Privacy Policy

Welcome to findmeuniversity.com ("the Website," "we," "us," or "our"). We are committed to protecting your privacy and providing you with a safe and secure online experience. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your choices regarding your data when you visit our Website.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information to help us provide and improve our services to you.

Information You Provide Directly:

• Contact Information: When you sign up for newsletters, events, or submit inquiries, we may collect personal details such as your name and email address.
• Inquiry Details: Information you provide when contacting us through forms or email.

Information Collected Automatically:

• Usage Data: When you visit our Website, we automatically collect certain information about your device and how you interact with our site. This may include your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, pages viewed, and the dates/times of your visits.
• Cookies and Tracking Technologies: We use cookies and similar technologies to understand how the Website is used. Section 3 sets out exactly which ones, what they do, and how to turn them off.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various purposes, including:

• To Provide and Improve Services: To operate, maintain, and enhance the functionality of our Website and the resources we offer.
• To Communicate With You: To respond to your inquiries, send you newsletters, event invitations, updates, or other information you have requested.
• For Analytics and Research: To understand how users interact with our Website, analyze trends, and gather demographic information to improve our content and services.
• For Security: To protect the security and integrity of our Website and prevent fraud or other illegal activities.

3. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

A cookie is a small file a website stores on your device. Similar technologies — local storage, session storage, and tracking pixels embedded in pages or emails — do much the same job. We group everything we use into two categories, and only one of them is optional. The full list of every cookie, key, signal and storage entry that the Website sets or reads is below.

Strictly necessary (always on)

These are required for the Website to function and cannot be turned off, because without them you could not stay signed in or keep a saved list. We do not use them to build a profile of you or share them with advertisers.

• Refresh-token cookie: set by our backend over HTTPS, marked HttpOnly and SameSite=Lax. It is sent on every request using credentials: "include" so the API can re-issue a short-lived access token without you signing in again.
• CSRF token: embedded in form submissions and verified server-side on every state-changing request, so a third-party site cannot submit forms on your behalf.
• fmu.cookie-consent (localStorage): a JSON record of your consent decision, shaped { choice, version, at } — the choice ("granted" or "denied"), the policy version it applies to, and an ISO-8601 timestamp. Stored only on this origin.
• fmu_has_session (localStorage): a boolean flag that tells the front-end whether to show signed-in navigation. Cleared on a 401 the refresh call cannot recover from.
• Rate-limiting and abuse signals: short-lived server-side signals that protect the Website and your account from automated traffic.

Analytics and measurement (only with your consent)

These are off until you accept them, and you can withdraw your consent at any time. If you reject them, neither the Google Tag Manager container nor any tag below loads at all — not in a limited form, not with tracking disabled. They simply are not requested.

When you accept, we load Google Tag Manager from https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js, plus a matching noscript iframe for visitors with JavaScript disabled. Google Analytics (Google Ireland Limited) is the only tag currently published in that container.

Before any of this loads, an inline script runs gtag("consent", "default", ...) and sets every Google Consent Mode v2 signal to denied:

• ad_storage
• ad_user_data
• ad_personalization
• analytics_storage
• functionality_storage
• personalization_storage

security_storage is left at granted because it covers fraud prevention rather than tracking, so it is not a category you are asked about. wait_for_update is set to 500 ms — if any tag does manage to mount before your decision is read, it waits half a second before sending anything, long enough for consent to register, short enough that the page does not feel laggy.

When you accept or reject, the consent library calls gtag("consent", "update", ...) with all six signals set to your choice. That call propagates to every tag already in the container — not just the next page load — and the choice is written to fmu.cookie-consent as the JSON record above. The version field is the CONSENT_VERSION constant in our consent library; bumping it forces the banner to re-ask every visitor, which is what happens when the categories of tag we use change.

Google Analytics typically sets cookies in the _ga family, kept for up to two years unless you clear them sooner. We do not currently run advertising, remarketing, or social media tracking pixels on the Website. If that changes, we will ask you again rather than adding them under a consent you already gave.

Cross-tab synchronisation

A choice made in one tab reaches the others immediately. The consent library listens for the browser's native storage event (for changes from another tab) and for an in-tab fmu:cookie-consent-changed event dispatched whenever writeConsent or resetConsent runs. Both paths re-read the stored record and re-render anything that depends on it, so the banner stays in sync across windows without a page reload.

Changing your mind

Select Cookie preferences in the footer of any page. That clears fmu.cookie-consent from localStorage, pushes a denied update to every Consent Mode signal immediately, dispatches fmu:cookie-consent-changed across the tab, and brings the banner back so you can choose again. Rejecting costs you nothing: every feature of the Website works exactly the same either way.

You can also manage cookies in your browser settings, and most browsers let you block them entirely or delete the ones already stored. Note that blocking the strictly necessary cookies will stop you from signing in.

Do Not Track

Browsers vary in how they implement Do Not Track and there is no agreed standard for responding to it, so we do not rely on it. Your choice in the consent banner is what governs what we load.

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

• With Service Providers: We may share data with third-party vendors, consultants, and other service providers who perform services on our behalf (e.g., website hosting, analytics, email distribution). These providers are obligated to protect your information.
• For Legal Reasons: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court order or government agency request).

5. Data Security

We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. However, no internet transmission or electronic storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

6. Your Rights & Choices

• Opt-Out of Communications: You can unsubscribe from our marketing emails at any time by following the "unsubscribe" link in the emails.
• Cookies: Select Cookie preferences in the footer to accept or reject optional cookies at any time. Section 3 explains what each category does.
• Access and deletion: You can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Write to the address in section 10 and we will respond within 30 days.

7. Third-Party Websites

Our Website may contain links to third-party websites not operated by us. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party websites you visit.

8. Children's Privacy

Our Website is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we may have collected information from a child under 13, please contact us.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated policy on this page with a revised "Last Updated" date. Your continued use of the Website after any changes signifies your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:
[email protected]