Privacy Policy

01Who We Are

MindScout (mindscout.net) is run by Kintu Games, a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak) run by Roman Berdichevskii, registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK) under number 85932698, Vennewaard 378, 1824 KN Alkmaar, the Netherlands ("we", "us"). We are the controller of the personal data described in this policy, which explains what we collect when you use MindScout, why, who we share it with and what your rights are.

For any privacy question or request, email hello@mindscout.net.

02Information We Collect

When you create an account

• Your email address, name and profile picture, and the basic profile shared by any sign-in provider you choose (such as Google). Accounts are handled by our sign-in provider, Clerk, and we store only your account ID and role in our own database.

When you use MindScout

• Likes and follows. With every like we store the IP address it came from, also when you are signed in, to allow one like per person and to stop abuse. If you like apps without signing in, we recognise your likes by IP address only, and when you sign in, likes from that IP address are moved to your account.
• Apps you submit: names, descriptions, links, tags, logos, screenshots and the people you add as contributors.
• Feedback you send us: your rating and comment, linked to your account.
• Server logs kept by our hosting provider, including IP addresses, pages requested and browser details, used to run and secure the site.

When you buy a boost

• Payments are handled by Stripe. Stripe collects your card details, billing address and, if you give one, your tax ID. We never see or store your card details; we keep the payment and session IDs, the amount, the currency and the payment status.

When we email you

• We record the address our monthly winner emails were sent to, and if you unsubscribe we keep your email address on our unsubscribe list so we do not email you again.

Cookieless audience measurement

• PostHog measures pages viewed, clicks, searches, the apps you open, and browser, device and approximate location information without setting analytics cookies or using browser storage. PostHog generates a temporary visitor hash on its servers. We do not send PostHog your name or email address, create person profiles or record session replays.
• Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights count page views and measure loading speed without cookies and without identifying you.

03How We Use It and Why

• To provide MindScout: your account, submitting and reviewing apps, likes, follows, the monthly leaderboard and boosts. Legal basis: performance of our contract with you.
• To send you emails about your account and your apps: a welcome email, confirmation that an app was received, approved or not approved, and a message when your app wins a monthly leaderboard. Legal basis: performance of our contract, and our legitimate interest in keeping makers informed. Every email has an unsubscribe link.
• To keep likes and rankings fair and the site secure, for example by limiting likes per IP address. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in a reliable leaderboard.
• To understand and improve how people use MindScout through cookieless audience measurement from PostHog and Vercel.
• To keep payment and tax records. Legal basis: our legal obligations under Dutch tax law.

We do not sell your personal data, do not use it for advertising and do not make automated decisions about you.

04What Is Public

Apps you submit are shown publicly once approved, including their descriptions, links, logos and screenshots, together with the number of likes and any leaderboard badges. Your name, email address and profile picture are not shown on public pages. Other people can see contributor names and pictures only while editing an app you are a contributor on.

05Who We Share It With

We share personal data only with the providers that run MindScout for us:

• Clerk: sign-in and account management.
• Supabase: our database and file storage, hosted in Frankfurt, Germany.
• Vercel: website hosting, server logs, scheduled jobs and cookieless analytics.
• Stripe: payments. Stripe also processes payment data as an independent controller under its own privacy policy.
• Resend: sending our emails, from the EU.
• ImprovMX: forwarding email sent to our mindscout.net addresses.
• PostHog: cookieless audience measurement, hosted in the EU.

Some of these providers are based in the United States. Where your data leaves the European Economic Area, the transfer relies on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. We may also disclose data when the law requires it.

The Startup Fame logo in our footer is loaded from their server, so your browser shares your IP address with them when it shows the logo. Links to apps and app stores take you to sites with their own privacy policies.

06Cookies and Local Storage

• Necessary: Clerk sets cookies to keep you signed in. These are always on, because the site cannot work without them.
• Preferences: your browser stores your light or dark theme, the apps and categories you have visited and your discovery achievements. This stays on your device.
• Audience measurement: PostHog does not set analytics cookies or use local or session storage. The OK button only dismisses the informational cookie notice; that acknowledgment is stored on your device.

You can reopen the notice at any time with the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page.

07How Long We Keep It

• Account data, submitted apps, follows and feedback: until you ask us to delete your account.
• Likes and the IP addresses stored with them: for as long as the like exists.
• Payment records: seven years, as Dutch tax law requires.
• Unsubscribe list: for as long as we send email, so that we keep respecting your choice.
• Analytics and server logs: for the retention period set by PostHog and Vercel.
• Backups: copies of our database and files are kept for a limited time and replaced by newer backups.

08Data Security

All traffic to MindScout is encrypted, access to our systems is limited to the people who run the site, and we rely on providers with strong security practices. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

09Your Rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you and get a copy of it
• Correct inaccurate data
• Have your data deleted
• Restrict or object to how we use your data
• Receive your data in a portable format
• Withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting earlier processing
• Complain to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) or the authority in your country

To use any of these rights, including deleting your account together with your likes, follows, feedback and apps, email hello@mindscout.net from the address linked to your account. We reply within one month.

10Children

MindScout is not meant for children. You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

11Changes to This Policy

We update this policy when MindScout changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change significantly affects how we use your data, we will tell you on the site or by email.

12Contact Us