Data policies
On this page, you’ll find our data management and privacy policies, and a bit of context about us as an organization.
Our organization
We are a non-profit that is entirely supported by volunteers. Applicants don’t have to pay anything, and neither the Core Team nor the Editors get paid anything. The few financial costs of ASFP (e.g. this website and the software we use to collaborate and execute ASFP) are paid for out-of-pocket by a few Core Team members. We are doing this because it’s the right thing to do, the right time to do it, and the right way to do it - not to make money or get famous. ASFP’s ‘product’ is the future success of the applicants we support, and the better field of psychology we’ll all benefit from as a result.
Privacy Policy
We take privacy seriously. For one, our entire applicant/editor matching process is double-blind (that is, we never identify applicants to editors, or editors to applicants). For another, applicants are never identified publicly (though Editors and Core Team members are).
All Core Team members have access to all materials submitted by applicants and editors, in order to check submissions and feedback for quality and completeness, troubleshoot problems that arise, and assist applicants and editors with the materials they submit to ASFP (e.g. to fix an error in a submission). All materials are digital, and access is tightly controlled using accounts for each Core Team member.
We do not share any information submitted by any participants in ASFP (applicants, editors, Core Team members) outside of ASFP with only two exceptions:
in aggregate statistics and summaries (e.g. “75% of ASFP applicants felt that…”)
when permission is explicitly granted for anonymous sharing (e.g. for the anonymous quoting of text from free response entries in the post-ASFP feedback stage)
The application statements ASFP applicants submit are only visible to Core Team members and, if the applicant is matched to editors, the two assigned editors for that applicant. The only exception to this is if ASFP requests and applicants grant permission to anonymously use their statement to train editors, in which case the statement may be seen by many editors during training. Even then, the applicant will not be identified to editors, nor will the statement be distributed publicly.
Data Retention Policy
We retain digital records of everything applicants and editors submit (including names etc) with two exceptions:
We delete statements and notes written by applicants by December 31 of that ASFP year (i.e. applicant statements and notes from ASFP 2023 will be deleted by December 31, 2023), unless explicit and voluntary permission is otherwise given by the applicant to ASFP (e.g. for anonymous use in future editor trainings).
We delete all metadata relating applicants and editors in our double-blind matching process after one year or before the following year’s ASFP Applicant Portal opens, whichever is sooner. These metadata are used for computing aggregate statistics used in our applicant and editor reporting, and are kept secure within our organization’s file system.
ASFP will make a best-faith effort to remove identifying information from ASFP databases before our stated times above upon request to admin@asfp.io.
Web Analytics
ASFP collects standard web analytics (e.g. pages clicked, visit length) using Google Analytics. These analytics are never connected to specific ASFP applicants or editors or the information they share with ASFP.
Last updated September 18, 2023