Skye Ecotech

1. Introduction

Skye Ecotech ("we", "us", "our") operates a free professional networking and community platform for technology professionals, students and enthusiasts. Our core purposes are to help members build professional connections, showcase their skills and experience, discover job opportunities and participate in community discussions through SkyeConnect. We are committed to protecting your personal information in compliance with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and safeguard your data when you use Skye Ecotech and SkyeConnect.

2. Data We Collect

To provide our services (SkyeConnect forum, Jobs board, profile networking, polls, AI Insights and education search), we collect:

• Account Information: Full name, email address, username, phone number, password (hashed), occupation.
• Profile Information: Bio, skills/tech stack, education history, profile picture and resume/CV (PDF upload). Your tech stack and resume help other members understand your expertise and enable peers or recruiters to assess fit for opportunities.
• Social Profiles: GitHub, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram and personal website links. These may be connected via OAuth or entered manually. We do not store passwords for any social accounts.
• User-Generated Content: Forum posts, comments, discussion topics, poll questions and votes, bookmarks and starred topics.
• Job Search History: Search queries and location queries you enter on the Jobs board, linked to your account. This allows us to show your recent searches and improve job relevance.
• Activity Data: Actions you take on the Platform (e.g., likes, votes, bookmarks, stars), logged with your IP address and timestamp for security and feature improvement.
• Notifications: We store notification content, read/unread status and sender/recipient relationships to power the in-app notification system.

We do not collect sensitive personal data (race, health, religion, political affiliation) unless you voluntarily include it in your bio or posts.

3. How We Use & Share Your Data

We use your data to operate, maintain and improve the Platform. Specifically:

• Networking & Profiles: Your tech stack, bio, education history and resume/CV are visible to other logged-in members to facilitate professional networking, collaboration and recruitment. You control what you upload; please do not include information you do not wish to share with the community.
• Job Discovery: Your job search history is used internally to display your recent searches and to personalize job recommendations. It is not shared with Adzuna or other third parties.
• Communication: We use your email address for account-related notifications and optional community updates.
• Safety & Improvement: Activity data and logs help us secure the Platform, prevent abuse and enhance features.

We do not sell your personal information to any third party.

4. Third-Party Integrations & AI Processing

We integrate with external services to enhance the Platform. We do not sell your personal information to any third party.

• Job Board (Adzuna API): Fetches public job listings for display. No user personal information is shared with Adzuna. Clicking external job links is user-initiated.
• GitHub API: Displays your public repositories and profile information to other logged-in members. We do not access private repositories or data.
• OAuth Providers: When you connect social accounts (Google, GitHub, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram), we receive only basic profile information permitted by you during the OAuth consent flow.

5. Cookies & Session Storage

We use session cookies to maintain your login state and secure your account. These are essential for Platform functionality. Session cookies are configured with HttpOnly, Secure (on HTTPS) and SameSite=Lax attributes.

6. Data Retention

• Account & Profile Data: Retained until you delete your account or request deletion.
• Forum Posts & Comments: Retained as a public community record. You may request removal of specific posts.
• Resumes & Profile Pictures: Retained while your account is active. Deleted upon account deletion.
• Job Search History: Retained for 90 days, after which it is automatically deleted.
• Activity Logs: Retained for 30 days for security and debugging purposes.
• Notifications: Retained until marked as read, plus 30 days.
• Poll Votes: Retained indefinitely as aggregated community data. Individual vote associations are retained for the life of the poll.
• Bookmarks & Stars: Retained until you remove them or delete your account.

7. Your Rights (POPIA)

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification: Update or correct your information via your profile settings.
• Deletion: Request deletion of your account and associated data by emailing support@skyeecotech.co.za with the subject "Delete My Data".
• Objection/Restriction: Request that we limit processing of your data in certain circumstances, including the visibility of your profile data (e.g., resume or tech stack) to other members. Note that restricting visibility may reduce networking and job-discovery functionality.

We will process verified requests within 30 days. Note that some data (e.g., public forum posts) may remain visible even after account deletion if they have been shared with the community.

8. Security Measures

We implement the following safeguards:

• SSL/TLS encryption for all data in transit.
• Passwords hashed using PHP's password_hash() (bcrypt).
• MySQL database with access controls and prepared statements to prevent SQL injection.
• Rate limiting on API endpoints and authentication attempts.
• Server-side input validation and sanitization.
• Secure session management with HttpOnly, Secure and SameSite cookie attributes.

9. Legal Compliance

This Privacy Policy is designed to comply with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). We respect internationally recognized data protection principles, including those outlined in the GDPR, as applicable to our operations. Changes to this policy will be posted here with an updated date.