Privacy Policy

Last updated: 12.10.2026

This policy explains what personal data SciBloom collects when you join our waitlist or our mailing list, and what we hold if you requested access to our prototype, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the rights you have. We have written it in plain language on purpose.

1. Who we are

SciBloom is a platform that helps researchers explore career paths beyond the traditional academic track. The waitlist is currently operated by Alicia Pérez Saturnino as an individual. A company is being set up, and this policy will be updated once SciBloom is incorporated.

You can reach us about anything in this policy, or to exercise your rights, at: privacy@scibloom.eu

Postal address: Alicia Pérez Saturnino, HU Incubator, Luisenstr. 53, 10117 Berlin, Germany

We are the data controller for the personal data described here.

2. What this policy covers

This policy covers the SciBloom waitlist at scibloom.eu: the email you give us to join, anything optional you choose to share, and the basic technical data our servers process when you visit or sign up. It also covers the access requests we hold from our former request-access form, and our mailing list if you choose to join it. It does not cover the SciBloom product itself (the assessment, matching, and career tools). Researchers are testing an early version of that product, and that test has its own privacy record: the participant information page, which everyone taking part reads before they create an account. Once you create an account, that page explains how we handle your data inside the product.

3. What data we collect

We keep this to a minimum. We collect:

• Your email address. This is the only thing you have to give us to join the waitlist.
• Your optional preferences. If you tick them, we record that you are happy to share written feedback, or that you are open to a conversation with the founder. These are entirely optional and you can join without either.
• Basic technical data. When you visit the site or submit the form, our servers automatically process standard technical information such as your IP address, the time of the request, and basic browser information. This happens on any website and is needed to run the site securely.
• If you requested access to the prototype. Our request-access form, now retired, asked for your first name, your email address, your current situation (for example PhD, postdoc, or left academia), your research field, your country of residence, how actively you are exploring careers outside academia, and whether you would be open to a video call while using SciBloom. Only your first name, email and current situation were required. We also recorded how you reached the form: through our newsletter to the waitlist, or through our post on LinkedIn. Anyone can now create an account directly, without requesting access.
• If you join our mailing list. If you tick the updates box when you create an account (or ticked it on our former request-access form), we email you a link to confirm. You join the list only when you click it. We record your email address, that you asked to receive updates from us, and when you confirmed. If you don’t confirm within 7 days of our most recent confirmation email, we delete this mailing-list signup. Your account or access request, if you have one, is not affected.

We do not ask for your name to join the waitlist, and our request-access form asked for your first name only. We do not ask for any special or sensitive information, and we do not buy or receive your data from anyone else.

4. Why we use your data, and our legal basis

• To contact you about early access. We use your email to share early-access details. Legal basis: your consent, which you give by ticking the consent box when you join.
• To involve you if you opted in. If you ticked one of the optional boxes, we may contact you to invite your written feedback or to arrange a conversation. Legal basis: your consent.
• To keep the site secure and working. We use the basic technical data above to operate the site reliably and protect it from abuse. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in a secure, functioning service.
• To run our testing round. We use your access request to invite you to try the prototype and to later testing rounds, and to choose a small, varied group of people for video sessions. The questions about your situation and field help us make sure that group includes different career stages. Legal basis: your consent, which you gave by ticking the consent box on the form.
• To send you updates, if you joined our mailing list. Legal basis: your consent. You can unsubscribe from any email with one click.

We do not use your data for advertising, we do not profile you, and there is no automated decision-making at the waitlist stage.

5. How long we keep it

• Your email and preferences: until you withdraw your consent, or until 24 months after the waitlist closes, whichever comes first. After that we delete them.
• Your access request: up to 12 months after you sent it, so that we can invite you to later testing rounds. After that we delete it.
• Your mailing-list subscription: until you unsubscribe.
• Basic technical data: kept only for a short period (up to 30 days) and then deleted.

You can ask us to delete your data sooner at any time (see your rights below).

6. Who we share it with, and where your data is stored

We do not sell your data or share it for anyone else’s marketing. We use a small number of trusted providers who process data on our behalf, under appropriate data protection safeguards, only to run the waitlist, the access requests we hold and our mailing list:

• Fly.io hosts the waitlist and the access requests we hold, and stores your data. Your data is stored on servers in Frankfurt, Germany, inside the EU.
• Scaleway sends the emails we send you, such as your confirmation. Scaleway is based in France, inside the EU.
• Infomaniak provides our own email and file storage, so it processes any correspondence you have with us. We also use Infomaniak Newsletter to send emails to the waitlist and the mailing list, with open and click tracking switched off. Infomaniak is based in Switzerland.

International transfers. Your waitlist data is stored in the EU (Frankfurt). One of our providers, Fly.io, is a company based in the United States, even though the data itself stays in the EU. Where a provider is based outside the EU, we rely on the safeguards EU law recognises: Fly.io is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which the EU recognises as providing an adequate level of protection for this transfer. Infomaniak is in Switzerland, which the EU also formally recognises as providing an adequate level of data protection. In both cases, no further transfer step is required.

7. Cookies and tracking

We keep the site simple. We do not use analytics, advertising, or tracking cookies, and there is nothing that profiles you across the web. We only use the essential technical elements needed to make the page and the signup form work. Because of that, there is no cookie banner to click through.

8. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct it if it is wrong.
• Delete it (“right to be forgotten”).
• Restrict or object to how we use it.
• Receive a copy of it in a portable format.
• Withdraw your consent at any time. This is easy: every email we send has a working unsubscribe link, and you can also email us. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything we did lawfully before you withdrew it.

To exercise any of these, email privacy@scibloom.eu. We will respond within the time the law allows (usually one month).

9. How to complain

If you think we have handled your data improperly, we would like the chance to put it right, so please contact us first at privacy@scibloom.eu. You also have the right to complain to the supervisory authority:

Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit (BlnBDI)
Alt-Moabit 59-61, 10555 Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49 30 13889-0
Email: mailbox@datenschutz-berlin.de
Website: https://www.datenschutz-berlin.de

You may also lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in the country or region where you live or work.

10. Children

SciBloom is intended for researchers and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If the changes are significant, we will let waitlist members know by email.