2025.1

Niche Studio may be requested occasionally to share additional details regarding its compliance, privacy and security program by an external entity such as a customer, media, legal or law enforcement. Such external communication, beyond what is already publicly published, needs to comply with the following policies and procedures.

Policy Statements¶

Niche Studio policy requires that:

(a) Niche Studio operations must comply with all applicable laws, regulations, security standards and frameworks. External audits shall be conducted accordingly to each applicable compliance requirement.

Client Project Compliance (As Required):

(b) All external communications related to compliance and customer/employee privacy must follow pre-established procedures and handled by approved personnel. This includes but is not limited to distribution of audit reports, assessment results, incidents and breach notification.

(c) Audit and compliance reports may be shared with an external party only when under signed NDA and approved by Niche Studio Security and/or Privacy Officer.

Controls and Procedures¶

Compliance Program Management¶

Niche Studio management and security/compliance team has identified and regularly reviews all relevant statutory, regulatory, and contractual requirements.

Niche Studio’s compliance policy includes requirements to meet any and all applicable compliance requirements.

Additionally, the Vendor Risk Management policies and procedures specify the details related to contractual agreements with clients, partners and vendors, as well as requirements and process related to intellectual property rights and the use of proprietary software products.

Requesting Audit and Compliance Reports¶

Niche Studio, at its sole discretion, shares audit reports, including any Corrective Action Plans (CAPs) and exceptions, with customers on a case by case basis. All audit reports are shared under explicit NDA in Niche Studio format between Niche Studio and party to receive materials. Audit reports can be requested by Niche Studio workforce members for Customers or directly by Niche Studio Customers.

The following process is used to request audit reports:

1. A request may be sent by email to niche@team.nichestud.io or by submitting a request via Niche Studio Internal Support Portal or Email. In the request, please specify the type of report being requested and any required timelines for the report.
2. An Issue with the details of the request into the Niche Studio Security Project on Notion, which is used to track requests status and outcomes.
3. Niche Studio security team will confirm if a current NDA is in place with the party requesting the audit report. If there is no NDA in place, Niche Studio will send one for execution.
4. Once it has been confirmed that an NDA is executed, Niche Studio staff will move the Notion Issue to “Under Review”.
5. The Niche Studio Security Officer or Privacy Officer must Approve or Reject the Issue. If the Issue is rejected, Niche Studio will notify the requesting party that we cannot share the requested report.
6. If the Issue has been Approved, Niche Studio will send the customer the requested audit report and complete the Notion Issue for the request.

See detailed policy and procedures in Breach Notification

External Audits of Information Access and Activity¶

Prior to contracting with an external audit firm, Niche Studio shall:

• Outline the audit responsibility, authority, and accountability
• Choose an audit firm that is independent of other organisational operations
• Ensure technical competence of the audit firm staff
• Require the audit firm’s adherence to applicable codes of professional ethics
• Assign organisational responsibility for supervision of the external audit firm

Whenever possible, a third party auditing vendor should not be providing the organisation IT oversight services (e.g., vendors providing IT services should not be auditing their own services to ensure separation of duties).

Contacts for External Communications Requests¶

Direct all other communication requests to one of the following:

• For incident reporting, vulnerability disclosure and other security related inquiries:

  • niche@team.nichestud.io
  • https://policies.nichestud.io/

• For privacy concerns, including report of violation:

  • niche@team.nichestud.io
  • https://policies.nichestud.io/privacy-policy/

• For all compliance related issues, including request of audit reports:

  • niche@team.nichestud.io

Continuous Compliance Monitoring¶

The status of compliance is tracked via Notion. Compliance dashboards are configured with applicable internal and external standards and frameworks. Any potential gaps detected are reported on the compliance dashboards.