Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

This Privacy Policy explains how The Design Index collects, uses, stores, and shares personal information when you visit our website, create an account, purchase a subscription or digital product, submit a project, create a professional profile, upload content, communicate with another user, or contact us.

The data controller is:

The Design Index
Budapest, Hungary
Email: info@thedesignindex.eu

2. Information we collect

We may collect the following categories of personal information.

Account information

This may include your name, email address, password credentials, account type, profile photograph, location, business name, and contact information.

Professional profile information

Designers, freelancers, studios, and brands may provide information such as biographies, services, locations, project types, portfolios, photographs, websites, social media links, pricing information, product information, trade information, and other professional details.

Client project information

Clients may provide project titles, descriptions, locations, budgets, property details, timelines, preferences, inspiration boards, uploaded files, and information relating to applications or shortlists.

Uploaded content

We may process images, project photographs, product images, inspiration posts, titles, descriptions, tags, links, notes, boards, saved items, and other content that users upload or save.

Payment and subscription information

Payments are processed by Stripe. We may receive limited payment information, such as payment status, subscription type, billing country, transaction identifier, and the last digits of a payment card. We do not normally receive or store complete card details.

Communications

We collect information you send when you contact support, submit a form, report content, request approval, or otherwise communicate with us.

Technical and usage information

We may collect your internet protocol address, device and browser information, pages visited, approximate location, referral source, session information, cookie identifiers, and information about how you use the platform.

Publicly available information

When creating initial directory listings or researching potential listings, we may use professional information obtained from publicly available sources, including official business websites, professional portfolios, and public business profiles. A person or business may contact us to request correction or removal.

3. How we use personal information

We may use personal information to:

• Create and manage user accounts
• Publish and manage approved professional profiles, brand listings, products, and inspiration posts
• Allow clients to submit projects and receive applications
• Allow designers and studios to apply for relevant projects
• Allow users to create boards and save content
• Process payments, subscriptions, cancellations, and eligible refunds
• Review and approve submitted content
• Send service messages, approval notifications, application updates, payment confirmations, security messages, and support responses
• Send marketing communications where consent is required and has been provided
• Operate, maintain, secure, and improve the platform
• Measure website performance and understand how visitors use the website
• Detect misuse, fraud, security incidents, and violations of our Terms
• Comply with legal, accounting, tax, and regulatory obligations
• Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims

4. Legal bases for processing

Depending on the circumstances, we process personal information on one or more of the following legal bases:

• Contract, when processing is necessary to provide an account, subscription, project service, board, directory profile, purchase, or another requested feature
• Consent, when you agree to optional analytics cookies, marketing communications, or another activity that requires consent
• Legitimate interests, when necessary to operate and improve the platform, secure our services, prevent misuse, communicate with users, administer professional listings, and promote The Design Index, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights
• Legal obligation, when processing is required for tax, accounting, consumer protection, regulatory, or law enforcement purposes
• Legal claims, when information is required to establish, exercise, or defend a claim

5. Public information

Professional profiles, portfolio images, brand listings, products, inspiration posts, names, locations, and links may be visible publicly when published or approved.

Do not publish private, confidential, or sensitive information that you do not want other people to see. Client accounts, private boards, project drafts, and account settings are not intended to be public unless a feature clearly states otherwise.

6. Service providers and recipients

We may share information with service providers that help us operate the platform, including:

• Squarespace, for website hosting and website services
• Supabase, for database, authentication, and storage services
• Stripe, for payment and subscription processing
• Resend, for transactional email delivery
• Google Analytics, when analytics consent has been provided
• Technical, security, legal, accounting, and customer support providers where reasonably necessary

We may also disclose information when required by law, to protect legal rights or platform safety, as part of a business reorganisation, or with your direction or consent.

Service providers may process information only for the purposes for which they have been engaged, subject to their own legal obligations and applicable agreements.

7. International data transfers

Some service providers may process information outside Hungary or outside the European Economic Area.

Where required, we rely on lawful transfer mechanisms, such as an adequacy decision, standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission, or another legally permitted safeguard.

8. Cookies and analytics

We use necessary technologies to operate the website and maintain essential functions such as authentication and security.

With your consent, we may also use Google Analytics to understand website traffic and use. Analytics cookies should remain disabled until you provide consent through our cookie controls.

You can find more information in our Cookie Policy and change your preferences through the cookie settings available on the website.

9. Email communications

We may send emails that are necessary to provide the service, including account, security, payment, approval, project, application, and support notifications.

Where required by law, promotional emails are sent only with your consent. You may unsubscribe from marketing emails using the link in the email. Unsubscribing from marketing does not prevent essential service communications.

10. Data retention

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.

Account information is generally retained while the account remains active and for a reasonable period after closure.

Public profile and uploaded content information may remain available until it is removed by the user, removed by The Design Index, or the account is closed.

Project, application, board, and saved item information is generally retained while the relevant account is active.

Payment, invoicing, accounting, and tax records may be retained for the period required by applicable law.

Support and legal records may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to resolve a matter, prevent misuse, or establish and defend legal claims.

Backups may retain deleted information for a limited period before being overwritten.

11. Your rights

Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information
• Request deletion of your information
• Request restriction of processing
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Receive certain information in a portable format
• Withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing that occurred before withdrawal
• Object to direct marketing
• Lodge a complaint with a data protection authority

To exercise your rights, contact info@thedesignindex.eu. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request.

In Hungary, you may contact the Hungarian National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

12. Account deletion

You may request account deletion by contacting info@thedesignindex.eu.

Deleting an account may remove access to projects, boards, applications, saved items, profiles, and other account content. Some information may be retained where required for legal, tax, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, or security purposes.

Content shared publicly or provided to another user may not disappear immediately from copies, records, or lawful archives.

13. Children

The Design Index is a professional design platform and is not directed toward children.

A person must be at least 16 years old to create an account independently. A person under 16 may use the platform only where a parent or legal guardian has provided legally valid authorisation and supervises the account.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children without appropriate authorisation. If you believe a child has provided personal information improperly, contact us at info@thedesignindex.eu.

14. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal information. However, no internet service or storage system can guarantee complete security.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login details and notifying us if you believe your account has been accessed without permission.

15. Third party links

The platform may contain links to designer websites, brand websites, product pages, Pinterest content, social media pages, and other external services.

We do not control the privacy practices or content of third party services. Their own privacy policies apply when you visit them.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to the platform, our practices, or applicable law.

We will publish the updated version and change the date at the top. Where a change is material, we may provide additional notice.

17. Contact

For privacy questions or requests, contact:

The Design Index
Budapest, Hungary
info@thedesignindex.eu