Privacy Policy

the organizer of the awards program you are using (the "Organizer") decides why and how your data is used for the awards program and is the data controller. ECHO Awards operates the Platform and processes your data on the Organizer's instructions, as a processor. For organizer accounts created on the ECHO Awards storefront and in the platform console, ECHO Awards is the controller.

• Account: name, email, a hashed password (never the password itself), company, country, language and sign-in times.
• Entries: titles, brands, markets, stories, results, credits, uploaded files and publicity images — including anything personal you put in them.
• Payments: amount, currency, receipt number, status and Stripe reference IDs. Card numbers are handled by Stripe and never reach the Platform.
• Judging: assignments, scores, comments and conflict declarations.
• Technical: IP address, browser type and timestamps, used for security, rate limiting and an activity log of significant actions.
• Documents you import: when you upload a form or brief to pre-fill an entry, its text is read by an AI service to structure it. The original stays with your entry.

• To run the awards program — register you, take payment, judge entries and announce results (performing our contract with you).
• To keep the Platform secure and prevent abuse (our legitimate interests).
• To email you about your entries, deadlines, payments and results — transactional messages, not marketing.
• To meet legal obligations such as tax and accounting records.
• With your consent, where we ask for it separately — for example, marketing from the Organizer.

• Judges see entry content — never your contact details — and are bound by confidentiality.
• The Organizer's staff administer the program.
• Service providers that host and run the Platform: Vercel (hosting and file storage), Neon (database), Stripe (payments), Resend (email) and Anthropic (reading documents you choose to import; they are not used to train models).
• The public, for shortlisted and winning entries: title, brand, credits, publicity image and summary.
• Authorities, where the law requires.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers.

The Platform uses only strictly necessary cookies: a session cookie that keeps you signed in, one that remembers your language, and — on demo and staging sites — one that remembers which platform you are viewing. There are no advertising or tracking cookies.

• Account details: while your account is active, then removed or anonymized on request or after the program's archive period.
• Entries, scores and results: kept as the Organizer's records of the program, typically for the life of the awards' archive.
• Payment records: seven years, as tax law requires.
• Security logs: ninety days.

Depending on where you live, you can ask to access, correct, export, delete or restrict your data, object to certain uses, and complain to your data-protection authority. In practice:

• “Download my data” in the site footer gives you a copy of your account, entries and payments as a file.
• Edit your details and entries in your dashboard.
• To delete your account, email support: we remove or anonymize your personal details. Entries, payments and scores stay as anonymized program records where the Organizer needs them.
• We answer requests within 30 days.

The Platform is hosted in the United States on Vercel and Neon. If you are in the UK, the EEA or Switzerland, transfers are protected by standard contractual clauses or an equivalent safeguard.

Data is encrypted in transit; passwords are stored as bcrypt hashes; uploaded files live in private storage served only to people authorized to see them; each organizer's data is isolated from every other organizer's; and significant actions are logged.

this platform is not aimed at anyone under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their data.

We may update this policy. If a change is material we will tell you on the site or by email before it takes effect. The date at the top of this page says when this version took effect.

Privacy questions about the awards program: support@echo-awards.org.