1. Introduction / Who We Are

ResearchBuddy (“we”, “us”, or “our”) operates https://researchbuddy.tech (“the Service”). We are a Bangladesh-based platform dedicated to connecting students, professors, and research professionals for collaboration. Our services includes providing step by step supervision to students by experts supervisor, providing virtual lab with AI assistance to researcher. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit and use our Service.

2. Definitions

Service means the ResearchBuddy platform at https://researchbuddy.tech.
Personal Data means data about a living individual who can be identified from those data.
Usage Data means data collected automatically when using the Service (e.g., IP address, browser data).
Cookies are small files stored on your device.
Data Controller means the entity determining the purposes and means of processing Personal Data. We are the Data Controller for Personal Data processed via our Service.
Data Processor / Service Provider means any third party processing data on our behalf.
User means the individual using our Service, including researchers, students, professors, and supervisors.

3. Information Collection and Use

We collect several types of information to provide and improve our Service:

3.1 Personal Data

While using our Service, we may ask you to provide certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you, including but not limited to:

Name, email address, institution, role (e.g., student, professor).
Profile details such as research interests, publications.
Comments and form entries when interacting with features (e.g., comments on posts).

We may use Personal Data to:

Provide, operate, and maintain the Service.
Facilitate research collaboration (e.g., profile visibility, Virtual Labs membership).
Provide AI tools for summarization, analysis, and writing assistance.
Communicate with you (e.g., account notifications, marketing emails if opted in).
Monitor and analyze usage to improve the Service.
Detect, prevent, and address technical issues or security incidents.

3.2 Usage Data

We collect information automatically when you access the Service. This may include:

Your device’s Internet Protocol address (e.g., IP address).
Browser type and version, operating system, and device identifiers.
Pages visited, time spent on pages, referral URLs, and dates and times of access.
Unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

Usage Data is collected through cookies and similar tracking technologies. See Section 4 for details.

3.3 Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track activity on our Service and hold certain information. Types of cookies we use:

Session Cookies: to operate our Service.
Preference Cookies: to remember preferences and settings.
Security Cookies: for security and fraud prevention.
Analytics Cookies: to understand how users interact with our Service and improve it.

You can instruct your browser to refuse cookies or alert you when cookies are being sent. However, some parts of our Service may not function without cookies.

3.4 Comments

When visitors leave comments on forum posts or articles, we collect the data shown in the comment form, the visitor’s IP address, and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized hash of your email may be provided to the Gravatar service to check for an existing avatar. After approval, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

3.5 Media

If you upload images to the Service, avoid including embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors may download and extract any such data.

3.6 Embedded Content from Other Sites

Articles or pages on our Service may include embedded content (e.g., videos, images, articles) from other websites. Embedded content behaves as if you visited the other website, and those websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed tracking, and monitor your interaction with the content.

4. Use of Data

ResearchBuddy uses the collected data for various purposes:

To provide and maintain the Service.
To notify you of changes to the Service.
To allow you to participate in interactive features when you choose to do so (e.g., Virtual Labs, commenting).
To provide customer support.
To gather analysis or valuable information to improve the Service.
To monitor the usage of the Service.
To detect, prevent, and address technical issues or security threats.
To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide your information.
To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts between you and us, including for billing and collection if applicable.
To provide you with news, special offers, and general information about goods or services we offer, similar to those you have used or enquired about, unless you have opted not to receive such communications.
For any other purpose with your consent.

5. Retention of Data

We will retain your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. We will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis and to improve the Service but generally for a shorter duration unless required for security or legal reasons.

Comments: Retained indefinitely to recognize and approve follow-up comments automatically.
User Profiles: Retained as long as your account exists. You may edit or delete your personal data (except your username). Administrators may view or edit this information according to their privileges.
Other Data: Retained as needed to provide and improve the Service or as required by law.

6. Transfer of Data

Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to and maintained on servers located outside your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction, where data protection laws may differ. By using our Service, you consent to such transfers.

7. Disclosure of Data

We may disclose your information in the following circumstances:

For Law Enforcement: Under certain circumstances, we may be required to disclose your Personal Data if required by law or in response to valid requests from public authorities.
Business Transactions: If we or our assets are acquired by another entity, Personal Data may be transferred to the successor.
Service Providers: We may share data with third-party service providers who assist in operating our Service (e.g., hosting, analytics, email delivery). These providers are bound by confidentiality obligations.
Other Cases: We may disclose your information to our subsidiaries and affiliates, for legal reasons, or with your consent.

8. Security of Data

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Your Rights

Under Bangladesh law, you have the following rights regarding your Personal Data:

Right to Access: You can request confirmation of whether we process your Personal Data and receive copies of such data.
Right to Rectification: You can request correction of inaccurate or incomplete Personal Data.
Right to Erasure: You can request deletion of your Personal Data when it is no longer necessary for the purposes collected, subject to legal obligations requiring retention.
Right to Restrict Processing: You can request restriction of processing of your Personal Data under certain circumstances.
Right to Data Portability: You can request a copy of your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
Right to Object: You can object to processing of your Personal Data for direct marketing and other purposes permitted by law.
Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw consent at any time without affecting lawfulness of processing based on consent before withdrawal.

To exercise these rights, please contact us at [support@researchbuddy].

10. Service Providers

We may employ third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service, provide Service on our behalf, perform Service-related services, or assist us in analyzing how our Service is used. Examples include:

Analytics: Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics.
Hosting and Infrastructure: Third-party hosting providers.
Email and Communications: Email delivery services.

These Service Providers have access to your Personal Data only to perform tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for other purposes.

11. Payments (If Applicable)

If we offer paid products or services, we use third-party payment processors (e.g., Stripe) to handle transactions. We do not store or process your payment card details. Payment processing is governed by the processor’s Privacy Policy and PCI-DSS standards.

12. Third-Party Links

Our Service may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. We are not responsible for the content, privacy policies, or practices of such third-party sites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing any personal data.

13. Children’s Privacy

Our Service is not intended for use by children under 13. We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under 13. If you become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us, and we will take steps to remove such information from our servers.

14. Do Not Track Signals

We do not actively respond to “Do Not Track” signals from browsers.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make changes, we will revise the “Effective Date” at the top and notify you via email or a prominent notice on our Service before changes become effective. You are encouraged to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.

16. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your rights, contact us at:

By email: contact@researchbuddy.tech

Headquarters: Chittagong, Bangladesh

Newsletter / Mailing List: You may opt out at any time by following the unsubscribe link in our emails.