Privacy Policy

We use the information we collect to operate, improve, and personalize the Platform while ensuring a secure and professional environment for all users. Specifically, we use your information to:

• Provide and Improve Services: Enable account creation, profiles, messaging, matchmaking, workspaces, document tools, paid features, and other core Platform functionality.
• Verify Identities and Credentials: Authenticate users and validate professional qualifications to maintain trust and professionalism within the community.
• Communicate: Send transactional emails and in-product notices (e.g., account verification, workflow updates, payment confirmations, and safety notices), respond to support inquiries, provide updates about Platform features, and share relevant opportunities or matches.
• Personalize User Experience: Tailor content, recommendations, search results, and workflow suggestions based on your preferences, activity, and profile details.
• Analyze Usage: Monitor and analyze user behavior, trends, Platform performance, and automated conversation activity signals to optimize features, improve user experience, and develop new services. CofoundAlly staff do not manually read private chats to create Conversation Insights.
• AI and Quality: Provide, evaluate, secure, and improve assistive drafting, matching, summarization, document, search, and workflow features using limited inputs and model/version metadata.
• Market Our Services: Send promotional communications about CofoundAlly services or events only as permitted by law and your communication or cookie choices. We do not sell personal information.
• Ensure Security: Detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent activities, unauthorized access, or other malicious behavior to protect users and the Platform.
• Moderation and Reports: Receive, deduplicate, investigate, resolve, dismiss, preserve, and escalate reports, appeals, policy violations, and safety events.
• Comply with Legal Obligations: Fulfill regulatory requirements, respond to lawful requests from authorities, maintain records, and establish, exercise, or defend legal claims as required by applicable laws.
• Conduct Research and Development: Use anonymized or aggregated data to perform research, develop new features, or improve algorithms for matchmaking and user engagement.

CofoundAlly does not sell your personal information. We may disclose or make information available in the following circumstances, limited to what is reasonably necessary for the stated purpose:

• Other Users and Workspace Members: Profile details and shared content may be visible according to your settings and the permissions of the relevant workspace.
• Service Providers: We engage vendors for hosting, storage, email and notifications, payment processing, document scanning and conversion, analytics, customer support, identity or company verification, AI assistance, scheduling, safe-link checks, and security. They may process information only to provide services to us under appropriate safeguards.
• External Destinations and Integrations: If you choose a business site, Calendly, payment provider, social account, or another integration, information may be sent to that third party at your direction. Their own privacy notice applies to their processing.
• Legal Authorities: We may disclose your information to comply with legal obligations, respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other lawful requests, or to protect our rights, property, or safety.
• Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or sale of all or part of CofoundAlly's assets, your information may be transferred to the acquiring entity, subject to appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
• Other Users and Reports: We may disclose relevant information to investigate a report, enforce Platform rules, protect a person, or respond to a legal or safety concern, consistent with applicable law.
• With Your Direction or Consent: We may share information when you publish it, invite a workspace member, authorize an integration, request a data export, or provide consent for another purpose.

4.1 Access and Update Information

You can review, edit, or update your personal information at any time through your account settings on the Platform. If you need assistance, contact us at support@cofoundally.com.

4.2 Opt-Out of Marketing Communications

You may opt out of receiving promotional emails, newsletters, or other marketing communications by:

• Clicking the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any promotional email.
• Adjusting your notification preferences in your account settings.
• Note that opting out of marketing communications does not affect transactional or service-related emails (e.g., account updates, payment confirmations).

4.3 Cookies and Tracking

You can manage cookies and tracking technologies through your browser settings, the cookie banner, or the Cookie Policy page. Options include:

• Accepting all cookies.
• Rejecting non-essential cookies.
• Customizing your preferences for specific types of cookies.
• Disabling cookies may limit certain Platform features, such as personalized recommendations or saved preferences. For more information, consult your browser's help documentation.
• Cookie consent records: When you save your cookie choices, we may store a record of those choices together with technical data such as your IP address and approximate country (derived from IP) for compliance, security, and aggregate analytics. This processing is described further in Section 6 (Data Retention).

4.4 Account Deletion

To permanently delete your account and associated personal information, contact us at support@cofoundally.com with your request. We will process your request promptly, subject to the following:

• Some information may be retained to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, or enforce our agreements.
• Residual data may remain in backups or archives but will be securely deleted in accordance with our data retention policies.

4.5 Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers transmit "Do Not Track" (DNT) signals. Because there is no universal standard for interpreting DNT signals, the Platform does not currently respond to them. You can still manage tracking preferences through our cookie settings.

4.6 Legal bases and permissions

Depending on the feature and jurisdiction, we process information to perform a contract or take steps at your request, comply with a legal obligation, protect vital interests, pursue legitimate interests such as security and service improvement, or rely on your consent. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it for the future; withdrawal does not affect earlier lawful processing or processing that has another legal basis.

We maintain technical, organizational, and contractual measures appropriate to the nature and risk of the information, including where supported:

• Encryption: Data may be encrypted during transmission and at rest; encryption does not eliminate all risk.
• Access Controls: Only authorized personnel with a legitimate need can access personal data, and access is restricted through secure authentication methods.
• Monitoring and Resilience: We use logging, rate limits, malware scanning, backups, signed document links, and other safeguards appropriate to the service.
• Incident Response: We maintain processes to investigate, contain, remediate, and notify about security incidents where required by law.

Despite these measures, no online platform is entirely immune to security risks. You can help protect your account by:

• Using a strong, unique password.
• Enabling two-factor authentication (if available).
• Avoiding sharing sensitive information unnecessarily.
• Reporting suspicious activity to support@cofoundally.com immediately.

We retain your personal information only as long as necessary to:

• Provide the services you request.
• Comply with applicable legal, tax, or accounting obligations.
• Resolve disputes or enforce our agreements (e.g., Terms of Service).

When your information is no longer needed, we securely delete or anonymize it. For example:

• Account data is deleted upon your request, subject to legal retention requirements.
• Usage data may be anonymized and retained for analytical purposes.
• Backup data is deleted according to our backup retention schedule.
• Cookie consent analytics: IP addresses stored with cookie consent logs are removed after 90 days. Approximate country-level information derived from IP may be retained longer in those records for reporting; other analytics may be retained in aggregated or de-identified form as described elsewhere in this policy.

If you have questions about specific retention periods, contact us at support@cofoundally.com.

The Platform may include links, redirects, embedded panels, or integrations for business sites, Calendly, payment processors, social networks, AI providers, identity or company-verification services, and other third-party applications. These third parties operate independently, and their privacy practices are governed by their own policies. We are not responsible for:

• The content, security, or practices of third-party sites.
• Any information you provide to these sites.

We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services before sharing your information.

CofoundAlly is headquartered in Nigeria, but our services are accessible globally. If you use the Platform from outside Nigeria, your personal information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in Nigeria or other countries where our servers or service providers are located. These countries may have different data protection laws than your home country.

Where required, we use a lawful transfer mechanism and appropriate safeguards for international transfers, such as contractual protections, adequacy decisions, consent, or another mechanism recognized by applicable law. Using a feature that requires an international transfer may be necessary to provide that feature.

• Using contractual safeguards with service providers.
• Adhering to data protection frameworks where applicable.

The Platform is designed for professional use and is not intended for individuals under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect, use, or disclose personal information from children under 18. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected such information, we will take immediate steps to delete it.

If you believe a child under 18 has provided personal information to the Platform, please contact us at support@cofoundally.com, and we will investigate and remove the data as appropriate.

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or Platform features. We will notify you of significant changes by:

• Sending an email to the address associated with your account.
• Posting a notice on the Platform or in your account dashboard.

The updated policy will take effect upon posting or as specified in the notification. Your continued use of the Platform after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. We encourage you to review this policy regularly for updates.

If you have questions, concerns, or requests related to this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at: Email: support@cofoundally.com Mailing Address: CofoundAlly Advisors Ltd, Abuja, Nigeria We may need to verify your identity and authority, and we will handle requests within the time and limits required by applicable law.

For complaints or disputes, we encourage you to contact us directly so we can resolve your concerns promptly. You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority in your jurisdiction.

12.1 Nigeria

If you are in Nigeria, your personal information is processed in accordance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 (NDPA) and applicable guidance from the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC). Subject to applicable conditions and exceptions, you may have the right to:

• Access, correct, or delete your personal information.
• Object to or restrict certain processing and withdraw consent where consent is the basis.
• Request data portability and information about processing, recipients, and safeguards.
• Lodge a complaint with the NDPC or another competent authority.
• To exercise these rights, contact us at support@cofoundally.com.

12.2 European Union (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have additional rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including:

• The right to access, rectify, or erase your personal data.
• The right to restrict or object to processing.
• The right to data portability.
• The right to withdraw consent at any time (where processing is based on consent).
• The right to obtain information about automated decision-making and request human review where applicable.

Our legal basis for processing your data includes:

• Contract: To fulfill our obligations under the Terms of Service (e.g., providing matchmaking services).
• Consent: For optional features like marketing communications.
• Legitimate Interests: For purposes like fraud prevention, analytics, and service improvements.
• To exercise your GDPR rights, contact us at support@cofoundally.com. You may also file a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

12.3 California (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA/CPRA), grants you certain rights, subject to exceptions, including:

• The right to know what personal information we collect, use, or disclose about you.
• The right to delete your personal information (subject to exceptions).
• The right to correct inaccurate personal information and limit certain uses of sensitive personal information where applicable.
• The right to opt out of sale or sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising (we do not sell personal information and do not activate advertising cookies by default).
• The right to non-discrimination for exercising your CCPA rights.
• To submit a CCPA request, email support@cofoundally.com with the subject "CCPA Request." We will verify your identity before processing your request.

13.1 Legal Services Offering

When you use CofoundAlly legal, business, incorporation, governance, intellectual-property, compliance, contract, or document-preparation tools, we may process additional information to provide the requested workflow. The availability of a tool does not by itself create a professional engagement or guarantee that a filing or document is accepted.

• Company and Matter Details: Business name, address, proposed activities, ownership, directors' information, matter history, and other data you provide.
• Corporate and Legal Documents: Constitutions, resolutions, shareholder or founder agreements, contracts, term sheets, intellectual-property materials, checklists, forms, uploads, signatures, and generated drafts.
• Regulatory and Filing Information: Permits, licences, tax registrations, filing receipts, government identifiers, deadlines, and correspondence required for a selected workflow.

13.2 Legal Service Privacy Practices

When providing legal services through the configured offering, we adhere to the following practices:

• Purpose Limitation: We use matter data to provide the requested document, workflow, filing, support, billing, security, and compliance services.
• Access Controls: Matter and document access is limited according to the account, workspace, request, and service permissions in use; access may be logged for security and audit purposes.
• Professional Engagements: A separate engagement letter or service agreement may define confidentiality, privilege, retention, fees, and the identity of a professional adviser. Do not assume privilege or legal representation from using a template or Platform feature.
• Third-Party Processors: We may engage hosting, storage, document, filing, payment, communications, or professional-service providers. They process information under their agreements and applicable confidentiality and data-protection requirements.

13.3 Data Retention for Legal Services

Retention depends on the matter, service, legal obligation, active engagement, dispute, and your instructions. We may retain documents and records for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the service, maintain audit and billing records, meet professional or legal obligations, resolve disputes, or defend claims. When a matter closes, we may return, export, delete, redact, or archive information according to the applicable service terms and law.

• You should maintain your own copies of important documents, filings, signatures, and receipts.
• You may request access or an export subject to identity verification, technical limits, third-party rights, legal holds, and applicable law.
• Generated drafts and templates may be deleted or changed when the related feature, matter, or account ends.

How assistive features work

We may use search, recommendation, matching, drafting, summarization, document, and workflow models to generate suggestions or outputs from information you provide, Platform activity, and limited operational metadata. No automated system is perfect.

Human review and choices

AI features are assistive and may be incomplete, biased, stale, or wrong. Review outputs before relying on them, and contact support@cofoundally.com where required by law for information about relevant automated processing or human review.

Providers and retention

Authorized service providers may process prompts, documents, outputs, feedback, model names, version data, and safety or quality logs to provide and protect the feature. We retain these records only as reasonably needed for the feature, security, quality, legal obligations, and dispute resolution.

Information processed

Legal and business workflows may process company identifiers, ownership and director details, filings, contracts, signatures, intellectual-property information, compliance records, matter notes, uploads, generated drafts, and billing or support records. Only submit information you are authorized to provide.

Confidentiality and privilege

We apply access and security controls appropriate to the service, but using a Platform template or document tool does not by itself create attorney-client privilege, legal representation, tax advice, or another professional relationship. A separate engagement may establish additional duties and retention terms.

Document lifecycle

We may store, scan, convert, preview, transmit, export, archive, redact, or delete documents and metadata as needed to operate the requested workflow, comply with law, maintain audit and billing records, or resolve disputes. You should keep your own copies of important documents and filings.

Roles

CofoundAlly generally determines the purposes and means of processing for Platform accounts and services. A workspace administrator or connected service may independently determine the purposes and means of processing information in its environment and may be a separate controller. Service providers process information on our instructions or under their own notices when you use an external service.

Verified requests

To access, correct, delete, export, restrict, object to, or ask about your information, contact support@cofoundally.com. We may request information to verify your identity and authority, and we may limit a request where permitted or required by law, another person's rights, security, legal privilege, or a legal hold.

Complaints

We welcome the opportunity to resolve privacy concerns directly. Depending on where you live, you may also complain to the NDPC, an EU/UK/Swiss supervisory authority, the California Privacy Protection Agency, or another competent data-protection authority.