Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

RemoteNest is a product of Litewave Technologies, a technology company registered in Nigeria. We operate a three-sided remote work marketplace connecting jobseekers, employers, and bounty sponsors across jobs, freelance gigs, and project bounties.

For any privacy-related questions, contact us at privacy@litewave-remotenest.vercel.app.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information you provide directly

• Account registration: name, email address, password, role (jobseeker or employer), and account type.
• Jobseeker profile: full name, professional title, bio, hourly rate, location, timezone, skills, work experience, education, portfolio URLs, and resume file.
• Employer profile: company name, logo, description, website, industry, company size, and location.
• Job and gig listings: all content you submit when posting a job, creating a gig, or sponsoring a bounty.
• Applications and proposals: cover letters, proposed rates, and any attachments you submit.
• Messages: content of direct messages sent through the Platform's built-in messaging system.
• Payment information: billing details processed through Stripe or Flutterwave. We do not store full card numbers; payment processors handle this under their own privacy policies.
• Verification documents: government-issued ID, selfie photo, and business registration documents submitted for identity verification (Blue and Gold badge programmes).
• Reviews and ratings: text and star ratings you submit about other users.

2.2 Information we collect automatically

• IP address, browser type, device type, and operating system.
• Pages visited, time spent, referring URLs, and clickstream data.
• Cookie identifiers and session tokens (see Section 7).
• Usage patterns within the Platform (searches, filters applied, jobs viewed).

2.3 Information from third parties

• OAuth providers: if you sign in with Google or GitHub, we receive your name, email, profile photo, and provider account ID. We do not receive your password.
• GitHub (optional integration): if you connect your GitHub account for developer analysis, we access public repository data, contribution history, followers, and following counts via the GitHub API.
• Google Drive (optional integration): if you authorise the Google Drive integration, we access file metadata (name, type, size, modification date) to generate a Drive analysis. We do not read the content of your files.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use collected information to:

• Create and manage your account and profile.
• Match jobseekers with relevant job listings, gigs, and bounties using our AI scoring system.
• Enable employers to post jobs, review applications, and communicate with candidates.
• Process payments, hold escrow balances, and release funds upon contract completion.
• Generate AI-powered resume analysis, GitHub developer scoring, and Google Drive activity insights.
• Send transactional emails (account confirmations, application updates, payment receipts, contract alerts).
• Send optional marketing communications if you have opted in (you can opt out at any time).
• Detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent activity, abuse, and security incidents.
• Comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests from authorities.
• Improve the Platform through anonymised usage analysis and product research.
• Administer identity verification and award verification badges.

4. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area or United Kingdom, we process your data under the following legal bases:

• Contract performance: to provide the Platform's core features (accounts, job listings, orders, payments).
• Legitimate interests: fraud prevention, security, and product improvement.
• Legal obligation: compliance with applicable law.
• Consent: marketing emails, optional integrations (GitHub, Google Drive), and optional AI analysis features.

5. Sharing Your Information

We do not sell your personal data. We share information only in the following circumstances:

• Between platform users: employer profiles are visible to jobseekers. Jobseeker profiles are visible to employers who have unlocked them or received an application. Gig listings and bounties are publicly visible.
• Payment processors: Stripe and Flutterwave receive payment details to process transactions and manage escrow.
• Cloud infrastructure: hosting, database, and storage providers (e.g. Vercel, Neon, AWS) who process data on our behalf under data processing agreements.
• AI providers: resume text and selected metadata may be sent to AI model APIs for analysis. Data is not used to train third-party models.
• Legal authorities: when required by law, court order, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Litewave Technologies, our users, or the public.
• Business transfers: in the event of a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, your information may be transferred as part of the transaction. We will notify you before your data is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

6. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. Specifically:

• Active account data is retained indefinitely while your account remains open.
• Deleted accounts are soft-deleted for 30 days before permanent deletion, giving you time to recover access if deletion was accidental.
• Payment and transaction records are retained for 7 years for tax and legal compliance.
• Identity verification documents are deleted within 90 days of a successful or rejected verification outcome.
• Messages are retained for the lifetime of the account. You may delete individual messages but deletion from recipient inboxes is not guaranteed.
• Anonymised usage data may be retained indefinitely for analytics.

7. Cookies and Tracking

We use the following types of cookies:

• Essential cookies: session tokens, authentication state, and security tokens. Required for the Platform to function. Cannot be disabled.
• Preference cookies: store your UI preferences such as theme and language settings.
• Analytics cookies: anonymised data on page views and feature usage to help us improve the Platform.

We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. You can manage preference and analytics cookies through your browser settings or by contacting us.

8. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification: correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Erasure: request deletion of your personal data (subject to legal retention requirements).
• Portability: receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Objection: object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Restriction: request that we limit how we process your data.
• Withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at privacy@litewave-remotenest.vercel.app. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Security

We implement technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including: TLS encryption for data in transit, AES-256 encryption for data at rest, hashed and salted passwords, role-based access controls, and regular security reviews.

No system is completely secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at privacy@litewave-remotenest.vercel.app.

10. International Transfers

Litewave Technologies is based in Nigeria. Your data may be processed in countries outside your own, including the United States (Stripe, Vercel) and Ireland (Google). Where required, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses or other approved transfer mechanisms to protect cross-border data transfers.

11. Children's Privacy

The Platform is not directed at individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from minors. If we discover we have collected data from a minor, we will delete it promptly. If you believe a minor has provided us with data, contact us at privacy@litewave-remotenest.vercel.app.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email (to the address on your account) and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Your continued use of the Platform after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

13. Contact Us

For privacy questions, data requests, or complaints, contact our privacy team: