Privacy at NEXUS.

1. Who is responsible for your data

SZM NEXUS is operated by Shuaizheng Meng. For the purposes of applicable data protection law, the platform operator acts as the data controller for the information described here. Public contact details are published on the Founder page. The publicly accessible site is published at https://szmnexus.com/.

2. Categories of information we process

Depending on how you use the platform, we may process:

• Account data — email address and authentication credentials handled by our authentication provider. Passwords are not stored in plain text by the platform and are not visible to administrators.
• Profile data — display name, self-selected roles, optional country, state and biography.
• Project data — title, type, location, stage, summary, stated resource needs and the disclosure flags you set.
• Connection data — introduction requests you send or receive, their status and any messages you choose to exchange through the platform.
• Review and moderation data — project status changes, verification labels, review notes and administrative actions, retained so the trust layer is auditable.
• Technical data — IP address, browser type, device information and request logs generated by hosting infrastructure, used for security, abuse prevention and diagnostics.

3. Information we do not collect

• We do not knowingly collect special-category data such as health, biometric, racial or ethnic origin, religious belief, political opinion, trade-union membership or sexual orientation data, and you should not submit it.
• We do not collect payment card or banking details. NEXUS does not process payments on the platform.
• We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. See section 11.
• We do not operate third-party advertising trackers or sell personal data.

4. Disclosure controls — what other people can see

Project owners choose their own disclosure layer. The available layers are:

• Public — the record may be visible to any visitor, including visitors who are not signed in, once it has also passed administrative review.
• Matching — the record may be used to consider matches and introductions.
• Service Review — the record may be reviewed by platform operations for support purposes.

A record must satisfy both conditions to appear publicly: it must have passed review, and you must have enabled public disclosure. Disabling public disclosure removes it from public listings.

Private contact details are not published in public listings. Introductions are mediated through the platform rather than by publishing your email address.

Once information is public it may be copied. Search engines and other services may have already indexed or cached public content. Removing it from NEXUS does not guarantee its removal from third-party caches.

5. Third-party service providers

NEXUS runs on third-party infrastructure. These providers process data on our behalf:

• Supabase (authentication and hosted PostgreSQL database) — stores account, profile and project data.
• Vercel (hosting and delivery) — serves the site and may generate technical request logs.
• OpenAI (AI model provider) — processes the text you submit to the NEXUS Assistant. See section 6.

Each provider operates under its own terms and privacy practices, which we do not control. We do not share your personal data with these providers for their own advertising or resale purposes.

6. NEXUS Assistant and AI processing

The NEXUS Assistant sends the text you type, together with a limited set of already-public platform project data, to a third-party AI model provider (OpenAI) to generate a reply. AI provider API credentials are held only in server-side environment variables and are never exposed in browser code.

Because of this, please be careful what you type:

• Do not enter confidential, privileged, unpublished patent, trade-secret, export-controlled or personally sensitive information into the Assistant.
• Assistant replies are generated text and may be inaccurate. They are not professional advice and should be independently verified.
• Statements about platform projects are intended to come only from real public NEXUS records; general commentary is not platform data.

7. Why we process data (purposes and legal bases)

• To provide the service — creating accounts, storing profiles and projects, enabling search and introduction requests. Basis: performance of our agreement with you.
• To review and moderate content — maintaining a trust layer and an audit trail of administrative actions. Basis: legitimate interest in operating a safe platform.
• To secure and improve the platform — detecting abuse, diagnosing faults and preventing fraud. Basis: legitimate interest.
• To communicate with you — service messages such as introduction notifications. Basis: performance of our agreement.
• To comply with law — responding to lawful requests. Basis: legal obligation.

Where you have explicitly consented to something additional, we rely on that consent, and you may withdraw it at any time.

8. Security

We use pragmatic, layered safeguards, including:

• All traffic is served over HTTPS/TLS.
• Row-level access controls in the database restrict which records each account can read or change, so access is enforced server-side rather than only hidden in the interface.
• Sensitive AI and infrastructure credentials are stored only in server-side environment variables, never in public browser code.
• Security headers are applied to site responses, and the site blocks framing and common content-type abuse.
• Administrative access is restricted to a named administrator registry.

No system is perfectly secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security. Please use a strong, unique password and tell us immediately if you suspect a problem.

9. Retention

We keep data for as long as your account is active and as long as needed to operate the platform, maintain the moderation audit trail, resolve disputes and comply with legal obligations. Review records may be retained after a project is removed, because the purpose of that record is accountability for moderation decisions. If you ask us to delete your account, we will remove or de-identify personal data unless we must retain it for legal compliance or a legitimate operational record.

10. International transfers

NEXUS is focused on the United States but is accessible globally. Your data may be stored or processed in countries other than your own, including the United States, and may be accessible to providers operating in multiple regions. Data protection standards differ between jurisdictions. By using the platform you acknowledge this possibility.

11. Children

NEXUS is intended for adults. It is not directed at anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a minor has created an account, contact us so we can remove it.

12. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or export your personal data, to object to certain processing, and to withdraw consent. To exercise any of these, contact us using the details on the Founder page. You can review and update much of your profile and project information directly in your account dashboard.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right. We may need to verify your identity before acting.

13. Cookies and local storage

NEXUS uses browser local storage to keep you signed in and to remember interface state. During this public beta we do not deliberately set third-party advertising cookies. Signature cookies set by our authentication provider are used for session continuity.

14. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice as the platform evolves. Material changes will be reflected by updating the date above. Please review periodically.

15. Contact

Questions, requests or complaints about privacy can be directed to the platform founder, Shuaizheng Meng. Public contact details are published on the Founder page. We aim to respond to genuine privacy requests within 30 days.

Related: see the Terms of Use for platform limitations, AI Assistant limitations and prohibited use.