Privacy notice

OpenSTEM Research Match is an independent early-stage initiative. This document describes the processing performed by the supplied website software if its Cloudflare D1 service is enabled. The operator must review and adapt this notice to actual processing and applicable laws before accepting real applications.

Eligibility and applications

Application forms are designed for people aged 18 or older and include a self-declaration. Student applications may contain name, email, institution, academic level, discipline, research interest, skills, projects, work URL, intended learning goals, availability, collaboration preferences, referral source and an optional choice to appear publicly. Researcher submissions may contain name, email, lab, discipline, project scope, funding/compensation arrangement, expected hours and duration, location mode, required methods, supervision plan, selection criteria, deadline, referral source and public visibility permission. Expressions of interest contain project ID and applicant contact and research details. These fields are stored privately until reviewed.

Purposes

Information is used for human review of student profiles, public research calls, potential introductions, and safety/moderation operations. Referral source is optional and helps understand which channels bring participants. No automated hiring, placement, profiling, or automated acceptance decisions are implemented. No applicant data is sold by the supplied software.

Public visibility and explicit choice

Student profiles become publicly visible only when a student opts in AND staff approve the profile. Published listings exclude student email and most private application data. Researcher opportunities become public only with publication opt-in, an administrative approval AND a manual identity-check flag; the published fields may include the researcher's name, institution, subject, project details, conditions, and mentorship description, but not the researcher's email. Choosing not to publish does not itself prevent a private review.

Expressions of interest and introductions

Interest forms are private, visible to authorized moderators, and never published in the public opportunity API. No automatic introduction or forwarding to professors occurs in the included software. A moderator should get consent from both sides and check appropriate privacy and institutional policies before sharing private contact details.

Storage and services

With the backend configured, application data is stored in the operator's Cloudflare D1 database; rate-limiting counters store pseudonymous hashes of connection addresses. The local mentorship charter tool and readiness checklist are processed in the browser without saving form contents to the service. The software contains no marketing analytics script. Google Fonts, if enabled, causes routine requests to Google's servers.

Access, correction and deletion

Send access, correction or deletion requests to shahriyarkarimsiam@gmail.com from your application email. The admin panel includes permanent-delete controls. The site operator must establish and implement a retention schedule and process privacy requests; automatic expiry is not provided in this version.

Security and limits

The starter includes parameterized database operations, form validation, privacy-first publication rules, basic per-connection request limiting, and token-gated admin operations. It does not offer account-based student/professor identity verification, end-to-end encrypted messaging, child accounts, transactional email, or institutional safety approvals. Apply HTTPS, protected administration, abuse monitoring and applicable legal review before public launch.

Contact

For privacy-related matters, email shahriyarkarimsiam@gmail.com.