1. Information We Collect

We collect information through two primary streams: data you explicitly provide to us, and data collected automatically through your interactions with the Platform.

• •Personally Identifiable Information (PII): If you create an account, register a profile, or contact us, we collect direct identifiers such as your name, email address, password, and institutional affiliation.
• •Demographic and Profile Data: To power our scholarship matching engine, you voluntarily provide data points including your major/field of study, grade point average (GPA) tier, desired study abroad destinations, and Pell Grant or financial aid eligibility status.
• •Submitted Course Materials: If you choose to upload or submit syllabi, course materials, or other academic documents, we collect and store these files and any text or data contained within them.
• •Usage and Analytics Logs: We automatically log server-side actions, device information, browser type, pages visited, and your interaction paths (such as the specific study abroad programs or scholarship opportunities you click on).

2. How We Use and Share Your Information

We utilize the collected information to maintain our directory, optimize your scholarship discovery experience, and sustain our business operations through data commercialization.

• •Operational Delivery: We use your profile parameters to algorithmically map out eligible scholarships and study abroad listings.
• •De-Identification and Data Aggregation: We process raw student inputs, behavioral paths, and insights derived from submitted materials into completely anonymized, aggregated, and de-identified statistical datasets. This format completely strips away direct identifiers (such as real names or email addresses).
• •Commercial Data Licensing: You acknowledge and agree that AbroadRatings.com retains the right to sell, license, lease, or share these aggregated, de-identified datasets to third parties—including university enrollment managers, study abroad program providers, financial lenders, and educational consulting firms—for lead generation, market research, and analytical integration.
• •Lead Generation Opt-In: If you explicitly opt in to connect with a program provider, we may securely route your matching preferences directly to that partner so they can deliver relevant study abroad and funding opportunities to you.

3. Account Deletion and Data Erasure Rights

We believe in complete data autonomy. You have the absolute right to delete your profile and wipe your personal digital footprint from our platform at any time.

• •How to Delete Your Account: You can permanently delete your AbroadRatings.com account at any time by navigating to your account settings panel on the Platform and clicking "Delete Account." Alternatively, you can request full account deletion by sending a clear email from your registered email address to our support channels.
• •The Deletion Process: Upon initiating an account deletion request, AbroadRatings.com will permanently delete all associated PII and uploaded course materials from our active production databases within thirty (30) days. This includes your name, email address, account password, individual profile attributes, and submitted files.
• •Residual Data Retention: Once your account is deleted, it cannot be recovered. Please note that while all your personal data is completely erased, any aggregate, de-identified historical analytics records (such as an anonymous log showing that an unnamed user clicked on a program link, or macro insights derived from materials) that cannot be linked back to your identity will remain part of our macro-statistical datasets.

4. Corporate Transfers and Business Sales (M&A)

AbroadRatings.com is built as a scalable software asset. In the event that AbroadRatings.com undergoes a significant corporate restructure, merger, venture financing, reorganization, dissolution, or the sale of all or a portion of its corporate or digital assets to an outside buyer, all user information stored within our databases—including account credentials, profile details, uploaded documents, and behavioral analytics logs—will transfer to the acquiring entity as a core business asset. By using this Platform, you acknowledge that such transfers may occur and are legally permitted under these terms without requiring renewed consent.

5. Cookies, Analytics, and Infrastructure Tracking

We utilize tracking technologies to monitor platform health, prevent abusive data scraping, and analyze user engagement.

• •Analytics Engines: We use modern product analytics software (such as Google Analytics 4, Mixpanel, or PostHog) to study user journeys and click-through efficiencies. These platforms assign anonymous random strings to track user interactions over time.
• •Cookies: We utilize standard browser cookies to keep you securely logged into your profile session and to remember your local matching filters across page reloads.

6. State Privacy Rights and Opt-Out Options

Depending on your geographic location or state residency (such as California under the CCPA/CPRA), you possess specific options regarding data sales:

• •The Right to Opt Out of Sales: You have the explicit right to opt out of the commercial sale or licensing of your anonymized behavioral data. You can toggle this data-sharing preference off within your user profile settings panel at any time.

7. Data Security, Course Material Submissions, and Student Privacy Boundaries

AbroadRatings.com takes reasonable technical measures to secure your digital records. Because we operate as an independent directory rather than a university-managed network, our database collection operates outside the jurisdiction of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

• •Submission of Course Materials: If you submit or upload syllabi, course materials, or academic documents to the Platform, you acknowledge that access to these raw files is strictly restricted to platform managers and administrators.
• •Internal Platform Improvement: These materials will be used internally to optimize platform functionality, expand and improve our database knowledge regarding academic programs, and refine our user matching utilities.
• •Analytical Insights and Commercialization: While raw course materials are never shared or sold directly to third parties, the contextual data and high-level insights derived from them may be integrated into the aggregated, de-identified datasets used for market research and commercial licensing to third-party vendors (as detailed in Section 2).
• •Prohibited Uploads: To maintain a safe ecosystem, we actively enforce a strict policy banning users from uploading protected student records, student ID strings, or private transcripts into public review blocks.