rank.engineer is run by BracketBot ("we", "us"). It rates engineers who apply to BracketBot, at bracketbot.com/apply, by what they've built. This policy covers both sites: what we collect, why, who helps us handle it, and the choices you have. For questions or requests, write to privacy@rank.engineer.
What we collect
When you apply. Your name, the links you give us (such as LinkedIn, GitHub or your website), any PDFs you upload, like a resume or portfolio, and the changes you make to your profile before you submit it. We don't ask for an account, a password or an email address.
When you make an account. Your email address, and your name if you give it. If you sign in with Google or GitHub, they tell us your email address and name. We use your email address to send the codes you sign in with, and we note when you last signed in. If we invite you to see the leaderboard before you have an account, we make one for you with the email address we invited and email you the invitation.
What you've published. Starting from your name and links, we gather what you've made public: the jobs, schools, projects, papers and awards on your LinkedIn profile; your repositories and contributions on GitHub; your website; your posts on X; and papers, patents, hackathon entries, press coverage and photos of your work. We may search the web for your name to find these.
What we work out. From all of this we build your profile and compute a rating, with scores by field. We estimate your age from your school and job dates, or our team sets it, because the rating gives more weight to the same work done earlier in a career. Our team may review and correct profiles.
When you visit. Our hosting and security providers record basic request data, such as your IP address, browser and the pages you load, to keep the sites running and protect them from abuse. If you accept analytics, we also record how you use the sites (see Cookies and storage).
How we use it
- To build your profile and show it to you before you submit it.
- To evaluate applications to BracketBot.
- To rate applicants and show the leaderboard on rank.engineer to the people we've invited.
- To keep the sites secure and working.
- If you accept analytics, to see how the sites are used and where people get stuck, so we can improve them.
We don't sell your personal information, share it for advertising, or show ads.
The leaderboard
The leaderboard shows everyone who has applied: your name, headline and photo, your rating and scores by field, and the work they're based on. For now only people we've invited can see it, after signing in. You can ask us at any time to take you off the board or to correct something on it by writing to privacy@rank.engineer. Coming off the board doesn't withdraw your application unless you ask for that too.
Automated rating
Software computes your rating from your profile. People on our team review applications, and you can ask for a person to look at your rating, explain how it was reached, or correct the information behind it.
Legal bases (EEA, UK and Switzerland)
- Your application: we use what you give us, and what we find about you, to take the steps you asked for when you applied.
- Your account: we use your email address to give you the account you asked for, and the leaderboard if we invite you.
- Public sources, ratings and the leaderboard: our legitimate interest in evaluating applicants and running the board, weighed against yours. You can object at any time.
- Security logs: our legitimate interest in keeping the sites safe.
- Optional cookies, such as analytics: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
Who we share it with
Service providers that handle data for us under contract:
- Hosting and storage: Railway (servers and database) and Cloudflare (network, security and image storage).
- Finding and reading public information: GitHub, Exa, HarvestAPI and SixtyFour (LinkedIn profiles), Serper (web search), OpenAlex (papers) and FxTwitter (posts on X).
- AI models that read pages and help build profiles: OpenAI, Anthropic and TypeSafe.
- Accounts: WorkOS, which keeps accounts and sends the invitations and sign-in codes.
- Analytics, only if you accept it: PostHog.
We may also share information if the law requires it, or if BracketBot is reorganized or acquired.
International transfers
We and most of our providers are in the United States. When we transfer data from the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, we rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
How long we keep it
We keep applications, profiles and uploaded files while your application and the leaderboard are active, and delete them when you ask, unless the law requires us to keep something. We keep your account until you ask us to delete it. Our providers keep request logs for a limited time. We keep analytics only as long as we need it to understand how the sites are used.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, including under the GDPR, the UK GDPR and California law, you can ask to see, correct, delete or get a copy of your data, ask us to restrict or stop using it, and withdraw your consent. Write to privacy@rank.engineer; we'll reply within a month. We won't treat you differently for using these rights. If you're in the EEA or the UK, you can also complain to your data protection authority.
Cookies and storage
rank.engineer and bracketbot.com/apply always use what they need to work:
- Your cookie choice, kept in your browser so we don't ask again.
- Security cookies our network provider, Cloudflare, may set to tell people from bots (such as
__cf_bm). - On bracketbot.com/apply, your browser remembers the application you started, so you can pick up where you left off.
- On rank.engineer, if you sign in: a cookie that keeps you signed in (
wos-session), and one that lasts a few minutes while you sign in (wos-auth-verifier-…).
Analytics, only if you accept them. We use PostHog to count visits and see where people get stuck, such as how many searches become submitted applications. If you accept, PostHog keeps a random ID in your browser's storage (named ph_…_posthog) and records the pages you visit, the buttons you click, your browser and device, the site that sent you, and roughly where you are, from your IP address. It doesn't record what you type, the text on the page or the names in profile addresses, and it doesn't record your screen. If you reject analytics, PostHog doesn't load, and if you accepted before, we delete its ID from your browser. We don't use advertising cookies.
Each site asks for itself. You can change your choice at any time with Cookie settings at the bottom of rank.engineer and of bracketbot.com/apply.
Children
rank.engineer isn't meant for children under 16, and we don't knowingly rate or list them. If you think we have, write to privacy@rank.engineer and we'll remove them.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top, and tell applicants about significant changes. Our Terms of Use cover using the site.
Contact
BracketBot, privacy@rank.engineer