Data Ethics Charter

1. We Collect the Minimum Necessary

We will only collect data that we actually need to deliver the service. Before adding any new data collection, we ask: Is this necessary? Can we achieve the same result with less?

In practice, this means:

• End consumers using coupons are never identified. We store a hash of the merchant's internal customer reference — not email addresses, names, or any identifying information.
• IP addresses for fraud prevention are truncated to the subnet level before hashing. We do not store individual IPs.
• We ask only for email and display name at registration — not phone numbers, addresses, or demographic information.

2. We Will Never Sell Your Data

Beekeeper's business model is platform fees from merchant redemptions and creator commissions. We have no data brokerage business and never will.

We will never:

• Sell personal data to third parties
• Rent, licence, or otherwise provide user data to advertisers
• Monetise user behaviour through advertising profiles
• Share merchant performance data with competitors
• Allow third-party access to creator earnings or engagement data

3. No Shadow Profiling or Behavioural Exploitation

We do not build profiles of users beyond what is needed to operate the service:

• We do not infer interests, beliefs, health conditions, financial status, or personal characteristics from platform usage.
• We do not use purchase history or browsing patterns to target advertising.
• We do not combine Beekeeper data with data from other platforms or data brokers.
• The fraud detection system scores request patterns at the network level — it does not build profiles of individual users or infer personal characteristics.

4. Fair Algorithm Design

When automated systems make decisions that affect platform users, we commit to the following principles:

• Non-discrimination: Our systems do not use or infer gender, race, religion, nationality, age, disability, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic. Rate limits, fraud scores, and feature access are applied equally to all users based on objective, behaviour-based criteria.
• Proportionality: Automated restrictions (such as temporary rate limiting or IP-level blocks) are calibrated to be the minimum needed to prevent harm. Temporary coupon-access restrictions last no longer than 1 hour by default.
• Human oversight: No automated system permanently suspends or terminates an account. Account suspension always requires a human administrator decision.
• Explainability: If you believe an automated decision was applied to you incorrectly, you can request a human review by contacting privacy@beekeeper.bz.
• Visibility in search/discovery: Creators appearing in merchant discovery results are shown based on neutral criteria (name search, availability) — not algorithmic ranking that might disadvantage certain creators.

5. Merchant Protection Principles

We exist to serve merchant interests. Our commitments to merchants:

• Your campaign data, redemption data, and business performance data will never be shared with other merchants or third parties (beyond what is needed for payment processing).
• Your pricing strategy and campaign structures are confidential.
• We actively fight coupon fraud on your behalf — our core technical design is anti-scraping.
• Fee calculations are transparent and documented. See Transparency.
• We will not offer preferential fee rates to some merchants over others without disclosed criteria.
• If we identify abuse of your campaigns, we will notify you.

6. Creator Fairness Principles

Creators are the distribution network that makes Beekeeper work. Our commitments to creators:

• Your earnings data is yours. We will not share it with third parties without your consent.
• Commission rates are set by merchants, not us — but we prohibit merchants from setting different commission rates on the basis of protected characteristics (race, gender, nationality, etc.).
• Payout processing is transparent. You can see your full payout history in your dashboard, and we send email confirmation for every payout.
• We never take a cut of your commission — the commission percentage is what you earn.
• If we identify issues affecting your campaign attribution (such as unusual bot activity on your links), we will surface this information to you.

7. Transparency as a Default

We default to transparency rather than minimum disclosure:

• We publish our fee structure publicly (not just in the Terms) at beekeeper.bz/transparency.
• We publish our list of data processors so you know who else handles your data: beekeeper.bz/subprocessors.
• We publish an annual Transparency Report covering data requests, security incidents, and policy changes.
• We give 30 days' notice before any material change to the Privacy Policy.
• We maintain a public version history of key legal documents on beekeeper.bz/security.

8. AI and Machine Learning

Beekeeper currently does not use AI or machine learning systems. Our fraud detection and rate limiting are entirely rule-based with fixed, documented thresholds.

If we introduce AI-based systems in the future, we commit to:

• Disclosing the system's purpose and the data it uses
• Conducting a DPIA before deployment
• Ensuring meaningful human oversight for any consequential decisions
• Testing for and mitigating demographic bias before deployment
• Updating this charter with specific disclosures

9. Accountability

These are public commitments, not internal aspirations. If you believe we have failed to live up to any of them, we want to know:

• Privacy concerns: privacy@beekeeper.bz
• Security issues: security@beekeeper.bz
• General concerns: Contact form
• Regulatory complaint: Datatilsynet (Norway's data protection authority)

Data Controller: Risan Solutions (Org.nr 937 137 273), Valenvegen 49, 3802 Bø i Telemark, Norway.