Privacy Policy

We only collect what the platform genuinely needs. That falls into four groups:

• Account information you give us: your name, email address, a securely hashed password, whether your email is verified, whether you signed in with Google or with an email and password, and your subscription tier if you have one.
• Profile and academic information you choose to enter: your study level, field of study, grades, languages, destinations of interest, CV and personal statement content, and any other details you add to your profile.
• Application tracking data: the scholarships you save, the applications you create, their status, the deadlines you set, and notes you write about them.
• Usage and technical information: your IP address, browser and device type, pages you visit, and error logs. We use this to keep the platform secure and to understand which features are useful.

We do not knowingly collect special-category data such as health, religion, or political opinion. Please do not include that kind of information in your CV, personal statement, or profile notes — we do not need it to match you to a scholarship, and we would rather not hold it.

• To create and secure your account, and to keep you signed in.
• To match your profile against scholarship listings and to power search, filters and recommendations.
• To run the tools on the platform, such as the application checker and CV assistant, which process the content you submit to them.
• To send you service messages, such as deadline reminders and application status updates you have asked for.
• To send push notifications through OneSignal where you have opted in.
• To detect fraud and abuse, enforce our Terms of Service, and protect the security of the platform.
• To understand how the product is used so we can improve it.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not use the content of your CV or personal statement to train third-party advertising models.

We use a small amount of browser storage to keep you signed in and to remember interface preferences. Specifically:

• scholarpath-auth — stored in your browser's local storage and session storage. Holds your session token and your cached profile so the app can render your account state without a round trip on every page load.
• scholarpath_token — a cookie mirroring that session token, scoped to the whole site, set to expire after seven days. It is used so that requests can be authenticated and so you stay signed in.
• hasDismissedProfileTooltip — records that you closed the "complete your profile" hint so we do not show it again.

Clearing your browser storage for our site signs you out. You can also sign out at any time from the profile menu, which removes the stored session data immediately.

We use a small number of third parties to run the platform. Each one only receives the data it needs to do its job:

• OneSignal — delivers push notifications if you opt in. It receives a pseudonymous user identifier and your device push token.
• DiceBear — generates the default avatar shown next to your name. It receives your display name as a seed, so avoid putting anything sensitive in your name.
• Google — provides single sign-in if you choose to sign in with Google, and may verify the email address you supply.
• Our payment processor — handles any subscription payment. Card details go directly to the processor; we never see or store your full card number.
• Scholarship data sources — listing information is aggregated from public sources so that we can present opportunities from many providers in one place.

We may add or change providers in future. If we introduce a provider that handles your data in a materially different way, we will update this policy and, where the law requires it, ask for your consent before proceeding.

We share your personal information only in these situations:

• With the service providers listed in section 5, to the extent needed to operate their part of the platform.
• With scholarship or university providers only where you have deliberately submitted an application through the platform and chosen to send your details.
• With professional advisers, auditors, or insurers where necessary, under confidentiality obligations.
• With regulators, law enforcement, or courts where we are legally required to disclose. We will narrow the disclosure to what is actually required and will tell you unless the law forbids it.
• With a buyer or successor if we are acquired or reorganised, in which case this policy continues to govern your data and you will be told before your information becomes subject to a different policy.

We do not trade or sell your personal information.

We keep your account information for as long as your account is open. If you delete your account, we remove your profile, saved scholarships, application data and uploaded documents from our active systems within 30 days, and purge backups on our routine backup cycle, which runs at least every 90 days.

We keep de-identified, aggregated statistics — for example total numbers of applications created — because they cannot be traced back to you. If a payment provider requires it, we may keep transaction records for the period tax and accounting law requires, which is typically seven years.

Passwords are hashed and are never stored or transmitted in readable form. Data is sent over encrypted connections. Access to personal information is restricted to the people and systems that need it, and access is logged.

We want to be straightforward about one trade-off: your session token is held in your browser's local storage so the app can render your account state quickly. That is convenient, but it means a successful script-injection attack could in principle read it. We mitigate this by keeping the token short-lived, avoiding third-party scripts on authenticated pages, and asking you to sign out on shared devices.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information and is likely to cause you harm, we will notify you and the relevant data protection authority without undue delay.

Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act and, where it applies to you, the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulations, you have the right to:

• Know what personal information we hold about you, and get a copy of it.
• Have inaccurate information corrected.
• Have your information deleted when we no longer need it.
• Restrict or object to how we use it, including objecting to direct marketing.
• Receive your information in a portable, machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent where our use of your data relies on consent — including withdrawing from push notifications.
• Complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, or to your local supervisory authority if you are in the EU or UK.

To exercise any of these, email [email protected]. We will verify your identity first so that we do not disclose your data to someone who is not you, and we will respond within the timeframe the applicable law requires — generally one month, extendable by two further months for complex requests, in which case we will tell you why.

If you are unhappy with how we handled a request, you can appeal by replying to the same email, and you can complain to your regulator at any time. We do not charge a fee for making a request, and we do not treat you differently for exercising your rights.

Some of our service providers process information on servers located outside Nigeria, including in the United States and the European Economic Area. Where personal information leaves Nigeria we rely on an appropriate transfer mechanism, such as standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision, and we take supplementary measures where we judge them necessary.

You may contact us for more detail about the transfer mechanism applicable to information we hold about you.

The platform is intended for students pursuing higher education and is not directed at children under 18. Scholarship programmes commonly have their own minimum-age requirements, which we do not override. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, email us and we will delete it.

We may update this policy as the platform or the law changes. The "last updated" date at the top of this page always reflects the current version. Where a change materially affects how we use your information, we will tell you by email or in the product before the change takes effect.

Privacy questions, access requests and complaints all go to the same inbox.

ScholarsWorld is operated by Scholarsworld AI. Registered address: to be confirmed. If you have any question about this policy or how we handle your information, email [email protected].