Privacy notice

Draft. This describes how our systems handle personal data today. The retention periods and lawful bases below are marked for review and must be confirmed by legal counsel before publication.

Who we are

EC World Education Pvt. Ltd. (“EC World”, “we”) is an international education recruitment company. We place students at partner universities on behalf of the recruitment agencies we work with, and we operate the Riseway platform those agencies use.

For the personal data described here we act as a data controller. Write to hello@ecworld.com with any question about this notice or to exercise the rights described below.

Whose data we hold

• Students whose applications are submitted to us by a partner agency.
• Agency staff — owners and counsellors with a Riseway account.
• University staff we correspond with about applications.
• People who contact us through this website or by email.

What we hold about students

A student does not come to us directly. Their agency enters their details in order to apply on their behalf, and we hold what an application requires:

• Name, date of birth, nationality, and contact details.
• Passport number and expiry date.
• Academic history, qualifications and English language test results.
• Documents uploaded in support of an application — passport scans, transcripts, certificates, references and statements of purpose.
• The applications themselves: courses, intakes, every change of status, and the notes recorded against them.

Why we hold it, and on what basis

We use it to assess an application, to submit it to the university the student has chosen, to answer that university’s questions about it, to keep the student and their agency informed, and to administer the commission an enrolment generates.

PLACEHOLDER — lawful bases to be confirmed with counsel. We expect to rely on the performance of a contract, our legitimate interests in operating a recruitment service, and consent where we send marketing.

Who we share it with

• The university or college applied to. An application cannot be made without sending it the student’s details and documents.
• The student’s own agency, which is who advises them and which submitted the application.
• Service partners, only on request. If a student or their counsellor enquires about accommodation or a student loan, we pass that enquiry to the partner concerned. Nothing is passed on unless an enquiry is raised.
• Our processors, who act only on our instructions — cloud hosting and storage, and the providers that deliver our email, SMS and WhatsApp messages.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for anyone else’s marketing.

How we protect it

• Passport numbers are stored encrypted. They can be matched in full by someone entitled to see them, but they cannot be listed or browsed.
• Uploaded documents are held on private storage and are never publicly addressable. They are served through links that expire, and access to them is logged.
• There is no open sign-up. Every account is created by invitation and can be withdrawn immediately, which ends any active session.
• Access follows the role: a counsellor sees only the students assigned to them, and no agency can see another agency’s students or applications.
• Every change of status on an application is recorded with who made it and when.

How long we keep it

PLACEHOLDER — retention periods to be set with counsel. We keep application records for as long as we may need to evidence an enrolment and the commission arising from it, and for any period required by law or by our agreements with universities. We do not delete a student record simply because an application was unsuccessful, because the student or their agency may apply again.

Messages and marketing

Messages about a student’s own applications and about an account are service messages: they are part of the work that was asked of us, and they are not marketing. Campaigns and announcements are separate, and every one carries a one-click unsubscribe. Opting out of those never stops the service messages.

Students are only contacted directly where their agency has agreed to it. Many agencies prefer to deliver news themselves, and that is their choice to make.

Your rights

Subject to local law, you may ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, object to how we use it, or ask us to restrict that use. Write to hello@ecworld.com.

If you are a student, the fastest route is usually through your counsellor at your agency — they can reach the right people here directly. You can always come to us instead.

International transfers

PLACEHOLDER — to be confirmed. Applications are by nature international: a student in one country applying to a university in another means their data crosses borders. We will set out the safeguards that apply here.

Changes

We will update this notice when our practices change, and the date at the top will tell you when we last did.