Privacy Policy

SkillConnect (“we”, “our”, “us”) is operated by Techcatalyst Private Limited. We respect your privacy and treat your data with the seriousness it deserves. This policy explains what we collect, why, how we use it and the rights you have over it.

1. Who we are

SkillConnect — Skills to Careers — is a placement portal that connects students, universities, institutes and companies. We help students learn job-ready skills, universities track placement outcomes, and companies hire from a governance-filtered, verified talent pool.

2. Information we collect

• Account data: name, email, role (student / company / university / institute), password (hashed using bcrypt).
• Profile data you provide: college, graduation year, skills, CV, projects, social links, GitHub / LinkedIn URLs.
• Activity data: lessons completed, assessments, certificates issued, applications, interviews, offers.
• Voluntary EEO data: collected only with your explicit consent and aggregated; never linked back to your name in reports.
• Technical data: IP address (for security & rate-limiting), browser type, device, pages visited.
• Cookies: a single first-party JWT token in localStorage to keep you logged in. No third-party advertising cookies.

3. How we use your data

• Provide the service you signed up for (learning, applications, interviews, offers).
• Match you with relevant opportunities through our governance-filtered classifier.
• Issue verifiable certificates for completed labs.
• Send transactional emails (offer alerts, account confirmation, password reset). We do not send marketing emails without opt-in.
• Detect abuse, fraud and policy violations on the platform.
• Generate anonymised analytics for universities and companies.

4. Legal basis (GDPR / DPDP)

We process your data on the basis of (a) the contract between you and SkillConnect, (b) your explicit consent where required (e.g. EEO fields), (c) our legitimate interest in running a safe placement platform, and (d) legal obligations under Indian and applicable foreign law.

5. Sharing

We do not sell your data. We share only:

• With companies you apply to — only the profile fields needed for hiring (name, skills, CV, verified CoE badges, applications).
• With your own university / institute if you signed up through them — only for placement tracking.
• With law enforcement when legally required.
• With processors we strictly contract with (database hosting, transactional email).

6. Your rights

Under the DPDP Act 2023 and GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access the data we hold about you (from your dashboard).
• Correct inaccurate data (edit your profile any time).
• Erase your data — one-click “Delete my data” in your profile (the “Danger zone”).
• Object to processing & restrict use.
• Withdraw consent on voluntary fields (EEO) at any time.
• Portability — request an export at privacy@skillconnect.com.
• Lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Board of India.

7. Retention

We keep your data for as long as your account is active. When you delete it, personally identifiable information is removed within 30 days. Past applications stay in company / university statistics as anonymous tokens so historical placement numbers remain consistent.

8. Security

Passwords are bcrypt-hashed. Traffic is encrypted via TLS. JWT tokens expire automatically. Production data is hosted on access-controlled infrastructure. We run regular vulnerability scans & follow OWASP best practices.

9. Children

SkillConnect is meant for users aged 16 and above. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16 without verifiable parental consent.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. We'll post the new version here and update the “Last updated” date above.

11. Contact

Questions, concerns or data requests: privacy@skillconnect.com
Grievance Officer: grievance@skillconnect.com
Postal: Techcatalyst Private Limited, India.