Grad Central Station ("Grad Central Station," "we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting the privacy of students, parents, guardians, educators, and visitors to our website. We understand that families entrust us with important personal and educational information, and we take that responsibility seriously.
This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, when we share it, and the choices available to you regarding your personal information.
By accessing our website or using our services, you acknowledge the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
Microsoft Clarity and Site Disclosure
We improve our products and advertising by using Microsoft Clarity to see how you use our website. By using our site, you agree that we and Microsoft can collect and use this data. Our privacy statement below has more details.
Microsoft Clarity is a web analytics service provided by Microsoft Corporation. Clarity uses cookies and similar technologies to help us understand how visitors interact with our website, diagnose technical issues, improve content, and enhance the overall user experience.
Information collected through Microsoft Clarity may include pages visited, links clicked, scrolls, mouse movements, session recordings and replays, heatmaps, session duration, device and browser type, and your IP address (which may be used to derive an approximate location). Microsoft processes this data in accordance with the Microsoft Privacy Statement. To learn more about Clarity's data practices, please review Microsoft Clarity Data Privacy and Security.
Information We Collect
We collect information in several ways.
Information You Provide
When you contact us, schedule a consultation, subscribe to our newsletter, register for an event, download educational resources, or become a client, we may collect information including:
- Name
- Parent or guardian name
- Student name
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Mailing address
- High school
- Graduation year
- Academic interests
- Intended college major or career interests
- College preferences
- Financial aid interests
- Information about extracurricular activities
- Information submitted through questionnaires or forms
- Documents or files voluntarily provided
- Payment information (processed through secure third-party payment providers)
Providing educational information is always voluntary, but certain information may be necessary for us to deliver our services effectively.
Information Collected Automatically
When you visit our website, we may automatically collect information such as:
- IP address
- Browser type
- Operating system
- Device identifiers
- Pages visited
- Time spent on pages
- Referral website
- Search terms
- Clickstream information
- Cookie identifiers
- Advertising identifiers
- Mouse movements, scrolls, and clicks (via Microsoft Clarity)
- Session recordings and replays (via Microsoft Clarity)
- Heatmap and interaction data (via Microsoft Clarity)
This information helps us understand how visitors use our website and improve the user experience.
We use Microsoft Clarity to capture session recordings, heatmaps, and interaction data. This information is collected using cookies and similar technologies and is processed by Microsoft in accordance with its privacy statement.
Information from Third Parties
We may receive information from trusted third-party sources, including:
- Marketing partners
- Analytics providers
- Advertising platforms
- Publicly available sources
- Data enrichment providers
This information may include demographic characteristics, geographic information, estimated interests, household information, and other commercially available data that helps us better understand prospective clients, maintain accurate records, improve communications, and measure marketing effectiveness.
We do not purchase confidential educational records or admissions decisions.
How We Use Your Information
We use information we collect to:
- Respond to inquiries
- Schedule consultations
- Provide educational consulting services
- Develop personalized college planning recommendations
- Deliver newsletters and educational content
- Improve our website and services
- Analyze website performance
- Measure advertising effectiveness
- Personalize communications
- Conduct research and business analytics
- Detect fraud and maintain security
- Comply with legal obligations
- Protect our legal rights
Cookies and Similar Technologies
Our website uses cookies, pixels, tags, and similar technologies to:
- Remember your preferences
- Improve website performance
- Analyze visitor behavior
- Measure marketing effectiveness
- Support advertising campaigns
- Deliver personalized content
- Record and replay user sessions through Microsoft Clarity
- Generate heatmaps and interaction analytics through Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft Clarity uses cookies and other tracking technologies to collect data about how visitors use our website. You may disable cookies through your browser settings; however, doing so may affect certain website functionality.
Advertising and Retargeting
We may use third-party advertising platforms to promote our services and educational resources.
These platforms may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to:
- Measure advertising performance
- Display advertisements based on prior visits to our website
- Create audience segments
- Deliver more relevant advertising
- Develop lookalike or similar audiences
Advertising platforms we may use include Google Ads, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn, and other digital advertising providers.
These companies maintain their own privacy policies governing their use of data.
Data Enrichment
To better serve prospective and current clients, we may combine information collected directly from you with information obtained from trusted third-party data providers.
This process—sometimes referred to as data enrichment or data appending—helps us:
- Maintain accurate records
- Better understand the needs of families
- Improve communications
- Personalize educational resources
- Measure marketing performance
- Improve our services
We do not use appended information to make admissions decisions or recommendations regarding any student's eligibility for admission to colleges or universities.
When We Share Information
We do not sell your personal information in exchange for money.
However, we may share information with trusted service providers that help us operate our business, including providers of:
- Website hosting
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Appointment scheduling
- Email communications
- Payment processing
- Cloud storage
- Analytics
- Advertising
- Customer support
- Technology services
- Microsoft Clarity (session recordings, heatmaps, and interaction analytics)
These providers are authorized to use your information only as necessary to perform services on our behalf.
We may also disclose information when required by law or when necessary to protect our legal rights, investigate fraud, respond to lawful requests, or protect the safety of our clients or others.
Certain disclosures to advertising platforms for cross-context behavioral advertising may constitute "sharing" under applicable California law.
Microsoft Corporation receives information collected through Microsoft Clarity as a service provider. For more information about how Microsoft handles this data, please review Microsoft Clarity Data Privacy and Security.
Your Privacy Choices
Depending on your state of residence, you may have rights regarding your personal information, including the right to:
- Know what personal information we collect
- Request access to your personal information
- Correct inaccurate information
- Request deletion of personal information
- Request a copy of your information
- Opt out of certain targeted advertising activities
- Opt out of the sharing of personal information where applicable
You may also unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link included in our communications.
To exercise your privacy rights, please contact us using the information provided below.
Student Information
Our services are designed to support students and their families throughout the college planning process.
We encourage parents or legal guardians to participate in the collection and sharing of information whenever appropriate.
We collect only the educational information reasonably necessary to provide our consulting services.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children in violation of applicable law.
Data Security
We maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
While no system can guarantee absolute security, we continuously work to protect the information entrusted to us.
Data Retention
We retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary to:
- Provide our services
- Maintain business records
- Comply with legal obligations
- Resolve disputes
- Enforce our agreements
- Improve our services
When information is no longer required, we securely delete or anonymize it where practical.
Third-Party Websites
Our website may contain links to third-party websites.
We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of websites we do not own or control. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party websites you visit.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or business operations.
The updated version will be posted on this page with a revised Effective Date.
Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us: