Privacy Policy

Xcel360 ("we", "us", "our") is an education and opportunity platform that helps students and early-career professionals discover scholarships, jobs, internships, mentorship programmes, events, and learning resources. When you create an account or interact with our services, we act as the data controller for the personal information you provide.

This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and the rights you have over your information.

2.1 Information you give us

• Account data: your name, email address, password (stored only as a secure hash), and profile photo if you sign in with Google.
• Profile data: your study level, course of study, degree or qualification, school/university, department, target countries, fields of interest, short bio, and optionally your WhatsApp number.
• Activity data: opportunities you save, applications you track, and notification preferences.
• Event registrations: your name, email, phone number, and answers to event-specific questions when you register for our events.
• Communications: messages you send through our contact form and your email subscription preferences.

2.2 Information collected automatically

• Usage and security logs: sign-in events, administrative actions, IP address, and browser user-agent, kept to secure the platform and prevent abuse.
• Cookies: strictly necessary session cookies used to keep you signed in, plus advertising cookies and similar technologies set by Google AdSense and its partners (see section 6).
• Device and ad data: when ads are shown, Google may collect your IP address, browser and device type, approximate location, the pages you visit on our site, and how you interact with ads.

• To create and secure your account and authenticate you when you sign in.
• Personalised matching: to match scholarships, jobs, and internships to your study level, course of study, target countries, and fields of interest, and to show you a match score on your dashboard.
• Notifications and email alerts: to send you deadline reminders, new opportunity alerts that match your profile, weekly digests, and event-related emails - only where you have enabled these preferences.
• To administer events, issue and verify certificates, and manage mentorship programmes.
• To respond to your enquiries and provide support.
• To keep the platform secure, prevent fraud, and enforce our terms of service.
• To analyse aggregate, de-identified usage trends so we can improve the platform.
• Advertising: to display ads through Google AdSense, which helps keep Xcel360 free for students. We never share your profile, saved opportunities, or application data with advertisers.

We process your personal data on the following bases:

• Contract: processing needed to provide the account and services you signed up for.
• Consent: optional marketing emails, non-essential communications, and - for visitors in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland - advertising cookies and personalised ads. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interests: platform security, fraud prevention, and service improvement, balanced against your rights.

Where applicable, we handle your data in line with the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA), the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and similar privacy laws.

We never sell your personal data. We share it only with:

• Service providers who help us operate the platform - hosting, database, email delivery, and file storage providers - each bound by contractual data-protection obligations.
• Event and certificate verification: the name and certificate details shown on our public certificate-verification page, so third parties can confirm a certificate we issued is genuine.
• Advertising partners: Google and its certified ad partners receive the device and cookie data described in section 2.2 when they serve ads on our pages. See section 6 for details and how to opt out.
• Legal authorities where required by law, court order, or to protect the rights and safety of our users.

Cookies are small text files stored on your device. We use as few as possible, and we rely on advertising to keep Xcel360 free.

6.1 Types of cookies we use

• Strictly necessary: session and security cookies that keep you signed in and protect forms from abuse. The site cannot work without them, so they do not require consent.
• Advertising: cookies and similar identifiers set by Google and its partners to show ads, limit how often you see the same ad, measure ad performance, and detect ad fraud.

6.2 Google AdSense

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to Xcel360 and/or other sites on the Internet.
• Other certified ad vendors and networks may also serve ads on our site. You can see the list of Google's ad technology providers in the Google ad tech providers list.
• Data collected by Google is processed under Google's Privacy Policy and may be transferred to and processed in the United States and other countries. Learn more at How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

6.3 Your consent and choices

• EEA, UK, and Switzerland: we ask for your consent through a Google-certified consent message before advertising cookies are used. If you decline, you may still see non-personalised ads, which use only limited data such as your approximate location and the page you are viewing.
• Personalised ads: you can turn off personalised advertising at any time in Google Ads Settings, or opt out of third-party vendors' use of cookies at aboutads.info and (in Europe) youronlinechoices.eu.
• Browser controls: you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking strictly necessary cookies will stop you signing in.
• US state privacy laws: we do not sell personal data for money. Where ad cookies count as "sharing" for targeted advertising under laws such as the CCPA/CPRA, you can opt out using the Google Ads Settings link above or a browser signal such as Global Privacy Control.

We keep your personal data only for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide our services. Security and activity logs are retained for a limited period for audit purposes. When you delete your account, your personal data is removed or anonymised, except where we must retain limited records for legal or fraud-prevention reasons.

We protect your data with encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS), hashed passwords, role-based access control, rate limiting, and security headers. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we work continuously to keep your information safe.

You have the right to:

• Access and update your data at any time from your dashboard profile page.
• Withdraw consent to emails - every email includes an unsubscribe link, and you can toggle notifications in your profile settings.
• Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Request deletion of your account and personal data, subject to legal retention requirements.
• Opt out of personalised ads at any time - see section 6.3.
• Object to or restrict certain processing, and to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@thexcel360.com.

Our services are intended for users aged 16 and above. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us and we will delete it promptly. Our ads are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly allow personalised advertising to be shown to users under 16.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email or through a notice on the platform and update the "last updated" date above. Continued use of the platform after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Questions, concerns, or requests about your privacy? Reach our team at hello@thexcel360.com or through our contact page.