Privacy Policy

What we collect depends on how you use EC Finder. Browsing the site does not require an account.

Information you provide to us

• Account information: When you create an account we collect your email address and, if you sign up with a password, a securely hashed version of that password. If you sign in with Google, we receive the basic profile information that Google shares with us, such as your name and email address.
• Student profile information: During onboarding and in your profile settings you may provide your name, grade level, graduation year, school name, city or location, gender, academic interests, preferred program types, how much time you want to commit, extracurriculars you have already done, what you are looking for, a short bio, a profile photo, and a LinkedIn link. Most of these fields are optional, and you can edit or remove them at any time.
• Your saved activity data: We store the opportunities you save, favorite, rate, or write private notes about, the status you assign them on your Path board (such as planning, applying, submitted, or accepted), and the deadlines and outcomes you record on your Dashboard.
• Search and AI prompts: When you use Imagine, our natural language search, we receive the description you type or generate from your profile so we can return matching opportunities.
• Feedback and reports: If you submit feedback, report a listing, or contact us for support, we collect what you send us.

Information we collect automatically

• Usage data: We record events such as pages viewed, opportunities opened, filters and searches used, and outbound clicks to a program's own website. This tells us which opportunities are actually useful to students and which parts of the site need work.
• Technical information: Our hosting and analytics providers collect standard technical data such as IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, and referring page.
• Cookies and local storage: We use cookies to keep you signed in, and browser storage to remember preferences such as your view layout and whether an anonymous visitor has used their free search. You can limit cookies through your browser settings, though signing in will not work without them.

Information from connected accounts

If you choose to connect Google Calendar, we store the access and refresh tokens needed to add deadlines and events to your calendar on your behalf. We request only the calendar permissions required for that feature, and you can disconnect at any time from your settings, which removes the stored tokens.

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide the service: Show you opportunities, run your filters and searches, save your favorites and notes, keep your Path board and Dashboard in sync, and add events to your calendar when you ask us to.
• Personalize recommendations: Use your grade level, interests, and preferred program types to surface opportunities that are relevant to you rather than a generic list.
• Send you email you have asked for: Deadline reminders, new opportunity alerts, weekly or monthly digests, and follow ups about programs you are tracking. Every one of these is controlled by a setting you can turn off.
• Improve EC Finder: Understand which features are used and which opportunities students find valuable, so we can fix problems, improve the catalog, and build new features.
• Keep the service safe: Detect and prevent abuse, spam, and unauthorized access, and diagnose technical problems.
• Meet legal obligations: Comply with applicable law and respond to valid legal process.

We do not use your private notes, ratings, or saved activity data for advertising, and we do not sell any of it.

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only in the following situations, and only to the extent needed.

• Service providers: We rely on a small number of vendors to run EC Finder, including Supabase for authentication and database storage, Vercel for hosting, PostHog and Vercel Analytics for product analytics, Resend for sending email, Google for optional sign in and calendar features, and Anthropic for the AI that powers Imagine and our opportunity analysis. These providers process data on our behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.
• Other users, when you choose: If you make your profile public or opt in to connecting with other students, the profile fields you have filled in become visible to other signed in users. See the section on public profiles below.
• Legal reasons: We may disclose information if required by law, to respond to valid legal process, or to protect the rights, safety, and property of students using EC Finder, of EC Finder itself, or of others.
• Business transfers: If EC Finder is ever transferred to another organization, information may transfer as part of that transaction. We would give notice before your information became subject to a different privacy policy.
• With your consent: We share information in other ways when you ask us to or agree to it.

When you click through to a program's own website, that organization is a separate entity with its own privacy practices. We do not control what they collect, and we encourage you to read their policies before applying.

EC Finder is built for high school students, so we expect many of our users to be under 18. That shapes how we handle data.

• We never sell or rent student information, and we do not run behavioral advertising.
• We collect the minimum profile information needed to recommend relevant opportunities, and nearly all of it is optional.
• EC Finder is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If we learn that we have, we will delete the account and its data.
• If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has given us information you would like removed, contact us at ecfindersupport@gmail.com and we will delete it.

Your profile is private by default. If you turn on the public profile or open to connect settings, other signed in EC Finder users can see the profile details you have chosen to fill in, such as your name, grade level, school, city, bio, interests, and past extracurriculars.

Your private notes, ratings, saved opportunities, Path board, and Dashboard tracking are never shown to other users, regardless of your profile visibility. You can switch your profile back to private at any time in your settings, and you should only add details to a public profile that you are comfortable sharing with other students.

We use the security features of our infrastructure providers to protect your data, including encryption in transit over HTTPS, encryption at rest in our database, hashed passwords, and database level access rules that restrict each account to its own rows. No online service can promise perfect security, but we work to keep the amount of data we hold small and well protected.

We keep your account information for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we delete your profile, saved activities, tracking data, notes, and email preferences. Some records may remain for a short period in backups or where retention is required for legal or security reasons. Aggregated or de-identified data that can no longer be linked to you may be kept to understand overall usage.

• Access and correct your information: You can view and edit your profile information at any time from your settings.
• Control email: Every category of email we send has its own toggle in your email settings, and every message includes an unsubscribe link. Turning off marketing style email does not stop essential account messages such as password resets.
• Control profile visibility: You can make your profile private or public, and opt in or out of connecting with other students, from your settings.
• Disconnect Google Calendar: You can disconnect your calendar at any time, which deletes the tokens we stored. You can also revoke access from your Google account security settings.
• Delete your account: You can ask us to delete your account and associated data by emailing ecfindersupport@gmail.com. We will confirm and complete the deletion.
• Manage cookies: Your browser settings let you block or clear cookies, though this will prevent you from staying signed in.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act or the General Data Protection Regulation, including the right to request a copy of your data or to object to certain processing. Contact us at the address below and we will honor those requests.

EC Finder is operated from the United States, and our hosting and database providers store data in the United States. If you use EC Finder from another country, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those where you live. Wherever your information is processed, we apply the protections described in this policy.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, want a copy of your data, or want your account deleted, reach out and a person will read it.

Email: ecfindersupport@gmail.com
Website: www.ecfinder.org

You can also use the feedback form if that is easier.