I.          OUR PRIVACY COMMITMENT

Your privacy matters to us. We are a nonprofit organization that partners with funders and leading research institutions to support the Fellowship, a new path for entrepreneurial scientists and engineers to transform their discoveries into world-changing technologies. The Fellowship provides funding, access to world-class research facilities, entrepreneurial mentorship, networking, and education. To support the Fellowship and run our organization, we need to collect, store, use, and disclose a range of information. We are committed to protecting your privacy and keeping your information safe.

II.        THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy explains how LabStart Innovations, Inc. and its affiliates (“we,” “our,” or “us”) may collect, use, share, and protect your personal information. 

By accessing our website, you agree to the terms of this privacy policy. If anything in this privacy policy is unacceptable to you, please cease accessing our website and do not provide any information to us. This privacy policy does not apply to any other websites that have separate privacy policies that do not incorporate this privacy policy.

III.      UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We recognize that privacy is an ongoing responsibility and so we will from time to time update this privacy policy as we undertake new data security practices or adopt new privacy policies. This current privacy policy came into effect as of the “Last Updated” date above. If we update our privacy policy, we will update the “Last Updated” date above and will post the updated version on our website homepage(s).

IV.      WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

The types of information we collect depends on the nature of your interaction with our website:

• Website Form Information.  When you sign up for our newsletters or other types of informational or marketing material, make any inquiry or indicate an expression of interest in our Fellowship program via our website, or otherwise reach out to us via our website, we will collect the information you provide to us as part of that process, including your email address, name, and any other information you provide in the “message” field (or similar) or when you email us.
• Fellowship. When you apply for a Fellowship using our application form, we will collect all information that you provide to us as part of that application process, including all information you provide in the application form and as part of any interview process (“Fellowship Application”).  This information will include information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with you (which we refer to as “personal information” in this privacy policy) such as your name, contact details (including address, email address, and phone number), occupation, your relevant project and company details, citizenship status (required by some of our government sponsors and partner laboratories), ethnic background (optional), gender identity (optional), biographical information, and any information you provide when you answer our questions as part of the Fellowship Application process.  If as part of the Fellowship Application process, you provide us with a website (such as your company or personal website) or your social media links, we may visit such website or social media links and access any information that may be accessible on them. If you are awarded a Fellowship (in which case, you are considered a “fellow”), you may be asked to provide us with additional information, including your social media links, images of yourself, additional information regarding your Fellowship project and additional biographical information.  All of the information described in this paragraph is referred to as “Fellowship Information” in this privacy policy.
• Webinars and Events. When you sign up or attend any webinars or events hosted by us, we will collect any information you provide to us when you sign up for the webinar or event or information you provide to us during the webinar or event, including your name and email address.
• Job Applications.  When you apply for a job with us via our website, we will collect all information you provide to us as part of that application process including all information you provide in your job application materials, such as your name, contact details, and other personal information (including personal information that may be accessible via social media links that you provide to us in your job application materials).
• Website Usage Information.  As is true of most other websites, our website collects certain information automatically and stores it in log files. The information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, operating system, and other usage information about the use of our website, such as a history of the pages you view. Please see Section VIII for our cookies policy.

V.        HOW DO WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION?

There are three ways that we can collect your information:

• You Give It to Us. You give it to us when you or your representative interacts with us or our website.  This may happen when you apply for a Fellowship, when you contact us via our website, indicate an expression of interest in our Fellowship program via our website, when you sign up for our newsletter, when you apply for a job via our website, or when you sign up or attend one of our webinars or events.
• Through the Website.  We automatically collect information when you use your website, including the “Website Usage Information” described in Section IV above, such as through our website’s use of cookies and other technologies to identify and track your online activities and website analytics providers such as Squarespace and Google Analytics.
• Through Others. We may obtain information from others, such as public information (including social media websites), personal information you or others have provided to third parties with whom we have a relationship with (such as our corporate sponsors and partner laboratories), and anyone who may be acting or purportedly acting on your behalf (such as anyone who is completing a Fellowship Application for you).  If you provide personal information to us about someone else (such as one of your employees, co-workers, or business associates), you represent to us that you are authorized to disclose such information to us and that, without taking any further steps, we may collect, use, store, transfer, and disclose such information as described in this privacy policy as if it were disclosed to us directly by such other person.

VI.      HOW WE MAY USE YOUR INFORMATION

We may use the information we collect from or about you for the following purposes:

• Operation of Website. We may use your information to provide our website and its content to you and others. 
• Marketing. If you have been awarded a Fellowship, we may include your Fellowship Information in our external marketing materials, including our website, but only with your prior consent.
• Fulfilling Your Request. We may use your information to fulfill the purpose for which you provided the information to us, such as to respond to your email or inquiry, to put you on our mailing/newsletter list if you requested that, to provide you with information about any upcoming Fellowships, to evaluate your Fellowship Application, and to inform you about the status of your Fellowship Application.
• Communicate With You. We may use your information to communicate with you about us, our webinars and events, or to provide you with information or marketing materials that may be of interest to you.  We might do this on mediums such as email, social media, and web pages you may visit. This may include communications with you for marketing purposes, including for the purpose of obtaining funding or sponsorship from you, the organization you represent or third parties, or to encourage or invite you or third parties to apply for the Fellowship.  If you do not wish to receive certain marketing email communications from us anymore, please use the unsubscribe mechanism included in the email communication or send an email using the contact information in Section XV informing us that you would like to unsubscribe or be removed from our mailing list.
• Hiring. If you are a candidate for a position with us, we may use your personal information in connection with recruiting you, processing your application for the position, and providing you with status updates on your application. By providing information in connection with your application with us, you expressly consent to our use of such information in connection with your application, including for compliance with our policy as an equal opportunity employer. You may also provide us with your email address to receive information on open positions with us. Doing so could trigger emails from us inviting you to complete an application or to send your curriculum vitae, resume, or other information.
• Fellowship Applications. If you have applied to the Fellowship, we may use your information in connection with processing, evaluating and verifying your Fellowship Application, communicating with you about the status of your Fellowship Application, identifying and managing any potential conflict of interest issues, and conducting pre-employment background investigations. Providing information regarding your ethnic background and your gender identity in connection with your Fellowship Application is optional and your eligibility for the Fellowship will not be impacted by whether you provide such information or by such information that you provide.
• Improvement. We are constantly working to improve and grow our organization, the Fellowship, and website (including its content and performance). We may use your information to help us do this in a number of ways. For example to monitor use, quality, and performance, and to operate, maintain, develop, test, and upgrade our website, to improve our Fellowship Application and its process, to increase the number of Fellowship applicants, and to increase our funding and sponsorship from individuals and public and private entities.
• Other Purposes. We may use your information for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information or with your consent.

VII.    HOW WE MAY SHARE YOUR INFORMATION?

We may disclose and share the information we collect from or about you for the following purposes:

• Fellowship Application Reviewers. We may disclose your Fellowship Information to third parties who are scientific and industry experts in our network and who are assisting us with evaluating your Fellowship Application and who are bound by our written confidentiality and conflict of interest requirements. 
• Partners and Sponsors. some text
  • Who are our partners? Certain third parties, who we sometimes refer to as partners, sponsors, or investors, have or may in the future provide us with funding, time, equipment, services, or other resources, to allow us to advance our mission or may be interested in partnering or investing in our Fellowship applicants (or their respective companies or entities) (together, the “Partners”).  These Partners include certain existing or potential corporate and government sponsors, funding agencies, investors, industry partners, partner laboratories and educational institutions, and service providers.
  • Your options as Fellowship applicants. When completing a Fellowship Application, Fellowship applicants will have the option to choose from different Fellowship Application sharing permission levels to grant us permission to share your Fellowship Information with these Partners. During the application process we will adhere to the permission level you have selected, and by selecting the relevant permission level, you, as the applicant, consent to us applying the relevant permission level selected by you.  If you have any questions about any of the permission levels, please contact us using the contact information in Section XV before you select the relevant permission level and before you submit your Fellowship Application.  Applicants may change or revoke their selection during the application process by notifying us in writing using the contact information in Section XV and we will then adhere to the newly selected permission level going forward for the rest of the application process after we have processed such a request.  However, we will not be able to revoke or withdraw any information that has already been shared with third parties in accordance with a previous choice.  In addition, regardless of any permission level you have selected in your Fellowship Application, if you are selected as a Fellowship finalist or you are selected as a fellow, then this paragraph will no longer apply and we may disclose and share your information in accordance with the paragraph below.
  • Fellowship Finalists and Alumni and Fellows. Because our Fellowship finalists, fellows and alumni potentially benefit greatly from connections to certain of our Partners, we aim to facilitate business relationships between our finalists/fellows/alumni/ and these Partners. Accordingly, if you are a Fellowship finalist, fellow or alumni, we may share with certain Partners certain Fellowship Information about you, such as the titles and descriptions of your proposed projects, other project information, and application results.  We may also share with these Partners your Fellowship Information, such as your academic background and work history when these Partners are invited to  webinars or other events hosted by us to which you are also invited.
• Service Providers. We may share your information with third parties who provide services to us, such as marketing services, legal services, information technology services, market research and marketing services, development and analytics services (such as Google Analytics) and consulting services, and our authorized representatives or advisers. We require these third parties to take appropriate measures to protect your information and to restrict how they can use that information.
• Aggregated Information. We may share with any information provided by you, on an aggregated and anonymized basis, to any third parties, including our Partners,
• Business Transfers. We may disclose your information for the purpose of facilitating or implementing a transfer or sale of all or part of our assets or business, including in connection with a sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganization, or liquidation.
• Legal Requirements. We may disclose your information if permitted by law or required to do so by law, court order, or government regulations, or where we believe such action is necessary in order to protect or defend our interests.

VIII. COOKIES POLICY

Our website uses cookies. A “cookie” is a parcel of text sent by a server to your web browser and then sent back unchanged by the browser each time it accesses that server. We may use cookies for authenticating, tracking and maintaining specific information about you, such as site preferences. You may choose to configure your browser to accept or reject cookies or notify you when you enter a website that utilizes cookie technology.

By using our website, you consent to our use of cookies as updated from time to time and the cookies we use will be stored on your device (unless rejected or disabled by your browser).

Internet browsers normally accept cookies by default. However, it is possible to set an internet browser to reject cookies. If you do not accept our use of cookies as set out in this policy, please set your internet browser to reject cookies. Disabling of cookies may impair your ability to use our website or reduce the functionality of some features.  

Our website uses social media plugins (e.g., “Share to Facebook” button) to enable you to easily share information with others.  When you visit our website, the operator of the social media plugin can place a cookie on your computer, enabling that operator to recognize individuals who have previously visited our website.  If you are logged into a social media website (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn) while browsing on our website, the social media plugins allow these social media websites to share data about your activities on our website with other users of their social media websites.  We do not control any of the content from the social media plugins or any third party websites.  For more information about social media plugins from other social media websites you should refer to those websites’ privacy and data sharing statements.

IX.          THIRD PARTY WEBSITES AND JOB LISTINGS

Our website may contain links or references to other websites outside of our control.  This privacy policy does not apply to these websites or the use or collection of your personal information by the third parties that operate or control those websites, as such use or collection is governed by the privacy policies of such third parties.  These third party websites may send their own cookies and other tracking devices to you, log your IP address, and otherwise collect data or solicit personal data. 

Our website may include job listings of third parties, including organizations of our fellows and Fellowship alumni.  If you apply for these listed jobs, we will not have access to the information you provide as part of your application, and the third party’s privacy policy will govern their use of any information you provide in your application. 

X.        HOW CAN YOU ACCESS OR CORRECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

To update any information you have provided to us, please contact us using the contact information in Section XV so that we can consider and respond to your request.

XI.      DO NOT TRACK SIGNALS

We do not monitor, recognize, or honor any opt-out or do not track mechanisms, including general web browser “Do Not Track” settings or signals.

XII.    DATA SECURITY

We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access and disclosure.  The use of, and access to, your personal information by us is restricted to employees, service providers, and contractors who need to know that information to provide services to you. 

Unfortunately, transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to us through our website or other electronic means.  Any electronic transmission of personal information is at your own risk.

XIII. CHILDREN’S INFORMATION

Our website is not directed at minors.  We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under thirteen (13) years of age.  If you discover that a child under the age of 13 years has provided us with personal information, please notify us using the contact information in Section XV immediately.

XIV.  WHERE IS YOUR INFORMATION LOCATED

Our headquarters are in the United States. Information we collect from you will be processed by or on behalf of us in the United States, and by disclosing personal information to us, you acknowledge and consent to the processing of your personal information in the United States.

In some cases, the third parties to whom we may share your information mentioned in Section VII may be based outside the United States or may have servers located outside the United States.

XV.    HOW TO CONTACT US

If you have questions about this privacy policy or other privacy related matters, please contact us at:

Email: info@labstart.xyz.

Please include “PRIVACY POLICY” in the subject line.

CA 94612

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