Data privacy notice

SciFind ("SciFind", "we", "us", "our") is the controller for the personal data described here. SciFind operates a two-sided platform: it aggregates publicly listed academic and research job postings for job seekers, and lets recruiters / employers post positions and review applicants. We offer optional accounts with a profile, CV, saved jobs, alerts, and AI-assisted matching. SciFind is operated by Louis Renner, c/o USI Startup Centre, Via la Santa 1, 6962 Viganello (Lugano), Switzerland.

For any privacy request or question — or to reach the person responsible for data protection — contact us at thescifind@gmail.com. If you are located in the EEA, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority (see §14).

Depending on how you use the Service, we may process:

• Account: email and an authentication credential (managed by our auth provider — we never see your raw password).
• Profile: details you choose to add — name, headline, location, academic level, fields and research interests, publications, ORCID, skills, languages, website, profile picture.
• CV / documents: files you choose to upload, stored privately.
• Applications: if you apply through SciFind, your cover note and a snapshot (name, email, headline, CV) shared with the relevant recruiter.
• Recruiter data: for employer accounts — organisation details, the positions you post, and your handling of candidates.
• Activity & preferences: jobs you save, searches, and your notification/alert settings.
• Billing: if you pay, your plan/transaction status and a customer identifier and billing address. Card details are handled by Stripe — we never store them.
• Technical: IP address, device/browser data, and limited, privacy-preserving usage analytics and security logs.

Special-category data. We do not ask for and do not need sensitive data (e.g. data revealing health, religion, political opinions, trade-union membership, ethnicity, or biometric/genetic data). A CV, publication list, or profile may incidentally contain such data if you include it. Please do not include sensitive data you do not want processed; if you do include it, you consent to us processing it as part of providing the Service (Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR / Art. 6 FADP).

• To provide the Service — account, profile, saved jobs, applications, recruiter tools. Basis: performance of a contract.
• AI matching, search & assistance — only when you use these features (see §5). Basis: contract and/or your consent.
• Alerts and emails you opt into — withdrawable anytime. Basis: consent.
• Aggregating publicly listed job postings and keeping listings accurate. Basis: legitimate interests.
• Security, fraud and abuse prevention, and improving the Service. Basis: legitimate interests.
• Payments and legal/accounting obligations. Basis: contract / legal obligation.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

When you apply to a position or a recruiter accesses your application, that recruiter / employer is an independent controller of the data they receive and is responsible for their own use of it under their own privacy notice. We require recruiters to use candidate data only for the specific role and recruitment process, to keep it confidential and secure, and to comply with applicable data-protection and anti-discrimination law. SciFind is not responsible for a recruiter's independent decisions.

SciFind uses AI to help you — never to decide about you. AI features include: matching your profile/CV to relevant postings with relevance scores and short reasons; natural-language search; an optional "application kit" that drafts cover-letter and CV suggestions; and, for recruiters, optional scoring/ranking of applicants against the criteria they set. These features run only when you choose to use them.

We do not train AI on your data. When you use an AI feature, the relevant text (e.g. your profile, CV, or a posting) is sent to our AI provider (Anthropic) via its API solely to generate your result. Under that provider's API terms, your inputs and outputs are not used to train or improve its models. We do not use your CV, profile, applications, or messages to train, fine-tune, or build any AI/machine- learning model. Any proprietary models we may develop are trained only on publicly available scientific datasets (for example PubMed, OpenAlex, and ORCID) — never on user data.

Recommendation only. AI output is a suggestion and decision-support tool. It can be incomplete or wrong, should be reviewed by a human, and is never the sole basis for any decision about you (see §6). AI-generated text (such as a drafted cover letter) is a starting point for you to review and edit. We instruct recruiters that AI scores recommend only — they must not be used to automatically shortlist or reject candidates, and recruiters remain responsible for their own judgement and obligations. More detail is in our AI FAQ.

We do not take decisions producing legal effects, or similarly significant effects, about you based solely on automated processing or profiling (Art. 22 GDPR; Art. 21 FADP). AI match scores and recruiter rankings are decision-support only: a person always reviews and decides.

Where any meaningful decision involves automated processing, you have the right to obtain human intervention, to express your point of view, and to contest the decision. To do so, email thescifind@gmail.com.

Listings are sourced from publicly accessible institutional career portals, and from recruiters who post directly. A posting may occasionally include contact details that the institution or recruiter has published. We link back to the original source rather than republishing full descriptions. If you are named in a posting and want it corrected or removed, contact us at thescifind@gmail.com.

We share data only with providers that process it on our behalf under data-processing agreements, and with recruiters as described in §4. We do not otherwise disclose your data except to comply with a legal obligation or a lawful request from an authority. Our key processors are:

• Supabase — authentication, database, and file storage.
• Anthropic — AI matching, search, and assistance (see §5).
• Stripe — subscription and payment processing.
• Resend — delivery of the emails you opt into.
• Vercel — frontend hosting, content delivery, and privacy-preserving analytics.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) — backend hosting (EU region).
• Sentry — error monitoring (EU region).

We host data within Europe (Switzerland and the EU) where feasible. Some processors (for example Anthropic, Stripe, Resend) may process data outside Switzerland/the EEA, including in the United States. Where that happens, transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards — such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the Swiss addendum, an adequacy decision, or the Swiss-U.S. / EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. You can request more detail about these safeguards at thescifind@gmail.com.

• Account, profile, CV, saved jobs, settings: while your account is active; deleted when you delete your account.
• AI results: cached to serve you faster, and deleted when you delete your account.
• Applications & documents you exchange (cover notes, message attachments, reference letters): held for the recruiter who owns the posting; the documents are stored in encrypted, access-controlled storage and are automatically deleted 12 months after the position closes — and immediately when that position is deleted or when you delete your account.
• Billing / invoicing records: kept up to 10 years where required by Swiss commercial law.
• Technical / analytics logs: kept only for a limited period for security and service improvement.
• Marketing: until you unsubscribe.

We do not keep personal data for longer than is necessary for the purposes above.

Under the GDPR and FADP you have the right to:

• access a copy of your data, and rectify or erase it;
• restrict or object to processing;
• data portability;
• withdraw consent at any time (without affecting processing already carried out);
• obtain human review of, and contest, any decision involving automated processing (§6).

You can edit your profile and alert settings in-app, export your data, unsubscribe from any email, and permanently delete your account from Settings → Delete account. To exercise any right, email thescifind@gmail.com. We aim to respond within one month, and may extend this for complex requests as permitted by law.

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data: encryption in transit, private storage for CVs, and per-user database access (row-level security). No system is perfectly secure; if a data breach is likely to result in a high risk to you, we will notify you and the competent authority as required by law.

We use essential cookies required to keep you signed in and to remember your language and theme. We use limited, privacy-preserving analytics (via Vercel) and error monitoring (via Sentry) to keep the Service working — these do not build advertising profiles. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. Where consent is required for non-essential cookies, we ask for it via our cookie banner, and you can change your choice at any time.

If you have a concern, please contact us first at thescifind@gmail.com. You may also lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority — in Switzerland, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), edoeb.admin.ch; in the EEA, your national data-protection authority.

SciFind is not directed to anyone under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we will delete it.

We work to keep the Service and its information accurate and available, but provide it on an "as is" basis without warranties, and we are not liable for third-party content, external links, or matters outside our reasonable control, to the extent permitted by law. Full liability and intellectual-property terms are in our Terms of Use.

We may update this notice; we will revise the date above and, for material changes, notify you. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised notice.