Privacy Policy

The entity responsible for the processing of your personal data is:

JUNITEC — Júnior Empresa do Instituto Superior Técnico
Av. Rovisco Pais, No. 1
1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal

For questions regarding the processing of personal data or the exercise of your data protection rights, you can contact us at geral@tecstorm.pt.

TecStorm is an initiative of JUNITEC and does not constitute a separate legal entity.

Account registration

When you create an account on the TecStorm website, we collect your full name, email address, mobile phone number and a password. Passwords are stored in hashed form and are never visible to the TecStorm team. Creating an account does not by itself constitute an application.

You may optionally add a profile photograph in your personal area. This is not required to apply.

Application

When you complete your application, we collect:

• Date of birth (TecStorm is open only to participants aged 18 or over);
• Gender;
• Nationality;
• City of residence;
• University;
• Degree;
• Year of study;
• Whether you are an INESC ID student;
• Curriculum vitae (CV);
• LinkedIn profile;
• How you heard about TecStorm;
• Your team and the challenge category selected.

If you apply without a team, we also collect the type of project you are interested in, the skills you have, the skills you are looking for in teammates and your ranking of the challenge categories.

The fields marked as required in the application form are necessary to assess your application; if you do not provide them, we will not be able to consider it.

Applications may be saved as drafts before submission. Drafts are stored in the same way as submitted applications.

Teams

If you create a team, we collect the team name and the email addresses of the teammates you add. Each teammate must already have a TecStorm account; their email address is used only to associate their account with your team, and no invitation email is sent by the website. Each team is also given a short team code, which teammates can use to find the team when applying.

Members of the same team can see each other's names (or email addresses) and the email addresses added to the team in their personal area.

Team data is stored together with the team's application data and is subject to the retention period described in Section 6. If your email address was added to a team and you would like it removed, please contact us at geral@tecstorm.pt.

Partnership enquiries

If you submit the “Become a Partner” form, we collect your first and last name, company, email address, phone number and the message you write, and use them only to respond to your enquiry.

Automatically collected data

When you visit the website, technical data such as your IP address and browser and device type is processed by our hosting providers in order to deliver the website. If you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics also collects information about how you use the website (see Section 12).

The personal data collected through the TecStorm application process is used to manage applications, organise the event and facilitate interactions between participants, the TecStorm team and the partners involved in the programme.

Application and selection

Your information is used by the TecStorm team to manage your application, assess your eligibility and participation, organise the selection process, and assign participants to the relevant challenge categories.

If you apply without a team, the TecStorm team uses your project type, skills and category ranking to place you in a team with other participants. This is done manually by members of the TecStorm team.

Communication and event organisation

Your contact information is used by the TecStorm team to communicate important information throughout the application and event process. Your mobile phone number is used specifically for operational communication with participants, including the creation and management of WhatsApp groups for teams. When you are added to a WhatsApp group, your phone number becomes visible to the other members of that group and is processed by WhatsApp under its own privacy policy. Your phone number is not shared with partners.

Partner access to participant information

Participants who pass the Selection phase may have their application information shared with TecStorm's Business, Premium and Main Partners. The information shared may include:

• Full name;
• Email address;
• University;
• Degree;
• Year of study;
• How they heard about TecStorm;
• CV;
• LinkedIn profile;
• Selected challenge category.

This information allows these partners to engage with selected participants in connection with their involvement in TecStorm and the respective challenge categories. Business, Premium and Main Partners do not have access to the complete TecStorm application database.

Statistical and event reporting

TecStorm may use application data to produce statistical reports about the event, including information such as the number of applications, participating universities, fields of study, year of study and challenge categories. Aggregated or anonymised statistics may be shared with TecStorm partners for reporting and evaluation purposes. These reports are prepared so that individual applicants cannot be identified.

Gender is collected solely to produce aggregated statistics about participation. It is not used in the selection process and is not shared with partners.

Whether you are an INESC ID student is collected because INESC ID is a TecStorm partner, in order to report to INESC ID, in aggregated form, how many of its students applied to and took part in TecStorm. It is not used in the selection process and no individual data is shared with INESC ID on this basis.

Continuity between TecStorm editions

Application data may remain stored internally and be accessible to authorised TecStorm team members responsible for future editions, within the retention period described in Section 6. This supports the continuity and organisation of future editions and the management of historical information relating to TecStorm.

Automated decision-making

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing, and we do not use your data for profiling.

We process personal data only where there is an appropriate legal basis under applicable data protection law. Depending on the specific processing activity, the legal basis may include:

• Pre-contractual measures and the organisation of participation: processing necessary to manage an application and take steps relating to participation in TecStorm;
• Legitimate interests: processing necessary for the organisation, administration, communication and management of TecStorm, including coordination with relevant partners, where those interests are not overridden by the rights and freedoms of the data subject;
• Consent: where consent is specifically required for a particular processing activity, such as analytics cookies;
• Legal obligations: where processing is necessary for compliance with an applicable legal obligation.

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

We use the following service providers, which process personal data on our behalf and only in accordance with our instructions:

• Supabase: database, file storage (including CVs and profile photographs) and user authentication. Data is stored in the European Union (Ireland).
• Vercel: website hosting.
• Google (Google Workspace): a copy of application data and of partnership enquiries is kept in Google Sheets, in the TecStorm Google account, for use by the TecStorm team.
• Resend: sending transactional emails, such as account confirmation and password reset. Emails are processed in the European Union (Ireland).
• Google Analytics: website usage statistics, provided by Google Ireland Limited, only if you accept analytics cookies (see Section 12).

Access to application data, including CVs, is restricted to authorised members of the TecStorm team. CVs are not publicly accessible and can only be viewed by authorised team members after authentication.

Application data, including CVs and team data, is kept for 2 years after the end of the TecStorm edition to which it relates. After that period it is deleted or anonymised, so that it can no longer be linked to you.

Account data is kept for as long as your account exists. Accounts with no submitted application are deleted 1 year after the end of the TecStorm edition in which they were created.

Partnership enquiries are kept for 1 year after our last contact with you.

Anonymised statistics may be kept indefinitely, as they no longer identify any individual.

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, loss or destruction.

Access to the complete application database is limited to authorised TecStorm team members.

However, no method of electronic storage or transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure. We therefore continuously review and improve the measures used to protect personal data.

Our application database, file storage and email delivery are located in the European Union (Ireland).

Some of our service providers are based in the United States and may process personal data there, namely Vercel and Google. Where this happens, transfers rely on the European Commission's adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, for providers certified under it, and/or on Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission.

Under applicable data protection law, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you may have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• Right of access: you may request confirmation as to whether we process your personal data and obtain a copy of that data;
• Right to rectification: you may request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data be corrected;
• Right to erasure: you may request the deletion of your personal data where the legal requirements for doing so are met;
• Right to restriction of processing: you may request that processing of your personal data be restricted in certain circumstances;
• Right to object: you may object to certain processing activities, including processing based on legitimate interests, where applicable;
• Right to data portability: where applicable, you may request to receive certain personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format;
• Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time.

The exercise of these rights is subject to the conditions and limitations established by applicable law.

To exercise any of your rights or ask questions about how your personal data is processed, please contact geral@tecstorm.pt.

We may need to request additional information to verify your identity before responding to a request. We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable data protection law.

If you believe that your personal data has been processed in violation of applicable data protection law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority. In Portugal, this is:

Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (CNPD)
Rua de São Bento, n.º 148-3.º
1200-821 Lisbon, Portugal
Website: www.cnpd.pt

The TecStorm website uses strictly necessary cookies and local storage to work, and, if you accept them, analytics cookies to understand how people use the website. You can change your choice at any time through “Cookie settings” at the bottom of every page.

For the full list of cookies we use, what each one does, how long it lasts and how to manage them, see our Cookie Policy.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to TecStorm, our processing activities, applicable legislation or our practices. The date of the latest update will always be indicated at the beginning of this Privacy Policy. Where changes are material, we will take appropriate steps to inform users where required by applicable law.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or about how TecStorm processes personal data, please contact:

JUNITEC — Júnior Empresa do Instituto Superior Técnico
Av. Rovisco Pais, No. 1
1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal

Email: geral@tecstorm.pt