GDPR & Cookies Policy

This Policy was last updated on 30 May 2020.

At AdmitKard, we deeply believe in the protection of your data and privacy and we care how it applies to you, as a user of our website(s). In this Cookies Policy (‘Policy’), you can find information about how, whether, and why we collect and use your personal information on. This Policy applies to any personal information that is gathered when you use our services, visit our Website, or otherwise interact with us. We have divided this Policy into different sections. Please go to the relevant section below for further information. The processing of your personal data complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’), the Dutch GDPR Execution Act and the Dutch Telecommunications Act.

About us

We are AdmitKard, in the rest of this document referred to as AdmitKard.

We maintain our headquarters at:

H-59, Second Floor, SECTOR-63, NOIDA, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, 201301

For more information visit: https://www.admitkard.com/aboutus

Please note that some of the processing described in this Policy we undertake as controller, but for some of the processing we may merely act as processor and the educational institutions and other organisations for which we collected your information or to whom we disclosed your personal information, which will act as controller. Please check the privacy policy of the educational institutions concerned to find out how they process your personal data.

Types of personal data we process

General

We may collect and process, whether or not on our own behalf or on behalf of one or more educational institutions, the following categories of personal information:

• Name, email address and other identifying information

  For example, we may record your name, email address, gender, date of birth, nationality, country of residence, education history, achievements, or language test scores. If you opt to use our Best Fit tool, we may also record your work experience and funding situation.

• Your contact details and personal account/registration details

  Your contact details may include: your address, telephone number, and email address. When you create a personal account or register for a service, we may also record your sign-in details and other information you provide when you create your personal account or fill in a registration form.

• Our communication with you

  When you send us an email, or chat with us online or via social media, we save your correspondence with us.

• Information we collect when you use our Website

  • When you visit our Website or use our services, we may register your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring website, web-browsing behaviour.
  • We may receive an automatic notification when you open (or open a link from) a newsletter.

• Information in relation to social media

  Depending on your social network settings, we may receive information from your social network provider. For example, when you sign in for our services using a social network account, we may gather publicly available information you give us access to from your social network profile, including your contact details, interests, and social network. For more information on the personal data that we receive from your social network provider, and how to change your privacy settings, please refer to the website and the privacy policy given by your social network provider.

• Information you choose to share with us

  You may also choose to share information with us. For example, when you leave a comment for us on Facebook, fill out a survey, submit a contact or application form, leave a review or submit an entry for a contest or scholarship, you have opted to share personal information with us.

Cookies and similar technologies

When you use our Website for the first time, a cookie notice is shown. AdmitKard uses the information collected through cookies strictly for the purposes stated in the Cookie Statement, found below.

How we collect your data

AdmitKard collects personal information in a number of ways. Information is obtained, for example, when you visit our Website, register on our Website, communicate with us via social media, or subscribe to our newsletter.

We may also receive personal information from associated educational institutions, subsidiaries, partners, or other service providers.

We collect some information by accessing your publicly available data, such as your Facebook or LinkedIn public profile.

Purposes of processing your data

We process personal information for the following purposes:

Providing services to you

AdmitKard processes personal data to provide our services. For example, personal data is processed so, for example:

• Based on the country or field of study that you choose, we can send you programme recommendations that we believe best match your profile.
• To make your user experience easier and more effective, we may assess how you use our services, and combine this data with information collected via your personal account, registration details, cookies, and similar technologies. This combination enables us to, for example, optimize our search algorithms, assess your admission chance or match with particular education opportunities.
• You can contact education institutes through our Website, by means of an electronic form. By sending an enquiry, you also create your own user account, enabling you to view the inquiries you sent.

For these purposes, AdmitKard processes the following personal data: name, digital contact details, demographic information, shortlisted programmes, disciplines and countries of interest, funding situation, preferred start period, previous education information, work experience.

AdmitKard is allowed to process personal data for these purposes for pursuing its own legitimate interest or those of the educational institutions; with the legitimate interest being to allow AdmitKard to provide the best service it is able to, in order to align you with the educational institutions of your choice.

To communicate with you

AdmitKard processes contact details to communicate with you, answer your questions, or handle your complaints. This applies to both students and (potential) clients/customers/partners.

For this purpose, AdmitKard processes the following personal data: communication history, name, digital contact details, message. For (potential) clients, the following data is also processed: phone number, employer, country.

AdmitKard is allowed to process personal data for this purpose to pursue its own legitimate interests or those of the educational institutions; with the legitimate interest being AdmitKard to be able to communicate with you for providing the best service it can to align you with the educational institutions, scholarship providers, test providers and other service providers of your choice. Especially, the legitimate interest services is that AdmitKard, an educational institution or other service provider concerned can respond in an effective and timely manner to any questions or complaint you might have.

For processing student applications for specific universities

AdmitKard processes personal information to enable students to apply for specific universities through AdmitKard rather than through the university website. For this processing of your personal data information, AdmitKard will act as a mere processor processing your information on behalf of the educational institution concerned.

For this purpose, AdmitKard processes the following personal data on behalf of the educational institution: name, digital contact details, analog contact details, passport, educational transcripts, CV, various credentials (e.g. English language proficiency), demographic information, shortlisted programmes, disciplines and countries of interest, funding situation, preferred start period, previous education information, work experience.

AdmitKard is allowed to process personal data for this purpose because it is necessary for pursuing the legitimate interests of the educational institutions; with the legitimate interest being AdmitKard to be able to communicate with you for providing the best service it can to align you with the educational institutions of your choice.

Allowing you to provide reviews

AdmitKard processes personal information when you have left behind a review about a specific educational institution or a specific program.

For those purposes, AdmitKard processes the following personal data (whether or not by means of a rating): programme, educational institution, personal life and overall experience with respect to the educational institute and its location. AdmitKard will then expose your overall rating of the institution, which will appear on our portals along with any extra comments you have made.

Please note that any written reviews may be checked by AdmitKard before exposing, automatically or manually, because AdmitKard wants to make sure only high-quality reviews are being exposed. We only remove reviews in the following situations:

• In case AdmitKard or another organisation or institution can prove a respondent did not study at the reviewed institution or program.
• When the review includes abusive language, swearing, discriminatory remarks, threatening, or personal political, sexual, religious, and ethical viewpoints.
• When the review promotes illegal or commercial activities.
• In case the review is written by a reviewer 5 or more years after they have studied at the institution.
• When reviews are not the personal experience or opinion of the respondent.
• If reviews repeatedly address fellow reviewers on a personal level.
• If reviews are exposed in a repeatedly disturbing way.
• If it includes contact details like phone numbers, addresses or links to other websites.
• If reviewers pretend to be another person or organisation than itself.
• If we suspect that a review isn’t genuine; for example, might be used to target a competitor.
• If a review contains content that violates the rights of another person or an organisation, intellectual property rights, and privacy rights.
• Reviews entered by the threat of extortion.
• If a review doesn’t contain information about the university or programme in detail.

If you come across a review that includes any of the above, let us know: [email protected]

AdmitKard is allowed to process personal data for these purposes because this is necessary for pursuing its legitimate interest or that of the educational institutions. These legitimate interests being that student reviews have found to be extremely helpful when aligning potential students with the best fitted educational institution or programme which is the core of AdmitKard’ services.

For statistical research

AdmitKard processes personal information for the development and optimisation of its services. We use automatic tools to perform statistical research into general trends. We broadly examine how our users behave towards our services, as well as the preferences our users set. Statistical research helps us develop better services and offerings, allowing us to improve the design and content of our Website. We can also advise higher education institutions on how they can better serve you.

For this purpose, AdmitKard processes the following personal data: name, digital contact details, demographic information, shortlisted programmes, disciplines and countries of interest, funding situation, preferred start period, previous education information, work experience, IP address, cookies and comparable services, browser data, device specifications, referring website, browsing behaviour and website interactions, social media likes. We may also combine such aggregated data with information we receive from our subsidiaries, educational institutions, or from public sources.

AdmitKard is allowed to process personal data for this purpose because AdmitKard has a legitimate interest in developing and optimising its services. You can object to this processing on the basis of your particular situation.

For direct marketing purposes

AdmitKard processes personal information for (direct) marketing purposes. This means we may use your personal information to send you newsletters, promotions, or other marketing communications. We use the results of our analysis to tailor our marketing communications to your specific interests and preferences. For example, if our analysis shows that you may be interested in certain types of programmes or a specific country, we may customize our newsletter and Website with content that are relevant to you. We may use different channels for our marketing communications, such as email, social media, and your personal online account.

For this purpose, AdmitKard processes the following personal data: name, digital contact details, demographic information, shortlisted programmes, disciplines and countries of interest, funding situation, preferred start period, previous education information, work experience, IP address, cookies and comparable services, browser, device specifications, referring website, browsing behaviour and website interactions, social media likes.

We may also combine such aggregated data with information we receive from our subsidiaries, educational institutions, or from public sources.

AdmitKard is allowed to process personal data for this purpose because you gave consent or because AdmitKard has a legitimate interest. The consent can be withdrawn at any moment, and you can object at any moment to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes when such processing is based on AdmitKard or the educational institutions’ legitimate interest. The withdrawal of consent or exercise of your right to object does not affect the lawfulness of the processing prior to the moment of withdrawal or exercise of the right to object.

You may object or revoke your consent for receiving marketing communications at any time, by following the instructions in the relevant marketing communication or by sending an email to- [email protected]

To initiate and evaluate business relationships

Your personal data will be processed for the entering into agreements and the performance thereof to the point of commercial services and the managing of the business relations which emerge from them, including the performance of activities aimed at the expansion of our client database.

Disclosing or sharing data with third parties

General

We reserve the right to release personal information without your consent or without consulting you, when we deem it necessary to comply with our legal obligations, to enforce our terms and conditions, to protect the security of this Website, or to prevent fraud.

Other institutions or businesses

You can contact education institutes through our Website, by means of an electronic form. The details in your inquiry will then be shared with the institute you are trying to contact.

We may share personally identifiable information (such as name, nationality, and email address) with carefully selected education institutions, to verify the status of your application or enrolment, evaluate and manage the performance of our business agreements or initiate new agreements. Some of these institutions may also have access to your information so that they may consider further marketing campaigns or recruitment measures. We will inform the education institutions that they are not allowed to use your personal information for any reason other than mentioned above. Users should note however that, how these educational institutions use this data is not governed by our privacy policy. Therefore, we cannot be held responsible for how the data is utilized once it is shared with them. Educational institutions have separate policy practices for which AdmitKard has no responsibility or liability. For further information on how such institutions use your information, please visit the applicable privacy policy of that institution.

Third party websites

Our Website contains links to third-party websites. If you follow these links, you will exit our Website. This Policy does not apply to third-party websites. AdmitKard cannot accept liability for the ways in which these third-party websites use of your personal data. You use these websites at your own risk. For more information on how these third parties treat your personal information, please check their respective privacy policies (if available).

Other countries

AdmitKard may your personal data to countries outside of your country of residence. This might occur in the course of sharing information with education institutions or our subsidiaries, with whom we have explicit agreements with how they can or cannot use the data. In most cases, these agreements will be in the form of a written and signed Data Processing Agreement. Some of these countries may not have an adequate level of personal data protection compared to the level of protection provided in your own country. AdmitKard does not systematically store your information outside the European Economic Area (‘EEA’), and does not transfer your data outside of the EEA without either your consent or after ensuring adequate safeguards that allow the safe transfer of your personal information.

If you contact, apply to, or enrol at, an education institution through AdmitKard which is located outside the European Economic Area, your data will necessarily be transferred to that country.

Security and retention

AdmitKard takes the safeguarding of your information very seriously. AdmitKard will take appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data against loss or unlawful use. These measures include but are not limited to: facilities protected by appropriate security measures, encryption of devices, version tracking and access to our databases is limited to key personnel and IP addresses and use of it is logged. Personally identifiable information and account activity are also protected through the use of user names and passwords. In order to help maintain the security of your information, you should protect the confidentiality of your user name and password.

Your personal data will be retained for as long as required for the purposes described in this Policy, or insofar as is necessary to comply with our contractual or statuary obligations, and to solve any disputes. In most cases, your personal data will be retained for forty-eight (48) months after your last activity, or until you request deletion. AdmitKard retains your data for that period to optimize their services to you throughout your educational period, which statistical research has shown to usually span a period of more than thirty-six (36) months.

Your Rights

You can request access to or a copy of your personal data collected by us. You may also request the rectification and removal of personal data or the restriction of the processing of your personal data, if there is a reason for doing so. You also have the right to data portability. You also have the right to object to a processing on grounds relating to your particular situation or against the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

To exercise your right(s), please send your written request, to:

[email protected]

or

AdmitKard

H-59, Second Floor, SECTOR-63, NOIDA, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, 201301

In order to ensure that the request you are submitting on your behalf is legitimate, in some cases it may be necessary for us to obtain further proof of identity either in person or via webcam. This is only necessary in those cases where we have doubts about the identity of the person submitting the request.

Modifications to this Policy

This Policy is effective as of 30 May 2020 and replaces our previous privacy policy. We reserve the right to alter or otherwise make changes to this Policy. We will notify you of any changes by posting the revised policy on our Website and notifying you through a banner or in case of very material changes to the Policy, via email. Changes take effect as soon as the Policy is posted.

Questions or complaints

If you have any question or complaints about the processing of your personal data, please send an email to us at[email protected]. We will be happy to assist you.