Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

GradScoutFunding ("we", "our", "us") is a web application that helps graduate school applicants — particularly from African countries — discover professors, generate personalised cold emails, and manage their outreach. Our contact email is hammedpoms123@gmail.com.

2. What information we collect

• Account information: Your email address and password (stored securely via Supabase Auth).
• Profile information: Your CV text and research interests, which you provide to enable AI email generation.
• Search data: The fields of study and countries you search for professors in.
• Email connection: Your SMTP credentials (host, port, app password) used to send emails on your behalf. We do not store your primary account password.
• Payment information: Billing is handled by Flutterwave. We do not store your card details — Flutterwave handles all payment processing.
• Usage data: Basic logs of API requests for debugging and service improvement.

3. How we use your information

• To discover relevant professors and generate personalised outreach emails.
• To send emails from your connected email account to professors you choose.
• To track email open and reply status so you can follow up effectively.
• To process your payments and manage your subscription credits.
• To improve our service and fix bugs.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

4. Third-party services

GradScoutFunding uses the following third-party services to operate:

• Supabase — Authentication and database storage.
• Anthropic (Claude AI) — Generating personalised email content from your CV and professor research data.
• OpenAlex — Free academic database used to discover professors and their publications. No personal data is sent to OpenAlex.
• mails.so — Email address verification service. Professor email addresses (not your data) are sent for verification.
• Flutterwave — Payment processing for subscription plans.

5. Data retention

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. Professor search results are stored per-session and replaced when you run a new search. You may request deletion of your account and all associated data at any time by emailing us.

6. Your rights

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate data.
• Request deletion of your account and data.
• Withdraw consent for email sending at any time by disconnecting your email in Settings.

To exercise these rights, email us at hammedpoms123@gmail.com.

7. Security

We use industry-standard security practices including encrypted connections (HTTPS), secure password hashing, and access controls. SMTP app passwords are stored encrypted and never exposed in plaintext. However, no system is 100% secure — please use a strong password and keep your app passwords private.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by email or by displaying a notice in the app. Continued use of GradScoutFunding after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

9. Contact

For any privacy questions or requests, contact us at hammedpoms123@gmail.com.