Privacy Policy

1. Scope

This policy explains how Hotkey collects, uses, shares, and protects personal information when you visit the site, create an account, or use the marketplace as an employer or specialist.

2. Information you give us

Account details: name, email, password, role, company or business name, alias, industry, and size.

Profile details: headline, bio, location, skills, systems, services, certifications, portfolio projects, files, videos, links, and profile photo.

Marketplace activity: requests, budgets, questions, proposals, offers and reasons, contracts and signatures, progress updates, messages, and contact form submissions.

3. Information collected automatically

Basic device and usage information such as browser type, pages viewed, request view counts, and timestamps, used to keep the site secure and working. We use only cookies and local storage needed to keep you signed in and remember preferences. We do not sell data to advertisers or use advertising trackers.

4. Anonymized files

Sample spreadsheets are scanned in your browser for names, emails, account numbers, and other identifiers. You review the flagged columns, and only the anonymized copy is uploaded. The original file never leaves your computer.

Hotkey does not use your files, requests, or work product to train artificial intelligence models.

5. How we use information

To run the marketplace: create accounts, show profiles and requests, suggest matches, facilitate negotiation, contracts, files, messaging, and payout records.

To keep Hotkey safe: verify specialists, moderate content, prevent fraud and abuse, and enforce our terms.

To communicate: account emails, alerts you have turned on, and replies to your questions.

To improve Hotkey: aggregated, de identified statistics about requests, skills, systems, rates, and project lengths. These statistics do not identify you or your company.

6. Who can see what

Public: specialist profiles and public work samples, and live requests showing the company name or alias the employer chose.

Contract parties: request and project files open only to the employer and a specialist who has signed the work contract for that project. Private request fields such as maximum budget and point of contact are shown only to people who need them.

Hotkey: a small, audited admin team can access account, moderation, and accounting records to operate and protect the marketplace. Admin actions are logged.

7. Sharing

We share information with service providers who host the site, store data, send email, and process payments, only as needed to provide those services and under confidentiality obligations.

We may disclose information when required by law, to protect rights and safety, or as part of a merger or sale of the business with notice to you. We do not sell personal information.

8. Retention

We keep account information while your account is active. Accounting, contract, and audit records are kept as long as required for tax, legal, and control purposes, typically up to 7 years. Other data is deleted or de identified when no longer needed.

9. Security

Files are stored privately and opened through links that expire within minutes. Access rules are enforced in the database, not just the website. Roles are stored separately from profiles, administrative actions are logged, and financial records are append only. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password.

10. Your rights and choices

You can view and edit your profile at any time, post under a private alias, control file visibility, and turn email alerts off.

Depending on where you live (for example California or the European Economic Area), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your information, and to object to certain uses. Make a request through the Contact us page and we will respond within the time the law requires. We will not discriminate against you for using these rights.

11. International users

Hotkey is operated in the United States. If you use Hotkey from elsewhere, your information is processed in the United States with the protections described here.

12. Children

Hotkey is for business use by people 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

13. Changes and contact

We may update this policy. When changes are significant we will ask you to review the new version before continuing to use Hotkey.

Questions or privacy requests can be sent through the Contact us page.