GCEI Privacy Notice

Introduction

At GCEI we understand that your privacy is important to us. We are committed to meeting your expectations and will comply with all applicable privacy and data protection legislation in relation to your personal information and sensitive information.

We also know you love the small print, but here’s a summary of how we protect your privacy:

1. We only collect what we need to help you with your request or provide you with information that you ask for, personalizing it to your interests.
2. We won’t hang on to your information. If we don’t need it, and you don’t want us to keep it, we’ll delete it.
3. We want you to understand everything we do with your information, so we’ll try our best to explain to you and stay clear of anything that makes no sense.
4. No surprises — you decide what and how you hear from us.
5. That goes for everyone. We do not pass your information to third parties for marketing purposes without your knowledge.

The rest of this policy provides you with more detail about our privacy and personal information handling practices.

Who we are

Global Citizen Education Inc. (GCEI) is one of the leading education consulting companies that undertake student recruitment from all around the world. We have a partnership with the most renowned schools, universities, and colleges around the globe. While serving since 2017 from Toronto, ON, Canada, we have many success stories regarding students’ placement to different renowned educational institutions in the world to accomplish their study abroad. We believe in the transparency and deserving intake of our loving students to make their dream come true. We do support our clients regarding admission, accommodation, placement, pick and drop-off services, and genuine need-based support. Moreover, we have expertise in major countries like Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Sweden, China, Dubai, Japan, Malaysia, and many more. We offer free education counseling and other additional support that require to get tertiary education abroad and a wide range of networking across the best institutions in the globe. Our dedicated counselors and support team works 24/7 enthusiastically to provide the best education consultation services to the students.

Definitions of specific terms referred to in this policy can be found under the heading ‘Glossary’ at the end of this document.

Data Controller Contact Details

GCEI

14 Inverary Drive Ottawa, ON K2K 2R9, Canada

Contact our Privacy Officer via email at: apply@gcei.info 

We will endeavor to respond to you within a reasonable time.

 

In Our Detailing:

 

International Education Information, Advice, and Counselling

The services we offer to help you study overseas include counseling, application assistance, visa assistance, English language testing and training, student exhibitions, and seminars.

If you register on our websites (www.gcei.info) , app, or register to participate in an event we will collect personal information such as your name, email address, contact details, country of residence, nationality, preferred study destination, and when you intend to study.

If you enquire about study opportunities directly with a GCEI counselor, use our Offer in Principle service, or we assist you with your application to study, we may also request additional information such as education qualifications, employment history, occupation, areas of interest, and professional memberships, copies of documents as proof of identity – e.g. copies of passport, proof of citizenship or photographs, marital status and how you will fund your studies. We may also request sensitive information about you such as racial or ethnic origin (from information on your country of origin), and/or your health or medical information (e.g. from a medical examination required for your visa application).

Collecting your personal information allows us to:

• assist you to pursue the opportunity to undertake studies in an education institution outside your home country;
• provide you with relevant information on your study options;
• present you as a candidate to your preferred institutions across all education sectors, which are seeking to recruit international students who want to study in Canada, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, or anywhere in the world;
• match you to course vacancies at your preferred institution and communicate offers in principle;
• assist you to further your career after completing your studies at an overseas education institution;
• provide opportunities to participate in projects/programs as consultants;
• provide opportunities to provide feedback and testimonials on your experience
• inform and provide students, institutions, and other clients of developments in the services we provide (including events and opportunities to participate in projects/programs);
• conduct research for statistical, analytical, and training purposes;
• manage our internal business operations and events; and
• respond to your questions.

Student Essentials Services

GCEI offers services to support you in your studies overseas and we call these Student Essentials. These services include Overseas Student document processing, assistance in accommodation arrangements, a 24/7 emergency helpline, referral to guardianship services, visa application services, and career skills training.

If you purchase a Student Essentials service we may collect personal information such as your name, date of birth, and financial information, and sensitive information such as your health or medical information. We may also collect payment information, however, GCEI does not store information like credit card details.

Collection of your personal information and sensitive information allows us to:

• facilitate your accommodation arrangements with third party providers;
• contact the relevant organizations, authorities, or other third parties in relation to your overseas guardianship application;
• respond to your query and/or direct your query when you contact the GCEI 24/7 Helpline
• contact the authorized personnel with all relevant information required for visa renewal or parent visa application;
• contact cross border institutions or other organizations on your behalf to facilitate visits, career skills training, or internship placements;
• arrange or provide other products and services to you.

Visa application services

We provide visa application services for visas including guiding you through the application process and helping you prepare the necessary documents for your nominated visa application.  These visa application services not only cover visa applications required for study but also post-study work and skilled migration visa applications.

Collection of your personal information and sensitive information (such as information from your medical examination) allows us to:

• assist you in your application for a student visa including contacting organizations on your behalf to discuss your application;
• provide the institutions and government bodies with all relevant information required for your visa application;
• contact the institutions, government bodies, or other organizations on your behalf to discuss or ask questions about your visa application; and
• keep you updated with the progress of your visa application and advise you of the outcome of your application.

Retention

GCEI’s vision is to build a global community of connected students from the classroom to careers.  This means we would like to stay in touch for as long as you would like to hear from us, but we will only retain your information as long as is necessary for the purpose it was given to us.

As a guide, we will keep your personal information for up to 7 years after commencing your studies or your last activity with us so that we can continue to support you through your journey unless required to retain it for legal or regulatory purposes

In your dealings for studying overseas

GCEI is a Canadian Incorporated company operated in and outside Canada.

GCEI helps students find suitable courses and learning providers both at home and overseas and processes your personal data to help you make informed decisions when selecting courses and learning providers. If you engage with the counseling services Abroad, GCEI Connect's website, or GCEI app your data will be shared with GCEI, which operates both virtual and in-person counseling services.

 

 

In your dealings with us for conferences and events:

GCEI organizes various events and conferences related to international education which may be managed or presented by GCEI, whether in our own right or under contract for another organization. The information we collect is relevant to your attendance and participation.

In registering for, or participating in, an event we collect your personal details such as name, postal and email addresses, date of birth, contact details, residency status, education qualifications, employment history, occupation, areas of interest, and professional memberships.

The collection of your personal information allows us to:

• register you to attend the event;
• provide services to you related to the event (e.g. to list you as a speaker in the program or list you as an exhibitor or sponsor in our exhibitor directory)
• respond to inquiries from you pre and post the event;
• keep you informed about the event you registered for and/or future events
• manage our operations for the event, including the fulfillment of any legal requirements;
• collect customer views on our services with a view to developing new and/or improved services;
• obtain website and app usage data to monitor our website and app performance; and
• if applicable, process payment for registration or other event-related services/products e.g., accommodation payments/deposits, additional social event tickets, etc).

In your dealings with us for international education market research and insights:

As part of our commitment to international education, GCEI conducts market research to obtain feedback from customers, potential customers, and other stakeholders.

The information collected in a research context may be used to improve services, develop new products or services, gauge customer satisfaction, understand decision-making behaviors, or test reactions to products, services, or communications.

If you have an existing relationship with GCEI we may contact you via email to invite you to participate in our research. If you are not a customer, you may also be invited to participate in research via social media or similar channels.

We collect personal data from research participants to allow us to provide them an incentive or if they are successful in a prize draw (as per prize draw terms & conditions).

Retention

We do not retain personally identifiable information for the purposes of market research. We may retain contact information we collect for prize draws for up to 6 months, as per prize draw terms and conditions, to allow for a re-draw if required.

 

Other Dealings with GCEI:

Other ways you may deal with GCEI include:

• registering your interest in being engaged as a consultant or employee
• registering with a service offered by GCEI (e.g. the Graduate Recruitment Service); or
• as a representative of an educational institution.

We will provide specific notice at the point your information is collected. Any unsolicited personal information will be securely destroyed.

 

How We Collect Personal Information:

We will only collect personal information by lawful and fair means. Personal information may be collected directly from you or your authorized representative or may be collected from a third party such as a licensee or representative authorized by us to provide services to you. You may supply your personal information to us in person when using our websites, app, and digital tools, or by communicating with us via social networks and other online channels, e.g. through your Facebook or Linkedin identity.

We do not collect personal and sensitive information unless the information is reasonably necessary for our business functions or activities. We will obtain your consent before collecting any sensitive information.

When you deal with us, you will need to identify yourself in order for us to provide our services to you, as such we do not accept the use of pseudonyms.

If you access our websites or app, we may collect additional personal information about you in the form of your IP address and/or domain name. For more details please see our Website Cookie Policy for further information.

 

The way in which we use and disclose personal information:

We will use or disclose your personal information only for the purposes for which it was collected. We will use or disclose your information for another purpose only if you have consented, or if you would reasonably expect us to do so or as required by law.

We may use your personal information for the purposes of our own direct marketing, however, we will ensure you have the ability to opt out of future such communications.

We use Facebook Custom and Lookalike Audiences to deliver advertisements to Facebook users based on email addresses, phone numbers, and visits to our websites and app. We may use the information we collect from you to display advertisements to our target audience of users.

Disclosure to others

We may disclose your personal information to overseas recipients such as education institutions located outside your home country, overseas visa agencies, IELTS test centers, professional bodies, commercial organizations, or regulatory authorities when you have sought our assistance to apply for study at those institutions or where disclosure is required for verification purposes.  As such, the location of these overseas recipients would depend on the specific institutions to which you apply or where such verification is required.

Information disclosed by us to overseas recipients for the purposes of providing services to you may be transferred offshore to the other entities. These recipients are cross-border entities. Where we transfer data to offshore recipients, the data is subject to use restrictions and safeguards against unauthorized access.

For events or conferences, we may disclose, with your consent, some of the information that is collected via the online registration form such as your name or your email address to sponsors for marketing purposes.

Some GCEI IT systems and data are hosted on servers in countries outside your home country or the country of your choice and we may send your information to one of those servers as part of our business.

GCEI may hold or transfer the data we collect in or to the following countries (in addition to your home country):

• Canada
• Australia
• UK
• USA
• UAE
• China
• Cyprus
• Malaysia

This information is stored and accessed only as required to provide our services to you. Where we transfer data to offshore servers, the data is subject to use restrictions and safeguards against unauthorized access.

The information disclosed to overseas recipients consists of any information you have given us to provide the relevant services. By accepting services from us, you consent to us providing your personal information to the relevant overseas recipient as mentioned above. GCEI takes appropriate steps to ensure there are adequate safeguards in place for the transfer of your personal information including standard protection clauses in our contracts and a GCEI Data Transfer agreement.

 

The Steps We Take to protect and keep secure the personal information we hold:

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect the personal information we hold against interference, loss, unauthorized access, use, modification or disclosure, and other misuses.

The steps we take include:

• maintenance of computer technology, people, and process-based security measures for example firewalls, network security configurations, encryption, use of passwords, and other appropriate measures where information is held in electronic form;
• regular updates to security systems and configurations to protect our systems from malicious activity;
• restriction of access to data to only those staff that need access to carry out our business activities;
• training and ensuring that all our employees are required, as a condition of employment, to treat personal information held by us as confidential.

However, you should be aware that if you submit information to us electronically the internet is not a secure environment. We take reasonable steps to provide a secure channel for receiving information but cannot absolutely protect personal information before it reaches us.

Retention

When the personal information that we collect is no longer required, we will destroy, delete it in a secure manner, or ensure that the information is de-identified in accordance with our information destruction and de-identification policy unless we are required by law to retain a copy of the personal information or the information is contained in a Common record.

 

Your Rights:

You have the right to seek access to any of your personal information held by us unless there is a valid reason under the Privacy Act or Data Protection Act for us to withhold the information.

Valid reasons include:

We have reason to suspect that unlawful activity or misconduct of a serious nature has been engaged in and giving access would be likely to prejudice the taking of appropriate action in relation to the matter; or

Giving access would reveal evaluative information generated within us in connection with a commercially sensitive process.

If your personal details change, or you believe the information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete, or out-of-date, please contact us so that we can correct our records.

Right to erasure

At your request, we will remove all the data we have for you that we are not required legally to retain.

Right to restrict processing

You have the right to restrict processing when you have exercised one of the above rights and it may take some time to process that request. For example: when you contact us to update your details you have the right to request restriction until your details are being updated.

Right to withdraw consent

For the processing activities where we have asked you for consent, you have the right to withdraw this consent at any point by unsubscribing from a message from us, or by contacting apply@gcei.info 

Right to object

You can object to the processing of your personal data.

Right to not be subject to automated decisions and profiling

None of our processing activities are purely automated and no decisions are made without human intervention. There are instances where we process data to analyze or predict behavior but we will ask you for explicit consent when this processing will involve your personal data.

Right to data portability

If you have provided us with your personal data with consent or under the contact obligations, you have the right to request the data you have provided to us in a machine-readable format should you decide to move to another data controller.

Making a request

Requests for access or correction to your personal information or other privacy rights described above should be addressed to The GCEI Privacy Officer by emailing apply@gcei.info. All requests will be responded to in writing within a reasonable period of time. As part of this process, we will verify the identity of the individual requesting the information prior to providing access or making any changes. If we cannot fulfill your request, we will respond and provide you with an explanation. 

 

Making A Complaint If you are unhappy about how we have dealt with or are dealing with your personal information:

Glossary

• Cambridgerefers to Cambridge Assessment English 
• GCEI refers to Global Citizen Education Inc. (CCG License 01313) and its related entities in the GCEI, as applicable.
• Personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not, and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.
• Privacy Act means the Privacy Act exists and is applicable in Canada.
• Sensitive information includes information or an opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a professional or trade association or criminal record that is also personal information, or health information about an individual, or biometric information used for the purpose of automated biometric verification or identification, or biometric templates.
• “We”, “us” and “our” refer to members of the GCEI.