Last updated 16 October 2026
This notice explains what OrbHop does with personal data. OrbHop is operated by Alex Hile, trading as OrbHop (not yet incorporated). Alex Hile is the data controller. Contact: hello@orbhop.com.
What OrbHop is
OrbHop is a talent agency for experimental scientists: physicists, and people working in quantum hardware, photonics, semiconductors, instrumentation and materials. Scientists list a profile. Hiring companies browse named profiles and ask for introductions.
What we collect
When you sign in
- Google: your name, email address and Google account id. This uses OpenID Connect.
- ORCID (scientists only): your ORCID iD and name.
We never see or store your passwords.
If you are a scientist
- Name, contact email, headline, institution, career stage, field and location.
- Work rights and availability.
- arXiv paper ids, your ORCID iD and links you add.
- A free-text "about" section.
- A technical brief. OrbHop writes it from your public papers. It lists capabilities, each with verbatim quotes from the papers. We produce it with our own tooling, in which an AI model reads the papers. A person at OrbHop reviews it.
If you are an employer
- Name, work email, company, job title and what you are hiring for.
- When a scientist accepts your introduction request, we email you both together, so the scientist sees your name, title, company, email and the note you wrote.
- The date you accepted our terms.
Profile view records
Each time an employer account opens a scientist's profile, we record the company, the employer's email, the scientist's name, the scientist's account id and the date. We keep one record per day. These records are the evidence for our placement fee. See "How long we keep it" below.
Why we use it, and our legal basis
- Consent: listing your named profile and brief to employers. You give this by ticking "show my profile to employers". You can withdraw it at any time.
- Contract: running your account, and handling introduction requests and placements.
- Legitimate interests: keeping fee records so we can be paid for placements, and keeping the service secure.
Who sees your data
- If you are a scientist and you have ticked "show my profile to employers", signed-in employer accounts can see your named profile and brief. When you tick it, you consent to that. If you untick it, they cannot.
- Nothing beyond your profile and brief is shared with an employer until you accept that employer's introduction request. When you accept, we send one email to you and that employer together (OrbHop copied), so they see your contact email and you see theirs.
- We do not sell data. We do not use it for advertising.
Who processes it for us
- Cloudflare: hosting, our database and email routing.
- Resend: sending the emails the app sends you (sign-up, introduction requests, introductions, brief updates).
- Google: sign-in.
- ORCID: sign-in for scientists, when we offer it.
- Anthropic (Claude): used through Claude Code on OrbHop's own machine to read public papers and draft briefs.
Data may be processed outside the UK, the EU and Australia. Cloudflare runs a global network and some of these providers are in the United States.
Cookies
We use two cookies and no others: a sign-in session cookie that lasts 30 days, and a short-lived sign-in security cookie. We use no analytics, no advertising and no tracking.
How long we keep it
- Account data: until you delete your account. We review inactive accounts after 24 months.
- Profile view records: 24 months, then deleted automatically. We keep these even after either account is deleted, because they are the evidence for the placement fee and we may need them for legal claims.
- Email log (which emails the app sent, to whom and when): 12 months, then deleted automatically; deleting your account deletes the entries for your address straight away.
- Introductions we made and placements: kept in our accounts for 7 years, for tax, even if an account is later deleted.
Deleting your data
Scientists can untick "show my profile to employers" or delete their account at any time in the app (Account, then Delete). Deleting your account immediately erases your profile, brief, sessions, shortlists, introduction requests and our log of emails to you. The profile view records and the accounts records described above are the exception.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you can ask us to:
- give you a copy of your data (access and portability);
- correct it;
- delete it;
- stop using it for a purpose, where we rely on legitimate interests (objection);
- stop using it where we rely on your consent (withdraw consent).
Email hello@orbhop.com. We answer within one month.
These rights come from the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, the EU GDPR and the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (the Australian Privacy Principles). If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the UK or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) in Australia. We would like the chance to fix it first.
Changes
We will post any new version of this notice with its date. If a change matters to you, we will email you.