Legal

Privacy Policy

We strive by all available means to ensure the security and transparency of the use of StudyInFocus, a service for preparing for admission to German universities (hereinafter the "Service" or "StudyInFocus"). The Owner of the Service hereby informs users of what information about the user may be available to the Service and of how the information received by the Service is used.

Collection and storage of information

All types of data are collected and processed for the purpose of providing the user with high-quality services in accordance with the Terms of Use of the Service. Information is stored on secure servers. StudyInFocus takes appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data, including access control, firewalls, encryption, HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for data transmission. StudyInFocus does not aim to collect information intended to identify (determine) specific natural persons who are users of the Service; however, in the course of use of the Service, and as a result of users performing actions to use its functionality, certain information about users becomes available to StudyInFocus. The list of such information and the purposes of its use are set out below.

Information provided directly by users

StudyInFocus gives users the opportunity to subscribe to the website's mailing list. The email address provided by the user is used by the website for the purposes of informing the user about news of the Service, new articles and the Service's products. The user may unsubscribe from the mailing list at any time by using the corresponding link contained in every email sent to the user under the subscription.

By means of its software, StudyInFocus gives users the opportunity to register an account for personal use of the Service by logging in to the StudyInFocus.ru website using social network accounts (VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter, Odnoklassniki). In this case, the Service may receive information about the user's name as specified in the profile. This information may be used by the Service for the following purposes:

enabling "single sign-on" authorisation of the user on the StudyInFocus websites and other websites belonging to the Owner of the Service, including StudyInFocus.ru and StudyInFocus.com, as well as websites that sell services for obtaining education in Germany, in order to provide StudyInFocus users with special offers from the Service's partners,
retargeting, i.e. displaying StudyInFocus advertisements to the user on other websites,
enabling the user to personally manage the available functionality of the website (selecting and saving the set of Service functions of interest to the user).

By means of the Service's software, the user may be given the opportunity to fill in the data required to purchase services for admission to educational institutions directly on the StudyInFocus website or in the mobile application, including entering a bank card number, the applicant's name, telephone number and email address, and to send this data to a third party that provides educational services for the purpose of placing an order. In this case, the transfer of the user's data to third parties is authorised and carried out directly by the user over a secure connection. In this case, StudyInFocus does not receive bank card data, but may receive information about the fact of the order and the name, telephone number and email address specified by the user. The information received by the Service in this way may be used by the Service for the following purposes:

improving the quality of the Service,
providing support to the user in the event of disputes with a partner of the Service, and enabling the Service's staff to contact the user on matters related to the order.

Automatically collected information

StudyInFocus automatically stores the information sent by the user's browser when the user visits the website. This information includes the page request, IP address, browser type and language, and the date and time of the page request. When the Service is accessed from a mobile device, StudyInFocus may collect data identifying the mobile device, its specific settings and characteristics. The information collected in this way is used to analyse and maintain the high-quality technical operation of StudyInFocus.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are usually stored on the user's computer until the end of the session, i.e. until the user finishes working in the browser, but in some cases also beyond it.

When a user visits StudyInFocus, the website sends one or more cookies to the user's computer or other device.

Cookies are used:

to simplify the use of the website and improve the quality of the services provided, for example to save the user's settings, to automatically fill in tracked temporary accommodation locations, and search data;
to record the fact that orders have been placed with StudyInFocus partner companies (educational institutions, educational services agencies, etc.). After the user selects a partner product of interest and clicks the "Order" button, the website redirects the user to the website of a StudyInFocus.ru partner, where the order for the educational or consulting service is placed. StudyInFocus.ru does not receive the personal data of a user who has concluded a transaction with a partner of the website — our Service receives only statistical data on the total number of orders placed and their value, which are used to determine the remuneration due to StudyInFocus.ru;
for analysis for advertising purposes.

Use of cookies and other tools for advertising purposes

The StudyInFocus website uses third-party services to track traffic statistics, obtain information on advertising campaign conversions, and for other purposes. Through these services and tools, StudyInFocus does not collect data about specific users, but uses only general statistical data on the traffic and effectiveness of the website and on the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Below is a list of the additional third-party services used on StudyInFocus, together with links to the privacy policies of these services.

Google Analytics and AdWords, the web analytics service of Google Inc. ("Google")

Google Analytics is a free web analytics service from Google that allows website owners to learn how users interact with their pages. Information is collected in it anonymously. Google Analytics uses its own cookies to track visitors' actions on the website. They make it possible to learn whether a user has visited the web resource before, from where the user came to its pages and how much time the user spent there.

StudyInFocus.ru uses the Google Analytics remarketing feature. Remarketing in Google Analytics makes it possible to bring back users who have previously visited the website by means of advertisements specially intended for them on other websites. A third-party DoubleClick cookie is used for remarketing. It enables remarketing in the Display Network in products such as AdWords. For example, after visiting StudyInFocus, a user decided to visit a blog about education in Germany that participates in AdWords. Using Google Analytics remarketing, the user will be shown advertisements offering to use StudyInFocus.

The user can disable the use of cookies by Google by visiting the cookie opt-out page.

To change or disable the use of Google Analytics, the user may also use:

A description of Google's advertising services and documentation on their use is available at https://www.google.ru/intl/ru/services/; Google's privacy policy is published at this link.

All of the tools listed above, including Google's tools, can be blocked by installing third-party browser plug-ins (extensions).

Personal information

Your personal information, including your email address and name, may not be transferred to third parties, affiliated companies or marketing contractors. With your consent, this information may be used only by our company for marketing purposes. The exceptions to this rule are cases of:

lawful requests from public authorities,
the user independently authorising and transferring to third parties the data required to order a service or to perform an ordered service.

In the latter case, StudyInFocus is not responsible for ensuring the confidentiality of user data by third-party internet services. The user is obliged to independently review and accept the privacy provisions (privacy policies) of any and all third-party websites to which the user navigates via StudyInFocus links.

Changes to the privacy policy

The privacy policy may change. All changes made to this document will be published on this page.

If the user has any further questions or doubts regarding the privacy policy, the user may send a corresponding request to the Owner of the Service by email: [email protected]