JodaEdu · legal
Privacy notice
This notice explains what personal information JodaEdu collects when you use jodaedu.com, why we need it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what you can ask us to do with it. We have tried to write it so that you can read it in ten minutes and know exactly where you stand.
Who we are
In short: JodaEdu runs this website and is responsible for your information.
JodaEdu ("we", "us") operates jodaedu.com, a service that helps international students find scholarship programmes at Chinese universities and apply to them. We decide how the information you give us is used, which makes us responsible for it.
We are not a university. When you apply to a programme, the university you chose makes the admission decision, and it becomes responsible for the copy of your application that we send it.
What we collect
In short: Only what you type in or upload, plus the record of what happens to your application.
Browsing the catalogue needs no account and we collect nothing that identifies you while you do. When you create an account and apply, we hold:
- Account details: your email address and a password. The password is stored only in scrambled (hashed) form by our account provider; nobody at JodaEdu can read it.
- Your profile, when you choose to fill it in: full name, nationality, date of birth, place of birth, telephone number, visa details if you are already in China, your education (highest qualification, last institution, graduation year) and your Chinese and English levels.
- Postal addresses you save, used to send you original documents such as an admission letter.
- Documents you upload, such as your passport, photograph, diplomas, transcripts, medical form, police clearance, bank statements, recommendation letters and study plan.
- Your applications: the programme, your answers to its questions, the price shown to you when you sent it, and every change of status afterwards, with the date and the member of staff who made it.
- Payments: the amounts owed, what you paid, the payment reference, the receipt you upload and our verification of it. We never receive or store card numbers.
- Messages, complaints and suggestions you send us, any file you attach, and our replies.
- Programmes and universities you save or compare. The answers you give the matching tool are not stored by us: they stay in the address of the page you are looking at.
- Email records: whether each email we sent you was delivered, and whether it was opened or a link in it was followed, as reported by our email provider.
- Technical records kept by our hosting provider for security, such as the time of a request and the IP address it came from.
We do not ask for, and ask you not to send us, information about your health beyond the standard medical form a university requires, your religion or your political opinions.
Why we use it
In short: To prepare and follow your applications, to take the payments they need, and to keep you informed.
- To create and secure your account.
- To prepare your applications, send them to the universities you choose and follow them until a decision.
- To show you what you owe, receive your payments and verify them.
- To tell you, by email, when an application moves, a document is reviewed or a message is answered. You can switch each of these emails off in your account; the same information always remains on your account page.
- To answer your questions, complaints and suggestions.
- To keep the records the law requires of us, in particular accounting records of payments, and to defend ourselves or you if there is a dispute.
- To protect the service against fraud and misuse.
We rely on your consent, given when you create your account, and on the need to perform the service you asked us for. You can withdraw your consent at any time by closing your account (see "Your rights"); doing so does not undo what we lawfully did before.
Where it is stored
In short: On our providers' servers outside mainland China; the university receives its copy in China.
Your information is stored by our providers on servers outside mainland China. When you apply, the application and its documents are transferred to the university in China, because that is the service you asked for. By sending an application you ask us to make that transfer.
How we protect it
In short: Your documents are private to you and to the staff handling your file.
- Documents are stored privately. They are never published at a public address; you download them through your own account.
- Each student can reach only their own profile, documents and applications. This is enforced by the database itself, not only by the website.
- Only named JodaEdu staff can open applications, and every change they make is recorded with their name.
- Uploaded files are checked for what they really are, not what they claim to be.
- All traffic to the site is encrypted (HTTPS).
No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach that puts your information at risk, we will tell you without undue delay and say what we are doing about it.
How long we keep it
In short: For as long as your account is open, and after that only what the law or a dispute requires.
- Your profile, saved addresses, saved programmes and documents: while your account is open. You can delete a document yourself at any time unless it is attached to an application that has already been sent.
- When you close your account, we delete your profile, your documents, your saved programmes and your addresses, and you can no longer sign in. We keep a record of each application you sent — its reference, the programme, the price you were shown, its status history and any payment with its receipt — with your name and contact details removed, for as long as accounting law requires and in any case no longer than six years, so that a payment or a decision can still be proved. An account with no application sent is deleted entirely.
- Messages and complaints: kept with that record and without your name, because a complaint must stay answerable and provable. Files attached to them are deleted.
- Email delivery records — which email we sent and whether it arrived, never its contents or your address: for as long as the account exists, and deleted with it when an account is deleted entirely.
Your rights
In short: You can see, correct, download and delete your information, and object to how we use it.
- See and correct: your profile is always visible and editable in your account.
- Get a copy: ask us and we will send you everything we hold about you.
- Delete: close your account, or ask us to delete something specific.
- Stop emails: switch notifications off in your account.
- Object or complain: write to us first; you may also complain to the data-protection authority of the country where you live.
To use any of these rights, send us a message from your account or write to us using the details on our Contact page. We answer within 30 days. We may ask you to confirm your identity first, so that nobody else can obtain your information by pretending to be you.
Applicants under 18
In short: If you are under 18, a parent or guardian must agree to your application.
Many universities require a guardian's letter for applicants under 18. If you are under 18, please create your account and apply with the agreement of a parent or legal guardian. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 16 without that agreement.
Changes to this notice
In short: If we change this notice in a way that matters, we tell you before it applies.
Each version of this notice carries its date at the top. We record which version you accepted when you created your account. If we make a change that affects how your information is used, we will email you before the change takes effect.