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Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 30, 2026 | Version 2.7

Contents

  1. Data Controller
  2. Personal Data We Collect
  3. Legal Basis for Processing
  4. Purposes of Processing
  5. Data Retention
  6. Data Sharing & Recipients
  7. International Transfers
  8. Your Rights
  9. Security Measures
  10. Cookies & Local Storage
  11. Children's Privacy
  12. Changes to This Policy
  13. Contact Us

1. Data Controller

The data controller responsible for your personal data is:

Cathedral s.r.l.s

Via Casino Fondrini 6

25080 Padenghe Sul Garda (BS)

Italy

VAT Number (P.IVA): IT03939260984

Email: privacy@cathedral.technology

2. Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process the following categories of personal data:

2.1 Account Data

  • Email address - Required for account creation and communication
  • Space name - The name of the space you create at signup; also used as your initial display name in the platform UI
  • Password - Stored in hashed form for account security (or omitted entirely if you sign in with Google, in which case authentication is handled by your Google account)

2.2 Profile Data

  • Biography - Optional description you provide
  • Avatar image - Optional profile picture
  • Organization affiliations - Your membership in organizations

2.3 Idea Challenge Participation Data

  • Date of birth - For age verification (16+ requirement)
  • Location - City and country for challenge eligibility
  • Idea submissions - Content you submit to challenges
  • Votes - Your voting activity on ideas

2.4 Proposal Voting Data

  • Email address (opt-in sharing with the Organization) - When you cast a vote, you may tick a separate, per-vote checkbox (default OFF) authorising Cathedral to transmit your email address, together with your choice and the timestamp of the vote, to the Organization that owns the proposal. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (explicit consent); proof of consent is retained by Cathedral under Art. 7 GDPR in a dedicated audit record. If you do not tick the box, the Organization receives only aggregate, non-identifying tallies. You may withdraw this consent at any time, with immediate effect, through your account profile (Privacy tab) or by writing to privacy@cathedral.technology. Withdrawal stops further use by Cathedral but does not, by itself, oblige the Organization to erase data it has already lawfully received and processed under its own responsibility (see §6.3).
  • Vote choices - Your votes on proposals
  • Voting power - Calculated based on token holdings

2.5 On-Chain Audit Log Data

For the purpose of independently verifiable governance integrity, Cathedral records cryptographic commitments related to voting activity on a public distributed ledger. The on-chain audit log contains only the following technical artefacts, none of which constitute personal data within the meaning of GDPR Article 4(1):

  • Merkle root commitments — a single 32-byte cryptographic root summarising a batch of vote hashes per proposal. Individual votes are not written to the blockchain as separate transactions.
  • Proposal results hashes — SHA-256 hashes of aggregated, anonymised tally outcomes.
  • Transaction metadata — block number, transaction hash, timestamp.
Important — what is NOT on the blockchain: No name, no email address, no phone number, no IP address, no wallet address belonging to a Member, no device identifier, and no plaintext vote choice is ever transmitted to or stored on any public distributed ledger. The cryptographic hashes recorded on chain are pseudonymous within the meaning of GDPR Article 4(5) — and, as one-way hashes of aggregated batches, they cannot in practice be reversed to identify individuals or reconstruct individual votes.

The on-chain audit log is currently recorded on Base Mainnet (Chain ID: 8453) at smart contract address 0xeC0a2d350e133BA9A144340844A803FDdFfe4a77 (VoteAuditLog).

The audit log is a write-only, append-only transparency mechanism. It does not constitute the issuance of any crypto-asset within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA) and does not create any token, balance, claim, or right of any kind in favour of any Member. Because no personal data is recorded on chain, the immutability of the underlying ledger does not affect your right to erasure under GDPR Article 17 in respect of personal data held in our databases.

2.6 No Wallet Required for Ordinary Use

Members do not need to hold, connect, or disclose any blockchain wallet address in order to register an account, vote, submit ideas, claim rewards, or otherwise participate in the Platform. Vora does not collect wallet addresses from Members for ordinary participation, does not require Members to sign blockchain transactions, and does not custody any crypto-asset on behalf of Members.

2.7 E-Commerce Integration Data

When a Shopify merchant installs and configures the Vora app on their store, we may receive the following data about the merchant's customers:

  • Email address - Used to create a loyalty profile and enable account claiming
  • Shopify customer identifier - A pseudonymized ID to link purchases to loyalty profiles
  • Order amounts - Purchase totals used to calculate XP rewards

This data is received from the Shopify merchant's store on the merchant's behalf. Until you voluntarily claim a Vora account, we act as a data processor for the merchant.

2.8 Technical Data

  • IP address - For security and fraud prevention
  • User agent - Browser and device information
  • Access logs - Timestamps of your interactions
  • Browser timezone and language - Used client-side only to localise the interface (e.g. Italian for Italy). This data is processed entirely in your browser and is never transmitted to our servers.

2.9 Payment Data

The Platform is currently provided free of charge. Cathedral does not collect, process, or store any payment data, credit-card details, IBAN, or other financial identifiers from Customers or Members through the Platform. Should Cathedral introduce paid tiers in the future (see Terms of Service §5), this Section 2.9 will be updated to identify the payment processor in advance, and no payment data will be collected unless you expressly subscribe to a paid tier.

3. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal data based on the following legal grounds under GDPR Article 6:

Purpose Legal Basis
Account creation and management Contract performance (Art. 6(1)(b))
Processing votes and idea submissions Contract performance (Art. 6(1)(b))
Security and fraud prevention Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f))
Marketing communications Consent (Art. 6(1)(a))
Analytics and service improvement Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f))
Blockchain vote verification Contract performance (Art. 6(1)(b)) and Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f))
Legal compliance Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c))
E-commerce loyalty profiles (Shopify) Legitimate interest of the merchant (Art. 6(1)(f)); Consent upon account claiming (Art. 6(1)(a))
Post-vote email notifications (results, outcome summaries) Contract performance (Art. 6(1)(b)) — delivery of governance results as part of the voting service accepted via Terms of Service
Voter reward notifications (reward claims, redemption codes, QR verification links) Contract performance (Art. 6(1)(b)) — delivery of earned rewards as part of the voting service accepted via Terms of Service
Sharing voter email with the proposal's Organization Explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) — per-vote opt-in checkbox at the time of casting the vote, default OFF; proof of consent retained under Art. 7
AI-based content moderation of notification messages Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) — protecting platform integrity, transactional-email sender reputation, and preventing spam or harmful content

4. Purposes of Processing

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

  • Service provision - To provide the Vora governance platform
  • Account management - To create and manage your user account
  • Voting verification - To verify your identity and eligibility to vote
  • Challenge participation - To process your idea submissions and votes
  • Communication - To send service-related email notifications, including post-proposal-close voter notifications containing results and outcome summaries authored by the Organization
  • Security - To protect against fraud and unauthorized access
  • Analytics - To understand and improve our services
  • Compliance - To meet legal and regulatory requirements

5. Data Retention

We retain your personal data for as long as necessary for the purposes outlined in this policy:

Data Category Retention Period
Account data Duration of account + 30 days after deletion request
Voting records (database) Permanently (anonymized after account deletion)
Blockchain verification hashes Permanent and immutable (no personal data stored on-chain)
Idea submissions Duration of challenge + 2 years
Security logs 2 years
Audit logs 1 year
Marketing consent records Duration of consent + 3 years
E-commerce loyalty profiles (unclaimed) 12 months after last purchase activity
E-commerce loyalty profiles (claimed) Duration of Vora account + 30 days
Voter email shared with an Organization (per-vote opt-in) Until you withdraw consent or delete your Vora account; the Organization may continue to retain copies it has lawfully received under its own retention policy as joint controller
Per-vote consent records (Art. 7 proof of consent) 10 years from the date of the vote, in line with Italian limitation periods for civil and administrative claims

6. Data Sharing & Recipients

We may share your personal data with the following categories of recipients:

6.1 Service Providers

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Cloud hosting (EU-Ireland)
  • Resend (Resend, Inc.) - Transactional email delivery for account verification, password reset, governance results, and reward notifications (USA)
  • Alchemy - Blockchain RPC provider for Base Mainnet (USA)
  • OpenAI - AI-based content moderation for notification messages (USA). Only the text content of Customer-authored notification messages is sent for moderation; no personal data of Members is transmitted.
  • Shopify Inc. - E-commerce platform integration (Canada/USA)

6.2 Public Distributed Ledger Networks (On-Chain Audit Log)

Pseudonymous cryptographic hashes — Merkle roots and results hashes, as described in Section 2.5 — are recorded on a public distributed ledger network for transparency and auditability. The hashes are derived from anonymised governance data and cannot in practice be reversed to identify individuals.

  • Base Mainnet (Coinbase L2) — Merkle root commitments and proposal results certifications, smart contract VoteAuditLog at 0xeC0a2d350e133BA9A144340844A803FDdFfe4a77.

Cathedral does not transmit any personal data to these networks. The on-chain audit log is a transparency mechanism and does not constitute the issuance of any crypto-asset within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA).

6.3 Organizations

If you participate in an Organization's governance or idea challenges, the Organization's administrators may access:

  • Your public profile information;
  • Your voting activity, where visible according to the proposal's settings;
  • Your idea submissions;
  • Your email address in respect of a specific vote, only where you have explicitly opted in at the time of casting that vote (per-vote consent, default OFF), together with your choice and the time of the vote.

For the data listed in the last bullet, Cathedral and the Organization act as joint controllers within the meaning of Art. 26 GDPR: Cathedral is responsible for collecting your consent, transmitting the data, and maintaining the audit trail of administrative access (Art. 30 GDPR), while the Organization independently determines the purposes and means of any subsequent contact or processing on its own systems. Once the email has been transmitted, Cathedral cannot technically control how the Organization uses it beyond the contractual terms set out in the Data Processing Agreement and Joint-Controller Arrangement entered into between Cathedral and the Organization. Each administrative access by the Organization to the list of consenting voters — whether through the platform interface or CSV export — is logged by Cathedral. To exercise your rights against the Organization (access, rectification, erasure, objection), please contact the Organization directly; you may contact privacy@cathedral.technology for assistance or to act against Cathedral as joint controller.

6.4 Legal Requirements

We may disclose your data when required by law or to protect our legal rights.

6.5 E-Commerce Integrations (Shopify)

When a Shopify merchant installs the Vora app on their store, the following data processing occurs:

  • Data received: We receive your email address, a Shopify customer identifier, and order amounts from the merchant's store when you make a purchase.
  • Purpose: This data is used to create a loyalty profile on behalf of the merchant, calculating XP rewards and badges based on your purchase activity.
  • Claim link: A secure link is generated so you can optionally claim a full Vora account. You are never required to do so.
  • Dual role: Until you claim your account, Vora acts as a data processor on behalf of the Shopify merchant (the data controller). Once you voluntarily create a Vora account by claiming your profile, Vora becomes an independent data controller for your Vora account data.
  • Unclaimed profiles: If you do not claim your account, your loyalty profile is automatically deleted 12 months after the last purchase activity.
  • Deletion requests: You can request deletion of your Shopify-linked data at any time by contacting privacy@cathedral.technology.
  • Merchant uninstall: If the merchant uninstalls the Vora app from their store, all unclaimed loyalty profiles associated with that store are deleted within 48 hours. Independently claimed Vora accounts are not affected.

7. International Transfers

Some of our service providers are located outside the European Economic Area (EEA). When we transfer your data internationally, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place:

Provider Location Safeguard
AWS EU (Ireland) No transfer required
Resend USA Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs)
Alchemy USA Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs)
Shopify Inc. Canada / USA Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs)
OpenAI USA Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs); no personal data transferred (notification text content only)
Base / Ethereum Public Distributed Ledger Decentralized (global) No personal data transferred (pseudonymous hashes only)

8. Your Rights

Under GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Right of Access (Art. 15)

You can request a copy of all personal data we hold about you.

Right to Rectification (Art. 16)

You can request correction of inaccurate personal data.

Right to Erasure (Art. 17)

You can request deletion of your personal data, subject to legal retention requirements. Note: cryptographic hashes stored on blockchain are permanent but contain no personal data and cannot be linked back to you after erasure.

Right to Restriction (Art. 18)

You can request restriction of processing in certain circumstances.

Right to Data Portability (Art. 20)

You can receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.

Right to Object (Art. 21)

You can object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.

To exercise any of these rights, please visit your account settings or contact us at privacy@cathedral.technology.

8.1 Right to Lodge a Complaint

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Italian Data Protection Authority:

Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali

Website: www.garanteprivacy.it

9. Security Measures

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data:

  • Encryption - Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest
  • Password hashing - Passwords are stored using secure hashing algorithms
  • Access controls - Role-based access with two-factor authentication
  • Audit logging - All access is logged for security monitoring
  • Regular security assessments - We conduct periodic security reviews

10. Cookies & Local Storage

We use cookies and similar technologies (including browser local storage) to provide and improve our services. Local storage is used to remember your authentication tokens and UI preferences. For detailed information about our use of cookies and local storage, please see our Cookie Policy.

11. Children's Privacy

Our services are not intended for individuals under 16 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child under 16, we will take steps to delete that information.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by:

  • Posting the updated policy on this page
  • Updating the "Last updated" date
  • Sending an email notification for significant changes

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

Privacy Inquiries

Email: privacy@cathedral.technology

Address: Cathedral s.r.l.s, Via Casino Fondrini 6, 25080 Padenghe Sul Garda (BS), Italy

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