Data protection

The controller of your personal data is Office Hours Global, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation registered in the United States (EIN 87-2070606), 700 El Camino Real, Suite 120-1076, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.

We don't have a formally appointed data protection officer — we're a small volunteer organisation — but a named crew member handles every privacy request. Reach them at privacy@officehours.global.

• Everyone with an account — name, email address, profile picture and Google account ID (from Google sign-in); the roles you've been given; favourites, tags and lists you make.
• Volunteers — your sign-up, the answers you gave, and notes the crew writes while coordinating with you.
• People who send questions, topic ideas or gear kits — what you sent, when, and your account details so we can credit you and reply.
• Panelists — name and headshot (from our show-production system, Showhub, or from you), and the link to your account if you have one.
• Donors — name, email address, amount, date and the Givebutter transaction reference. Card and bank details stay with Givebutter.
• Testers — Test Lab results and the feedback you send, with the page you sent it from.
• Crew members (anyone with admin access) — a record of each change you make in the admin area: what changed and when, your name and email address, your IP address and browser.
• Everyone who gets email from us — a copy of each email in our email log, kept for a short time (sign-in links and codes are removed).
• All visitors — server logs (IP address, browser, pages requested) and, only if you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics usage data linked to a random ID.

• Your account, your saved items, your submissions — performing the service you asked for (Art. 6(1)(b)).
• Coordinating volunteers and replying to you — performing the service you asked for (Art. 6(1)(b)), and our legitimate interest in running the show (Art. 6(1)(f)).
• Showing panelists on the About page — our legitimate interest in showing who makes the show, and your consent where you've given it (Art. 6(1)(a)). You can hide your photo at any time.
• Donation records — performing the donation (Art. 6(1)(b)) and legal obligations under US tax law (Art. 6(1)(c)).
• Analytics (Google Analytics) — your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), given in the cookie banner and withdrawable at any time.
• Security, server logs, preventing spam and abuse — our legitimate interest in keeping the site safe (Art. 6(1)(f)).
• Contributors board on the About page — your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), given with the switch in My account and withdrawable there at any time.
• Audit log of changes made in the admin area — our legitimate interest in keeping the site secure and being able to trace and undo mistakes and misuse (Art. 6(1)(f)).
• Indexing public episodes with AI — our legitimate interest in making our own published show searchable (Art. 6(1)(f)).

Where we rely on legitimate interest, we've weighed it against your rights, and you can object at any time (see "Your rights").

We use the processors below. Each handles personal data only to provide its service to us, under a data processing agreement that meets Article 28 GDPR. Google sign-in and YouTube also act as independent controllers for the data they collect under their own terms. We don't sell personal data to anyone.

OHG is US-based, and several of our processors (including Google, Resend, Givebutter and Anthropic) process data in the United States. Our crew of volunteers is spread around the world.

For transfers of personal data from the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland, we rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (and its UK and Swiss extensions) where the provider is certified, and on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses otherwise. Ask us for a copy of the safeguards that apply.

• Accounts and what you've saved — until you ask us to delete your account.
• Volunteer sign-ups — while you're active, and up to 12 months after you step back, unless you ask us to delete them sooner.
• Questions, topic ideas and kits — as long as they're useful to the show; ask and we'll remove yours.
• Panelist headshots — until you or an admin removes them.
• Email log — 30 days (adjustable by admins), then deleted automatically.
• Donation records — 7 years, as required by US tax law.
• Google Analytics data — 14 months, then deleted automatically.
• Server logs — up to 30 days.
• Audit log (changes made in the admin area) — 2 years, then deleted automatically.
• Test Lab results and feedback — while they're useful for testing the site; ask and we'll remove yours.

Under the GDPR (Articles 15–22) you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you, and get a copy
• rectify anything that's inaccurate or incomplete
• erase your data ("right to be forgotten")
• restrict how we use it while a question is being resolved
• portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• object to processing based on legitimate interest
• withdraw consent at any time, without affecting what happened before — for analytics, use "Cookie settings" in the footer

Email privacy@officehours.global from the address on your account. We may ask you to confirm your identity. We answer within one month, free of charge.

If you're unhappy with our answer, you can complain to the data protection authority where you live or work — but we'd appreciate the chance to fix it first.

The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the CPRA, gives California residents the right to know what personal information we collect and why, to delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of its sale or sharing.

• The categories we collect are described in "Data we hold" above: identifiers (name, email, account ID), what you send us, donation records, and internet activity (server logs and, with consent, analytics).
• We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
• We don't use or disclose sensitive personal information.
• We won't treat you differently for using your rights. You can also use an authorised agent to make a request for you.

We don't make decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you by automated means, and we don't profile you.

We use AI (Anthropic's Claude models) only to index publicly published episode content for the answer archive. Your account data, messages and analytics are not sent to it.

All traffic to the site is encrypted with TLS. The database runs on managed infrastructure. Crew members only see the data their role needs — every admin screen checks a specific permission — and sign-in links and codes are never stored in logs.

If a personal data breach happens, we'll notify the relevant supervisory authority within 72 hours where required (Article 33), and tell affected people without undue delay when there's a high risk to them (Article 34).

Email privacy@officehours.global, or write to Office Hours Global, 700 El Camino Real, Suite 120-1076, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.