Steady Student Privacy Notice

1. Who This Privacy Notice Applies To

This Privacy Notice may apply to individuals interacting with Steady Student as:

• Prospective students
• Current students
• Graduates and alumni
• Career Counselors
• School representatives
• Admissions professionals
• Employers and recruiters
• Sponsors
• Community partners
• Transportation participants
• Service providers
• Visitors to the Steady Student website
• Other authorized Platform users

Different features may collect different information depending on the user's role.

2. Information We May Collect

3. Career Counselor Information

When you work with a Steady Student Career Counselor, we may collect information associated with that relationship, including:

• Appointment dates and times
• Appointment status
• Career interests
• Education goals
• Schools you are considering
• Questions or concerns you identify
• Career planning information
• Resource needs
• Counselor notes
• Action items
• School preferences
• Student-selected next steps

This information is used to support your Steady Student experience and help provide relevant career and education navigation.

4. School Exploration Information

Steady Student may collect information about how students interact with school and program discovery tools.

This may include:

• Schools viewed
• Programs viewed
• Schools marked Interested
• Schools marked Maybe
• Schools marked Not Interested
• Search location
• Search radius
• School comparison activity
• Reasons voluntarily provided for a school preference
• Schools added to a student's list

This information may help Steady Student improve recommendations, understand student needs, improve the Platform, and help Career Counselors support students.

5. Admissions Connections

Steady Student intentionally separates career exploration from admissions engagement.

For applicable student pathways, students must first complete a meeting with their assigned Career Counselor before gaining access through Steady Student to participating Admissions Counselors or admissions representatives.

When a student later chooses to connect with a school or admissions professional, Steady Student may share information reasonably necessary to facilitate that requested connection.

Before doing so, the Platform may identify:

• Which school or professional will receive the information;
• What type of information may be shared; and
• The purpose of the connection.

Steady Student does not intend for schools to receive unrestricted access to prospective student information merely because the school appears on the Platform.

6. Information From Schools and Professionals

Schools, employers, admissions professionals, Career Counselors, partners, and other professional users may provide information such as:

• Name
• Job title
• Organization
• Campus or facility
• Business address
• Professional email
• Professional telephone number
• Employment affiliation
• School affiliation
• Business information
• Verification information
• Account permissions
• Professional profile information

We may independently verify certain professional information.

7. Verification Information

To protect students and the integrity of the Platform, Steady Student may verify certain professional accounts.

Verification may involve:

• Business email verification
• School email verification
• Verification codes
• Telephone verification
• School affiliation verification
• Employer affiliation verification
• Business or facility verification
• Identity verification
• Manual review

Verification information is used primarily for security, fraud prevention, Platform integrity, and confirming professional affiliations.

8. Information About Student Support Needs

Students may voluntarily provide information about barriers or resources affecting their education.

For example, a student may indicate a need involving:

• Transportation
• Childcare
• Technology
• Educational supplies
• Financial resources
• Scheduling
• Other student-support needs

We use this information to help identify potentially relevant resources and support options.

Providing information about a barrier does not guarantee that Steady Student, a school, sponsor, or community organization can provide assistance.

9. Transportation Information

If a student uses a Steady Student transportation-related feature, additional information may be necessary.

Depending on the service, this may include:

• Pickup and drop-off information
• School or campus destination
• Ride dates and times
• Scheduling information
• Transportation eligibility
• Ride history
• Driver assignment
• Payment or sponsorship status

Information necessary to complete a ride may be provided to the assigned driver or transportation provider.

Transportation-specific privacy notices or terms may also apply.

10. Student Profiles, Milestones and Updates

Students may have access to features allowing them to document educational and professional progress.

Information may include:

• Program
• School
• Certifications
• Skills
• Workshops
• Clinical or externship milestones
• Graduation milestones
• Professional achievements
• Career preparation activities
• Photos
• Student-created updates

Some information may be designated as private, shared with authorized professionals, or visible through eligible Steady Professional features depending on the student's status and Platform settings.

Students will not automatically become publicly searchable merely because they create a Steady Student account.

11. Employer and Recruiter Access

Steady Student may provide career and recruiting services through Steady Professional.

Employer or recruiter access to student information may depend on:

• Student status
• Graduation status
• Student permissions
• Career readiness
• Platform eligibility
• Privacy settings
• Applicable Steady Student rules

Employers and recruiters do not receive unrestricted access to every Steady Student account.

Prospective students who are merely exploring careers or schools are not automatically placed into employer-facing candidate discovery.

Where Steady Student provides employer-facing candidate discovery, eligible students may have additional privacy controls and communication protections.

12. Sponsors

Sponsors may help fund or provide Steady Student programs, resources, events, transportation, scholarships, student services, or other opportunities.

A sponsorship does not automatically give the sponsor access to individual student contact information.

Steady Student may provide sponsors with aggregated or de-identified information where appropriate, such as:

• Number of students served
• General program participation
• General geographic participation
• Resource utilization
• Program outcomes
• Other program-level reporting

We may share identifiable student information with a sponsor when necessary for a student-requested sponsored service, with appropriate authorization, or where otherwise permitted or required by law.

13. School Analytics and Insights

Steady Student may provide schools or other organizational partners with analytics regarding student interest and Platform activity.

Depending on the service and applicable permissions, this may include aggregated or de-identified information concerning:

• Program interest
• Student search trends
• Geographic demand
• Schedule preferences
• Common student barriers
• School profile engagement
• Student experience feedback
• General enrollment-interest patterns

Access to analytics does not necessarily include access to the identities of individual students.

A school may therefore learn that students in a particular area are interested in a program without automatically learning who those students are.

14. Information Collected Automatically

When you use the Platform, certain technical information may be collected automatically.

This may include:

• IP address
• Browser type
• Device type
• Operating system
• Pages viewed
• Date and time of access
• Referring pages
• Platform interactions
• Approximate geographic information
• Error and diagnostic information
• Security information

We may use this information for Platform operation, security, analytics, fraud prevention, troubleshooting, and improvement.

15. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Steady Student may use cookies and similar technologies for purposes such as:

• Keeping users signed in
• Remembering preferences
• Security
• Fraud prevention
• Understanding Platform performance
• Analytics
• Improving user experience

Where required, users may be provided choices concerning non-essential cookies or similar technologies.

If Steady Student later implements advertising, retargeting, or cross-context behavioral advertising technologies, this Privacy Notice and applicable privacy controls should be updated before those technologies are activated.

16. How We Use Personal Information

We may use personal information to:

• Create and maintain accounts
• Authenticate users
• Assign Career Counselors
• Schedule appointments
• Provide career navigation
• Personalize school discovery
• Support school comparison
• Facilitate student-authorized admissions connections
• Provide student-support resources
• Operate transportation features
• Verify professional users
• Prevent fraud
• Protect Platform security
• Respond to support requests
• Send service communications
• Improve Platform functionality
• Conduct analytics
• Maintain records
• Comply with legal obligations
• Enforce Platform policies
• Protect users and the Steady Student community

17. We Do Not Sell Student Leads Simply Because They Browse

Steady Student is designed differently from traditional lead-generation websites.

A student's decision to explore a school or career does not automatically mean the student's contact information will be distributed to schools.

Steady Student does not treat every student click, search, swipe, or school view as permission for admissions solicitation.

Where Steady Student offers paid services to schools or other organizations, those financial relationships do not override the student's applicable privacy choices.

18. When We May Disclose Personal Information

We may disclose personal information to the extent reasonably necessary to:

• Provide a service requested by the user
• Facilitate an authorized school connection
• Coordinate an appointment
• Provide transportation
• Process payments
• Verify professional users
• Provide technical infrastructure
• Maintain Platform security
• Prevent fraud or abuse
• Comply with legal obligations
• Protect the rights and safety of users or others
• Complete a business transaction as permitted by law

We may also disclose aggregated or de-identified information where it cannot reasonably be used to identify an individual.

19. Service Providers

Steady Student may use vendors and service providers to operate parts of the Platform.

Examples may include providers supporting:

• Website hosting
• Cloud infrastructure
• Databases
• Authentication
• Email
• Text messaging
• Video conferencing
• Analytics
• Cybersecurity
• Customer support
• Payment processing
• Identity or professional verification

Service providers are provided information as reasonably necessary for their functions and are expected to handle information according to applicable contractual and legal requirements.

20. We Do Not Give Professional Users Unrestricted Student Data

Schools, employers, recruiters, sponsors, and other professional users may only access student information made available to them through authorized Platform functions.

Professional users may not use Steady Student information to:

• Create unauthorized marketing lists
• Sell student information
• Scrape student profiles
• Circumvent Platform privacy controls
• Contact students without appropriate authorization
• Enrich unrelated commercial databases
• Discriminate unlawfully
• Use student information for purposes materially unrelated to the reason access was provided

Steady Student may suspend professional accounts for misuse of student information.

21. Communications

We may use your contact information for service-related communications, including:

• Account verification
• Security alerts
• Appointment reminders
• Career Counselor communications
• Connection requests
• Resource updates
• Account notices
• Important Platform announcements

Where required by law, promotional communications will include applicable choices for unsubscribing or changing preferences.

Some transactional or security communications may remain necessary while an account is active.

22. Data Retention

Steady Student retains personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice, including:

• Providing services
• Maintaining accounts
• Protecting Platform security
• Resolving disputes
• Preventing fraud
• Maintaining appropriate business records
• Complying with legal obligations

Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and purpose for which it was collected.

Information may be deleted, anonymized, or de-identified when it is no longer reasonably necessary, subject to applicable legal and operational requirements.

23. Data Security

Steady Student uses administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards intended to protect personal information.

Measures may include, where appropriate:

• Access controls
• Authentication
• Encryption
• Secure infrastructure
• Monitoring
• Backups
• Role-based permissions
• Security testing
• Vendor security controls
• Incident-response procedures

However, no electronic system can guarantee absolute security.

Users should use strong passwords and protect their account credentials.

24. Your Privacy Choices

Depending on the Platform feature and applicable law, users may have choices concerning:

• Profile information
• Communications
• School connections
• Employer visibility
• Marketing communications
• Cookies
• Account information
• Certain sharing permissions

Students may change their minds about certain optional permissions through available Platform controls.

Withdrawal of permission does not necessarily affect processing that occurred before the permission was withdrawn.

25. California Privacy Rights

California residents may have rights concerning their personal information under applicable California privacy laws.

Depending on the law and circumstances, these rights may include the right to:

• Know what personal information is collected
• Request access to personal information
• Request correction of inaccurate personal information
• Request deletion of certain personal information
• Obtain information regarding certain disclosures
• Opt out of certain sales or sharing of personal information where applicable
• Limit certain uses of sensitive personal information where applicable
• Not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising applicable privacy rights

Some information may be exempt from particular requests under applicable law.

Steady Student may need to verify the identity of an individual before completing certain privacy requests.

Authorized agents may submit requests where permitted by law and subject to appropriate verification.

26. Sale and Sharing of Personal Information

Steady Student does not consider a student's ordinary exploration of schools to constitute permission to sell or distribute the student's contact information as a lead.

If Steady Student engages in activities legally considered a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information under applicable California privacy law, Steady Student will provide the notices and opt-out mechanisms required by applicable law.

Steady Student should review advertising, analytics, tracking, and third-party technology integrations as the Platform evolves to determine whether additional California privacy disclosures or opt-out controls are required.

27. Sensitive Personal Information

Certain information students voluntarily provide may be considered sensitive under applicable privacy laws.

Steady Student seeks to collect sensitive information only where reasonably relevant to providing a requested service, operating the Platform, maintaining security, or complying with law.

Sensitive personal information will not be used to infer characteristics about users for unrelated purposes unless permitted by applicable law.

28. Children and Minors

Steady Student is primarily designed for individuals exploring postsecondary education, vocational education, career training, and employment pathways.

Some users may be under 18.

Where parental or guardian consent is required by applicable law, Steady Student may require appropriate consent before collecting or processing certain information or providing certain features.

Steady Student may restrict Platform functionality for minors to protect privacy and safety.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children in violation of applicable law.

29. Third-Party Websites

Steady Student may link to websites operated by schools, employers, accrediting organizations, government agencies, sponsors, community organizations, or other third parties.

Once you leave Steady Student and interact directly with another organization's website or service, that organization's privacy practices may apply.

Steady Student is not responsible for the privacy practices of independent third-party websites.

30. Business Transfers

If Steady Student is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, restructuring, sale of assets, or similar business transaction, personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction where permitted by law.

Any successor receiving personal information would remain subject to applicable privacy obligations.

31. Legal and Safety Disclosures

Steady Student may preserve or disclose information when reasonably necessary to:

• Comply with applicable law
• Respond to valid legal process
• Protect users
• Investigate fraud
• Address security incidents
• Enforce Platform policies
• Protect the rights or safety of Steady Student or others

We will seek to limit such disclosures to information reasonably necessary under the circumstances.

32. Changes to This Privacy Notice

Steady Student may update this Privacy Notice as the Platform, technology, services, or legal requirements change.

When updated, the “Last Updated” date will be revised.

If changes materially affect how personal information is handled, Steady Student may provide additional notice or request additional consent when appropriate or legally required.

33. Contact Us About Privacy

Questions, concerns, or privacy requests may be submitted through the official Steady Student privacy or support contact provided on the Platform.