Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 23, 2026
1. Who we are
20 Under 20 ("20 Under 20", "we", "us") is a recognition program operated by GiftedTalented LLC, a Delaware limited liability company ("GiftedTalented"). GiftedTalented also operates GiftedTalented.com and other education brands (together, the "GiftedTalented Network"). GiftedTalented is the controller of personal information collected through 20under20.org, its nomination forms, and related communications (the "Services").
Mailing address: GiftedTalented LLC, 848 N. Rainbow Blvd, Unit #8278, Las Vegas, NV 89107, USA.
Privacy contact: privacy@giftedtalented.com
This Policy works together with our Safeguarding page (/safeguarding) and our Terms of Use (/terms). If you are a Changemaker, the media release you signed also applies. Where the media release gives you more rights than this Policy, the media release controls.
2. Our commitments about young people
Most people we write about are under 18. Before anything else in this Policy, we commit to the following:
- We do not publish a feature about anyone under 18 without a signed release from that young person and a parent or guardian.
- We never publish home addresses, school timetables, personal phone numbers or personal email addresses.
- We do not sell personal information, and we do not use the personal information of anyone under 18 for targeted advertising.
- We do not place advertising trackers on Changemaker pages.
- We do not use features or nomination content about anyone under 18 to train artificial intelligence models, unless a parent or guardian opts in.
- If a Changemaker or their guardian asks us to take a feature down, we remove it from 20under20.org (see Section 9).
3. Information we collect
From nominators and nominees. Name, email, phone, city and country, school, grade or graduation year, parent or guardian names and contact details, LinkedIn and other public profile links, photographs, video introductions, descriptions of achievements, interview responses, and any other information submitted through our forms.
From interviews and editorial work. Notes, recordings and transcripts of interviews, drafts, and the approved feature.
From verification. Information we receive when we check claims with schools, competitions, publishers, employers, references or public sources.
From champions and visitors. Information you submit when you champion a Changemaker, contact us or sign up for updates.
Automatically. Device and browser type, IP-derived approximate location, pages viewed, referring links, and similar usage data, collected through cookies and similar tools (see Section 7).
About other people. If you nominate someone else, you are giving us information about them. You must have the right to share it (see our Terms of Use). We may contact the nominee, and their parent or guardian if they are under 18, to tell them they were nominated and how we got their information.
4. How we use information
- To review nominations, check references, verify claims and select each year's class.
- To interview Changemakers and write, approve, publish and maintain their features.
- To obtain and record media releases and guardian consent.
- To announce and promote the program and each class, including on LinkedIn, other social media, in newsletters and at events, within the scope of each Changemaker's release.
- To create or connect a Changemaker's GiftedTalented.com profile, where the Changemaker (and a guardian, for minors) has agreed.
- To communicate with nominators, nominees, Changemakers, guardians and champions.
- To run, secure and improve the Services, including analytics and fraud prevention.
- To comply with law, enforce our Terms, and protect the rights and safety of young people, our users and GiftedTalented.
- To create aggregated or de-identified statistics that do not identify anyone.
5. Legal bases (EU, UK and similar laws)
We rely on consent for publishing features, using images and video, processing information about minors, and any optional processing. We rely on legitimate interests for reviewing nominations, verifying claims, operating the program and securing the Services. We rely on contract where we provide something you asked for, and on legal obligation where the law requires it. You can withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that already happened.
6. How we share information
- Publicly. Approved features, names, cities, school year, category, photographs and the links a Changemaker approved are published on 20under20.org and may be shared on social media. Anything public can be copied by others, and we cannot control those copies.
- Within GiftedTalented LLC. 20 Under 20 and GiftedTalented.com are the same company. We share information internally to operate the program and, with consent, to create or connect GiftedTalented.com profiles. We do not share a minor's information with other GiftedTalented Network brands for marketing without guardian consent.
- Service providers. Hosting, website, forms, email, analytics, storage and support vendors that process data for us under contract, such as Typeform, Lovable, Cloudflare and Google Workspace.
- Verification sources. Limited information, when we confirm a claim with the school, competition, publisher or reference concerned.
- Legal and safety. Where required by law, court order or legal process, or where we believe disclosure is needed to protect a young person, prevent harm or fraud, or defend legal claims.
- Business transfers. If GiftedTalented or the program is merged, acquired, financed or sold, information may transfer to the successor. The successor must honor this Policy and the signed releases for information collected under them.
- With your direction or consent.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined under California law.
7. Cookies and analytics
We use essential cookies to run the site and may use privacy-respecting analytics to understand traffic. We do not use advertising pixels or retargeting on Changemaker pages. You can block cookies in your browser, and the site will still work. Where the law requires consent for non-essential cookies, we ask first.
8. Children
The Services are intended for adults and for young people aged 13 to 19, with the involvement of a parent or guardian where they are under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. If we learn that we have, we delete it. A parent or teacher may nominate a younger child only after contacting us at privacy@giftedtalented.com first.
For anyone under 18, a parent or guardian may review the information we hold, correct it, withdraw consent, or ask us to delete it, by writing to privacy@giftedtalented.com. Where local law sets a higher age of digital consent (for example, 16 in some EU countries, or 18 under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act), we obtain guardian consent up to that age.
9. Corrections and removal
If a published feature is wrong, tell us and we will correct it. If a Changemaker, or a guardian of a Changemaker under 18, asks us to take a feature down, we will remove it from 20under20.org within a reasonable time, normally within 10 business days. We do not ask for a reason.
Removal covers our website and the social media accounts we control. We cannot recall copies that third parties have already made, printed materials already distributed, or search engine caches. We may keep a private record of the feature and the release to document consent, comply with law and defend legal claims.
10. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our processing of your personal information, to receive a portable copy, to withdraw consent, and to complain to a data protection authority. Write to privacy@giftedtalented.com. We will verify your identity, and for a minor the guardian's authority, and respond within 30 days or the period your law requires. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.
California. California residents have the rights described in the CCPA, as amended by the CPRA. We do not sell or share personal information and do not use sensitive personal information beyond what the law allows.
EU, EEA and UK. You may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.
South Korea, Vietnam, India, Nigeria and other countries. We honor the access, correction, deletion and consent rights provided by South Korea's Personal Information Protection Act, Vietnam's Decree 13/2023/ND-CP, India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, Nigeria's Data Protection Act 2023 and other applicable laws. Requests go to the same address.
11. International transfers
GiftedTalented is based in the United States. We and our providers may process information in the United States, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and other countries where our vendors operate. Where the law requires, we use safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
12. Retention
We keep nomination information for nominees who are not selected for up to 24 months, so we can consider them for a future class, and then delete it. Published features stay online until removed under Section 9 or retired by us. We keep signed releases and consent records for as long as the related feature exists, plus the period needed to comply with law and defend claims. Interview recordings are deleted once the feature is approved, unless the Changemaker agrees otherwise.
13. Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards, including access controls on nomination data and guardian contact details. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach affects your information, we will notify you and the authorities as the law requires.
14. Links to other sites
Features link to LinkedIn, Changemakers' own websites, GiftedTalented.com and other sites. Those sites have their own privacy practices, and we are not responsible for them.
15. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy. We will post the new version with a new date. If a change materially reduces the protections for information we already hold about a Changemaker, we will ask for consent where the law requires it.
16. Contact
privacy@giftedtalented.com
GiftedTalented LLC, 848 N. Rainbow Blvd, Unit #8278, Las Vegas, NV 89107, USA