How Seven Minute Tech handles personal data for this website, applications, events, and certificates. Last updated 1 March 2026.
This policy describes what Seven Minute Tech (“7MT”, “we”) collects when you visit www.7mt.org, apply to compete, attend a heat, or verify a certificate. It is written in plain language on purpose. It is not a substitute for applicable law. If a local rule is stricter than this page, we follow the stricter rule for that processing.
7MT is operated by a small independent non-profit that runs the competition. The contact for privacy requests is hello@7mt.org. We do not sell personal data. We do not run a paid “fast-track” list.
This is a static site. We do not put a marketing pixel on every page. Hosting logs may record IP address, user agent, referring URL, and timestamp for security and uptime. We do not use those logs to build advertising profiles. If a future analytics tool is added, this policy will be updated before it ships.
When you email apply@7mt.org we receive whatever you send: name, affiliation, role, city choice, talk title, summary, video URL, slide file, AI disclosure, optional bio, optional stipend request, and any endorser contacts. Judges and screening volunteers see the materials needed to score the talk. They do not receive stipend requests.
Selected speakers give us travel details, dietary needs, and emergency contacts so we can produce a heat. Audience members who only walk in are not asked for an account. Livestreams and photography are part of a public event; we will say so on the door and in speaker briefings.
Issued certificates store a name, year, stage, role, and a verification checksum. The public verify page shows those fields when a valid ID is presented. It is meant for employers and universities to check authenticity, not to publish a directory of every applicant.
Messages to hello@, apply@, partners@, press@, and resources@ are read by staff and volunteers bound to keep applicant materials confidential until a talk is public.
We do not use application videos to train a public AI model. We do not hand applicant lists to sponsors as a lead file. Sponsors who sit on a judging panel see the talks they are scoring, the same as any other judge.
We share data with host venues (names of speakers and essential production contacts), with travel providers when we book an advancing speaker, with video hosts when you send us a link that already lives on their platform, and with law enforcement when required. Volunteers from past finalist cohorts help produce the event; they see only what the role requires. We do not sell lists.
Unsuccessful video applications are kept through the end of the competition year plus twelve months, then deleted from working inboxes and shared drives, unless a dispute is open. Heat recordings and finalist archives are kept as a public record. Certificate records are kept so verification continues to work; if we retire an ID after a reissue, the old ID fails on the verify page.
Write to hello@7mt.org to ask what we hold, to correct a name on a certificate, or to delete application materials that are not part of a public archive. We cannot un-livestream a talk that already happened. We reply within two business days to acknowledge, and we complete straightforward corrections promptly.
Heats are public events aimed at adults. The practical age floor is 18. Younger undergraduates who apply with an endorser are handled case by case; we collect the endorser’s contact to manage that exception, not to market to minors.
Applicants, judges, and hosts sit in more than one country. Materials move to wherever the screening panel and the host city are. If that is a problem for your institution, do not apply — we cannot run a separate private track.
If we change this policy in a way that affects how we use data we already hold, we will date the page and, for applicants in an open cycle, send a note to the email we have on file. The Terms of use cover the competition contract. Contact lists every channel.