Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

MentorNeko is a product of NekoTech Ventures Inc. (“we,” “us,” or “our”). We operate a B2B SaaS mentoring platform that helps organizations run effective mentoring programs using AI-powered matching.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect information when you use our platform at mentorneko.com and any organization-specific subdomains. It applies to organization administrators who set up accounts, members who participate in mentoring programs, and visitors who browse our marketing site.

2. Information We Collect

Account Information

When an organization administrator creates an account, we collect the organization name, administrator name, email address, and billing contact information. We do not collect passwords. Our platform uses passwordless magic link authentication.

Member Profile Data

Members invited to the platform provide profile information including their name, email address, profile photo, bio, and responses to organization-configured profile dimensions (such as skills, goals, seniority level, department, and professional interests). This data is used to power AI-driven mentor matching.

Usage Data

We record a day-level observed-use signal when a signed-in member session is active. The day is based on the organization's local calendar and is used for program analytics. This signal is not a complete login history, a request log, or a measure of continuous attention. We do not use it to infer activity before tracking was released.

Observed-use days can include the first time you opened the community directory that day, but do not record which profiles you viewed. For Connect messages, we record sender and recipient member identifiers, the organization, time, delivery outcome, and provider message identifier where available. These records support authorized organization analytics, including AI Insights. We do not store Connect subjects or message bodies in analytics records. Replies go directly between members' mailboxes, so we do not track replies or whether a conversation followed.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use essential cookies for authentication and session management. We use Vercel Web Analytics (cookie-free) to understand how the platform is used. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. For details, see our Cookie Policy.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve the MentorNeko platform
• Power AI-driven mentor-mentee matching using anonymized profile data
• Generate match rationales that help participants understand why they were paired
• Send transactional emails (invitations, magic link authentication, match notifications, program updates)
• Provide customer support and respond to inquiries
• Analyze platform usage to improve features and user experience
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms of service

4. AI Processing & Data Privacy

Our AI features are designed with privacy as a first principle:

• Anonymized matching: Before any data is sent to AI language models for matching or rationale generation, member profiles are anonymized. Names are replaced with generic labels (e.g., “the Mentee,” “Mentor A”), and email addresses and phone numbers are stripped from bios.
• Administrative analytics: When administrators use AI-powered analytics features (such as natural-language data queries), query results may contain member profile and observed-use data within the scope of the administrator's existing access permissions. These interactions are subject to the same Zero Data Retention protections described below.
• Zero Data Retention (ZDR): All AI processing routes through Vercel AI Gateway with team-wide Zero Data Retention enforced. This means prompts and model outputs are not stored, cached, or used for model training. The underlying model providers are Vercel's sub-processors, not ours.
• No model training: Your data is never used to train, fine-tune, or improve any third-party AI model. This is enforced through Vercel AI Gateway's Zero Data Retention controls.
• Post-processing only: For matching, real names are substituted back into rationales only after the AI model has finished processing. The model never sees identifying information during matching.

5. Data Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We share data only with the infrastructure providers necessary to operate the platform:

• Vercel Inc.: Application hosting, serverless functions, edge network, and AI Gateway
• Neon Inc.: Serverless PostgreSQL database hosting
• Cloudflare Inc.: Object storage (member profile photos) and content delivery
• Inngest Inc.: Background job orchestration for asynchronous workflows
• Resend Inc.: Transactional email delivery
• Upstash Inc.: Rate limiting, caching, and vector processing
• Stripe Inc.: Subscription billing and payment processing
• Functional Software Inc. (Sentry): Error monitoring and performance tracking
• AI model providers (via Vercel): AI model providers are Vercel's sub-processors, not MentorNeko's. All AI processing routes through Vercel AI Gateway with Zero Data Retention enforced. Profiles are anonymized before matching; administrative analytics may process limited personal data within the administrator's authorized scope. See our Sub-processors page for our data protection posture

We may also share data if required by law, to protect our rights, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets (in which case we will notify affected customers).

6. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your organization's account is active or as needed to provide services. When an organization's contract is terminated:

• You have a 30-day read-only export window to download your data
• Operational customer data is deleted according to the organization's termination schedule. Subject-keyed analytics history, including retained observed-use day rows, may remain indefinitely after live member links are removed.
• Day-level observed-use history may be retained indefinitely for analytics. While a member record is active, the history can be linked to that member for authorized administration and support. A completed member scrub removes the live member link while retaining the day rows under a random subject key and roster-entry cohort month. This preserves aggregate analysis but is not a guarantee of irreversible anonymization: prior exports, mappings, and other records may still permit correlation.
• Retained activity days may include directory-use observations. Connect attempt metadata may also remain for analytics after a member scrub removes that member's sender and recipient links. The retained records preserve attempt counts, not message content or evidence that members formed a connection. As with other retained structural records, removing a live member link does not guarantee irreversible anonymization.

Organizations can request data export at any time during their active contract period.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
• Deletion: Request deletion of your personal data, subject to legal retention obligations
• Portability: Request your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Objection: Object to processing of your data for certain purposes
• Restriction: Request restriction of processing in certain circumstances

Because MentorNeko is a B2B platform, member data is typically managed by your organization's administrator. For rights requests, please contact your organization first. If you need to reach us directly, email privacy@mentorneko.com.

8. California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):

• We do not sell personal information as defined under the CCPA
• We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising
• You have the right to know what personal data we collect and how it is used
• You have the right to request deletion of your personal data
• You have the right to request correction of inaccurate personal data
• You have the right to opt out of the sale of personal information (though we do not sell data)
• We will not discriminate against you for exercising your CCPA rights

To exercise your California privacy rights, contact us at privacy@mentorneko.com. We will respond within 45 days as required by the CCPA.

9. International Data Transfers

NekoTech Ventures Inc. is incorporated in Alberta, Canada. MentorNeko's infrastructure is primarily based in the United States. If you are located outside the United States, your data will be transferred to and processed in the United States. We comply with applicable Canadian privacy legislation, including the Alberta Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). For transfers of personal data from the European Economic Area, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and other appropriate safeguards to ensure an adequate level of protection, in accordance with the GDPR.

10. Children's Privacy

MentorNeko is a business-to-business platform designed for use by organizations and their adult employees. Our service is not directed at individuals under 18 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from minors. If we become aware that we have collected data from an individual under 18, we will delete it promptly. If you believe a minor has provided us with personal information, please contact us at privacy@mentorneko.com.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. If we make material changes, we will notify organization administrators by email at least 30 days before the changes take effect. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page indicates when the policy was most recently revised.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us: