Privacy Policy

Who we are

DapUp is run by Sunny Le in New Zealand. DapUp is an online platform, so the way to reach us is by email. We are the agency that collects and holds your information under the Privacy Act 2020. Our privacy officer is Sunny Le, reachable at dapup.dev@gmail.com.

1. Information we collect

To make an account you need to give us your name, your email address and whether you are a student or a mentor. Without these we cannot create your account.

Everything else is up to you:

• Your education system, university, course and year of study
• A profile photo and a short bio
• Requests you send to mentors, and the messages you exchange with them
• If you are in the Premier Fellowship: your weekly check-in answers, your tasks and deadlines, and notes from your meetings
• If you connect Google Calendar: the Google email address you linked, the times you are busy (not what your events are), and the meetings DapUp books for you

Mentors need a complete profile before they appear in the directory, and students need one before they can send a request.

Our hosting and sign-in providers also keep standard server logs, which include your IP address, browser and device type and when you signed in. We also use Vercel Web Analytics to count visits and page views. It does not use cookies and does not identify you.

2. How we use your information

We use this information to:

• Show your profile to students and mentors so you can find each other
• Deliver connection requests and messages between you and your mentor or student
• Email mentors when a student sends them a request, and email students when a mentor accepts
• Review and approve mentor profiles before they appear in the directory
• Send Premier Fellowship students a weekly check-in, and use an AI assistant to suggest whether a mentor meeting is needed, how long it should be and what to cover. A mentor always confirms before anything is booked.
• Find times when everyone in a meeting is free, and put booked meetings on their calendars
• Keep the site working, safe and free of spam and abuse
• Answer your questions when you contact us

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.

3. Who can see your information

• Other members can see your public profile: your name, photo, bio, university and the help you offer or need.
• A mentor or student you are connected with can see your requests and the messages you send them. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted, so the DapUp team can read them when handling a report.
• The DapUp team can see your information when needed to run the site, approve mentors, respond to reports or enforce our terms.
• We may share information if the law requires it, or to protect someone’s safety.

We use other companies to run DapUp. They only process your information for us, not for their own purposes:

• Clerk handles sign-in (your name, email and password or social login)
• Vercel hosts the website
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) runs our servers, database and photo storage, and sends our emails
• DeepSeek’s AI service reads Premier Fellowship check-in answers, with related tasks and notes, to suggest a meeting length. We do not include your name or email address. DeepSeek processes this in China.
• Google, if you connect Google Calendar, to check when you are busy and to create meeting invitations

DapUp’s use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We only use your calendar to find meeting times and book meetings you or your mentors ask for, and you can disconnect it at any time from your profile.

Some of these companies store information outside New Zealand, mainly in Australia and the United States. When that happens we make sure they must protect it to a standard comparable to New Zealand privacy law. China, where DeepSeek processes check-ins, may not offer comparable protection, so we only send it check-in content and we tell Premier Fellowship students about this before their first check-in. If we ever add a provider that processes your profile or messages for a new purpose, we will update this page first.

4. Your rights

Under the Privacy Act 2020 you have the right to:

• Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Ask us to correct it. If we do not agree, you can ask us to attach a note saying what you think is right
• Delete your account at any time from your profile settings

Email dapup.dev@gmail.com. We will reply within 20 working days and will not charge you. We may ask you to confirm it is you first.

5. How long we keep it

We keep your information while your account is active. When you delete your account we delete your profile, photo, requests and messages, and the person you were talking to will no longer see the conversation either. Copies in backups and technical logs are cleared on a rolling basis, normally within a few weeks.

We give your account its own ID so the site works. We do not use your school, university or government ID numbers.

6. Security

We take reasonable steps to protect your information:

• Information is stored with reputable hosting providers and access is limited to the people who need it
• Sign-in is handled by Clerk, and sessions expire
• Mentor profiles are reviewed before they are shown publicly

No website is completely secure, so please use a strong password and tell us if you notice anything unusual.

7. If something goes wrong

If your information is lost, leaked or accessed without permission and this could seriously harm you, we will tell you as soon as we can, and we will report it to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

8. Under 18s

You must be at least 13 to use DapUp. If you are under 18, we recommend you show this page to a parent or guardian. You have the same privacy rights as an adult, and a parent or guardian can help you use them.

9. Cookies

We and Clerk use cookies to keep you signed in and to help the site work. You can block or delete cookies in your browser, but you will not be able to sign in without them.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the site changes or the law requires it. The effective date at the top shows the latest version. We will email you about significant changes.

11. Complaints and contact

If you think we have got your privacy wrong, email our privacy officer at dapup.dev@gmail.com first and we will try to fix it. If you are not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz or on 0800 803 909.