PRIVACY POLICY

WHO WE ARE

Our websites include:

• Lightship Foundation
• Black Tech Week

This Privacy Policy applies to the aforementioned websites, Black Tech Week events, Lightship Foundation programs, and any Android and iOS applications we develop, collectively referred to as the “Services.”

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, process, store, share, and protect user data and information. It also outlines the rights and choices available to users, registered attendees, participants, sponsors, partners, and visitors who engage with our Services.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT

When you use our Services, register for an event, attend Black Tech Week, participate in programming, or engage with us online or in person, we may collect the following types of information:

• Personal information: This may include your name, email address, phone number, company, job title, location, registration details, ticket type, event preferences, and other information that identifies you personally, which you provide voluntarily through forms on our websites, apps, event platforms, or registration systems.
• Event participation information: This may include sessions attended, badge scans, sponsor booth visits, networking activity, surveys, feedback, and other information related to your participation in our events.
• Usage data: Information about your usage of our Services, including visited pages, time spent on pages, clicked links, your IP address, the type of device you used, your operating system, and browser type.
• Cookie data: Cookies are small files saved to the user’s device that track, save, and store information about the user’s interactions and usage of a website.

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We may use the information we collect from you for the following purposes:

• Provide and maintain our Services.
• Process event registrations, ticketing, check-in, badge access, and attendee communications.
• Improve, personalize, and expand our Services, events, programming, and attendee experience.
• Understand and analyze how you use our Services and participate in our events.
• Develop new products, services, features, programming, and functionality.
• Communicate with you, either directly or through one of our partners, for customer service, event updates, marketing, promotional purposes, sponsor opportunities, and other information relating to our Services.
• Share attendee contact information, registration information, and participation information with event sponsors, partners, exhibitors, vendors, and service providers for event-related communications, lead retrieval, marketing, follow-up, promotional purposes, analytics, and sponsor benefit fulfillment.
• Fulfill contractual, operational, legal, and business obligations related to our events, Services, sponsors, partners, and vendors.

By registering for or attending a Black Tech Week event, you acknowledge and agree that your contact information, registration information, and event participation information may be shared with event sponsors, partners, exhibitors, vendors, and service providers as described in this Privacy Policy.

YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES

You have the following rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you:

• The right to access and update your personal data.
• The right to request that we delete or restrict how we use your personal data.
• The right to object to us processing your personal data.
• The right to receive your personal data in a usable electronic format and transmit it to a third party, also known as the right to data portability.
• The right to opt out of certain marketing communications where applicable.

Please note that certain information may be necessary for us to provide access to our Services, process registrations, fulfill event participation, or comply with legal, contractual, sponsor, vendor, or operational obligations.

HOW WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION

We are committed to protecting your personal information and have implemented appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect it from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures may include the use of secure servers, firewalls, encryption, access controls, and secure socket layer technology.

While we take reasonable steps to protect your information, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

Our Services are not intended for use by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected personal data from a child under 13, we will take steps to delete that information as soon as possible.

MEDIA RELEASE

By using our Services, you grant us permission to use your name, likeness, and any content you provide for media and promotional purposes. This may include but is not limited to, featuring your content on our websites, social media, and other promotional materials.

MEDIA RELEASE

By registering for, attending, participating in, or being present at a Black Tech Week event or related Lightship Foundation program, you grant Lightship Foundation, Black Tech Week, and their affiliates, partners, sponsors, vendors, representatives, and assigns the right to photograph, record, livestream, film, or otherwise capture your name, image, likeness, voice, statements, company name, social media handle, and appearance.

You authorize us to use, reproduce, publish, distribute, display, edit, and share this media in any format or channel, including but not limited to websites, mobile apps, social media, email, press, advertising, event recaps, sponsor materials, promotional campaigns, and other marketing or editorial materials, without additional notice, approval, or compensation.

If you provide content to us, tag us, submit materials, participate in interviews, appear on camera, or engage with event-related media opportunities, you grant us permission to use that content for media, marketing, promotional, educational, and archival purposes.

If you do not wish to be photographed, recorded, or featured, please contact us at info@lightship.foundation before attending the event. While we will make reasonable efforts to honor such requests, we cannot guarantee exclusion from all crowd shots, livestreams, background footage, or public event media.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make changes to this policy, we will notify users by updating the date of this Privacy Policy and posting it on our websites, apps, or event platforms. We recommend that users check this page regularly to stay up to date.

Continued use of our Services, registration for events, or attendance at Black Tech Week after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at info@lightship.foundation

DATE OF LAST UPDATE

This Privacy Policy was last updated on Juli 7, 2026.

Please note that this Privacy Policy is a simplified representation of a legal document and serves the purpose of providing a basic understanding of privacy principles. The actual policy should be reviewed or drafted by a legal professional to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.