Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

ForesIQ ("ForesIQ", "we", "us" or "our") is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We are the organisation responsible for (the "controller" of) the personal information described in this policy, except where section 4 says we process information on a customer's behalf.

You can contact us about privacy at pooja@foresiq.com. We aim to answer every privacy question within 30 days, and usually much sooner.

2. Information we collect on foresiq.com

When you request a demo or contact us, we collect what you choose to give us:

• your name and work email address;
• your organisation and role, if you provide them;
• what kind of research talent your team is looking for, and the next step you prefer;
• anything else you write in your message.

When you browse foresiq.com, our servers handle standard technical information needed to deliver the pages, such as your IP address, browser type and the pages requested. This information appears only in short-lived technical logs used for security and reliability.

The website sets no advertising or analytics cookies and loads no third-party tracking scripts, so we do not ask for cookie consent. It uses your browser's session storage only to notice when a newer version of the site has been published, and that value is discarded when you close the tab. The site's private administration area uses browser storage to keep authorised administrators signed in.

3. Information about our customers and their users

ForesIQ is available only to organisations we have agreed to supply. Customer accounts are created by invitation; there is no public sign-up. Researchers hold a separate kind of account (section 6). For each customer user we hold:

• account details: name, work email address, organisation, role and permissions;
• sign-in and security information, such as authentication records and the dates and times of access;
• usage and activity records, such as searches, profile views, exports and changes made in the workspace, which we keep for security, fair use, support and accountability;
• commercial records for the customer organisation, such as plans, orders, invoices and payments. We do not process payment cards.
• content users create in the workspace, such as notes, saved lists and comments, and the descriptions users type into plain-English search where their organisation has switched it on ("Customer Content"). We use a search description only to turn it into search filters, and we do not store its text (sections 8 and 10).

4. When we act for our customers

For Customer Content, our customer decides why and how that information is used, and we process it only on the customer's instructions to provide the service. In that role we are the customer's "processor" (or "service provider"), and our Data Processing Addendum governs the processing. If Customer Content concerns you, please contact the customer organisation first; we will help them respond.

For researcher profiles, researcher accounts, account administration, security, billing and this website, we are the controller.

5. How we use information and our legal bases

We use personal information only for the purposes below. Where the law of your country requires a legal basis for processing (for example the GDPR in the European Economic Area or the UK GDPR), the basis is shown beside each purpose.

In Canada we rely on your consent, which may be implied by the business context in which you give us information, and on the exceptions the law permits. We do not use personal information for purposes you would not reasonably expect, and we do not use it for advertising.

6. Researchers described in ForesIQ

ForesIQ helps organisations discover and understand the people advancing frontier research, from the work those people have published. This section explains what we hold about researchers, where it comes from and how to see, correct or remove it. It is our notice to researchers under Article 14 of the GDPR and equivalent laws.

What a profile contains

• your name as it appears on your published work;
• the research areas you publish in, and expertise topics identified from your own papers;
• indicators of your research record read within your field: the ForesIQ Score and its band, Momentum and Activity;
• conference and journal publication history, such as venues and years, and publication and citation measures used to prepare the indicators;
• professional context from public sources or, where the researcher has claimed the profile, stated by the researcher, where supported: current and previous employers, employer city, state or region and country, education and degrees, each shown with a label describing the evidence behind it;
• career timing, where the public record dates it: a recent move to a new organisation, or a doctoral post and the years the record gives for it; each is shown with the date of the record it rests on;
• a short plain-language summary of your research, written from your published work;
• identifiers used to match publications to the right person.

What a profile never contains

• contact details such as email addresses, phone numbers or home addresses (an email address held for sign-in is kept apart from the profile and is not part of it);
• photographs or social media activity;
• sensitive information such as health, ethnic origin, religion, political opinions, sexual orientation, trade union membership or immigration status, and we do not infer gender;
• age or date of birth, salary or whether you are looking for a new role.

Where the information comes from

Only from publicly accessible sources that researchers and their institutions publish: scholarly publication records and bibliographic databases, conference and journal proceedings, public researcher identifier registries, and public institutional or personal web pages. We do not use private, leaked or unlawfully obtained information, and we do not collect information from behind sign-ins. There are two additions, described below: what a researcher chooses to state about themselves after claiming their profile, and the email address on file. Automated tools, including AI text-processing services acting on our instructions, read these public sources to extract professional facts, such as an affiliation stated in a paper. We apply identity and consistency safeguards before a profile is published, and withhold profiles whose evidence does not support them.

How profiles are produced

The ForesIQ Score, Momentum and Activity are produced automatically by comparing a researcher's published record with others in the same field. They describe the published record. They are not judgements of a person's ability, character or suitability for any role, and they do not forecast how anyone will perform. ForesIQ makes no decisions about researchers. Our terms require customers to apply their own human judgment and not to use ForesIQ as the sole basis for any decision with legal or similarly significant effects on a person. Career timing labels are also produced automatically, from dated public records. Each describes the record as of the date shown beside it, which may be earlier than today, and none says whether anyone is available for, or looking for, a new role.

To describe a researcher's published work in a few sentences, we send the titles, years and venues of their papers, and the research areas and topics on their profile, to an AI text-processing service, OpenRouter, which returns the text. We do not add separate name, employer or contact fields to that request; the public text itself may contain identifying information. To read and check public career and education information, we also send public scholarly or professional source excerpts, which may include names and organisations, to AI text-processing services through OpenRouter. These profile-preparation and quality checks do not use customer workspace notes, lists or other Customer Content.

Why we process researcher information

We rely on legitimate interests: our interest in operating a research intelligence service, our customers' interest in finding and understanding research expertise, and the wider interest in making research work visible. We consider these interests balanced against researchers' rights because the information is professional, has been made public by researchers and their institutions, is limited to research context, excludes contact details and sensitive information (an email address held for a researcher is kept separately and is never part of a profile), and can be corrected or removed at any time on request.

Researcher accounts and claimed profiles

Every researcher in ForesIQ has a private profile link. A person at ForesIQ may send a researcher their link by email, from a ForesIQ mailbox. The claim and researcher sign-in pages send sign-in emails when requested. The link opens a page showing the profile ForesIQ holds about the researcher: the research information and professional details shown on the customer profile. It does not show any email address or any customer's notes. Anyone who holds the link can open the page without signing in. It is not listed on foresiq.com or in our sitemap, and it asks search engines not to index it. The link stays the same until a ForesIQ administrator replaces it, and it keeps working after the profile is claimed. A researcher who wants a new link can ask us at pooja@foresiq.com.

• A researcher claims their profile with one click and their agreement to the Researcher Terms. We then email a sign-in link to the email address on file for that researcher. The profile page does not show the address, and gives the same answer whether or not we hold one. The sign-in link works once and for a limited time. A claim that is not finished within 15 minutes expires. A password is optional.
• The email address on file is held privately. A ForesIQ administrator stores it, from the researcher's public institutional page or from the researcher, after checking that it belongs to the researcher. ForesIQ administrators can see the address on file. The researcher sees their own sign-in address in Account. It is never part of the profile and is never shown to customers or to other researchers. We use it only to send sign-in links and to write to the researcher about their profile. If an address is wrong, or we hold none, a researcher can send us the address they would like to use, with an optional note, through a form on the profile page. That request does not change the address on file; a person checks it first. We delete a handled request at the next routine clean-up after 30 days, and an unhandled request after 90 days.
• Sign-in emails are sent by ForesIQ's own server, from a ForesIQ address, through the mail relay of Google Workspace (Google LLC). Emails that people at ForesIQ write to researchers, including the one that carries the profile link, are sent from their own ForesIQ mailboxes, which are also on Google Workspace. Google therefore handles the researcher's email address and the email itself in order to deliver it. Nothing else about the researcher is sent to Google.
• If a researcher asks us not to contact them, or switches on "Do not contact me" in their Account page, we record a one-way code (a keyed fingerprint) of their email address in lower case, never the address itself, with the date, who recorded it and, if one is given, a short reason. We can check an address against the record but cannot read an address back from it. We leave addresses on the record out of the list our people use to write to researchers. The record does not stop the sign-in emails a researcher asks for. We keep it until the person asks to be contacted again, and it stays after an account is closed or a profile is removed, because otherwise we could not keep the request.
• A researcher who holds an account can look up other researchers in an Explore area. It shows a compact list (name, institution, research areas, ForesIQ Score band and momentum) and, for one researcher, the band only, never the full profile. Each account can be shown up to 500 rows a day, and we keep a count of the rows shown to each account each day to apply the limit. There is no export.
• A researcher who claims a profile can state their current position (employer, city, state or region and country), their education and their career history. These are the researcher's own statements. ForesIQ does not check each one.
• Customers see what a claimed researcher has stated, marked "Verified by the researcher". A part the researcher has not changed keeps the details we compiled from public sources and is not marked.
• We keep a record of each change a researcher makes, and ForesIQ can revert a change that is false, abusive or unlawful. When it does, the details ForesIQ held before the change return to the profile at once.
• A researcher account gives no access to any customer's workspace.
• A researcher can download their profile data from their Account page. That is the profile as ForesIQ holds it. For anything else we hold about them, they can write to us (below).

Who receives it

Our customers, which are organisations bound by our terms, including restrictions on how they may use researcher information; researchers who hold an account, who see a short summary in Explore as described above; and the service providers described in section 8. A researcher's profile page is open to anyone who holds that researcher's private link. We do not publish researcher profiles on the open web, and the only researcher records shown on foresiq.com itself are a small reviewed sample with surnames hidden.

How long we keep it

We keep a profile while the researcher is active in the fields ForesIQ covers and the information remains relevant, and we refresh profiles as new work is published. A profile that leaves the dataset is no longer scored, searchable or updated. If a customer had saved it, that customer can still see the saved profile, marked as no longer in the dataset, until no customer list, note, tag or status refers to it; we then delete it at our next data release. When a researcher continues under an updated profile, we keep the earlier profile record, not shown in search, so that customers' saved links still reach the current profile. When a profile is removed at a researcher's request, we delete these records too and keep only the minimum record needed to make sure it is not added again. Copies in our backups expire on the schedule in section 10. We keep a researcher's account, sign-in email and the record of their edits until the account is closed or the profile is removed. We keep the email address on file until the account is closed, until we are asked to remove or replace it, or until the profile is removed. We keep the private profile link with the profile until we are asked to replace it or the profile is removed. If ForesIQ ends an account for a breach of the Researcher Terms, we delete it, with its edit record, at our next routine clean-up at least 30 days later. When a researcher closes their account, the details ForesIQ held before the claim return to the profile, the "Verified by the researcher" label goes, and we delete the account, the edit record, the sign-in email and the email address on file. The private link stays and the profile stays, unclaimed; a sign-in that existed before the claim is kept, without researcher access. Removing a profile at the researcher's request deletes the account, the edit record, the email address on file, the private link and our internal log entries about that person.

Your choices and rights as a researcher

• See the information we hold about you, and the specific sources it came from.
• Ask us to correct anything that is inaccurate or out of date. A researcher who has claimed their profile can correct their current position, education and career history themselves; anything else, you ask us.
• Object to our processing, or ask us to delete your profile. We will remove it from the product and keep it out of future releases, unless the law requires otherwise.
• Ask us to restrict processing while we check a concern.
• Ask us to remove or replace the email address we hold for you, or the private link to your profile.
• Ask us not to write to you again, or switch on "Do not contact me" in your Account page if you hold an account.

To make a request, email pooja@foresiq.com with your name and enough detail for us to find your profile, such as your current affiliation or a link to your published work. We may ask you to confirm your identity, for example by writing from your institutional email address. We respond within 30 days, and within one month where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies. We act on removal requests without undue delay and notify customers so they can update their own records.

Where a profile shows research signals, they are built from published research we already hold and are shown as plain descriptions. You can ask us to correct or contest a signal by writing to pooja@foresiq.com.

7. How we share information

We share personal information only as follows:

• with service providers that host, store, secure or process information for us under contract and only on our instructions (section 8);
• with our customers, and with researchers who hold an account, for researcher profiles as described in section 6;
• where the law requires it, or where needed to protect the rights, safety or property of ForesIQ, our customers or others;
• with a successor organisation if ForesIQ is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, subject to this policy.

We do not sell the personal information of website visitors or customer users, and we do not share it for advertising.

8. Service providers and where information is stored

ForesIQ is operated from Canada. Our main service providers and storage locations are:

Because providers are located outside your country, your information may be transferred internationally, including from Canada, the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom to the United States, the European Union and Singapore. Where the law requires it, we protect these transfers with appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK addendum to them, and we require providers to protect information to a standard comparable to this policy. Information held abroad can be subject to the laws of that country, including lawful access by its authorities.

9. How we protect information

We use administrative, technical and physical safeguards appropriate to the information we hold, including encryption of data in transit, database encryption at rest by our hosting provider, per-user access controls enforced in the database, restricted and logged administrative access, automated testing and review before changes are released, hourly backups with tested restoration, and monitoring of security events. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your information in a way the law requires us to report, we will notify you and the relevant authorities.

10. How long we keep information

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access your personal information, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to its processing, receive a copy in a portable format, and withdraw consent where we rely on consent. You will not be treated differently for exercising these rights. To exercise them, email pooja@foresiq.com.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you may complain to your local data protection authority. In Canada, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. We would appreciate the chance to address your concern first.

If you are a California resident, you have the rights to know, delete and correct personal information and to opt out of its sale or sharing. We do not sell or share the personal information of website visitors or customer users. A researcher who does not want their profile made available to our customers can ask us to remove it, as described in section 6. You may use an authorised agent, and we will verify requests before acting on them.

12. Children

foresiq.com and the ForesIQ service are intended for professionals and are not directed at anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

We will post any change to this policy on this page with a new date. If a change materially affects how we use personal information, we will tell customers in advance and, where appropriate, publish a notice on foresiq.com.

14. Contact us

ForesIQ, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Email pooja@foresiq.com for any question, request or complaint about privacy.