Privacy policy

Effective 8 September 2026. Version 2026-09.

This policy explains how Four Directions ("we", "us"), operator of WorkStyle Compass™, handles personal information collected through WorkStyle Compass — whether you complete it on this website's partners (Hire Mountain, Scholar Quest, or another site that tells you it uses WorkStyle Compass) or interact with workstylecompass.com. It is written to meet the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Québec's Law 25, and, where they apply, the GDPR and the CCPA/CPRA.

1. Who is responsible

Four Directions, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is the organisation accountable for WorkStyle Compass data. Our privacy officer can be reached at privacy@workstylecompass.com.

2. What we collect and why

Your answers to the 48 pairs — to compute your reading. Purpose: providing the service you asked for.
Your reading (four scores out of 100, a two-letter code and profile name) — to show it to you and, with your consent, to the partner where you completed it. Purpose: providing the service.
Identity details (name, email address, country) — only when a partner site asks for them so it can attach the reading to your account there. Purpose: connecting your reading to you; with your consent.
Technical data — a salted, one-way hash of your IP address and a truncated browser identifier for each session. Purpose: preventing abuse and investigating security incidents (our legitimate interest). The IP address itself is not stored.
Consent records — what you agreed to, where and under which policy version. Purpose: legal obligation.
Data-request records — if you use the form on this site. Purpose: legal obligation.

This website itself sets no cookies and uses no analytics or advertising trackers.

3. Children and students

The school version (used by Scholar Quest) is designed for secondary-school students and is intended to be used with a parent or guardian, who creates the family account. We collect the minimum needed and never use a student's reading for marketing. A parent or guardian may request access or erasure on a minor's behalf.

4. Sharing

We share your reading only with the partner site on which you completed it, and with any other WorkStyle Compass partner that you later sign in to using the same email address and expressly ask to see it. We do not sell personal information, do not share it for advertising, and do not disclose it to anyone else except our hosting provider (Supabase, acting as our processor under contract, with data stored in Canada) or where the law requires.

5. Retention

Unfinished sessions are deleted after 7 days. Answers are deleted after 3 years. Readings are kept for 7 years, then permanently unlinked from any identity and retained only as anonymous statistics. Identity details are kept until you ask for erasure or after 7 years of inactivity. The audit trail is kept for 7 years. These periods are enforced automatically.

6. Your rights

You may ask for access to, a copy of, correction of, or erasure of your personal information; ask us to export it; withdraw consent; and complain. Use the Your data page or email the privacy officer. We confirm the request to the email address on file before acting and respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec, or your local supervisory authority.

7. Security

See Security & data for a full description. In short: one locked-down system in Canada, keyed access only, row-level security, hashed addresses, an append-only audit trail and automated retention. We will notify affected individuals and the Privacy Commissioner of any breach that creates a real risk of significant harm.

8. Automated decisions

WorkStyle Compass does not make decisions about you. It produces a description that a person reads. Every partner site commits to using a reading alongside skills, experience, interviews and conversation, and never as the sole basis for a decision about employment, admission or funding.

9. Changes

We will post changes here with a new version and date, and partner sites will ask for consent again where the change matters.

About WorkStyle Compass™. WorkStyle Compass is a work-style matching tool for remote and distributed teams, built and operated by Four Directions in Toronto, Canada. It describes work preferences and communication habits. It is not a psychological, personality or psychometric test, it does not diagnose or measure anything about a person, and it makes no scientific claim. Readings are meant to be used alongside skills, experience, interviews and conversation, never on their own.