and phone verification where applicable.

Verification documents are stored securely, reviewed only for verification, fraud prevention, audit, and legal compliance purposes, and are not shared with researchers or other users except where aggregated verification status (for example, "verified at level 3") is needed to determine survey eligibility. We may retain verification records after account closure where required for dispute resolution, fraud prevention, or legal obligations.

We use collected information to:

• Provide, operate, maintain, and improve the Platform and its features.
• Create and manage your account, authenticate you, and enforce our Terms and Conditions.
• Match respondents with eligible research opportunities based on profile, verification level, location, and study criteria.
• Process payments, tokens, wallet activity, organizational allocations, and incentive payouts.
• Verify identity, education, employment, and organization status using the documents described in Section 3.
• Send service-related communications, including account notices, security alerts, verification outcomes, research invitations, and support responses.
• Send marketing and promotional communications about Qollectiv features, research opportunities, product updates, events, surveys, and partner offerings that may interest you, subject to your preferences and applicable law.
• Personalize your experience, including recommended studies, dashboard content, and Platform messaging.
• Conduct analytics, measure engagement, develop new features, and understand how the Platform is used.
• Detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, duplicate responses, policy violations, and security incidents.
• Train, test, and improve automated verification, matching, and moderation systems using de-identified or aggregated data where possible.
• Comply with legal obligations, respond to lawful requests, and establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

We may contact you by email, SMS, WhatsApp, push notification, or in-app message with marketing or promotional content where permitted by law.

You can control marketing communications by:

• Updating notification and marketing preferences in your account settings.
• Using the unsubscribe link in marketing emails where provided.
• Contacting us at privacy@qollectiv.app to opt out of marketing messages.

Opting out of marketing does not affect service-related messages we need to send to operate your account, such as security alerts, verification results, payment confirmations, or changes to our Terms or this Privacy Policy. Where local law requires prior consent for marketing (for example, certain jurisdictions or channels), we will obtain that consent before sending promotional messages.

We use automated processing to support verification, eligibility matching, fraud detection, and Platform integrity. This may include AI-assisted document review and rules-based or machine-learning models that compare profile claims against uploaded documents and usage patterns.

These processes can affect your access to features or studies (for example, verification level requirements or eligibility gates). We design these systems to support fair matching and research quality, and we may apply manual review where automated results are uncertain or disputed.

You may contact us to request information about significant automated decisions that affect you, subject to applicable law and technical limitations. We do not use verification documents or sensitive profile data for unrelated automated advertising profiling.

We may share information:

• With researchers or organizations when you participate in their studies, subject to the study's disclosure settings and your eligibility profile (we do not share raw verification documents with researchers by default).
• With service providers who assist with hosting, storage, analytics, email and SMS delivery, identity verification, AI processing, customer support, and payment processing, under contractual confidentiality and security obligations.
• With other members of your organization when you join an organizational account, including administrators who may view membership and activity relevant to org management.
• With authentication providers (such as Google) when you choose to sign in through them, according to their policies and your account settings.
• With professional advisers, auditors, or insurers where reasonably necessary for our business operations.
• When required by law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of Qollectiv, our users, or the public.
• In connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections and notice where required by law.

We do not sell your personal information. We may share aggregated or de-identified information that does not reasonably identify you for research, analytics, or business purposes.

We may create aggregated, anonymized, or de-identified data from information we collect and use it for any lawful business purpose, including analytics, benchmarking, product development, research insights, and reporting to partners or the public. This data does not identify individual users and is not subject to this Privacy Policy once de-identified in accordance with applicable law.

We and our service providers use cookies, local storage, session tokens, and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember preferences, measure usage, and improve security. You can control cookies through your browser settings, but disabling certain cookies may limit Platform functionality.

Where required by law, we will provide additional cookie disclosures or consent mechanisms.

We retain personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Platform, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and maintain research and financial records.

Verification documents and related review data may be retained for a reasonable period after verification to support re-verification, audits, fraud prevention, and legal compliance, even if you later remove them from active display in your profile. Research response data may be retained according to project settings, researcher requirements, and applicable research ethics rules.

When you deactivate or delete your account, we will delete or anonymize personal information where feasible, except where retention is necessary for legal, security, accounting, or dispute-resolution purposes.

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to certain processing of your personal information, and to request portability or withdraw consent where processing is consent-based.

You can update much of your profile information and communication preferences in account settings. To exercise other rights, contact us at privacy@qollectiv.app. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request and may decline requests where permitted by law (for example, where disclosure would affect the rights of others, interfere with fraud prevention, or conflict with legal retention duties).

If you are located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or other regions with comprehensive privacy laws, you may also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

We implement administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect your information, including access controls, encryption in transit, and restricted access to verification documents. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

You are responsible for safeguarding your account credentials and for uploading verification documents only through official Platform channels.

Your information may be processed in countries other than your country of residence, including countries that may have different data protection laws. Where required, we use appropriate safeguards for cross-border transfers, such as standard contractual clauses or equivalent mechanisms.

The Platform is not intended for individuals under 16 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If we learn that we have collected such information, we will take steps to delete it promptly.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or business operations. We will post the revised policy on this page and update the "Last updated" date. Material changes may be communicated through the Platform, by email, or by other reasonable means where required by law. Continued use of the Platform after the effective date of an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy, except where applicable law requires explicit consent.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, verification documents, marketing preferences, or your personal information, contact us at privacy@qollectiv.app.