Plain-language privacy
Your data, your call.
This notice explains what Software Makers collects, why it is needed, who receives it, and what you can do about it.
Who is responsible
Richard Steinmetz operates Software Makers as part of Loop Labs and is responsible for its use of personal data. Email rich@looplabs.cc with privacy questions or requests. The Loop Labs privacy policy also describes the business website, newsletter, and mentoring correspondence.
What Software Makers uses
Your email address verifies your identity, operates your account, manages enrollment and join requests, and delivers essential account messages. This processing is necessary to provide the service you request under Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. Providing an email address is required to register; profile publication and marketing subscriptions are optional.
If you add them, Software Makers also stores your name, picture, testimonial, and Project names and optional links. Job Search Factory profiles can include a Dream Role and links to your personal website, LinkedIn, and X. Your job search bottleneck and blocker notes are visible only to you in your profile editor, and blocker notes are encrypted at rest. Private Project bottleneck context is encrypted at rest and available to you and authorized staff, and to your cohort in private session views; it stays off public pages. We use request information such as your IP address, browser details, and request time to prevent abuse, keep the service secure, and diagnose errors. Security and reliability processing is based on our legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.
Cloudflare Turnstile checks the browser on sign-in forms to prevent automated registrations and unwanted email. Cloudflare receives browser and network information needed for this check; your email is not sent to Turnstile. Short-lived request limits and aggregate security counters support abuse prevention.
When you request to join a cohort, its Facilitator and Administrators receive your verified email and cohort choice so they can contact you about the request. This service request is separate from newsletter consent and does not reserve a seat or grant private session access. For Job Search Factory, your verified email is added to the guest list for scheduled sessions on the cohort’s connected calendar.
An optional mentoring experiment may use MentorCruise. Where an agreed plan includes group access here, we use only the name, email, plan, and included-access information needed to arrange it under Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. Mentorship billing remains on MentorCruise.
AI consulting inquiries
If you register interest in a consulting pilot, we store your email, optional company name, selected offer, and request date so Rich can respond about that pilot. These requests are visible only to Administrators and stay separate from community accounts and newsletter subscriptions. The form uses the same browser verification and abuse protection described above. We retain the inquiry while discussing the proposed work; email rich@looplabs.cc to withdraw it or request deletion. A signup does not purchase a service or confirm a project start date.
Sessions, attendance, transcripts, and analysis
Software Makers stores the session schedule copied from the cohort’s Google Calendar, including event titles, descriptions, locations, times, facilitator assignments, and Google Meet links. When a session starts, it also records expected attendees, attendance status, arrival time when observed, timer and phase history, pauses, and speaker order. These records operate the cohort and preserve its shared history under Article 6(1)(b) GDPR.
Job Search Factory sessions may be transcribed in Google Meet. We don't make audio or video recordings of those sessions. The transcripts and any AI-assisted notes stay in the private cohort record.
In other cohorts, a Facilitator may record a session with Wispr Flow, or the session may be transcribed in Google Meet. Software Makers displays the relevant notice on the session page and may import speaker labels, timestamps, verbatim transcript text, and Wispr Flow summary notes after the session, including the hangout. OpenAI’s Codex may process the transcript, summary notes, and prior analyses from the same cohort to prepare concise participant analysis and a one-sentence trend. A Facilitator reviews the source recording and destination session before confirming the import. A Wispr Flow record does not require Google Meet transcription. The transcript, notes, and analysis are encrypted in the Software Makers database.
With an Administrator’s separate read-only Google Docs authorization, a Facilitator or Administrator can import notes attached to the exact Calendar occurrence of a completed session. The operator reviews the source document and confirms the destination cohort and session first. Software Makers reads the selected document’s tabs, stores an encrypted copy and its source link, and keeps it separate from any transcript, Wispr summary or analysis. Temporary provider failures may retry the same confirmed import up to three times. The notes follow the session’s existing private access and Administrator deletion rules; deleting the session record also cancels pending notes imports.
The public cohort directory shows only a session’s title, time, core-session duration, and a facilitator name when that facilitator has an approved public profile. It may also show that a session is live. Attendees, attendance status, descriptions, locations, Google Meet links, transcripts, summary notes, calendar notes, and session analyses are never published there. Signed-in Active Makers can view their current cohort’s private session record. Facilitators can view the cohorts they facilitate and sessions assigned to them; Administrators have access across cohorts. Facilitators and Administrators operate session controls and may correct the notes or analysis; Makers do not edit the transcript. An Administrator can delete the stored transcript together with its notes and analysis.
A Facilitator may import private meeting chat, next-session promises, and directed peer feedback. These records are encrypted and remain within the cohort. A session recap can be rendered for each active member and the Facilitator using their promises, received feedback, attendance, and the next meeting details; rendering does not send the email.
Hosting, access, and service providers
The Software Makers app, database, and uploaded profile images run on a Hetzner server with the application’s persistent storage. Access is role-based: Administrators manage the service; facilitators operate sessions, review profile publication, and manage Active Maker promotions; and Active Makers can view the private session record for their cohort.
We share only the data needed to operate the service with Hetzner for hosting and server backups, Resend for account and enrollment emails, Honeybadger for error monitoring when configured, Google for the Facilitator-owned Calendar and Meet integration, Wispr Flow for Facilitator-controlled recording and summary notes, OpenAI for transcript analysis through Codex, our payment processor for checkout and payments, and ClickFunnels for contact management, membership tags, and payment eligibility verification. Software Makers stores the Google OAuth credential needed for that connection in encrypted form. The Google grant permits reading the account’s Calendar list and Meet spaces, and editing attendees on events in calendars the account owns; Software Makers queries only the selected cohort calendar and Meet links synced from it. Software Makers’ use and transfer of information received from Google APIs complies with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. Google-derived data is not used for advertising or to train generalized AI models. When configured, Honeybadger receives error reports with your Software Makers session and the URL that produced the error excluded. Once your email is verified, a subscription chosen during signup or later in Notifications sends your email, name if supplied, membership status, and purpose-specific consent timestamp and notice version to ClickFunnels. Account-only signup does not create a marketing contact. Existing provider unsubscribes and suppressions remain authoritative. Free and paid membership tags follow verified payment eligibility, not your selected checkout option. We match your email to ClickFunnels purchase records to verify eligibility for a paid cohort seat. The app stores the relevant payment status and when it was checked. Our payment processor handles checkout and payments and reports purchases to ClickFunnels through its native integration. We do not sell registrants’ personal data.
Google, Wispr Flow, OpenAI, Resend, our payment processor, ClickFunnels, and Honeybadger when configured may process account or service data outside the European Economic Area even where application data is stored in an EU region. Their applicable data-processing terms describe the safeguards used for covered international transfers. Email us to request information about the safeguard that applies to your data.
When authorized staff cancel an upcoming session, Software Makers retains its original encrypted Calendar identifier and cancellation reason, cancels only that Calendar occurrence, and sends enabled cohort notices after Calendar cancellation succeeds. A notice can include your own last recorded promise from that cohort and its next session time. Delivery records contain account references and delivery timestamps; account deletion removes those references. Cancelled sessions do not release seats.
Newsletter and public session invitations
New Makers who choose “Join & subscribe” (or “Opt into this cohort & subscribe”) receive Rich’s weeklyish AI engineering newsletter nugget and Software Makers public session invitations after email verification. Choose “Continue without newsletter” (or “Opt in without newsletter”) to create an account without these updates. On the Job Search Factory signup, the optional Loop Labs newsletter checkbox covers the newsletter alone. Existing Makers keep their saved preferences when signing in. You can also subscribe later in Notifications. This marketing uses your consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR. We record the subscription action’s time and notice version in your signed email-verification link and save them after verification; email verification by itself is not marketing consent. You can stop all Loop Labs marketing email topics managed in ClickFunnels from Notifications or unsubscribe from an email. Account and private cohort emails have separate preferences. A separately chosen newsletter subscription remains independent when you delete your Software Makers account; withdraw it first if you want both stopped. Provider withdrawal requests are queued, retried, and visible to Administrators until confirmed.
Public profiles
Your email is never displayed publicly. Your name, picture, testimonial, and project links appear on softwaremakers.ai only when you request publication and a facilitator approves it. Job Search Factory uses your dream role and profile link in place of projects. Its public roster counts all Active Makers and shows those without approved profiles under fictional names with generic artwork. Changes to published profile fields or Project names, links, or focus return the profile to facilitator review. Private bottleneck updates do not change publication approval. Public profile images are re-encoded with metadata stripped before delivery. You can turn publication off at any time; subsequent image requests check current visibility. Private profile details stay off public pages, but Administrators and your cohort Facilitator can access your profile details and project updates. Daily Project review digests include changed Project names and optional links only when the Maker requested a public profile and still awaits approval. Private bottleneck context is not included in these emails.
Cookies and tracking
Software Makers uses an encrypted session cookie to keep you signed in and protect account actions. Login sessions last for up to 400 days after your latest visit, including across browser restarts. Visits renew this period, and sign-out revokes that session on the server. Profile also lets you sign out all devices. Sensitive changes require a fresh email confirmation, and email or role changes revoke existing sign-ins. The sign-in record stores your account, sign-in time, and latest activity time without IP addresses or browser details. Expired sign-in records are deleted daily, and account deletion removes all associated sign-ins. The site does not collect browser analytics or add advertising cookies. It removes the browser analytics identifier stored by older releases. When configured, PostHog receives unlinked server-side service events with a fresh event identity, without account IDs, emails, URLs, browser identifiers, or session content. We use those aggregate service measurements to understand service operation under our legitimate interests in maintaining it; session replay is disabled.
Retention and deletion
Aggregate abuse counters expire after 48 hours. Signed Resend delivery notifications are reduced to outcome counts without retaining their recipients or message contents. Deleting a session transcript also deletes its chat, promises, and peer feedback. Deleting an account removes its structured promises and peer feedback; historical text may still name its participants.
Unverified registrations are deleted after 30 days. Expired login sessions are removed daily. Verified account and enrollment data remain until you delete your account or Software Makers no longer needs them to provide the service.
Session schedule and attendance records remain as cohort history. Automatic Google Meet transcript import is attempted for no more than 24 hours; this retry window does not limit a later Facilitator-confirmed Wispr Flow import. An imported or manually added transcript, its summary notes, and its analysis remain until an Administrator deletes that session record. Deleting your account removes the live Software Makers profile, projects, image, and enrollment state; changes linked attendance names to “Former Maker,” and anonymizes any facilitator label tied to the account. Deletion also queues removal from future cohort Calendar invitations and clearing of Software Makers membership tags and account attributes in ClickFunnels. Cleanup keeps encrypted identifiers only while needed to complete the request; completed cleanup records contain no email or provider access identifier and are removed after 30 days. Separate newsletter and purchase records are not erased by this app account action. It does not rewrite historical transcript text, notes, or analysis, which may still contain a name or contribution from a session. You may contact us about a specific transcript or other session record.
Deleting a Software Makers transcript also deletes its stored notes and analysis, but does not delete a source copy held by Google or Wispr Flow. Google, Wispr Flow, OpenAI, and the other service providers apply their own retention rules. Deleted application data may remain in provider backups until the applicable backup copies expire. Contact us for the current backup retention details.
Your rights
You may ask to access, correct, delete, restrict, or receive a portable copy of your personal data. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests and withdraw consent at any time. Email rich@looplabs.cc to exercise these rights. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority responsible for you.
Last updated: 10 November 2026.