Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 23, 2026. Hop is a product of Design Buddies.

Who we are

Hop is a mentorship platform for designers, operated by Design Buddies. When you use Hop, your information is handled by Design Buddies as part of the broader Design Buddies community and product family.

What we collect

• Account info: your email address and, if you use Google sign-in, your name and profile photo.
• Your application & profile: what you tell us about yourself: your location, time zone, LinkedIn and portfolio links, background, what you want help with, goals, and (for mentors) your experience, expertise, and work samples.
• Activity on Hop: the mentors you view, the requests and sessions you book, messages and questions you send through Hop, reschedules, and whether sessions happened (for the no-show policy).
• Payment info: if you book a paid session, your card details are entered directly with our payment processor, Stripe. We never see or store your full card number. We keep a record of the payment (amount, date, status). If you're a mentor who gets paid, you provide Stripe with the details it needs to pay you out and meet legal/tax requirements (such as your name, bank or payout details, and identity/tax information).
• Google Calendar data (optional): if you choose to connect your Google Calendar, we access your free/busy times and can create events you explicitly ask us to add. Details below under “Google Calendar data.”
• Technical data: basic logs and device/browser info needed to run the service securely.

Why we collect it

• To review applications and keep Hop a curated, high-signal community.
• To match you with relevant mentors and power search. As we roll out smarter matching, we may use AI services (such as Anthropic) to interpret what you tell us you need and surface the right mentors. We don't use your data to train third-party AI models.
• To schedule sessions, send booking confirmations and calendar invites, and enforce our community guidelines (including the no-show policy).
• To process payments for paid sessions, pay mentors out, issue refunds, and keep records of transactions.
• To understand how Hop is used and improve it, and, because Hop is part of Design Buddies, to inform and improve Design Buddies products and programs.

How your information is shared

• With other members: your profile (and mentor profile, if you have one) is visible to approved Hop members. Don't put anything in it you wouldn't want them to see.
• Between a mentor and mentee: when you send a request or book a session, the other person sees the details you provide (questions, portfolio link, etc.).
• Within Design Buddies: we may use aggregated and account-level data across the Design Buddies family of products.
• Service providers: we use trusted vendors to run Hop, for example, Supabase (database & authentication), Resend (email), Stripe (payment processing & mentor payouts), Anthropic (AI-assisted mentor matching), and hosting providers. They process data on our behalf, and some (like Stripe) are independent controllers of the data you provide directly to them.
• We do not sell your personal information.

Payments

Paid sessions are processed by Stripe, our payment processor. When you pay, your card details go straight to Stripe. They're never sent to or stored on Hop's servers. Hop keeps a record of the session, the amount, and the payment status, and takes a small platform fee. Mentors who accept payment connect a Stripe account to receive payouts; Stripe collects the identity, bank, and tax information it needs to pay them and comply with the law. Stripe handles that information under its own privacy policy.

Google Calendar data

Connecting Google Calendar is optional. If you connect it, Hop requests two Google permissions (OAuth scopes): calendar.freebusy and calendar.events. Here is exactly what we do with them:

• What we access: your free/busy times (when you are busy, never what the events are), and the ability to create events on your primary calendar.
• How we use it: for mentors, busy times are removed from your bookable slots so you never get double-booked. For mentees, the mentor directory can filter to mentors whose openings fit your schedule. For both, we add a Hop session to your calendar only when you click “Add to Google Calendar” on that session. We never read, edit, or delete your other events, and we never use calendar data for advertising or profiling.
• What we store: a connection token and the email of the connected account, kept in a restricted table only our server can read. Free/busy lookups are used in the moment and not stored. We do not store the contents of your calendar.
• Who sees it: no one. Calendar data is never shared with other members, and other members only ever see the open slots a mentor chose to publish, not why other times are unavailable.
• Disconnecting: you can disconnect any time in Edit profile, which deletes the stored token, or revoke Hop's access from your Google account permissions. Deleting your Hop account removes the token too.

Hop's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Cookies

We use a small number of essential cookies to keep you signed in and to run the site securely. We don't use cookies for advertising or cross-site tracking. Stripe may set cookies needed to process payments and prevent fraud when you check out.

Your choices

You can edit your profile at any time, and you can ask us to delete your account and associated data. A full self-serve export/delete flow is on our roadmap; until then, email us at [email protected] and we'll take care of it.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal information, including the right to access it, correct it, delete it, receive a copy (portability), object to or restrict certain uses, and withdraw consent. If you're in the EU/EEA or UK, these come from the GDPR; if you're in California, the CCPA/CPRA gives you similar rights, including the right to know what we collect and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them.

We do not sell your personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. To exercise any of these rights, email us at [email protected]. We'll respond within the time required by applicable law, and you can also lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.

Data retention & security

We keep your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide Hop, comply with our obligations, and resolve disputes. We use industry-standard measures (including row-level security on our database) to protect it.

Children

Hop is for working and aspiring design professionals and isn't intended for anyone under 16. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us their information, email us and we'll delete it.

International data transfers

Hop is operated from the United States, and some of our service providers (including Stripe, Supabase, Resend, Anthropic, and our hosting providers) may store or process your information in the United States or other countries. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses) for these transfers.

When we may disclose information

We may disclose your information if we believe in good faith that it's required to comply with the law or a valid legal request, to enforce our terms or community guidelines, to detect or prevent fraud or security issues, or to protect the rights, safety, and property of our members, Design Buddies, or the public. If Design Buddies is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we'll update the “Last updated” date at the top and, where appropriate, let you know by email or in the app. Continuing to use Hop after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about your privacy on Hop, or want to access, correct, or delete your data? Email us at [email protected] and we'll help.