Fair Graduate Admissions Pathway (“FGAP,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our Platform.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect information about you in a variety of ways. The information we may collect on the Platform includes:

• Personally Identifiable Information (PII): When you register for an account, we collect your full name, email address, username, and your designated role (mentor or mentee). You may also voluntarily provide additional information in your user profile, such as a bio, skills, interests, and a profile photograph.
• User Content: We collect the information you provide when you use the platform, including messages you send in chats, files you upload, and information related to goals and meetings you schedule.
• Mentorship Application Data: If you apply for mentorship through our public website form, we collect information about your educational background and graduate school plans via our form processor, Formspree.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Create and manage your account.
• Provide our services, including connecting you with a mentor or mentee.
• Enable communication between users within the secure portal.
• Send you transactional emails, such as welcome messages, new message notifications, and meeting updates.
• Monitor and analyze usage and trends to improve your experience.
• Maintain the safety and security of our Platform.

3. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We may share information we have collected about you in certain situations:

• With Other Users: Your profile information (name, username, photo, bio, skills) is visible to other authenticated users of the Platform to facilitate community and connection. Your chat messages and file attachments are visible to the other participant(s) in that specific chat.
• With Platform Administrators: To ensure safety, quality, and compliance, authorized FGAP administrators may access user profiles and chat histories for monitoring and support purposes.
• With Third-Party Service Providers: We use third-party vendors to help us operate the Platform. These services have their own privacy policies and are not permitted to use your information for their own purposes.
  • Google Firebase: We use Firebase for our backend infrastructure, including authentication, database (Firestore), and file storage.
  • SendGrid: We use SendGrid to send all transactional emails from the Platform.
  • Whereby: We use Whereby’s API to generate secure video meeting rooms for scheduled calls.
• For Legal Reasons: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a legal obligation.

4. Data Security

We use administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your personal information. Our platform is built on Google’s Firebase infrastructure, which provides robust security controls. Access to data is restricted by security rules to ensure users can only access the information they are permitted to see.

5. Your Rights and Choices

You may review, change, or terminate your account at any time. You can update your profile information directly within the “My Profile” section of the portal. If you wish to delete your account entirely, please contact us at the email address below.

6. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at [email protected].