LAUNCHPAD PRIVACY POLICY & COOKIES

SUMMARY

LaunchPad is engineered and operated by the ELITES Organization developer and communications team as a non-commercial showcase intended for BSIT and BSDS students in the ITDS Department at BulSU Sarmiento Campus. Below is a plain-English summary of our strict privacy practices:

• Zero Tracking Cookies • No Cookie Pop-up: We use strictly essential authentication session cookies only. We do not use advertising trackers, Google Analytics, or marketing beacons, meaning no annoying cookie consent banner is legally required.
• Student Privacy by Design: Your university student number, campus ID, and email address are strictly private and never published in public URLs, search engines, or directory cards.
• Full RA 10173 Compliance: We adhere to the Data Privacy Act of 2012 of the Philippines. You retain the right to access, export, or permanently delete your account and submitted builds.
• Zero Monetization: We never sell, license, or monetize student personal data to third-party data brokers or commercial advertisers.

01. LEGAL BASIS & PHILIPPINE DPA COMPLIANCE

LaunchPad operates in full compliance with the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173) of the Philippines, its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR), and student privacy standards.

We process student builder data under the legal criteria of Contractual Necessity (to provide showcase and registry services requested by the student) and Legitimate Educational Interest (to preserve, archive, and highlight undergraduate capstone innovation).

02. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect only the minimal data points necessary to confirm your student identity and display your builds:

• Authentication Data: Name and email provided during Google OAuth or BulSU Microsoft 365 magic link sign-in (@ms.bulsu.edu.ph). We never handle, see, or store your passwords.
• Public Profile Fields: Your chosen builder username handle (e.g. /u/jeraldpascual), display name, bio, course track (BSIT/BSDS), and optional social links (GitHub, LinkedIn).
• Project Submissions: Project title, summary callout, category tags, technology stack, cover banners, screenshot assets, and demo/repo URLs.
• Community Activity: Project bookmarks (private to your dashboard) and favorite reactions (one public vote per authenticated student account).

03. COOKIE STATEMENT & WHY WE DO NOT HAVE A COOKIE POP-UP

04. PRIVACY BY DESIGN & STUDENT NUMBER CONCEALMENT

BulSU Sarmiento students sign in using their institutional email addresses (which contain student numbers, such as 2025123456@ms.bulsu.edu.ph).

To prevent doxxing or public scraping of student IDs, LaunchPad enforces a database trigger that automatically assigns newly registered students a neutral temporary handle (builder_XXXX) and generic display name (Student Builder). Students can then customize their display name and claim their public vanity handle in their Member Dashboard.

05. YOUR RIGHTS AS A STUDENT DATA SUBJECT (RA 10173 SEC. 16)

Under Section 16 of the Data Privacy Act of 2012, you possess clear rights regarding your personal information:

• Right to Access & Rectify: You can view and update your profile details and social links at any time in your dashboard.
• Right to Erasure / Account Deletion: You may request permanent deletion of your account and removal of your submitted projects by emailing our review team.
• Right to Object: You may withdraw your consent to showcase your project on public campus channels at any time.

06. CONTACT OUR DATA COMPLIANCE OFFICERS

If you have questions, inquiries, or data deletion requests under the Data Privacy Act of 2012, please reach out to the ELITES technical review and compliance team: