Privacy Policy

tech night! ("we," "us," or "our") is a community-based organization operating in Orange County and Los Angeles, California. We organize social meetups, hackathons, and talks for tech enthusiasts. Our website (https://technight.events) and related online services allow members to create profiles, connect with each other, and stay informed about events. For purposes of data protection laws, tech night! is the "data controller" of the personal information collected via our Service.

We collect personal information that you provide to us directly, information that is collected automatically when you use our Service, and information from third parties (like OAuth providers) when you connect through them. The types of information we collect include:

We use the collected information for various purposes related to our community mission and the operation of the Service. The primary uses include:

• Providing and Maintaining the Service: We use your information to create and manage your account, enable you to build a profile, and allow other members to view your profile for networking purposes.
• Facilitating Event Participation: We may use your profile information to help organize events and attendee lists. If you generate a networking QR code via our Service, that code will link to your online profile so others can scan it and view the info you've chosen to share.
• Communication: We use your contact information to send account and security alerts, respond to your inquiries, and occasionally send important event announcements. We do not send regular newsletters or marketing emails, and you can opt out of non-essential communications at any time.
• Improving the Service: We analyze usage data to understand how our community uses the site, which helps us troubleshoot problems, optimize performance, and develop new features.
• Enforcing Rules and Ensuring Safety: We use the information we collect to keep the community safe and enforce our Terms and Code of Conduct. This may include reviewing reported content, detecting fraudulent activity, and communicating with users about misconduct.
• Legal Compliance: We may use and disclose information as required by law or to protect our rights, property, and safety or that of our users or others.

We will not use your personal information for purposes materially different from the above without your consent. If we plan to use your data for a new purpose, we will update this Privacy Policy and notify you as needed or obtain your consent where required by law. We appreciate your trust and are committed to being transparent about how we use your information.

We use first-party authentication cookies to keep you logged in. Password-protected short links use a secure access-grant cookie that expires after 12 hours. We also use Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights to understand site usage and performance, and Connect Roll uses browser local storage to hold pending profile-view history until it can be synchronized to your account. We do not use advertising or marketing trackers.

You can use your browser settings to inspect, clear, or block cookies and local storage. Blocking essential storage may prevent login, password-protected links, or Connect Roll from working as expected.

Tech night! is not in the business of selling or renting your information. We consider the information you entrust to us as confidential, and we share it only in the following circumstances:

Service Providers (Processors): We use trusted third-party companies to help us operate and improve tech night!. These providers perform services on our behalf and may have access to personal information only as needed to perform their functions, and they are obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of that information. Our key service providers include:

• Hosting and Infrastructure: Our website and database are hosted by Vercel (frontend and serverless functions, including Vercel's Blob storage for profile photos) and Neon (PostgreSQL database for storing user data). This means that personal data you provide (profiles, account info, etc.) is stored on servers run by these providers. They act as data processors, storing and serving data under our instructions. You can review Vercel's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and Neon's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
• Authentication: We use Better Auth (an authentication system/library) in conjunction with OAuth providers (Discord, LinkedIn) to manage user logins. Better Auth itself stores session data and cookies to keep you logged in. OAuth providers (Discord, LinkedIn) will receive a request from you to log in to our Service; in doing so, they may know that your email or ID is being used on tech night!, but they do not get broad access to our user database. We only receive from them the information needed to create or log in to your tech night! account (as described in the Information from Third Parties section). Better Auth is an open-source library; you can review its documentation. OAuth providers' terms are linked in the Information from Third Parties section above.
• Analytics: As noted, we use Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights to gather usage data. Vercel, as our analytics provider, will process certain technical and usage information from your interactions with our site, including custom events described above. We use this data for internal analysis.
• Communications: If we ever send emails at scale (like an event announcement to many users), we might use an email service provider. Right now, we handle most communications manually via our own email. If this changes, we will update this policy. Please note that when you contact us through our contact forms, your messages may be processed by Discord (which we use as an inbox) in accordance with Discord's Privacy Policy.
• Community Platforms: We integrate with community platforms like Discord for chat and discussion. If you choose to join the tech night! Discord server, some information (like your Discord username) will be visible to other members on that platform, and Discord as a company will process your communications per their policies. We do not routinely synchronize your tech night! profile data to Discord. If you use our Discord Linked Role feature, we send Discord your membership date, platform username or handle, and profile-completion status to update that role connection. Discord's terms are linked in the Information from Third Parties section above.
• External Event Services: When you click on links to external event pages (Meetup, Luma, Eventbrite, etc.), you will be interacting with those platforms directly. We do not send those services your personal data; you will provide any info required for event signup directly to them. There may be cases where we, as organizers, export attendee lists or receive information from those platforms about who's attending (including names or emails if provided to those platforms). We treat any such information with confidentiality and typically use it only for event logistics (e.g., checking attendance or sending event-specific updates). We do not import that data into our own database except possibly a record that you attended a particular event for community record-keeping. Links to these platforms' terms are provided in the Information from Third Parties section above.

Legal Requirements and Safety: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to:

• Comply with a legal obligation, such as a subpoena, court order, or regulatory demand.
• Protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of tech night!, our community members, or the public. This includes exchanging information with law enforcement or other officials for fraud protection or security purposes (for example, if someone is impersonating others or posting unlawful content).
• Investigate or assist in preventing any violation of law or our Terms of Service, including potential threats to personal safety.

No Selling of Personal Data: We do not sell or rent your personal information to data brokers or advertisers. We also do not share your information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. In any situation not covered above, we will only share your information with your consent.

Tech night! primarily stores and processes data in the United States. If you are accessing the Service from outside the U.S., your information will be transferred to and stored on servers in the United States or other locations where our providers operate. Privacy laws in those locations may differ from the laws where you live. We use service providers with security measures designed to protect your data. If you have questions about international data transfers, please contact us.

We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for legal or security requirements. We generally keep your account data until you ask us to delete your account. When we fulfill an account-deletion request, we remove or de-identify personal data from our main systems as appropriate, though some information may persist in backups for a short period before being permanently deleted. We may retain minimal information longer if required by law or for security purposes (such as preventing banned users from re-registering).

Raw short-link visit records are aggregated and deleted after 90 days; aggregate statistics that do not identify an individual may be kept longer. Administrative security and audit logs are retained for up to one year. If you have questions about our data retention practices, please contact us.

We take reasonable measures to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information. We use HTTPS encryption for data in transit, secure our databases with access controls, and work with reputable service providers that maintain strong security practices. However, please understand that no website or Internet transmission is completely secure.

Your Responsibilities: You also have a role in keeping your data secure. We ask that you please use a strong, unique password for your third-party login (Discord/LinkedIn) and protect access to your email account. Please do not share your login session with others, and be cautious about what personal information you choose to share on your profile or with other members. Your cooperation helps keep everyone's data secure.

If you have reason to believe that your interaction with our Service is no longer secure (for example, if you suspect your account has been compromised), please contact us immediately so we can assist.

You have certain rights and choices regarding your personal information. We are committed to providing you with access and control over your data in line with applicable privacy laws (such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to the extent these may apply to our operations). These rights include:

• Access Your Information: You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. We can provide this in a common electronic format. For example, you may request that we export and send you the profile information and account data you've provided to us.
• Rectification (Corrections): If any of your personal data is inaccurate or outdated, you have the right to correct it. Much of your profile information can be updated directly by logging into your account and editing your profile (name, bio, social links, etc.). If you encounter any issues updating your information or need something corrected that you cannot change, please contact us and we will help update it.
• Deletion (Right to Be Forgotten): You have the right to request deletion of your personal information. As described earlier, you may contact us at any time to request that your account be deleted. We will take steps to remove your personal data from our systems, with the caveats noted under Data Retention (some data may be retained for limited legal or security reasons). If you are a California resident, this corresponds to your CCPA right to request deletion, and if you are an EU resident, this is your GDPR right to erasure.
• Opt-Out of Certain Processing: Because we do not sell your data or use it for targeted advertising, there's no sale to opt out of and no marketing to unsubscribe from (aside from event announcement emails, which we send very sparingly). However, you can choose to limit some data collection: for instance, you might disable cookies or use browser privacy features to reduce analytics tracking (though as noted, that might impact functionality). If we ever consider new processing that might be considered profiling or direct marketing, we will provide an opt-in or opt-out as appropriate.
• Data Portability: You have the right to request your personal data in a format that can be transferred to another service (to the extent this is applicable). For example, if you wanted to reuse the information you provided to tech night! elsewhere, we can provide it in a machine-readable format (like JSON or CSV).

How to Exercise Your Rights: To exercise any of the above rights, please contact us or email us at hey@technight.events. We ask that you please provide sufficient information for us to verify your identity (for example, emailing from the address associated with your account helps, and telling us your username). For certain requests like data access or deletion, we may need to verify that you are the account holder (for instance, we might send a confirmation email or ask for some identifying information that only the user would know). This helps protect against unauthorized requests and keeps your data secure. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe and as required by law (typically within 30 days for most requests).

If you are in the EU and believe we have not handled your request to your satisfaction, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns first by contacting us directly. We're committed to resolving any issues and making things right.

Our Service is not intended for children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. We ask that you please not attempt to use the Service or send any information about yourself to us if you are under 13. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take steps to delete that information promptly.

For parents or guardians: If you become aware that your child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us or email us at hey@technight.events so that we can delete the information. We appreciate your help in keeping our community safe for everyone.

For teenagers over 13: As noted in our Terms, if you are between 13 and 17, you should use our Service only with permission from a parent or guardian. Our events and content are geared towards adult and young adult audiences (college age and above, typically).

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or other factors. When we update the policy, we will change the "Last updated" date at the top of this document. If the changes are significant, we may also provide a more prominent notice or seek your consent as required by law. For example, we might email users or post a notice on our website's homepage if we make a substantial change in how we use personal data.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the Service after any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy. We appreciate your understanding as we work to keep our privacy practices transparent and up-to-date.

Thank you for taking the time to review this Privacy Policy. Your understanding and compliance help us maintain a trustworthy and secure environment for all community members. If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please don't hesitate to contact us:

Email: hey@technight.events

We will do our best to respond promptly to any privacy-related inquiries. Your trust is important to us, and we welcome feedback or concerns about our privacy practices. We're here to help and appreciate your patience as we work together to protect everyone's privacy.