Privacy Policy.
What we keep, and why.

The short version

Reading Ceolumen needs no account and stores nothing about you beyond what your browser keeps. An application is read by Ceolumen’s staff and never published. A member’s profile shows only the panel’s citation and what the member chooses to show. Ceolumen is a Stacklumen LLC product, and Stacklumen LLC is responsible for your data.

What we collect

• Your account: your name, email address and sign-in details, held by our sign-in provider.
• Your application: the answers you write, including your company’s details, and, in confidence, its revenue band and ownership, any disclosure you make, and your references’ names, relationships and email addresses. Its stage and the times it changed.
• The review of your application: verification notes, reviewers’ scores and notes, and the decision. These are internal and are not shown to you or anyone outside Ceolumen’s staff, except the decision and its message.
• Your profile, if you are recognised: what it shows publicly, and whether you have hidden it.
• Your membership: its state and billing references. Card details go to our payment processor and never reach us.
• Your cookie choices: a random visitor id, the categories you allowed, the policy version and when you chose, linked to your account if you were signed in. No IP address and no user agent.
• Messages you send us.

How we use it

To run your account; to verify, review and decide your application; to publish and maintain your profile if you are recognised; to provide and bill your membership; to answer you; and to keep the service secure. Anonymous page counts are collected only if you allow analytics.

What we do not do

• We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.
• We do not publish application answers, scores, references or disclosures.
• We contact your references only during verification, and only about your application.

Who else processes it

Our hosting provider (Vercel), our database provider (Neon), our sign-in provider (Clerk), our payment processor (Stripe), and the Stacklumen CMS, which holds our editorial content and no personal information about readers. Each processes data only to provide its service to us.

How long we keep it

• Accounts: until you delete yours. Deleting it removes your applications and profile.
• Applications that were not accepted: three years after the decision, so that a reapplication can be read against the earlier one, then deleted.
• Recognised founders’ records: while you are recognised, and three years after.
• Billing records: as long as tax law requires.

Your choices and rights

You can see and correct your account and profile, hide your profile, withdraw an application and delete your account. You can ask us for a copy of what we hold about you, or to delete it, at support@stacklumen.com. Residents of states with privacy laws have the rights those laws give, and we honour them for everyone.

Children

Ceolumen is for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

Cookies and browser storage

Signing in uses cookies set by our sign-in provider. Your theme and cookie choices are kept in your browser. Analytics run only if you allow them, from Preferences at the foot of every page.

Changes

When this policy changes, the date at the top changes, and material changes are announced on the site or by email. Questions: support@stacklumen.com. Stacklumen LLC, Lexington, Kentucky, USA.