Challenge Privacy Policy

1. Scope and contact

This notice describes how the Virtual Embryo Challenge registration, submission, evaluation and team services handle participant information. The Challenge is organised by the Qiu Lab at Stanford University together with its collaborators. The Virtual Embryo Challenge Organizing Committee is the contact for questions and requests concerning these services.

This notice concerns participant information. Access to the scientific datasets and rights in submitted methods remain governed by the Challenge Rules and Terms of Use. Separate services, including Yukon, GitHub, Google and community platforms, have their own privacy notices.

2. Information handled by the Challenge

Sign-in information: the identity provider used, its account identifier, email address, display name and profile image where supplied, plus account creation and sign-in timestamps. For GitHub sign-in, VE retains the verified numeric GitHub user ID. A VE account and participant record have their own identifiers.

Registration and team information: your submitted name, email, affiliation, participation capacity and relevant organisation details; team membership, captaincy, invitations and membership history; and eligibility or administration decisions.

Agreement records: the document and version accepted, acceptance or withdrawal status and time, and associated request information, including IP address and browser user-agent where recorded.

Submission information: uploaded predictions and supporting evidence, method and model descriptions, declarations, file names, sizes and SHA-256 hashes, submitter and team attribution, timestamps, processing status, scores and evaluation feedback. Supporting evidence may itself contain personal information; include only information you have the right to provide.

Service and communication information: API-key identifiers, permissions, expiry and usage records; support messages and notification preferences; and technical request and error logs used to operate and secure the service. The hosting and delivery infrastructure may process IP addresses and other request metadata.

3. How information is used

Information is used to authenticate participants, register and administer teams, record required agreements, distribute authorized data downloads, attribute and score submissions, enforce allowances and eligibility, investigate misuse, answer requests, and communicate about the Challenge.

Scores, leaderboard information and research summaries are used to report the Challenge’s results as described in the Rules. Optional communications follow the preference recorded in your account; required operational messages may still be needed to administer your participation.

4. Who can see information

Public pages can display team names, affiliations, tracks, model or method labels, scores, rankings and related submission timing. Reports and winning-method descriptions may be published under the Challenge Rules. Email addresses and private account identifiers are not public leaderboard fields.

Ordinary team members can see their team roster and team submission information. Within the EigenLab Yukon partner category, ordinary members see their own member record and submissions in VE; captains and authorized operators retain the access needed to administer the team. Other Yukon members’ names and email addresses are hidden from the ordinary-member team interface.

Authorized organisers and reviewers may access participant and submission records for administration, evaluation, support and integrity checks. Infrastructure providers process information needed for their services: these include Cloudflare for delivery and object storage, DigitalOcean for hosting, Modal for scoring compute, and Resend when notification email is sent. Sign-in also involves your chosen identity provider.

Private prediction files and evaluation evidence are not made public merely because a score appears on a leaderboard. Access to those materials is subject to team permissions, verification requirements and any sharing you authorize through a partner contest. Disclosures may also be necessary to comply with applicable legal obligations or address security incidents.

5. EigenLab Yukon integration

If you join the EigenLab Yukon team, its authorized backend service can retrieve records scoped to that team. These include your stable VE member ID, verified email and verified GitHub ID when available, team ID, membership history/status, required-agreement status, and the decision, reason and timing for access to shared contest materials.

The service can also retrieve team submission records used for verification, including submission and member identifiers, artifact SHA-256, method/model metadata, scoring and clearance status, scores and evaluation feedback. This is not access to the roster of unrelated teams.

A read-only partner credential cannot upload predictions or accept agreements for you. If you separately authorize Yukon to use your personal API key, it can perform the actions allowed by that key, such as submitting your predictions or requesting data-download links when the key has that permission. You can revoke personal keys through your VE account. Your activity remains attributed to you and is checked against your current eligibility.

Yukon operates its own accounts, shared repositories, invitations and awards. Its use and retention of information are governed by its applicable privacy policy and contest terms. Leaving the team or withdrawing a required agreement changes access eligibility; it does not erase historical submission records or copies already downloaded by authorized recipients.

6. Browser storage and security

The Challenge uses browser local storage to retain your sign-in session and preferences. Clearing that storage or signing out removes the local session, but does not delete server-side records. Identity providers and delivery services may use their own cookies or similar technologies for authentication, security and service operation.

Access controls, scoped API credentials and private storage protect non-public records. Keep personal API keys and temporary download links confidential and share them only with services you authorize. No internet service or security measure can guarantee complete protection.

The hosting and service providers may process information in the United States or other locations where they operate. Contact the organisers if your institution requires additional information about processing locations or safeguards before you participate.

7. Retention and your choices

Leaving a team, withdrawing an agreement, revoking an API key or ending the competition does not automatically delete account, agreement, submission, score or audit records. Historical records and archived submission files are retained for administration, result verification, integrity review and scientific reporting under the Rules. Backup copies may also remain after a change to active records. The service does not currently apply one fixed deletion period to all of these categories.

You can update supported account details and communication preferences in the account interface and revoke your personal API keys. Partner members can manage required agreements through their account. Withdrawal can stop participation and cancel unfinished submissions as described in the partner arrangements.

You may contact the organisers to request access to, correction or deletion of your personal information, or to ask about restricting its use. We may need to verify your identity and clarify the scope of the request. Applicable rights and any limitations depend on the circumstances and relevant law. Records necessary for legitimate competition administration, audit, legal obligations or previously published results may need to be retained; we will explain the handling of your request.

Requests relating to information held independently by Yukon, your identity provider or another external service should also be directed to that service. Contact the organisers before submitting information about a minor if you need clarification about required permissions or handling.

8. Updates

This notice will be updated when the described practices change. The date on this page identifies the current published notice. Material changes will be brought to participants’ attention through the Challenge’s communication channels as appropriate. Publishing this notice does not itself grant additional submission, data-sharing or dataset-use permissions.