Privacy Policy
Who We Are
College Guidepost, located at https://collegeguidepost.com, exists to help you find the best major, the best college, and the best scholarships for your educational journey.
What Personal Data We Collect and Why We Collect It
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Contact Forms
To assist with sending you requested information, we use Ninja Forms to collect and store your email address. Ninja Forms outlines their use of your personal data and anonymized data here. You may opt out of the collection of your data by unsubscribing (we will remove your data) and contacting them using the instructions on their privacy page.
Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. College Guidepost uses cookies to help College Guidepost identify and track visitors, their usage of College Guidepost website, and their website access preferences. College Guidepost visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using College Guidepost’s websites, with the drawback that certain features of College Guidepost websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Ads appearing on any of our websites may be delivered to users by advertising partners, who may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement to compile information about you or others who use your computer. This information allows ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by College Guidepost and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.
Embedded Content From Other Websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Analytics
We use Google analytics to record information about the pages a user has seen, for example the URL of the page, time of day, device used, etc. The information that we collect is anonymized and sent to Google Analytics for analysis.
Google Analytics mainly uses first-party cookies to report on visitor interactions on this website. Users may disable cookies or delete any individual cookie. Learn more
In addition, Google Analytics supports an optional browser add-on that – once installed and enabled – disables measurement by Google Analytics for any site a user visits. Note that this add-on only disables Google Analytics measurement.
Google Analytics also collects Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to provide and protect the security of the service, and to give website owners a sense of which country, state, or city in the world their users come from (also known as “IP geolocation”).
See this page for Google Analytics security and usage of data.
We also use a Monster Insights plugin to integrate our website with Google Analytics. You can find Monster Insights’ privacy policy here.
Who We Share Your Data With
Service Providers and others who help with our business operations and assist in the delivery of our products and services including, but not limited to, application development, site hosting, maintenance, data analysis, infrastructure provision, IT services, customer service, email delivery services, payment processing, marketing, analytics, and enforcement of our Terms of Service Agreement and other agreements; Other users of the site to identify you to anyone to whom you send messages or make comments through the Services; Persons or entities with whom you consent to have your Personal Data shared; Third parties in order to prevent damage to our property (tangible and intangible), for safety reasons, or to collect amounts owed to us; Merchants and payment processors; and
Third parties as we believe necessary or appropriate, in any manner permitted under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence to: comply with legal process; respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; enforce our Terms of Service Agreement and other agreements; protect our operations; protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you, or others; and allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
We will never sell, rent, or lease your Personal Data to a third party.
How Long We Retain Your Data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
Google Analytics data is retained for 26 months. Contact forms and comments cookies are held indefinitely. We will retain your Personal Data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or allowed by law.
What Rights You Have Over Your Data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of Interest Based Advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or http://www.youronlinechoices.com.
Where We Send Your Data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. Some third parties also have access to your data as noted within this agreement.
Additional Information
How We Protect Your Data
We use reasonable and appropriate physical, electronic, and administrative safeguards to protect personal data from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction, taking into account the nature of the Personal Data and risks involved in processing that information.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
College Guidepost may change this Privacy Policy at any time. The most recent version of the Privacy Policy is indicated by the “Last Updated” date at the top of the Privacy Policy. All changes are effective immediately upon posting. Please review this Privacy Policy frequently to stay updated on changes that may affect you. Your continued use of this website signifies your continuing consent to be bound by this Privacy Policy.
Business Transfers
If College Guidepost, or substantially all of its assets were acquired, or in the unlikely event that College Guidepost goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of College Guidepost may continue to use your personal information as set forth in this policy.