IDP Connect Consolidated Privacy Notice
Who we are and Why we Collect your Personal Data
This privacy notice explains why we collect your personal data when you use our websites and applications and how we store and use that information. This Consolidated Privacy Notice is made for users and clients of WhatUni, Complete University Guide "CUG" and PostGraduate Search "PGS".
IDP Connect Limited (part of "IDP Education") is the Data Controller for the select IDP Connect entities (Hotcourses Pty Ltd, WhatUni, CUG and PGS). The ultimate Parent firm for all is IDP Education Ltd. with headquarters in Australia.
At the heart of our services is our commitment to guiding and assisting you, your parents and other users find suitable courses and learning providers. And in serving you, it is in our legitimate interest to collect and process your personal data. In certain cases, we may ask and rely on your consent which you may withdraw without costs and anytime.
How we Use your Personal Data
We process your personal data to:
- Provide in-depth educational information
- Facilitate communication with education providers
- Personalise content and recommendations
- Communicate relevant updates and requirements
- Improve service excellence and user experience
- Recommend trusted partners that may serve your needs should you consent
What do we Collect from you
When you browse our websites or apps, and especially when you register and start your journey with us, we collect and process various types of data including your personal data, technical info and cookies. And we likewise use analytics and geolocation data that we made sure to be the minimum needed to assist you in meeting your purposes in partnering with us.
Your Personal Data
We collect Direct identifiers like:
- Name, address and ID number
- Phone number, email and other contact details
- Education history and preferences
- Account registration data
- Courses, Grades, Employment and other Credentials
- Photos and Videos (with your consent) for marketing and networking
Technical Data
Additionally, we obtain Indirect identifiers like:
- IP address and Cookie ID
- Browser/device information
Cookies and Analytics
For your ease of website and app use, we rely on Cookies to:
- Maintain your login sessions
- Track preferences and analyse usage
- Compile and analyse site traffic and interaction
- Deliver targeted content and advertising that you can STOP without penalty
Our Cookie Policy is available here.
Additionally, we leverage Analytics tools like:
- Google Analytics (in all sites) to log review aggregated use data across all sites. However, we do not share your personal data with Google Analytics.
- UXCam (Whatuni app) and Acoustic for push email and marketing
- Adbutler and Adform for paid advertising
- Microsoft Clarity + Convert for testing and optimization
Geolocation and App Functionality
As with all websites, your IP address is sent to us for each web view. It is used (at times with geo-location info from your browser) to provide location-specific content for your benefit. Your site visit means data is stored on our system but only anonymously unless you are a registered user wherein it might be linkable to your profile. This link is merely temporary and will be removed three months after your last visit. We will not use this information to identify you personally. We use location data for analytics aimed at service excellence purpose only. You can STOP this by changing your browser settings.
Storing Your Data
The personal data you provide is stored in a secure hosting environment based in the UK and Singapore (using Amazon Web Services). We employ a range of technology and procedures to secure this data, including encryption, anti-virus and anti-malware software, firewalls, intrusion detection, group-wide policies and standards, and, mandatory security and privacy staff training.
Your data may be accessed by one of the firms under the IDP Group in the USA, India or Australia if they need to provide you with a service on our behalf. This does not impact the responsibility to protect your data. IDP also has a standardized privacy and security control framework across our group of companies. Furthermore, we have binding privacy and security clauses with vetted and trusted third parties alongside operational and technical controls to ensure compliance with our robust standards.
How We Retain Your Data
We stand firm in our long-term commitment to your success, but we will only retain your personal data only as it is necessary for the purpose/s you gave it to us, unless a law requires us to retain for a certain period (i.e. litigation).
Customer or prospect reviews are posted with your Consent within sites like Whatuni.com. These may be maintained and not deleted in pursuit of our legitimate interest - even if you have deleted your account. However, you may still request us to remove them on our sites only as we have no control on other social media pages.
Generally, standard deletion period is 3 years (UK users) and 2 years (international users). And in other cases, we keep your data for up to 7 years after commencing your studies or your last activity with us so that we can continue to support you through your journey.
If you want to know a specific retention period for any data category you can reach out to us at privacy@idp-connect.com. When no longer needed and not required by law to retain, we either delete or anonymize all personal data.
How We Share Your Data
We work with a range of learning providers that either advertise courses on our platforms or offer services relevant to your academic journey. You will be informed whenever the data you provide will be shared – this is despite the fact that sharing is inherently necessary for the nature of business (again, in our legitimate interest).
Your personal data will only be shared with learning providers you have chosen to engage with via our websites. For example, when you make an enquiry or a prospectus request to an institution, your details relating to that enquiry will be provided to the institution so that they may answer your enquiry directly.
Most importantly, we value our partnerships. Hence, we scrutinize them prior to our engagement and have entered into contracts with risk, privacy and security clauses, and, have bound them into data sharing agreements that will guarantee security and confidentiality of your personal data. We employ assurance, operational and technological measures to ensure our partners honour their commitments.
Your Data Rights
It is your personal data that you have entrusted with us. Thus, you possess and can exercise the below Rights. The exercise of any right impacts all sites of Whatuni, HotCourses, Complete University Guide and PostGraduate Search.
| Be Informed of Data Collection | Refuse or Unsubscribe to Direct Marketing |
| Know and Access Own Personal Data | To Complain |
| Restrict or Object (when based on legitimate interest) to Processing | Erasure or Deletion or to be Forgotten (only when IDP is not restricted to do so) |
| Withdraw Consent Anytime without penalties or burden (if based on Consent) | Accuracy and Correction of data (subject to reason and costs) |
| Not be Subject to automated decision making and to Request Human Intervention | Object to Transfer to another country (unless outweighed by IDP contractual obligations or legitimate interest) |
| Not be Profiled | Data Portability (when based on Consent or Contract) |
You may contact your local IDP office or email privacy@idp-connect.com for any question or needs.
You may Receive Marketing and Communications
With the aim of delivering to you general or specific course of study updates, or, to obtain your feedback and plans, we or our trusted partner institutions may send you:
- Newsletters
- University updates
- Subscription Offers
- Research invitations
With your separate opt-in consent, we may share your name, contact details and stated interests with our trusted third-party partners so that they may send you marketing emails about their own services. We will be jointly responsible (Controllers) for data you provided through our own sites for intended sharing with third party partners.
Our third party partners will be sole Controllers should you directly interact with their sites or apps (independent of our own). This means each partner is responsible for its own compliance with UK data protection law and PECR when sending you marketing messages. You must read our partner's privacy notice to understand their policies on top of our own due diligence prior to entering into data sharing agreements.
You are absolutely free to STOP us from sending these materials without any costs or degradation in our service levels. However, when you directly provided Consent to our partner Institutions, you may need to directly withdraw your Consent with them.
You may be Invited to Join Market Research and Focus Groups
We often run focus groups, surveys and market research campaigns which you can join in. These enable us to offer you beneficial services and products, or to advise our partners on your educational preferences. Additional endeavours include social media campaigns and other competitions or gamification. We sometimes utilize third-party platforms (Typeform, Qualtrics) and specialist firms to run these ad hoc activities. At all times, we make sure only aggregated insights and anonymized data are used. In social media events that require photos and videos, we obtain your explicit, freely given and informed consent at all times and prior to use.
What about Social Media and Alternative Logins
We harness the benefits of Social Media to make your entire learning journey with us not only fruitful but also entertaining. We operate official pages on social media platforms to communicate with you, provide updates, and, promote our services. Our editorial content is made more accessible and interactive on your phones and pcs. Please do keep in mind, that when you use these Social Media platforms, their privacy and security policies and controls may be different from your expectations. Hence, you must get familiarized with their respective policies.
We acknowledge the added benefits of seamlessly connecting your Log ins, and, are glad that we have enabled Google account and Apple ID as alternative log in credentials across our websites and applications.
Changes to This Notice
The most recent version date is at the top. We may update this notice so we do encourage you to read the Policy from time to time and in its entirety. If you do not agree with this notice (or in future versions of it), you may reach us at privacy@idp-connect.com or STOP and exercise your right to be forgotten (and even do both).
Contact Us
If you have any questions or complaints regarding your personal data, please contact the Privacy Manager at the email address below:
If you feel the Privacy Manager has not dealt with your enquiry promptly or correctly, you have the right to complain to the ICO https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/