Privacy Policy

1. Who this policy covers

MyCollegeMail ("MyCollegeMail," "we," "us") helps high school students scan, organize, and track college recruitment mail through our website and Android app. This policy explains what information we collect through both, how we use it, and your choices.

2. Information we collect

We collect the following categories of information:

• Account information — your name and email address (via Clerk, our sign-in provider), and, if you choose to add them, your graduation year, state, and mailing ZIP code.
• Scanned mail — photos of college mail you capture in the app, the text extracted from them, and labels (school name, offer, key dates, calls to action) generated from that text. See Section 4 for how your name and address are handled here specifically.
• Academic profile information — GPA, test scores, class rank/size, and school preferences (size, majors, setting, target states, interests) you optionally enter to get more relevant results. None of this is required to use MyCollegeMail.
• Parent/guardian information — if you choose to provide it at sign-up, a parent or guardian's name and email.
• Usage information — activity like scan counts and streaks, used to show your own progress in the app.

3. How we use your information

We use your information to:

• Operate MyCollegeMail — store and organize your scanned mail, extract dates onto your calendar, and track schools you're interested in.
• Generate notes on how a school might fit you, using the academic and preference information you've entered — this reasoning happens automatically and isn't reviewed by a person.
• Maintain and secure your account.
• Communicate with you about your account or changes to MyCollegeMail.

4. Removing your name and address from scanned mail

College mail is addressed to you, so it typically shows your name and mailing address somewhere on the piece. Before a scan is saved, MyCollegeMail attempts to identify and remove that name and address — both from the saved text (it's dropped entirely, not just hidden) and from the photo itself (that region is blacked out before the photo is uploaded).

This matching uses the name on your account and, if you've provided one, your mailing ZIP code — it also recognizes common nicknames (for example, mail addressed to "Andy" is matched against an account registered as "Andrew"). Providing your ZIP code (Profile page) improves how reliably your address is caught, since it doesn't rely on us already knowing your full street address — we don't collect one.

This is a best effort, not a guarantee. It can occasionally miss a name/address that's printed in an unusual place, format, or an OCR-garbled scan. It also does not apply to scans saved before this feature existed. If you notice a scan where your name or address wasn't removed, please contact us (Section 9) and let us know.

5. De-identified data shared with colleges and researchers

Beyond your own account, MyCollegeMail may make a de-identified version of the mail data collected across all students available to colleges, universities, and researchers — including on a paid basis. "De-identified" means your name and address are removed first, as described in Section 4, and are never included.

What this de-identified data can show a college or researcher:

• That a particular college sent a particular piece of mail;
• The general geographic area it was sent to (ZIP code only — never a street address);
• The academic attributes you entered about yourself in your Profile (for example, GPA, test scores, class rank, or school preferences), if you chose to enter them.

This lets a college understand how its own mail is reaching students in aggregate — it does not let them, or anyone else, identify who you are.

6. What we never share

Regardless of anything above: your name and mailing address are never sold, shared, licensed, or otherwise made available to any college, researcher, advertiser, or other third party, under any circumstance. They exist only in your own MyCollegeMail account.

7. Parents and student privacy

MyCollegeMail is built for high school students. At sign-up, we ask you to confirm that your parent or guardian has given you permission to use MyCollegeMail — this is a notice you attest to yourself, not something we independently verify with your parent or guardian. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13; MyCollegeMail is intended for high-school-age students.

8. Your choices

• You can edit or remove your academic profile and preferences at any time from the Profile page.
• You can delete an individual scan at any time from its detail page.
• You can ask us to delete your account and associated data by contacting us (Section 9).

9. Data security

Scanned photos are stored in a private cloud storage bucket, never publicly accessible — the app and website only ever access them through short-lived, signed links. We use industry-standard practices to protect your information, but no system is completely secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

10. Data retention

We keep your account and scan data for as long as your account is active, or as needed to provide MyCollegeMail to you. If you delete a scan or your account, we remove the corresponding data within a reasonable time, except where we're required to keep it longer (for example, to comply with law).

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. This page always reflects the current version — the MyCollegeMail app links here rather than storing its own copy, so you'll always see the latest version without needing to update the app. We'll update the "Last updated" date above when we make changes.

12. Contact us

Questions about this policy, or a request about your data? Contact us at privacy@example.com.