Privacy Notice
Applying to study abroad means trusting us with personal information. This notice explains, plainly and completely, what PolyGrants collects, why, who receives it, where it is stored, how long it is kept, and the rights you hold over it.
Who is responsible for your data
PolyGrants Ltd, a private limited company incorporated in England and Wales under Company Number 16951447, with its registered office at 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom, is the data controller for the processing described in this notice: it decides why and how your personal data is used.
For privacy questions and requests, write to , use the Contact page, or send a letter to the registered office. We have not appointed a formal Data Protection Officer; the privacy contact above handles every request.
Once your Application is submitted to an institution, that institution processes it under its own rules and becomes responsible for its own use of your data. Partner offices and service providers act on PolyGrants' instructions.
Data we collect
Everything we hold comes from you, from your use of the Service, or from the institutions responding to your Application:
- Identity and contact: title, names, gender, date of birth, nationality, preferred language, email, phone or WhatsApp number, and your chosen contact method.
- Account and security: your password (stored only in protected form), verification codes, sign-in activity and security logs.
- Application content: education history, qualifications, language levels, study goals, family and financial context (as the ranges you select), achievements, and the answers you give.
- Documents: identity document or passport, diplomas, transcripts, CV, motivation statement, photo, certificates, recommendation letters and, for applicants aged 16 or 17, the signed guardian consent.
- Guardian data (applicants aged 16 or 17): the guardian's name, signature and contact details, used for consent and for the joint fee responsibility described in the Terms of Service.
- Communications: your messages with advisers in the Service and, if you choose WhatsApp, the messages exchanged there.
- Payments: amounts, dates, channel used and receipts. We never collect card numbers; payments run only through the channels shown in your account.
- Records of consent: the timestamped declarations and consents you give at sign-up, at submission and at acceptance, together with the versions of the texts that were displayed to you.
Health data and other sensitive data
We do not ask for health data or any other special-category data as part of a normal Application. Rarely, a destination country or institution requires a specific item at visa or enrolment stage, for example a medical certificate. In that case we tell you exactly what is required and why, we process it only with your explicit consent and only for that requirement, and we delete it when it is no longer needed. You may refuse; we then explain what refusal means for the requirement concerned.
Why we use your data, and on what legal basis
- To operate your account and provide the Service you signed up for, including matching, preparing and submitting your Application, delivering responses and providing the post-acceptance support: performance of our contract with you.
- To verify identity and documents, prevent fraud and keep the platform secure: our legitimate interest in an honest, safe service and, in some cases, legal obligation.
- To keep accounting, tax, consent and dispute records: legal obligation, and our legitimate interest in establishing and defending legal claims.
- To send you optional updates about scholarships, deadlines and the Service: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
- To improve the Service: our legitimate interest, using aggregated or de-identified information wherever possible.
Automated decision-making
Profile matching is assisted by software, but every decision that matters to you involves a human being: advisers and staff review files, institutions decide admissions and awards, and every result is published to your account by a person. The eligibility check on the site is an orientation tool, not a decision. No decision producing legal or similarly significant effects about you is made solely by automated means.
International transfers
Your data is stored in the United Kingdom. When your Application is presented to institutions in destination countries, your data travels to those countries: that transfer is necessary to perform our contract with you, because it is exactly what you asked us to do. Data protection laws in destination countries may differ from United Kingdom law; we send only what each application requires.
Our own service providers process data under contracts incorporating safeguards recognised by United Kingdom law.
We never sell your personal data, and we never share it with advertising networks.
How long we keep data
- Contract, consent, payment, complaint and result records: 6 years after your account closes, the period during which legal claims can arise and be defended.
- Application documents and messages: deleted or anonymised within 12 months after your account closes.
- Sign-ups that are never verified or completed: deleted within 6 months.
- Backups: encrypted and cycled out automatically on a fixed schedule.
Your rights
Under data protection law you can:
- Access the personal data we hold about you.
- Correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Request deletion of data we no longer need to keep.
- Restrict or object to certain processing.
- Receive a portable copy of the data you provided.
- Withdraw any consent at any time, without affecting what was lawfully done before.
How to exercise them
Write to or use the Contact page. We verify your identity first, so that nobody else can use your rights against you, and we answer within one month; for complex requests the law allows two further months, and we tell you if we need them. Exercising your rights is free.
You can also complain at any time to the United Kingdom Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), and to the data protection authority of your own country.
Optional updates
At sign-up you choose whether PolyGrants may send you useful updates about scholarships, deadlines and the Service, through your chosen contact method. This is optional, it never conditions your Application, and you can stop it at any time in your settings or by telling support. Service messages about your own file (results, requests, security) are not marketing and continue as long as your account exists.
Applicants under 18
The Service is not available under 16. Applicants aged 16 or 17 need the consent of a parent or legal guardian, whose confirmation is also required to accept an offer. Guardians hold the same data rights as applicants for the data that concerns them.
How we protect data
Encryption in transit, strict access controls, audit logging of sensitive actions and the principle of least privilege protect your data. Staff and partner offices access only what their role requires. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach ever puts you at risk, we will inform you and the competent authorities as the law requires.
Changes to this notice
We update this notice when our processing changes, and the date at the top always shows the latest version. Material changes are announced through the Service before they apply.
Contact
, the Contact page, or PolyGrants Ltd, 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom.