Privacy Policy for
Cofogram‘s Open Innovation Platform

At Cofogram, we are committed to protecting the privacy and intellectual property of all our users. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our AI-powered Open Innovation platform—whether you're a business posting challenges, an innovator submitting proposals, a researcher, student team member, or visitor. We understand that innovation requires trust, and we've built our platform with enterprise-grade security and confidentiality at its core.

To power our AI-driven matchmaking and innovation ecosystem, we collect various types of information:

• Account information: name, email, organization affiliation, role, and professional credentials
• Challenge and innovation data: problem statements, technical requirements, solution proposals, project descriptions, and submission materials
• Intellectual property documentation: patents, publications, research papers, portfolios, and past project records
• Team and collaboration data: team member information, roles, communication preferences, and organizational structures
• Professional profiles: academic backgrounds, technical skills, industry expertise, research specializations, and track records of successful implementations
• Platform communications: secure messages between businesses and innovators, challenge Q&A, internal social network posts, and collaboration discussions
• Usage analytics: challenge browsing history, proposal submission patterns, evaluation activities, and platform engagement metrics
• Technical data: device information, IP addresses, browser types, authentication logs, and security-related information for fraud prevention

Your information powers our AI-driven platform and enables successful innovation partnerships:

• Platform operations: manage challenge postings, facilitate proposal submissions, coordinate evaluation processes, and enable collaboration workspaces
• AI-powered matchmaking: analyze challenge requirements and automatically identify and notify relevant researchers, student teams, and tech experts based on verified skills, past success rates, and domain expertise
• Smart notifications: send targeted challenge alerts to matched innovators, deliver evaluation updates, provide milestone notifications, and facilitate direct communication
• Evaluation engine: enable structured proposal scoring, multi-evaluator collaboration with weighted criteria, AI-assisted preliminary filtering, and transparent ranking systems
• Personalized experience: recommend relevant challenges based on expertise, showcase opportunities matching your skills, and surface relevant collaboration opportunities
• Platform intelligence: analyze success patterns, optimize matching algorithms, improve user experience, and generate insights for better innovation outcomes
• Security and compliance: protect intellectual property, enforce digital NDAs, maintain audit trails, detect unauthorized access, and ensure compliance with data protection regulations
• User support: respond to inquiries, resolve technical issues, provide onboarding assistance, and deliver platform guidance

We implement enterprise-grade security measures designed specifically for protecting sensitive innovation data and intellectual property:

• End-to-end encryption: all challenge data, proposals, and communications are encrypted both in transit (TLS 1.3+) and at rest (AES-256)
• Granular access controls: role-based permissions, integrated digital NDA management, anonymous challenge posting capabilities with masked company details, and complete audit trails of all data access
• Secure infrastructure: enterprise-grade cloud storage with geo-redundancy, isolated data environments for sensitive challenges, and compliance with SOC 2 and ISO 27001 standards
• Regular security assessments: quarterly penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, third-party security audits, and compliance reviews
• Data protection: automated encrypted backups, disaster recovery procedures, and data integrity verification systems
• 24/7 security monitoring: real-time threat detection, anomaly detection using machine learning, automated incident response, and continuous security logging

We strictly control information sharing to protect your intellectual property and maintain confidentiality:

• Challenge organizers: when you submit proposals, organizers see your designated public profile information, proposal content, and team credentials—but only after you explicitly submit
• Team members: information is shared within your team when you join or create teams for collaborative innovation projects
• Evaluation teams: proposal submissions are shared with designated evaluators and judges using our secure evaluation engine with full audit logging
• Public visibility: only information you explicitly mark as public (such as portfolio projects or public profile details) is visible beyond authorized parties
• Trusted service providers: we work with vetted third-party providers (cloud infrastructure, payment processors, communication tools) under strict confidentiality agreements and data processing terms
• Legal obligations: we may disclose information when required by law, court order, legal process, or to protect intellectual property rights, platform security, and user safety

We retain your data based on the type of information and its purpose. Active account data is retained while your account is active and for a reasonable period thereafter to fulfill our services. Challenge and proposal data may be retained longer as required by organizers' records management policies or legal obligations. Intellectual property portfolio data (patents, publications) is retained to maintain track records unless you request deletion. You can request account deletion and data removal at any time through your account settings or by contacting our privacy team. Some information may be retained in anonymized form for analytics or as required by law, contractual obligations, or dispute resolution.

You have comprehensive rights regarding your personal information and intellectual property:

• Access your data: download all personal data, view complete access logs, and review who has accessed your information
• Correct information: update inaccurate profile data, modify portfolio entries, and rectify professional credentials
• Delete your account: request complete account deletion, remove specific challenge submissions, or delete proposal history (subject to contractual obligations with challenge organizers)

We use cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, maintain secure sessions, and improve our AI algorithms. Essential cookies are required for authentication, security, and basic platform functionality. Analytics cookies help us understand platform usage patterns, optimize the matching algorithm, and improve user experience. Preference cookies remember your settings, language choices, and customization options. You can control non-essential cookies through your browser settings and our cookie preference center. Note that disabling essential cookies may impact platform functionality, including secure messaging and evaluation features.

Our platform integrates with select third-party services to enhance functionality: cloud infrastructure providers (for secure, scalable hosting), payment processors (for prize distribution and transaction handling), communication services (for email and notification delivery), and analytics tools (for platform improvement and AI model training). Each integration is carefully vetted for security and privacy compliance. These services operate under their own privacy policies, and we recommend reviewing them. We use data processing agreements to ensure third parties handle your data according to our strict standards and applicable privacy laws.

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect new features, legal requirements, or improved practices. Material changes will be communicated prominently via email notification, platform banner alerts, and in-app messaging at least 30 days before taking effect. Non-material changes (clarifications, formatting) may be made with notice upon your next login. Continued use of Cofogram after the effective date of changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. You can always view the current policy and previous versions in our privacy archive.