Privacy policy

ScholarVoya runs the ScholarVoya platform and is responsible for the personal data described here. We built it for applicable Rwandan data-protection law (Law No 058/2021 relating to the protection of personal data and privacy) and, where they apply, the EU and UK GDPR.

For any question about your data, write to [email protected].

Only what the platform needs, mostly what you give us yourself:

• Account: your name, email address, phone or WhatsApp number, country, preferred language and password (stored only as a secure hash), and your two-step verification settings.
• Profile: your education, grades, languages and test results, work experience, skills, goals, budget and study preferences, and any passport details you choose to add.
• Documents: the files you upload, such as transcripts, certificates and identity documents, and the checks we run on them.
• Applications: the programmes you apply to, your answers, the documents you attach, the status of each application and any offer.
• Career Navigator: your assessment answers and the evidence you add to your portfolio.
• AI features: your questions, coach conversations, drafts and feedback.
• Communication: messages, notifications, tasks, appointments and support requests.
• Your story, if you agree: a story about your journey that ScholarVoya or your agency writes with you. It is published only after you give written permission, under the name you agree to, and you can take your permission back at any time.
• Security records: when and from which device and IP address you sign in, and a cookie that recognises your browser from one sign-in to the next, so we can alert you to new devices, notice unusual use of accounts and protect yours.

• To provide the service you ask for: your profile, matches, applications, documents and AI tools. This is necessary for our contract with you.
• To share your profile with an agency or other partner, only when you agree. You can withdraw that consent at any time.
• To keep the platform safe: preventing fraud, detecting forged documents and protecting accounts. This is our legitimate interest.
• To meet legal obligations, such as keeping certain records or answering lawful requests from authorities.

We do not sell your personal data and we do not use it for advertising.

• ScholarVoya staff whose role needs it, such as the officer reviewing your application or the person answering your support request. Staff actions are recorded in an audit log.
• Institutions: when ScholarVoya sends your application, the institution receives that application and the documents attached to it.
• Agencies: only an agency you have agreed to share your profile with. You can change this in Account → Privacy.
• Service providers who run parts of the platform for us under contract: hosting (Railway), file storage and network (Cloudflare), email delivery, WhatsApp (Meta) if you ask for notifications there, website analytics (Google Analytics) only if you accept analytics cookies, and AI models (OpenAI). OpenAI receives the text needed to answer your request, and the documents you upload so that they can be checked (see below); according to OpenAI, data sent through its API is not used to train its models by default.
• Everyone, for a story you agreed to share: the story and the name you agreed to, nothing else from your account.
• Authorities, when the law requires it.

Some of these providers process data outside your country. When they do, we rely on contracts and safeguards that protect it as the law requires.

SmartMatch scores, career-fit indicators and AI drafts are suggestions computed from your profile. No decision with legal or similarly significant effects on you is made by automated means alone: ScholarVoya officers review applications, and admission, visa and scholarship decisions are made by institutions and authorities. See Guidance, not guarantees.

Questions about sensitive situations, such as a visa refusal or financial hardship, may be passed to a ScholarVoya officer so that a person can help.

When you upload a document, an AI model reads the whole file, identity documents such as your passport included, to check its type, the name on it, its expiry date and whether it is legible. These checks only produce warnings: they never reject a document, and ScholarVoya staff make the final review.

We keep your data while your account is open. When you ask us to delete your account, an administrator reviews the request and we delete or anonymise your personal data, except records we must keep by law or to settle disputes, such as the record of an application sent to an institution.

Security records and audit logs are kept for as long as they are needed to protect the platform and meet legal obligations.

You can:

• see and correct your data in your profile and your account;
• download a copy of your data from Account;
• ask us to delete your account from Account;
• withdraw consent you gave, for example to share your profile with an agency;
• object to some uses of your data, or ask us to limit them;
• complain to the data-protection authority. In Rwanda this is the National Cyber Security Authority (NCSA); elsewhere, the authority in your country.

To exercise any other right, write to [email protected].

• Encrypted connections (HTTPS) for everything you send and receive.
• Two-step verification on every account.
• Access by role, so people see only what their work needs, and an audit log of staff actions.
• Private storage for uploaded files, and short-lived download links.
• Alerts when your account is used on a new device, and a list of your sessions you can sign out of.

ScholarVoya is for people preparing for further study or work. If you are under 16, a parent or guardian must agree to your use of ScholarVoya.

The platform needs some cookies to work: cookies that keep you signed in, remember your language and recognise your browser from one sign-in to the next (to notice unusual use of accounts), and your browser's storage for your display preferences, the programmes you are comparing and uploads you have not finished. Your browser also keeps a copy of the app's files, never your personal data, so pages load faster and a message appears when you are offline.

Analytics, only if you agree: with your agreement, we use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages and tools are used, so we can improve ScholarVoya. It sets its own cookies and receives your browser's details and the pages you visit, never your name, email or documents; Google Ads features are turned off. A cookie also remembers your choice, and another which version of the home page you see when we compare two versions. If you decline, Google Analytics is not loaded at all. You can change your choice at any time with Cookie settings at the bottom of the website's pages.

We use no advertising cookies.

When we change how we use your data, we update this page and its date, and tell you in the platform before an important change takes effect.