Privacy Policy

Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect:

• Public Display Name: An optional name, pseudonym, or handle, displayed on your profile and posts. Use a name you are comfortable making public.
• Email Address: Used for account management, notifications, and communication.
• Password: Stored securely using industry-standard hashing.

Profile Information (Optional)

You may optionally provide:

• Bio
• Skills/interests
• Links (GitHub, Scholar, portfolio, website)

Content You Post

Posts, comments, and uploaded files are stored and displayed according to your privacy settings and the public nature of the forum.

How We Use Your Information

• To provide and maintain the service
• To process core team applications
• To send you notifications and updates (you can opt out)
• To moderate content and enforce our policies
• To improve the service and user experience

AI Training & Your Verified Work

AI training and automatic cross-researcher reuse are not active. These permissions are limited to machine-verified, public-style facts. We also retain research and audit records, including unsuccessful verification attempts. Retaining those records is separate from permission to use them: these settings do not authorize training or shared use of drafts or unsuccessful attempts.

• Off by default, your choice. Nothing you create is used to train Vera without your explicit consent in Settings → Data & Training. The Help improve Vera and Share verified discoveries controls record separate permissions; they do not activate training or automatic shared reuse.
• Never your private work. Anything you run with your own API key (BYOK) or in private mode is never used for training — this is enforced in our code, not just promised here.
• Verified facts, not your raw ideas. Your unpublished hypotheses and novel research are treated as your intellectual property and are off by default; only machine-verified, public-style facts are ever considered.
• Consent is checked live. Eligibility is evaluated at the moment data would be used, against your current settings — turning a toggle off takes effect immediately.
• You can withdraw it. “Withdraw my training contributions” in Settings removes future training eligibility, retracts shared-corpus eligibility, and enables private mode. Your research and audit records are retained; this control does not claim to delete them. Account deletion remains a separate process that removes Vanyx-managed account data subject to the public-record and legal retention limits described below. Your applicable deletion rights remain unchanged.
• Lawful basis. Where applicable (e.g. GDPR / UK GDPR / CPRA), our basis for any training use is your explicit, opt-in consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

We may in the future offer access to an aggregated, verified, non-personal knowledge corpus to research partners — only ever under separate, explicit opt-in, and never your personal information or private work. This section is an interim, good-faith description of how the system works today and is pending final legal review.

Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal data. Service providers process information needed to deliver hosting, storage, payments, AI responses, and requested computation. When you use an AI capability, the relevant provider receives the inputs needed for that request. Work with your own API key uses your selected provider and account. Provider handling is subject to its applicable terms and privacy policy. We may also disclose information as required by law or to protect users. Any future sharing of a verified, non-personal knowledge corpus happens only under the separate opt-in described above.

Literature search sends your search query, year filter and result limit to Semantic Scholar. If Semantic Scholar rate limits that search, we may send the same query and supported year filter and result limit to Crossref once for bibliographic metadata. A query can reveal your research topic. The tool does not append your account identity, conversation history or attachments to these requests. Retrieving metadata does not grant full-text, reuse or training rights.

Your public display name and public profile information are visible to all users, as this is necessary for the forum functionality.

Public Contribution Records

Research starts private. Starting a Campaign chat or verifying private work does not add it to public rankings. Public scores and researcher pages count selected public formal proofs and public Archive publications; they exclude private Projects, drafts, memberships, and anchors. Profile display, publication, shared reuse, and training are separate permissions.

Public Scholarly Records

External DOI publication is currently disabled. If Vanyx introduces it, publishing to a scholarly repository will require a separate, explicit confirmation before your name, optional ORCID, and research package leave Vanyx. DOI metadata may be harvested by other services and a repository may retain a public record, citation, archive copy, or tombstone even after you delete your Vanyx account. Vanyx cannot promise to erase copies controlled by an independent repository, index, or person. We will identify any retained public record in the deletion flow and provide a route to request correction, restriction, or withdrawal.

Payment records after account deletion

Account deletion removes your Vanyx profile and detaches retained payment receipts from its account identifier. We retain payment, refund, dispute, and adjustment records for financial reconciliation and applicable accounting or legal obligations. These records include Stripe payment identifiers, amounts, event history, and a hashed account reference. They are pseudonymised, not anonymous: a payment provider may still be able to link its identifiers to a customer. They are not used to restore your deleted profile or resume AI work.

Retention periods and deletion of records no longer needed remain subject to our final legal review before public launch. You can request details, correction, restriction, or deletion through our contact form. Account deletion does not itself erase records controlled independently by Stripe or another service provider.

Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies to:

• Maintain your login session
• Remember your preferences
• Analyze site usage (basic analytics)

You can control cookies through your browser settings.

Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your information. However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access your personal information
• Update or correct your information
• Request deletion of Vanyx-managed account data, subject to disclosed public-record and legal retention limits
• Opt out of non-essential communications

Contact

For privacy-related questions or requests, please contact us through the Contact page.