How we use your information

Privacy notice

Version 1. For the OpenMind event on Saturday 24 October 2026 in Singapore.

This notice explains what we do with your answers, photos and data. It is written for adults (18 and over). It follows Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA). We have tried to keep it plain. If something is unclear, email us at dpo@arkverse.io.

It adds to the Arkverse Privacy Policy & Terms of Service (www.arkverse.io/legal). For this event, where the two differ, this notice applies.

1. Who we are

OpenMind is a learning and research platform run by Arkverse Pte. Ltd., 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #01-20, Singapore 139951. Arkverse is responsible for the personal data collected at this event.

Our Data Protection Officer is Law Junkai, Samuel, at dpo@arkverse.io. Contact the DPO for anything in this notice, including withdrawing, seeing or correcting your data. General questions: hello@arkverse.io.

2. Why we collect your data

We collect it for two purposes.

1. To give you a response. We read what you typed (or your photo) and show you a preview of what we found.
2. For research. We study how people think through problems, in the way described by Reuven Feuerstein's work on cognitive functions. We also use what we learn to improve our method. Research uses are optional. They apply only if you agree to them (see section 5).

We do not use your data for advertising. We do not sell it. We do not use it to make decisions about you, such as for admission, grades or jobs. We do not share it with your school, university, polytechnic or employer.

3. What we collect

• Your typed answers and working. What you type into the answer and "How did you get there?" boxes.
• Photos of your written work, if you choose to upload one instead. You upload them. Before we store a photo, our system removes the hidden information that phones add, such as the location and the time. It also makes the image smaller.
• Our AI's reading. For a photo, a typed copy of your writing. For typed and photo answers, a short neutral summary of your approach and some labels such as "picked out the information needed".
• The quick scan. The notes our rules showed you about common slips in your working.
• Your ratings. After you see a response, you can tell us whether it was accurate. You can add a comment.
• Your choices. Your age confirmation, which consent version you saw and which boxes you ticked. We record when you ticked them, and when you withdraw.
• A code and a return key. The code looks like P-XXXXXX. We store only a scrambled version of your return key, so we cannot read it.
• Technical data. To keep the service safe we keep basic logs, such as the time of a request and the IP address, for 30 days, stored in Singapore. We use one cookie, which keeps you signed in. It is not used for tracking or advertising.

We do not ask for your name, email address, phone number, student number or school. Please do not type or write them in your answers. Please do not write about other people either. Please photograph the page only, not faces. Handwriting can sometimes identify a person. We cannot remove that.

If our AI sees what looks like a name or other personal details in your answer or photo, it flags it. We then do not use that answer or photo for research. We also remove email addresses, phone numbers and NRIC numbers from typed answers before they are sent to the AI.

4. How the AI reads your answer

Your typed answer, or your photo, is sent to Google Cloud Vertex AI to be read. We use Google's Singapore region (asia-southeast1) if it can do the reading on the day. If it cannot, the reading is done on Google's global service, which may process it outside Singapore. Your stored answers, photos, records and backups stay in Singapore either way. Google acts for us as a service provider. It may process your answer or photo only to read it for us. Under Google Cloud's terms, Google does not use our data to train its models. Google may keep a request for a short time to detect abuse of its service.

What to expect:

• The AI can misread handwriting. It can be wrong.
• The AI only reads. Fixed rules in our own software decide what you see. The AI does not write messages to you, except for a short neutral summary of what you did.
• A response is a preview. It is marked as such. No person on our team has reviewed it, and it is not a grade.
• If the AI is down or fails, we still store your upload, and the response says we could not read it automatically. Our team may look at it later.

5. Your choices (the three tiers)

You choose these when you start. The first is needed to take part. The other two are optional.

You can say no to Improve and Release and still take part in the event.

People who may see your photo. Members of our research team, and trained raters who help label the work, may see your set-task photos if you ticked Improve. Only authorised members of the Arkverse research team, and raters who have agreed in writing to keep the work confidential, can see them. At a station, a volunteer sees your photo while helping you upload it.

What "de-identified" means for Release. We replace your code with a random number. We leave out your return key, consent records, IP address and any photo that our AI or our team flagged as having personal details. We will publish only what we have checked. The first release will contain typed copies of the writing and our labels, not the photos, because handwriting is hard to de-identify. It will be released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Once a dataset is released, we cannot take back copies other people have already downloaded. If you withdraw later, we will take your data out of any later versions and will not release it again. Please think about this before you tick Release.

6. Your own work

You may upload a page of your own, if the event has this switched on. It is not a set task.

• We use it only to show you a response.
• We never use it for research, for improving our method or for release, whatever you ticked.
• We delete it 30 days after you upload it. The AI reading and the response are deleted at the same time.

7. How long we keep things

When the period ends, we delete the data or remove everything that could identify you. The PDPA says we should not keep personal data longer than we need it for a business or legal purpose. If our research needs a longer period, we will ask the people affected again.

8. How to withdraw, and how to see or correct your data

In the app. Open your page with your code and return key. Choose "Withdraw". This deletes your typed answers and photos. It also signs you out. It ends our use of your data for Improve and Release.

By email. Write to dpo@arkverse.io and give your code. Your code alone is enough to withdraw. We will withdraw you and delete your answers and photos within 7 days.

When you withdraw, we delete: your typed answers, your photos, our AI's reading of them, the responses you were shown and any comments you wrote. We keep only your yes, partly or no answer to "Was this accurate?", which contains nothing from your work. (In the app this question may read "Does this quick scan fit how you worked?") We keep a short record that you gave consent and then withdrew, with dates and no photos. We need it to show we did what you asked.

Seeing your data. You can ask for a copy of the data we hold under your code. Email dpo@arkverse.io with your code and return key. We ask for both so that nobody else can see your data. We will reply within 30 days.

Correcting your data. You can ask us to correct your personal data. Because we hold so little, this mainly means fixing a consent choice.

Lost your return key? We do not know who you are, so we cannot give it back. You can still email us with your code to withdraw.

9. How we protect your data

• Photos and data are stored in Google Cloud in Singapore, encrypted when stored and when sent.
• Only a few named team members can reach the data. Their access is recorded.
• Other participants cannot see your answers, photos or responses.
• Event volunteers sign out of the shared station between participants. A shared station also signs a participant out after 10 minutes without use.
• We store your data, including our technical logs, only in Singapore. The AI reading may happen outside Singapore (see section 4).

If a data breach happened that is likely to cause you significant harm, or that affects 500 or more people, we would tell the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) as the PDPA requires. We do not hold your contact details, so we would put a notice on www.arkverse.io and on this event's website.

10. Your rights, and complaints

You can withdraw your consent, ask to see your data and ask us to correct it. If you are not happy with what we do, email our DPO at dpo@arkverse.io first. We will reply within 10 working days. You can also contact the PDPC at www.pdpc.gov.sg.

11. Other points

• Age. This event is only for people aged 18 and over. If you are under 18, please do not take part.
• Ethics. Arkverse carries out its research in line with the PDPA and, where a study requires it, under research ethics oversight (an institutional review board). Questions about the ethics of this research can go to dpo@arkverse.io.
• Changes. If we change this notice in a way that matters, we will give it a new version number and ask you again. The version you agreed to is the one that applies to your data.