Terms, Legal Notice & Privacy Policy

Legal Notice (Impressum)

Information pursuant to §5 DDG (German Digital Services Act):

Leonard Wilsch
Eichhofstraße 15
24149 Kiel
Germany

Contact:
Email: christian.wilsch@gmail.com

Responsible for content pursuant to §18(2) MStV (German Interstate Media Treaty):
Leonard Wilsch
Eichhofstraße 15, 24149 Kiel

EU Online Dispute Resolution:
The European Commission provides a platform for online dispute resolution (ODR): https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/. We are neither willing nor obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration body.

What is wagecattle?

wagecattle is a career analytics and hiring-matching platform. Candidates use the calculator to receive a market-position score and to be considered for matching with employers; employers and recruiters use the platform to discover candidates and benchmark compensation.

Scores and estimated market values are produced by an automated, proprietary scoring model (see Methodology below). They are model estimates intended to inform career and hiring decisions, but they are not guarantees of pay, employability, or job outcomes. Final hiring and compensation decisions are always made by the participating employer, not by wagecattle.

Scoring Model & Limitations

wagecattle scores, rankings, estimated market values, and tier designations are the output of an automated, proprietary scoring model; the factors it considers are described in the Methodology section below. The model is an estimate; it is not a statement of objective fact and is subject to change as the model is updated.

“Est. Market Value” figures reflect the model's best estimate of a candidate's position relative to comparable market data. They are not a binding offer, appraisal, or guarantee of any specific compensation outcome.

Named Individual Profiles (Public Figures)

wagecattle publishes benchmark profiles of named public figures — primarily senior executives whose compensation and role information is already a matter of public record. These profiles are based entirely on publicly available information, including:

• SEC filings (DEF 14A proxy statements)
• Public annual reports and earnings calls
• Bloomberg and WSJ executive compensation reporting
• Publicly reported career histories and biographies

Scores assigned to named individuals are model outputs, not statements of objective fact. They serve as a market benchmark against which other candidates can be compared. Processing of publicly available personal data of public figures is carried out on the basis of Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in providing labour-market benchmarks based on public record), with reporting on public figures' professional roles further supported by Article 5 of the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz) and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Named individuals may request correction or removal at any time (see “Corrections & Removal Requests” below).

Privacy Policy

This site is operated from Germany and complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG).

1. Data Controller

Leonard Wilsch
Eichhofstraße 15, 24149 Kiel
Email: christian.wilsch@gmail.com

No data protection officer has been appointed as appointment is not required under §38 BDSG.

2. Hosting

This website is hosted by Vercel Inc. (440 N Barranca Ave #4133, Covina, CA 91723, USA). When you visit this site, Vercel processes your IP address and technical connection data to deliver the page. This is necessary for the operation of the website (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). Vercel is certified under the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

3. Vercel Analytics & Speed Insights

We use Vercel Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights to understand how visitors use the site and to monitor performance. These tools collect anonymized, aggregated data (page views, load times, device type). No cookies are set and no personally identifiable information is collected. Legal basis: Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in improving the website).

4. Calculator

wagecattle is a hiring-matching platform. When you use the “Calculate Your Score” tool, the data you enter is sent to our API, which computes your score with the scoring model (processed by Anthropic, see Section 4e). When you save the resulting card, it is permanently stored in our database (Supabase, see Section 4a).

Your card is your profile. Every saved card becomes your profile, findable under its ear tag (for example “DE 0012”). If you save several cards, the newest one is your profile and older ones remain as history in your account. A card goes live on the ranking only once you have confirmed your email address with the 6-digit code we send you.

The following data is stored with every saved card:

• Your full calculator input: age, gender, country, salary, bonus, career details, scarcity indicators, skills, experience, education, network, geography, languages, physical attributes (appearance rating, height, fitness level, smoker status), and entrepreneur information
• The full wagecattle result: overall score, dimension breakdown, recommendations, projected value curve, estimated market value, and tier
• A system-generated ear tag (country code and registration number) used for public display, and the email address you gave
• If you used the CV autofill: references to your uploaded CV files and any free-text notes (see Section 4e)
• A timestamp and submission identifier

Purpose of processing. Stored profiles are used to (i) generate and display your score, (ii) match you with employers, recruiters, and opportunities on the platform, and (iii) compute anonymized aggregate market benchmarks.

Legal basis. Processing of standard calculator data is carried out on the basis of Article 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of pre-contractual measures taken at your request — the matching service you are requesting cannot be provided without storing your profile) and Article 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent, given by submitting the calculator after reading this notice). For health-related and other special-category data, see Section 4d. For automated decision-making and profiling, see Section 7a.

Providing your data is entirely voluntary. If you do not save a card, no profile is created. There is no statutory or contractual obligation to provide any personal data. You may withdraw consent and request deletion of your profile at any time (see Section 8).

4a. Database & Data Processor (Supabase)

Cards, accounts and uploaded files are stored in a PostgreSQL database and file storage hosted by Supabase Inc. (San Francisco, CA, USA). Supabase also handles sign-in (see Section 4b). Supabase acts as a data processor on our behalf pursuant to Article 28 GDPR.

Data transferred to Supabase may be processed in the United States. Supabase relies on Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for lawful transfer. Row-level security (RLS) policies restrict access: public read access is limited to cards on the ranking; write access is controlled via server-side API routes.

4b. Sign-In, Name, Salary & Messages

Sign-in. Sign-in is passwordless: we email you a 6-digit code (with a sign-in link as a fallback). Your email address and account are managed by Supabase. Once you are signed in, Supabase sets session cookies (see Section 6).

Real name. You may enter your real name in your account. We store one name per account, and it is shown only if you agree by switching on the eye: your first name is then shown to everyone, and your full name to people who show their own name and to verified companies on the transfer market. Switching the eye off withdraws your consent at any time, and your name is removed from view right away. We record when you agreed.

Salary. Your salary is never shown without your consent. The eye shows name and salary together: when it is on, your salary is visible to people with a profile who show their own name and salary, and to verified companies. In return, while your eye is on, the ranking shows you the salaries of others who do the same. Switching the eye off hides your salary again right away. Members you accept as connections see your salary whether or not your eye is on: accepting a connection request is your consent, and removing the connection withdraws it.

Profile visits. When you open a community profile, the visit is recorded. The profile's owner sees it in their notifications for 30 days: by your public name or ear tag if you are signed in with a profile on the leaderboard, otherwise only as a count of visitors without a public profile. You never see your own visits to your own profile.

Salary views. When you open another member's salary, they see in their notifications that you did, by your public name or ear tag. Salaries seen through a connection are not recorded.

Connections & messages. You can ask another member to connect and exchange messages with them. We store connection requests and messages in our database (Section 4a). Messages are shown only to the sender and the recipient. You can message your connections, members who wrote to you first, and, as a verified company, members who are open to offers.

Chess.com. If you link a chess.com account, we store its username and read its public profile and rapid rating from chess.com's public API to verify it. Your profile shows the rating; the username appears only to people who see your full name.

Activity emails. If you switch on “Email me about activity”, we email you when someone views your profile (at most once a day), sees your salary or asks to connect. These emails are sent through Resend Inc. (USA), which receives your email address and the message as our data processor (Article 28 GDPR). Switch the setting off in your account at any time.

Legal basis: Article 6(1)(b) GDPR (providing your account, profile, connections, messages and the emails you switched on) and, for showing your name and salary, Article 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent). Your connections, messages, linked chess.com account and the record of who saw your salary are deleted when you delete your account; salaries you opened stay recorded on the other member's side, without your name.

4c. Browser Storage (localStorage)

In addition to the cookies described in Section 6, this site uses your browser's localStorage for the following purposes:

• wc-visits-seen-at — when you last opened your profile-visit notifications, so new visits can be marked
• cmv.lastSeenBidsAt.{user} — when you last saw your transfer-market bids, so new bids can be announced

localStorage data is never transmitted to our servers. You can clear this data at any time through your browser settings. Legal basis: Article 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent) and §25(2) TDDDG (technically necessary for the requested functionality).

4d. Health-Related Data (Article 9 GDPR)

The calculator collects health-related inputs (fitness level and smoker status). Under Article 9(1) GDPR, these constitute special category data requiring an additional legal basis beyond Article 6.

Legal basis: Article 9(2)(a) GDPR — explicit consent, given by your act of entering this information into the calculator and submitting the form after reading this notice. These fields are stored as part of your profile as described in Section 4 above and are used as inputs to the scoring model.

Important — anti-discrimination law. wagecattle facilitates matching between candidates and employers. Under the German General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), the EU Employment Equality Directive (2000/78/EC), and related law, employers may not make hiring, compensation, or related decisions on the basis of protected characteristics including health, disability, age, gender, or ethnic origin. wagecattle scores that incorporate health-related inputs are provided for the candidate's own self-assessment and orientation. Employers using the platform are contractually prohibited from using health-related dimensions of a candidate's profile as a basis for any employment decision. You may withhold any health-related input at any time; doing so will not prevent you from receiving a score or from being considered for matches.

4e. AI Processing & CV Autofill (Anthropic Claude)

Your score is computed by our proprietary scoring model, which runs on a third-party AI model. When you calculate your score, your calculator inputs are transmitted to Anthropic PBC (548 Market Street, PMB 90375, San Francisco, CA 94104, USA) for processing by the Claude language model (currently claude-sonnet-5-5).

As an optional convenience, you may also upload a CV, résumé or profile screenshots and add free-text notes to have the calculator pre-filled automatically.

What is sent and to whom. You can upload up to 5 files: PDFs and screenshots (PNG, JPEG, WebP or GIF), up to 10 MB each and 20 MB together. Your browser uploads them directly to our private file storage (see “What we store” below). When you click “Get my score,” our server sends these files and any additional text you have entered to Anthropic for processing by the same model. The model may look up public profiles that your documents reference (for example a GitHub page or personal website) on the web. Anthropic returns structured fields which we use to pre-fill the calculator. You can review and edit every field before submitting.

Anthropic's handling. Anthropic acts as a data processor on our behalf pursuant to Article 28 GDPR. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, API inputs and outputs are not used to train Anthropic's models. Anthropic may retain API inputs and outputs for up to 30 days for trust-and-safety purposes, after which they are deleted. Data is processed in the United States; the transfer relies on Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs).

What we store. Uploaded CV files are kept in a private Supabase Storage bucket. Only our server can read them: they are never publicly accessible, and once a card is saved, its files can no longer be read through the upload or autofill flow. We keep the files as raw data so that your profile can be re-scored when the model is updated; this also applies if you do not save a card. If you save a card, the files and any free-text notes are linked to it in an access-restricted table that is not publicly readable. They are deleted when you delete the card or your account; files from cards you never saved are deleted on request (see Section 8). We also log metadata about each CV reading and each scoring call (your email, signed-in user ID if any, IP address, status, and timestamp) in order to enforce a daily rate limit and investigate abuse. Your email is also stored in an HTTP-only cookie (cmv_pending_email) for up to 90 days so you can later claim and edit the resulting profile.

Special-category data. CVs occasionally contain information that qualifies as special-category data under Article 9 GDPR (for example references to health, religion, ethnic origin, trade-union membership, or political views). By uploading a CV you give explicit consent under Article 9(2)(a) GDPR for this content to be processed by Anthropic as described above. If you do not wish such information to be processed, please remove it from the CV before uploading, or describe yourself in text instead.

Legal basis. Article 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent), given by your active choice to upload the document, together with Article 9(2)(a) GDPR (explicit consent) for any special-category data contained in it. CV upload is entirely optional: you may describe yourself in text instead, with no documents uploaded. That text is sent to Anthropic in the same way.

Your own AI. You can also copy our prompt into an AI assistant of your choice (for example ChatGPT or Claude) and paste its answer back. What you share with that assistant is between you and its provider. We do not send the pasted answer to Anthropic to be read; only the calculator inputs taken from it are sent for scoring, as described above.

5. External Resources

This site loads external resources which may result in your IP address being transmitted to third-party servers:

• Flagcdn (flagcdn.com) — for country flag images

Legal basis: Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in consistent visual presentation).

6. Cookies

This site does not use cookies for tracking or analytics. We set only these functional first-party cookies:

• sb-*-auth-token — your Supabase session, set when you sign in (see Section 4b) and removed when you sign out
• wc-session-renewed — set for one day while you are signed in, so the server renews your session cookies at most once a day
• cmv_pending_email — the email you gave in the CV autofill, for up to 90 days (see Section 4e)
• wc_draft — lets the browser that saved a card update it, and put it on the ranking once you confirm your email, for up to 7 days

In addition, technically necessary cookies may be set by the hosting provider (Vercel) for load balancing and security. Legal basis: §25(2) TDDDG (strictly necessary for the service you request).

7. Named Individual Profiles (Legal Basis)

Personal data of named public figures (name, age, company, role, publicly filed compensation) is processed on the basis of Article 6(1)(f) GDPR — legitimate interest in providing labour-market benchmarks built on public-record information, balanced against the data subject's reasonable expectations as a public figure whose compensation and role are already a matter of public record. Only publicly available data is used. Appearance, fitness, and height scores for named individuals are model-generated estimates derived from public sources; they are not biometric or health data under Article 9 GDPR.

7a. Automated Decision-Making, Profiling & Matching (Article 22 GDPR)

The wagecattle calculator uses an automated scoring model that evaluates your inputs to produce a score, and the platform uses that score and your profile data to suggest candidate-employer matches. This constitutes profiling within the meaning of Article 4(4) GDPR and may, in the matching context, fall within Article 22(1) GDPR (automated individual decision-making with significant effects).

Where Article 22 applies (i.e. where automated matching produces or could produce legally or similarly significant effects on you, such as being shortlisted or de-prioritised for an opportunity), the legal basis is Article 22(2)(c) GDPR — explicit consent, given by submitting the calculator after reading this notice. You have the right to:

• Obtain human intervention on any decision suggested by the matching system
• Express your point of view and contest the result
• Receive meaningful information about the logic involved (the factors the model considers are described in the Methodology section below)
• Object to profiling at any time under Article 21 GDPR

Final hiring and compensation decisions remain with the participating employer; wagecattle does not make binding employment decisions. Withdraw consent or exercise any of the above rights by contacting christian.wilsch@gmail.com.

8. Your Rights Under the GDPR

Under the GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access your personal data (Article 15)
• Rectification of inaccurate data (Article 16)
• Erasure (“right to be forgotten”) (Article 17)
• Restriction of processing (Article 18)
• Data portability (Article 20)
• Object to processing (Article 21)
• Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (for Schleswig-Holstein: Independent Centre for Data Protection Schleswig-Holstein (ULD), Holstenstraße 98, 24103 Kiel)

You may withdraw any consent you have given at any time with effect for the future. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

To exercise any of these rights, contact christian.wilsch@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Data Retention & Transfers

Named individual profiles are embedded statically in the site's source code and are not stored in external databases.

Saved cards are retained indefinitely as candidate profiles for the purpose of scoring, matching, and benchmark statistics. Deletion is available at any time on request by contacting christian.wilsch@gmail.com, or by deleting the card or your account. Public-facing views of the leaderboard identify you by your ear tag (never your email) together with profile attributes from your card, such as role, company, country, skills, and estimated market value. Your name and salary appear only with your consent, as described in Section 4b.

CV files are retained as described in Section 4e until the card or account they belong to is deleted, or until you ask us to delete them.

Email addresses collected as part of a calculator profile are retained for the same period as the associated profile and are used to contact you regarding matches and platform notifications. They are never displayed publicly.

International transfers. Hosting on Vercel, database hosting on Supabase, activity emails sent through Resend (see Section 4b), and the AI processing for scoring and CV autofill provided by Anthropic (see Section 4e) may involve data transfer to the United States. Vercel is certified under the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Supabase, Resend and Anthropic rely on Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs). Named individual profiles remain published as labour-market benchmark data; removal is available on request as described in the Corrections & Removal section.

Methodology & Scoring

wagecattle scores are generated by a proprietary automated model. The model evaluates factors including scarcity, skills, experience, education, network, geography, languages, age, and physical attributes, and expresses each factor and the overall wagecattle score on a 0–100 scale.

Estimated market values are then derived from the score using a tiered editorial model. The exact methodology, thresholds, and multipliers are proprietary editorial choices and are subject to change as the model is updated.

Appearance, Height & Fitness Dimensions

wagecattle includes appearance, height, and fitness as candidate self-assessment dimensions because peer-reviewed labour economics research documents that these attributes measurably influence compensation and career outcomes in the corporate labour market:

• Hamermesh, D. (2011). Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful
• Judge, T. & Cable, D. (2004). “The Effect of Physical Height on Workplace Success and Income”
• Persico, N., Postlewaite, A. & Silverman, D. (2004). “The Effect of Adolescent Experience on Labor Market Outcomes”

These dimensions are provided so candidates can understand their own market position. As noted in Section 4d and the “Use by Employers & Recruiters” section, employers using the platform are prohibited from using these or other protected characteristics as a basis for employment decisions. For named individuals, these scores are model-generated estimates derived from public sources, not measurements or medical assessments.

Use by Employers & Recruiters

Employers, recruiters, and other business users accessing wagecattle to source or evaluate candidates agree to use the platform in compliance with applicable employment and anti-discrimination law, including the German General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), the EU Equal Treatment Directive (2006/54/EC), and the EU Employment Equality Directive (2000/78/EC).

In particular, employers may not rely on health-related dimensions of a candidate's wagecattle profile (fitness, smoker status) or on other protected characteristics as a basis for hiring, compensation, promotion, or termination decisions. wagecattle scores are decision-support estimates only; final employment decisions are the sole responsibility of the participating employer.

Terms of Use

By accessing or using wagecattle you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree, do not use the platform.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old to submit a calculator profile or otherwise provide personal data to the platform. Business users (employers, recruiters) must have authority to bind the organisation they represent.

2. Accurate Information

You agree to provide truthful information in the calculator. wagecattle scores and matches derive from your inputs — knowingly providing false information may result in suspension or deletion of your profile and may mislead employers acting in good faith on your data.

3. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Submit data about a person other than yourself without their consent (except for publicly available data about public figures, which wagecattle itself processes under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)
• Use the platform to harass, defame, or discriminate against any person
• Scrape, mirror, or bulk-extract content from the platform, or attempt to identify people behind ear-tagged profiles
• Interfere with the platform's operation, attempt to bypass access controls, or probe for vulnerabilities outside of a coordinated disclosure
• Use the platform for unlawful purposes or in breach of applicable employment, data-protection, or anti-discrimination law

4. Your Content & Licence

You retain ownership of the content you submit (including calculator profiles, CVs, video introductions, and bid data). By submitting it you grant wagecattle a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to process, store, and display that data as described in the Privacy Policy — including (i) generating scores and matches, (ii) displaying your profile under your ear tag (and your name, if you choose to show it), and (iii) computing aggregate, anonymised market benchmarks. This licence ends when you delete your profile, except for aggregate statistics already derived in non-identifiable form and technical logs retained for abuse prevention.

5. Platform Role

wagecattle provides scoring and candidate-employer matching tools, a public ranking, a transfer market for hiring bids, recruiter messaging, and optional video introductions. Bids and messages exchanged on the platform are expressions of interest only — they are not binding employment offers or contracts. wagecattle is not a party to any employment relationship between candidates and employers, makes no representation regarding any employer or candidate, and does not guarantee any specific job, offer, hire, or compensation outcome. Final hiring and compensation decisions are the sole responsibility of the participating employer.

6. Termination

You may delete your profile at any time from your account page (for signed-in profiles) or by contacting christian.wilsch@gmail.com. We may suspend or terminate access for material breach of these Terms, including the Acceptable Use rules above, with notice where practicable.

7. Changes

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified by updating the “Last updated” date at the top of this page; continued use of the platform after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

Corrections & Removal Requests

If you are a named individual profiled on this site and believe any factual input (compensation, age, career history) is inaccurate, please contact christian.wilsch@gmail.com. We will review and correct verified factual errors.

If you wish to request removal of your profile, you may exercise your rights under GDPR Articles 17 and 21 by contacting the same address. We will consider all requests in good faith and balance them against our legitimate interest in providing labour-market benchmarks based on public-record information (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) and the protection of reporting on public figures' professional roles under Article 5 of the German Basic Law.

No Warranty & Limitation of Liability

This site is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied. The operators of this site shall not be liable for any damages arising from use of or reliance on any content displayed here. Scores and estimated values may change without notice as the editorial model is updated.

Governing Law

This site is operated from Kiel, Germany and is governed by German law and applicable EU regulations. The competent supervisory authority for data protection matters is the Independent Centre for Data Protection Schleswig-Holstein (ULD), Holstenstraße 98, 24103 Kiel.