How to read a scholarship platform's privacy policy in ten minutes

A scholarship profile holds more than most accounts: your school, grades, family background, sometimes ethnicity and citizenship. Many platforms are free because colleges, marketers and advertisers pay to reach students. The privacy policy is where the platform must say what happens to your details.

• Sell: does the policy say it may sell personal information, and to whom?
• Share: who receives your data without a sale, such as colleges, partners or advertisers?
• Sensitive: does it mention sensitive personal information, such as ethnicity, citizenship or health?
• Opt out: how do you say no, and is there a "Do not sell or share" link?

Use your browser's find function. It takes minutes.

Quoted from their own policies and pages, read on 15 October 2026:

• ScholarshipOwl says "we may sell Identifiers generally" and may also sell certain sensitive personal information, like ethnicity and citizenship, to third parties. It links a "Do not sell or share my personal information" page.
• Bold.org says it may sell to or share your information with scholarship providers and academic institutions, and takes part in partner advertising programs.
• Fastweb says free services are offered based on users' willingness to be contacted by colleges or marketing partners, and that information may be sold to colleges.
• Scholarships.com says it may sell or share personal information, including for marketing and advertising, and links a do-not-sell page.
• Niche lists identifiers sold or shared with advertising partners.
• Appily says colleges can use your profile to share admission offers, and describes how to opt out of data sharing with colleges.

Each profile page on this site quotes the policy in full sentences with a link.

• Use the do-not-sell or privacy choices link before or right after you sign up.
• Leave optional sensitive fields blank unless a scholarship you want needs them.
• Use a separate email address for scholarship platforms.
• If privacy matters most to you, start with your school and local sources, which need no platform account. The match quiz does this when you answer that you do not want your data sold or shared.

Not always. College outreach is what some students want, and Niche's Direct Admissions and Appily's admission offers depend on it. The point is to choose it knowingly.

Before you create the account, not after. Policies change, so note the date at the top; the profiles on this site show the date of each policy we read.

Look for a summary table or a section for California residents; many policies list categories of data and who receives them there. If it is still unclear, ask the platform through its contact page before you sign up.