Privacy Policy

1. Introduction and Scope

Starkworth LLC, a Limited Liability Company registered in Alabama, USA ("Starkworth," "we," "us," or "our"), manages AI data-annotation accounts on behalf of Account Owners and pays Annotators under signed profit-sharing agreements. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect through starkworth.org and its portals (the "Site"), why we collect it, how it is used, who it may be shared with, and the rights you have over it, regardless of where in the world you are located.

2. Definitions

• "Personal Data" means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual.
• "Processing" means anything done with Personal Data — collecting, storing, using, sharing, or deleting it.
• "Data Controller" means the entity that decides why and how Personal Data is processed — for the purposes of this Site, that is Starkworth.
• "Data Processor" means a third party that processes Personal Data on our behalf and under our instructions, such as our hosting and authentication provider.
• "Service Providers" means third parties we engage to help operate the Site, described in Section 9.

3. Who Is Responsible for Your Data

Starkworth LLC is the Data Controller responsible for your Personal Data collected through this Site. If you have questions or want to exercise any of the rights described below, contact us at contact@starkworth.org.

4. Information We Collect

We collect Personal Data directly from you, depending on which part of the Site you use:

• Contact form: name, email address, subject, and message.
• Annotator registration: name, email address, phone number, country of residence, prior account-annotation experience, and your preferred payment method category (bank transfer, PayPal, or other).
• Agreement signing: legal name, email address, phone number, account username, preferred payment method category, any notes you provide, and your digital signature.
• Authenticated Portal use (post-approval only): full payment details such as bank account information, PayPal email, or wallet address, entered only after your application or agreement is approved.
• Technical and usage data: limited information generated by your use of the Site, such as browser type and general access logs kept for security purposes.

We do not collect bank account numbers, PayPal email addresses, or wallet addresses through any public-facing form. Those details are only ever collected after your application is approved, inside an authenticated dashboard, consistent with the security approach described in Section 10.

5. Legal Basis for Processing

Where the GDPR or similar law applies to you, we rely on the following legal bases to process your Personal Data:

• Contractual necessity — to prepare, administer, and honour your Annotator registration or signed profit-sharing agreement.
• Legitimate interests — to operate, secure, and improve the Site, respond to enquiries, and prevent fraud, in each case balanced against your rights and interests.
• Consent — where you have separately given it, for example when voluntarily submitting the contact form.
• Legal obligation — where we must retain or disclose information to comply with applicable law, such as accounting or tax record-keeping requirements.

6. How We Use Your Information

• To review and respond to Annotator registrations and contact enquiries
• To verify identity and conduct required screening for Account Owners
• To prepare, administer, and honour signed profit-sharing agreements
• To process weekly payouts to approved Annotators and Account Owners
• To communicate with you about your account, agreement, or application status
• To maintain the security and integrity of the Site and its Portals
• To comply with applicable legal, tax, and accounting obligations

We do not use automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects concerning you.

7. Where Your Data Is Stored

Form submissions and account data are stored in our database, hosted by Supabase, a third-party database and authentication provider. Access to this data is restricted to authorized Starkworth staff on a need-to-know basis. We do not sell your Personal Data to third parties.

8. International Data Transfers

Starkworth serves Account Owners and Annotators in multiple countries, including the United Kingdom, the European Union, Nigeria, the United States, and others. Because of this, your Personal Data may be processed in a country other than the one in which you live, including the United States, where our infrastructure providers may operate. Where required by applicable law, we aim to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for such transfers, such as standard contractual clauses or an equivalent mechanism recognized under the law that applies to you. Starkworth should confirm the specific transfer mechanism in place with qualified counsel and its infrastructure providers.

9. Sharing and Disclosure of Your Information

We share Personal Data only in the following circumstances:

• Service Providers: with vendors who process data on our behalf, such as our database and authentication provider (Supabase), strictly to operate the Site.
• Legal compliance: where required to comply with a legal obligation, court order, or governmental request.
• Protection of rights: where necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Starkworth, our Users, or the public.
• Business transfers: in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, subject to the transferee agreeing to honour the commitments in this Policy.

We do not sell or rent your Personal Data to third parties for their own marketing purposes.

10. Data Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your data in transit and at rest, including HTTPS with HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), a Content Security Policy, click-jacking protections, and hashed-credential authentication with session management for Portal access. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to keep your information appropriately protected and to improve these measures over time.

11. Data Retention

We retain your Personal Data for as long as your agreement or Annotator status remains active, and for a reasonable period afterward to meet legal, accounting, tax, and dispute-resolution obligations. Where we have no ongoing lawful basis to retain your data, we will delete or anonymize it. You may request deletion of your data at any time, subject to any records we are legally required to keep.

12. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights over your Personal Data:

• Right to know / access — request a copy of the Personal Data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification — request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure — request deletion of your data, subject to our legal retention obligations.
• Right to restrict processing — request that we limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to data portability — request your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
• Right to object — object to processing based on legitimate interests, including for direct marketing.
• Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, withdraw it at any time without affecting processing already carried out.
• Right to non-discrimination — we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.
• Right to lodge a complaint — with your local data protection supervisory authority (for example, the ICO in the UK, a relevant EU supervisory authority, or the Nigeria Data Protection Commission), in addition to contacting us directly.

To exercise any of these rights, email contact@starkworth.org. We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law, and may need to verify your identity before acting on your request.

13. Cookies and Similar Technologies

starkworth.org does not currently use analytics or advertising cookies. Google Fonts are loaded from Google's servers to display our typography, which may involve your browser making a request to Google and Google processing limited technical data such as your IP address, subject to Google's own privacy practices. If this changes in the future, we will update this Policy and, where required by law, request your consent.

14. Children's Privacy

The Site is not directed at, and is not intended for use by, anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us so we can take appropriate action, including deletion of that data.

15. Third-Party Links

The Site may contain links to third-party websites. This Policy does not apply to those sites, and we encourage you to review their own privacy policies before providing them with any information.

16. Data Breach Notification

In the event of a data breach affecting your Personal Data, we will take reasonable steps to notify affected individuals and, where legally required, the relevant supervisory authority, within the timeframe required by applicable law.

17. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in applicable law. We will update the "Last updated" date above when we do, and for material changes we will make reasonable efforts to provide more prominent notice, such as a notice on the Site.

18. Contact Us

Questions about this Policy, or requests to exercise your privacy rights, can be sent to contact@starkworth.org, or via the Contact page.