Privacy notice
Version 2026-08-v4 · effective 25 August 2026
Who we are
VIBE runs matchmaking for real-world events: you check in, we work out who in the room you should meet, and we introduce you if you both want to be introduced.
VIBE is operated as VIBE Networking, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Swiss data protection law applies to us, and because we handle data about people in the EU, the GDPR does too.
For anything about your data, write to privacy@joinvibe.net. That includes asking for our postal address, which we will give you for a formal data request or a complaint.
What this notice covers
This covers joinvibe.net — the website, event check-in, and matching.
The VIBE Archetype Assessment runs separately. If you have taken it, we explain below where the two connect, because they share a database and your check-in can use your assessment result.
What we collect, and why
When you apply to join VIBE
Membership is by application. What you send us on the application form is:
| What | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Your name and email address | To know who is applying and to tell you the outcome |
| What you are building | The main thing the decision is made on, and later most of what makes a match meaningful |
| Your industry | Chosen from a fixed list, never free text |
| Whether you work in a technical role | Optional. Complementary skills are part of how matching works |
| What you are looking for | Co-founders, partners, peer learning, a mentor, an investor — any combination |
| Your city | So we know which chapter you are near |
| A profile link, if you give us one | Optional. Usually LinkedIn |
| How you heard about us | Optional. Only ever read in aggregate, to know what works |
We also record when you applied, the outcome, when it was decided and who decided it — and, if you take the VIBE Archetype Assessment as part of applying, a link to your result.
Your assessment result is held until your application has been reviewed. If we do not accept you, we will still show you your archetype.
An application is not shown to other members, and it is never used for matching unless you are accepted.
When you check in to an event
This is the main thing we collect, and you give it to us directly.
| What | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Your email address | To identify you across devices, to show you your matches, and to introduce you if there is mutual interest |
| Your name | So the person we match you with knows who they are meeting |
| What you are building | This is most of what makes a match meaningful rather than random |
| Your industry | Chosen from a fixed list, never free text |
| Whether you work in a technical role | Complementary skills are part of how matching works |
| What you are looking for | Co-founders, partners, peer learning, a mentor, an investor — any combination |
| Your VIBE archetype | Either the one you select, or your assessment result if you have one |
| A profile link, if you give us one | Optional. Usually LinkedIn |
We also record when you checked in, and which event.
What the matching produces
From the above we calculate a match score between you and each other attendee, store the matches that qualify, and record what you do with them:
- Whether you opened your matches, and when you last did. We record the first and last time only — not which matches you looked at, not for how long, and not from what device. It exists so we can tell the difference between "nobody found their matches useful" and "nobody ever saw them", which are different problems with different fixes.
- Your responses — whether you said you want to meet someone, or not this time
- Mutual interest — when you and another person have both said yes
- Introductions — that the two of you were introduced, and when
Whether you opened your matches is not shown to anyone — not to the people you were matched with, and not to the event host. It is used only in aggregate, to count how many people in a room got that far. What *is* visible to another attendee is set out in "What other attendees can see about you" below.
If you have taken the VIBE Archetype Assessment
When you check in, we look up your email against the assessment's records. If you have a result, we use your measured archetype instead of a guess.
We look this up only inside a check-in you are already completing. There is no way to ask VIBE "what is this person's archetype" from the outside.
If you create a VIBE account
Your email address and password, handled by our authentication provider, plus your name and an optional profile photo.
If you fill in a form on the website
The Contact and Chapter forms collect your name, email address, city, and what you are asking about. The event waitlist collects your email address only.
These forms are handled by Formspree, a third-party form service. See "Who else sees your data" below.
The application form is not. It runs on our own infrastructure and the data goes straight into our database, because it is the most personal thing the site asks for.
Measuring traffic on our public pages
We count visits to the public pages of joinvibe.net — the home page, the pages about VIBE, chapters and events, the join and contact pages, and these legal pages — using Vercel Web Analytics.
For each visit, Vercel records the time, the page address, the site you arrived from, campaign tags in the link you followed, your approximate location — country, region and city — and the general type of device, browser and operating system you used.
Nothing is stored on your device. There are no analytics cookies. To tell one visit from the next, Vercel makes a hash from the request itself; your IP address is used to work out roughly where you are and is not stored or attached to the record. That hash is discarded after 24 hours, so nothing links what you read today to what you read tomorrow, and there is no way to follow you from here to another website.
We do not measure the pages that matter most. No measurement runs on event check-in, on your matches, on the founder dashboard, on the sign-in and password pages, or on either admin panel. That is enforced in code by an allowlist — a page is measured only if it is named — so a page added later is unmeasured unless somebody decides otherwise.
The reason is the obvious one: a page address like *"the matches page for this event"* recorded against a device identifier would tell a third party who was in which room, and none of that is theirs to know. Counting visitors to the home page does not require it.
We never see your identity in this data. It arrives as counts and top-tens — how many people, from where, reading what.
What we do not do
- We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, and we do not build a profile of you across other websites.
- We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with advertisers.
- We do not show anyone a number for how well you match someone. Scores are calculated and used to order your list; they are never displayed.
Our legal basis for each use
| What we do | Basis |
|---|---|
| Consider your application to join | Your consent, given on the application form. There is nothing for us to do with an application we may not read |
| Match you with other attendees | Your consent, given at check-in. You cannot check in without it, because matching is the entire point of checking in |
| Send you the VIBE newsletter | Your consent, given separately and optionally. Nothing about your matching changes if you decline |
| Run the event you registered for | Performance of our agreement with you |
| Record whether you opened your matches | Our legitimate interest in knowing whether the thing we built works at all. You can object to this — see "Your rights" |
| Count visits to our public pages | Our legitimate interest in knowing whether anybody is finding the site. No consent box, because nothing is stored on or read from your device and no profile is built — but you can object to it, see "Your rights" |
| Keep security and admin logs | Our legitimate interest in being able to tell what happened |
Consent, and taking it back
The two boxes at check-in are separate, neither is ticked for you, and the newsletter one is genuinely optional.
You can withdraw either consent at any time by writing to privacy@joinvibe.net. Withdrawing matching consent means we stop matching you and remove you from future matching; it does not undo an introduction that has already happened, because the other person already has your email address by then.
We record which version of this notice and of the check-in wording you were shown, so we can always tell you exactly what you agreed to.
What other attendees can see about you
This is the part worth reading twice.
Before mutual interest, someone you have been matched with sees your name, your archetype, what you are building, and your industry. That is all.
Your email address and your profile link are released only when you have both said you want to meet. Not before, and never to someone you have not agreed to meet. A profile link is public in itself, but the fact that *you* were in *this* room and open to meeting is not, so it waits for the same yes the address does.
Your responses are private. If you decide not to meet someone, they are not told. Someone who passed on you and someone who has not answered yet look exactly the same from the other side — that is deliberate, and we test for it.
The event host sees who checked in and their matches, so they can introduce people in the room.
Who else sees your data
We use these companies to run VIBE. They process data on our instructions.
| Who | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, sign-in, file storage | European Union (Stockholm) |
| Vercel | Website and application hosting, and traffic counts for our public pages | European Union (Frankfurt) |
| Formspree | The Contact, Chapter and waitlist forms — not the application | United States |
Formspree handles only the enquiry forms on the website — your name, email, city and what you tell us about yourself. It is never involved in event check-in, matching, or anything about who you meet. Those run entirely on our own infrastructure in the EU.
Where your data is stored
Your data is held in the European Union. Where a provider is based outside Europe, transfers rely on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.
How long we keep it
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| An application we accepted | Kept for as long as you are a member, then 24 months |
| An application we did not accept, or that was withdrawn | 12 months, then deleted. Long enough to answer "why", short enough not to keep a file on people who are not members |
| Check-in and matching data, including whether you opened your matches | 24 months after the event, then deleted |
| Introductions | 24 months, so the archive stays useful |
| Account data | Until you close your account |
| Newsletter subscription | Until you unsubscribe |
| Public-page traffic counts | The hash that groups one visitor's pages is discarded after 24 hours. What is left is counts, which are not linked to anybody |
| Security and admin logs | 12 months |
We delete sooner if you ask us to.
Your rights
You can ask us to give you a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, limit what we do with it, or hand it to someone else. You can object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and withdraw any consent you have given.
Write to privacy@joinvibe.net. We will respond within one month.
If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, or to the data protection authority where you live if you are in the EU.
Changes to this notice
We keep every published version. When we change it, the previous version stays on record, along with which version each person consented to. We never edit a version that has already been published.
What changed in this version (2026-08-v4): we started counting visits to the public pages of the website, using Vercel Web Analytics, and this notice now says so. The previous version said we used no analytics at all, which stopped being true; correcting that is the reason for this version. The measurement is deliberately kept off event check-in, matches, the founder dashboard, the sign-in pages and the admin panels, and that limit is written into the code rather than into a setting. Nothing about what other attendees can see about you has changed.
What changed in 2026-08-v3: membership became something you apply for, so there is a new section describing what the application form collects, why, how long we keep it, and that an application is never shown to other members. The application form also stopped going through Formspree and now runs on our own infrastructure. Nothing about what other attendees can see about you has changed.
What changed in 2026-08-v2: we started recording whether you opened your matches page.
Effective from 25 August 2026.
Version 2026-08-v5 · in force since 26 August 2026. Earlier versions are kept and are never edited — ask us if you need the one you agreed to.