Tech Hackathon 2026
Terms & Conditions
These Terms govern your participation in the Talentbank Tech Hackathon 2026 (the "Hackathon"), organised by Talentbank Sdn. Bhd. ("Talentbank", "we", "us", "our"). By registering, you agree to these Terms. Read them carefully. If anything is unclear, write to ask@techhackathon.com before you register.
01 Definitions
In these Terms:
- Adoption Agreement means a separate written agreement between Talentbank and a team for Talentbank to adopt the team's Submission under Tier 1 or Tier 2 of the Adoption Pool.
- Adoption Pool means the discretionary funding pool described in clause 10.
- Build Phase means the 28-day period during which shortlisted teams build their Submission. Exact dates are published on the Site.
- Confidential Information means information designated as confidential by either party, including the Reference Build.
- Finale Judges means the panel of judges who score Grand Finale presentations and decide the cash prize winners.
- Grand Finale means the live presentation event where Top 10 Finalists present to the Finale Judges.
- Hackathon means the Talentbank Tech Hackathon 2026.
- Intent Form means the initial submission a team makes to be considered for shortlisting into the Build Phase.
- Intent to Adopt means a written notice from Talentbank to a Team stating that Talentbank wishes to discuss adopting the Team's Submission. An Intent to Adopt is not an offer, and does not commit Talentbank to sign an Adoption Agreement or to pay anything.
- Panelists means the senior operators, founders, technologists, educators, and policy voices who shape Hackathon direction and may participate in scoring before the Grand Finale.
- Participant means an individual registered to take part in the Hackathon, whether solo or as part of a Team.
- Reference Build means the reference codebase, architecture documents, and supporting materials Talentbank shares with shortlisted teams during onboarding. The Reference Build is Confidential Information.
- Site means techhackathon.com.
- Submission means the team's Final Submission at the end of the Build Phase, including the code and anything else the team chooses to submit with it.
- Talentbank means Talentbank Sdn. Bhd., the organiser.
- Team means 1 to 4 Participants registered together. Solo entries are permitted.
- Team Lead means the Participant nominated as the team's primary contact and authorised representative.
- Terms means these Terms and Conditions, as updated from time to time.
02 About the Hackathon
The Hackathon is Asia's first AI-native national challenge. Teams design and ship modules of Career OS within a 28-day Build Phase. Top teams may be invited into a 12-month build partnership with Talentbank.
Talentbank organises the Hackathon and reserves the right to make all final decisions regarding its conduct, including shortlisting, judging, prize awards, and adoption.
Phase dates (Registration, Intent Form review, Build Phase, Panel review, Grand Finale) are published on the Site and may be updated. Material changes will be communicated to registered Participants.
03 Eligibility
To participate, you must:
- Be at least 18 years old by the registration date
- Reside in an Asia Pacific country
- Register as an individual, whether solo or as part of a team of up to 4
- Not be an employee, contractor, officer, director, or immediate family member of Talentbank Sdn. Bhd.
- Be able to enter into a binding agreement under the law where you reside
Talentbank reserves the right to verify eligibility at any stage and to disqualify any Participant or Team that does not meet these requirements.
04 Registration and Intent Form
Each Participant registers individually. The Team Lead submits the team's Intent Form. The Intent Form includes a clickable prototype, a concept brief, module preferences, and any supporting materials.
We review Intent Forms on a rolling basis and email a pass or reject decision within seven days of submission. Submitting the Intent Form does not guarantee shortlisting. Talentbank decides which teams advance, at our discretion.
Talentbank is not obligated to provide written reasons for rejection or non-selection at any stage.
05 Build Phase and Submissions
During the Build Phase, shortlisted teams are expected to:
- Attend the Kick-Off Workshop
- Use the Reference Build as a foundation, where appropriate, while still developing their own Submission
- Submit a Final Submission by the deadline published on the Site
Submission requirements
Your Submission must be your own original work, created during the Build Phase. You may use libraries, frameworks, public APIs, and AI tools (see clause 7) but you must not pass off third-party work as your own.
06 Reference Build and confidentiality
Talentbank shares the Reference Build with shortlisted teams at the Kick-Off Workshop. The Reference Build is Confidential Information.
Confidentiality obligations
During the Hackathon and for 3 years after the Grand Finale, you must:
- Not redistribute, repost, or publish the Reference Build or any of its components
- Not describe its internal architecture, design decisions, or implementation details publicly
- Use the Reference Build solely for the purpose of building your Submission
- Take reasonable steps to keep the Reference Build secure and inaccessible to non-Participants
When the obligation lifts
The confidentiality obligation does not apply to information that:
- Becomes publicly known through no breach of these Terms
- Was already in your possession before disclosure, supported by written records
- You are legally required to disclose, in which case you must notify us first where lawful
Remedies for breach
Breach of these confidentiality obligations may result in disqualification, forfeiture of any prizes or adoption opportunities, and legal remedies including injunctive relief and damages.
07 AI tools
The Hackathon is AI-native. AI tools are welcome, and we expect teams to use them. Which tools you use, and how much of your Submission they helped produce, is your business. There is no disclosure paperwork, and using AI will never count against you in judging.
What does not change is ownership of the outcome. You remain responsible for understanding, testing, and standing behind every line of code in your Submission, however it was generated, and your Submission must still be your own work rather than someone else's passed off as yours.
08 Intellectual property
You own your Submission until and unless an Adoption Agreement transfers specific rights to Talentbank.
Talentbank's review licence
When you submit, you automatically grant Talentbank a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to access, run, evaluate, and discuss your Submission internally for the purposes of judging and adoption assessment. This licence expires 90 days after the Grand Finale, unless Talentbank issues an Intent to Adopt before that date. Where an Intent to Adopt is issued, the licence continues while adoption discussions are live, and ends when those discussions conclude, when an Adoption Agreement is signed, or when either party ends the discussions in writing.
Talentbank's independent work
Talentbank has prior, parallel, and future internal work in the Career OS problem space. Even if our independent work ends up substantially similar to your Submission, that work remains ours. The only commercial path between you and Talentbank for your Submission is via signed Adoption Agreement.
To make this transparent, we share the Reference Build with shortlisted teams so that you can see where our independent work stood at the start of the Build Phase.
Archival licence
You grant Talentbank a perpetual, royalty-free licence to retain a copy of your Submission for internal record-keeping, legal defence, internal learning, and compliance. This archival copy is not used for public republication, commercialisation, or AI model training.
Marketing licence
You grant Talentbank a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use your name, Submission summary, screenshots, photos, and event capture for marketing the Hackathon and Career OS. This licence is described in more detail in clause 13.
09 Judging and prizes
Judging
What we are looking for. Across every stage of scoring, we assess one thing above all: how much the solution improves career employability outcomes for candidates, employers, and universities. Product thinking, build quality, and disciplined use of AI matter because they serve that outcome.
Panel Review. Panelists review Submissions after the Build Phase closes. Panel scoring decides the Top 10 Finalists who advance to the Grand Finale.
Grand Finale. A separate panel of Finale Judges, confirmed in advance of the Grand Finale, scores the live presentations. The Champion, 1st Runner Up, and 2nd Runner Up are drawn from the Top 10 Finalists' presentations at the Grand Finale. The Grand Finale date is published on the Site.
Talentbank's final decision. All judging decisions are final. We are not obligated to provide written reasons for scoring at any stage.
Prizes
The First Cohort prize pool is capped at RM 100,000 in total. That cap covers everything Talentbank pays out for this cohort, including the cash podium and every Adoption Pool payment.
- Cash podium: RM 20,000 in total. Champion RM 10,000, 1st Runner Up RM 6,000, 2nd Runner Up RM 4,000, paid to the Grand Finale winners. Amounts for each cohort are published on the Site.
- Top 10 Finalists (ranks 4 to 10): Career Accelerator package. Your CV and Submission summary are held on file by Talentbank's talent team and shared with our partner employer network (MNCs, GLCs, large local organisations), a feature on the Talentbank Careers page, media coverage (press release and LinkedIn), a CEO-signed certificate, and priority for any Adoption Pool deal. No interview and no job offer is guaranteed, by Talentbank or by any partner employer.
- Adoption Pool (discretionary). Negotiable only if we decide to adopt your work: up to RM 25,000 per team for Tier 1 Code Adoption and up to RM 10,000 per team for Tier 2 Strategic Adoption. See clause 10. These are per-team maximums, not entitlements.
How the cap works. RM 20,000 is committed to the podium. All Adoption Pool payments for the cohort are drawn from the balance, and total payments across the cohort will not exceed RM 100,000. If the number of adopted teams would take us past the cap, we will not exceed it, and we will say so before any Adoption Agreement is signed. We may also award nothing at all in a tier.
Prize payment
Cash prizes are paid by bank transfer to the Team Lead's bank account within 3 months of the Grand Finale, unless we notify the team of a different payment schedule. The Team Lead is responsible for distributing prizes among team members per the team's internal arrangement.
Taxes. You are responsible for any taxes applicable in your jurisdiction. Talentbank may withhold any taxes required by Malaysian law before payment, including withholding tax on prizes paid to non-resident winners.
Clawback
Talentbank may withhold, reduce, or reclaim any prize paid if we discover, after payment, that the recipient breached these Terms (including by plagiarism, eligibility misrepresentation, or conduct violations).
10 Adoption Pool and Adoption Agreement
Adoption is discretionary. Submission alone creates no obligation for Talentbank to license, adopt, compensate, or review every Submission within any specific timeframe. We may award nothing in a tier if no Submission meets our bar.
If we offer adoption, we'll negotiate 1-to-1 with the team after the Grand Finale and sign a separate Adoption Agreement. Two tiers exist.
Cohort-specific amounts. Maximum Adoption Pool amounts for each tier are published on the Site and may differ between cohorts.
Total cohort cap. All Adoption Pool payments count towards the RM 100,000 First Cohort cap set out in clause 9. Per-team maximums are ceilings for a single deal, not a commitment to fund every eligible team up to that amount.
Tier 1 — Code Adoption
Triggered when your code passes our 4-gate review:
- Stack compatibility — works with Talentbank's production stack (Angular front-end and supporting services).
- Code quality — readable, well-structured, no significant anti-patterns or security issues.
- Clean provenance — the code is yours to transfer, with no third-party licence conflicts that would prevent Talentbank taking it over.
- Basic test coverage — meaningful unit or integration tests, at a threshold confirmed during the review.
Stack note. Code Adoption is built around Talentbank's Angular production stack. Angular Submissions are eligible by default. We may, at our discretion, accept other stacks for Code Adoption where porting effort is minimal; that decision is final. Non-Angular Submissions that we do not accept for Code Adoption remain eligible for cash prizes and Strategic Adoption. We may also step a deal from Tier 1 to Tier 2 if integration fails or the gates cannot be met after good-faith effort.
Code Adoption payment milestones:
| Milestone | Share |
|---|---|
| On Adoption Agreement signing | 10% |
| Review completion | 20% |
| Handover acceptance | 20% |
| Integration completion | 20% |
| Go-live | 30% |
Tier 2 — Strategic Adoption
The default tier when Code Adoption isn't feasible. Your concept, design, architecture, or specific features influence what Talentbank ships, even if we rebuild on our own stack.
Strategic Adoption payment milestones:
| Milestone | Share |
|---|---|
| On Adoption Agreement signing | 50% |
| On first integration milestone | 50% |
If Talentbank steps a deal from Tier 1 (Code Adoption) to Tier 2 (Strategic Adoption) after the Adoption Agreement is signed, the payment terms convert to the Tier 2 schedule. Any milestone payments already made under Tier 1 count against the Tier 2 total. Talentbank is not obliged to top up to the Tier 1 amount.
IP transfer on signing
On signing the Adoption Agreement, full intellectual property of the adopted work transfers to Talentbank. You retain portfolio acknowledgement ("worked on Career OS at Talentbank Tech Hackathon 2026") but cannot reuse the specific code, design assets, and trade secrets transferred elsewhere.
Your code stays yours unless you choose otherwise. Reaching the Top 10 — or any stage of the Hackathon — does not give Talentbank any claim over your code. If you decline an adoption offer, you keep full ownership of your Submission and Talentbank has no further claim. You are never obligated to accept an adoption offer.
Eligibility
Adoption Pool consideration is open to any team whose Submission meets our standard, with priority given to Top 10 Finalists. Top 10 placement is not required.
11 Panelist and Finale Judge hiring
Panelists and Finale Judges may hire Hackathon Participants directly with no fee, no commission, and no time limit. They may retain Participant contact details and Submission summaries for the purpose of considering Participants for roles at their own organisation.
This does not give Panelists or Finale Judges any rights to a Participant's Submission beyond what is permitted by these Terms. They may not redistribute Participant information further.
Participants are not obligated to engage with any Panelist or Finale Judge for hiring purposes, and Talentbank takes no commission or fee from any hire that results from this provision.
12 Data and communications
Talentbank handles your personal data in line with Malaysia's Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA). For full details, see our separate Privacy Policy.
By registering, you consent to receiving Hackathon-related communications from Talentbank by email and, where you have provided a mobile number, by WhatsApp. Marketing communications and recruitment introductions are opt-in and can be withdrawn at any time.
13 Marketing and event capture
Talentbank may photograph, film, livestream, and record audio at Hackathon events and during virtual sessions. Event capture data may be used to market the Hackathon and Career OS through Talentbank's channels and through media partners.
By participating in any in-person, hybrid, or livestreamed Hackathon event, you consent to event capture as described above.
If you would prefer not to appear in photos or video, notify us in writing in advance at ask@techhackathon.com, and let event moderators know on arrival. We will make reasonable efforts to honour these requests, including framing and editing for capture used for promotional purposes.
14 Conduct and disqualification
Treat other Participants, mentors, Panelists, Finale Judges, and the Talentbank team with respect. The following behaviour will lead to disqualification:
- Harassment, discrimination, or threatening behaviour
- Plagiarism or false claims of authorship
- Misrepresentation of identity, eligibility, or affiliation
- Bribery, attempted bribery, or other inducement of Panelists, Finale Judges, or Talentbank staff
- Bad-faith disparagement of other Participants or Talentbank, including coordinated social media attacks
- Breaches of confidentiality (see clause 6)
- Any other behaviour Talentbank reasonably considers incompatible with the Hackathon
Disqualified Participants will be notified in writing and may respond within 48 hours before the decision is final. Disqualification means loss of access to the Hackathon, forfeiture of any prizes or adoption opportunities, and possible clawback of prizes already paid.
15 Warranties and liability
The Hackathon, the Reference Build, the Site, and all materials are provided "as-is" without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.
Liability cap. To the extent permitted by Malaysian law, Talentbank's total liability arising from these Terms or the Hackathon is capped at RM 1,000 per person. This cap does not apply to liability that cannot be excluded under Malaysian law, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.
You agree to indemnify Talentbank for any third-party claim arising from your breach of these Terms, your Submission infringing a third party's rights, or your conduct during the Hackathon.
16 Force majeure and changes
Events outside our control. If circumstances beyond Talentbank's reasonable control (including but not limited to natural disasters, public health emergencies, government action, civil unrest, war, terrorism, strikes, or major technical failure) prevent us from running any part of the Hackathon as planned, we may postpone, modify, or cancel affected activities — including the Grand Finale — without liability. We will communicate any such changes to registered Participants as soon as practicable.
Changes. We may update these Terms. Material changes will be emailed to registered Participants. The "Last updated" date at the top of this document tells you when these Terms were last revised.
17 General provisions
Governing law. These Terms are governed by Malaysian law. Disputes are resolved by good-faith discussion first, and if unresolved, by the courts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full effect.
Waiver. Failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any signed Adoption Agreement, constitute the entire agreement between you and Talentbank regarding the Hackathon.
Assignment. You may not assign your rights under these Terms. Talentbank may assign these Terms in connection with a corporate transaction.
Governing language. These Terms are written in English. Translations are provided for convenience only. If there is any conflict between the English version and a translation, the English version applies.
Contact. ask@techhackathon.com · techhackathon.com
Tech Hackathon 2026
Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Talentbank Sdn. Bhd. ("Talentbank", "we", "us", "our") collects, uses, shares, and protects your personal data in connection with the Talentbank Tech Hackathon 2026 (the "Hackathon") and the website techhackathon.com.
This policy sits alongside Talentbank's broader Privacy Policy at talentbankgroup.com/privacy. Where the two cover the same ground, this Hackathon-specific policy applies to your Hackathon participation, and the broader policy applies to anything outside it.
If anything is unclear, write to ask@techhackathon.com.
In plain language
- We collect the minimum we need to run the Hackathon: registration, Submission, communications, and event capture.
- We don't sell your data. We don't train AI models on your Submission.
- We share Submissions with panelists and judges for scoring. They're all under confidentiality.
- Marketing and recruitment intros are opt-in. You can withdraw consent anytime.
- We keep records for up to 3 years for active use, plus a perpetual archival copy for legal defence and internal learning.
- You have PDPA rights to access, correct, withdraw consent, or request deletion.
This summary is a guide, not a substitute. The full Privacy Policy below governs.
P-01 Who we are
Talentbank Sdn. Bhd., Reg. No. 201801009748 (1271762-A), is the data controller for personal data collected through the Hackathon. We are registered in Malaysia and based in Kuala Lumpur.
Registered office: B-1-19, Plaza Damas 3, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Reach us at ask@techhackathon.com.
P-02 Scope of this policy
This policy applies to anyone who:
- Visits techhackathon.com
- Registers for the Hackathon or submits an Intent Form
- Participates in the Build Phase, Onboarding, Kick-Off Workshop, Panel Review, or Grand Finale
- Joins as a panelist, judge, or partner
- Contacts us at ask@techhackathon.com
If you are a Participant, you also agree to our Terms and Conditions (see above) and Community Code of Conduct.
P-03 Data we collect
We collect the minimum we need to run the Hackathon properly.
Identity and contact data
- Full name
- Email address
- Mobile number
- Country of residence
- University or company affiliation
Profile data
- GitHub URL
- LinkedIn URL
- Availability for hire, including the option to state that you are not currently available. This field is required at registration and is held for our internal records. It does not, on its own, share your details with any employer.
- Career background (optional, where you provide it)
Submission data
- Intent Form: clickable prototype, concept brief, module preferences, supporting materials
- Build Phase: code repository links and demo URLs
- Anything else you choose to include in a Submission
Communications data
- Emails, WhatsApp messages, and other correspondence between you and us
- Notes from onboarding sessions and event moderators
Event capture data
- Photographs, video, livestream recordings, and audio captured at Hackathon events and during virtual sessions, in line with the marketing licence in our Terms (clause 13)
Technical data
- IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited, referring URL, and analytics events collected automatically when you use techhackathon.com
P-04 How we collect it
We collect personal data:
- From you directly when you fill in the Intent Form, send us an email or WhatsApp message, attend an event, or interact with our team
- Automatically when you use techhackathon.com (technical and cookie data)
- From third parties where you authorise it (for example, profile data you choose to share from GitHub or LinkedIn)
- From public profiles linked in your registration. When you give us a GitHub or LinkedIn URL, we may view the public profile at that URL to support judging, adoption assessment, or recruitment matching. We do not access private or non-public parts of those profiles.
P-05 Why we use it and our lawful basis
We use your personal data for the purposes below. Each has a lawful basis under the PDPA.
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Process your registration, review your Intent Form, and admit you to the Hackathon | Performance of a contract (the Terms) |
| Run the Build Phase, Panel Review, and Grand Finale | Performance of a contract |
| Communicate with you about the Hackathon (timelines, milestones, results) | Performance of a contract |
| Assess your Submission for adoption and negotiate any Adoption Agreement | Performance of a contract; legitimate interest |
| Introduce you to our hiring partner network for recruitment | Your consent (opt-in) |
| Send you marketing communications about Talentbank programmes | Your consent (opt-in) |
| Use event capture data (photographs, video, livestream) for marketing the Hackathon and Career OS | Your consent (clause 13 of the Terms); legitimate interest |
| Run analytics and improve the site and the Hackathon | Legitimate interest |
| Meet our legal, tax, and accounting obligations | Legal obligation |
| Prevent fraud, plagiarism, malicious code, and abuse | Legitimate interest |
| Defend against legal claims and enforce the Terms (including clawback and archival licence) | Legitimate interest; legal obligation |
We do not sell your personal data.
P-06 How we use Submission content
Your Submission content (code and prototype) is treated with extra care, because it represents your work.
- Review and judging. We share Submission content with internal review teams, panelists, and Finale Judges for scoring and adoption assessment. All reviewers are bound by confidentiality undertakings.
- Adoption assessment. If we consider your Submission for adoption, we share it with relevant internal teams (engineering, product, legal) under the same confidentiality regime.
- Marketing. A one-line description of your project may appear in the Top 10 announcement. Any deeper use of Submission excerpts (code, UI, design assets) in marketing requires your separate written consent.
- No training of generative AI models. We do not use your Submission content to train any generative AI model, ours or anyone else's.
- Anonymised analytics. We may use anonymised, aggregated data derived from Submissions (counts of modules attempted, common tech stacks chosen, distribution of team sizes) for internal analytics and reporting. This data cannot identify you or your team.
- Internal archival. Under the archival licence in T&C clause 8, we may retain a copy of your Submission perpetually for internal record-keeping, legal defence, internal learning, and compliance. The archival copy is not used for public republication, commercialisation, or AI model training.
P-07 Who we share it with
We share your data only with the people and organisations below, and only for the purposes in clauses P-05 and P-06.
Inside Talentbank
- Hackathon operations team
- Internal review team (for adoption assessment)
- Senior leadership, including the CEO sponsor
Panelists and judges
- Panelists scoring during the Panel Review window see Submission content
- Finale Judges see Top 10 Submissions and live presentations
All panelists and judges are bound by confidentiality undertakings.
Hiring by panelists and Finale Judges. Under T&C clause 11, panelists and Finale Judges may hire Hackathon Participants directly with no fee, no commission, and no time limit. For this purpose, they may retain your contact details and Submission summary to consider you for a role at their own organisation. They may not redistribute this information further.
Hiring partner network (opt-in only)
- If you opt in to recruitment introductions, we may share your profile data and consent-to-be-contacted with Talentbank's hiring partner network (MNCs, GLCs, large local organisations, and university partners). You can withdraw this consent at any time.
Service providers
- Hosting and infrastructure
- Form and database
- Email and communications
- Analytics
- Cloud storage and productivity (e.g., Google Workspace)
- Payment and banking partners for prize transfers
- WhatsApp (operated by Meta) for the Onboarding group communications described in clause P-08
We choose providers that meet recognised data protection standards and contract with them to handle your data on our instructions only.
Legal and regulatory
We may share your data where required by Malaysian law, court order, or regulatory request.
Adoption Agreement counterparties
If we offer your team an Adoption Agreement, we share the necessary identity and contact data internally with our legal and finance teams.
P-08 WhatsApp onboarding and external messaging
We use WhatsApp for onboarding shortlisted teams and for ongoing operational communication during the Build Phase. WhatsApp is operated by Meta and is subject to Meta's terms of service and privacy policy at whatsapp.com/legal.
When you join a Talentbank-administered WhatsApp group, Meta processes your phone number, profile data, and message content under its own policies. We have no control over how Meta processes your data on its platform.
We use WhatsApp because it is the most reliable, low-friction channel for participants across Asia Pacific. We do not store WhatsApp content outside the platform itself, other than copies necessary for our records (important decisions, screenshots evidencing rule breaches, moderator notes).
P-09 Cross-border transfers
We are based in Malaysia. Some of our service providers store or process data outside Malaysia (commonly Singapore, the European Union, or the United States). By registering, you consent to these cross-border transfers.
We work only with providers that meet recognised data protection standards, and we put contractual safeguards in place where appropriate.
P-11 Marketing communications and opt-in
You can opt in to:
- Recruitment introductions to Talentbank's hiring partner network
- Marketing communications about Talentbank programmes, future hackathons, and Career OS updates
Each is a separate tick-box on the registration form. Both are off by default, and neither is a condition of entry. Stating your availability for hire is a separate matter: that field is required at registration and held for our internal records, and we only introduce you to our hiring partner network if you have ticked the recruitment introductions box.
Withdraw consent at any time by clicking unsubscribe in any email, or by writing to ask@techhackathon.com. Withdrawal does not affect data we have already processed lawfully.
P-12 How long we keep your data
We keep your data for as long as we need it for the purposes in clauses P-05 and P-06.
| Data category | Retention period |
|---|---|
| Registration and Intent Form data | Up to 3 years after the Grand Finale |
| Submission content (active use) | Up to 3 years after the Grand Finale for active operational use |
| Submission content (archival copy) | Retained perpetually under the archival licence in T&C clause 8, for internal record-keeping, legal defence, internal learning, and compliance only |
| Communications (email and WhatsApp records we retain) | Up to 3 years after our last contact with you |
| Event capture data (photos, video, livestream) | Up to 5 years from the Grand Finale, in line with the marketing licence in the Terms |
| Cookies and analytics | As set out in our cookie banner (typically 13 months) |
| Marketing preferences | Until you withdraw consent, plus a short period for compliance records |
| Financial records (prizes, adoption payments) | 7 years, as required by Malaysian tax law |
After the retention period, we delete or anonymise the data, except where Malaysian law requires us to keep it longer, or where retention is permitted under the archival licence above.
P-13 Your PDPA rights
Under the PDPA, you have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you
- Correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data
- Withdraw consent for processing based on consent (marketing or recruitment introductions)
- Request deletion of your personal data, subject to legal retention requirements
- Limit processing of your personal data
- Receive a copy of personal data you have provided to us, in a commonly used format (data portability)
- Be informed about how your data is used
To exercise any of these rights, email ask@techhackathon.com. We respond within 21 days. We may ask you to verify your identity before acting on a request. We can refuse requests that are unfounded, excessive, or that override the rights of others.
Limits on deletion. A deletion request does not require us to delete:
- Submission content retained under the archival licence in T&C clause 8
- Records we are required to keep by Malaysian law (for example, financial records for 7 years)
- Records we need to defend against a legal claim or enforce the Terms
- Anonymised or aggregated data that no longer identifies you
We will tell you which categories we have retained and why.
P-14 How we protect your data, and breach notification
We apply security measures appropriate to the data we hold:
- Encryption in transit (HTTPS) across techhackathon.com
- Encryption at rest for stored Submission data and credentials
- Access controls: only authorised Talentbank staff and approved reviewers can access Submission and Participant data
- Audit logs for sensitive operations
- Regular backups with restricted access
- Staff training on data handling and confidentiality
Breach notification. If we become aware of a personal data breach likely to result in significant harm to you, we will notify affected Participants and the Personal Data Protection Commissioner of Malaysia within 72 hours of becoming aware, in line with the PDPA as amended.
No system is fully secure. If you spot a vulnerability, please report it to ask@techhackathon.com.
P-15 Children
The Hackathon is open only to people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, write to ask@techhackathon.com and we will delete it.
P-16 Complaints
If you believe we have mishandled your personal data, write to us first at ask@techhackathon.com. We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days and respond substantively within 14 days.
If you remain unsatisfied, you may lodge a complaint with the Personal Data Protection Commissioner of Malaysia at www.pdp.gov.my.
P-17 Changes and contact
Changes. We may update this Privacy Policy. Material changes will be emailed to registered Participants and reflected in the "Last updated" date at the top of this document.
Contact.
- Email: ask@techhackathon.com
- Site: techhackathon.com
- Broader Talentbank Privacy Policy: talentbankgroup.com/privacy
Talentbank Sdn. Bhd., Reg. No. 201801009748 (1271762-A), B-1-19, Plaza Damas 3, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.