Privacy Policy

BrokeScholar.com (“Company” or “we”, “us” or similar terms) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through our compliance with this Privacy Policy.

How This Privacy Policy Applies

This Privacy Policy describes the types of information we may collect from you, or that you may provide, in connection with your access to or use of (i) our website www.BrokeScholar.com or any other websites operated by us or our affiliates that link to or otherwise reference that they are subject to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Site”), (ii) our BrokeScholar.com-branded software applications (including mobile applications) that link to or otherwise reference that they are subject to this Privacy Policy (“Applications”) and (iii) any features, functionality, information or services (including content and material) made available by or on behalf of us through the Site, the Applications or any of our applications that may be incorporated on third party websites or services (clauses (i), (ii) and (iii), collectively, the “BrokeScholar.com Services”), and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting and disclosing that information. Without limiting the foregoing, this Privacy Policy applies to information we collect through e-mail, text and other electronic communications between you and the BrokeScholar.com Services and when you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services.

The BrokeScholar.com Services may include links to third party websites and/or services. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by or through any such third party websites or services, and the collection and use of your information by such third party websites and services are governed by the privacy policies, if any, of such third parties.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use the BrokeScholar.com Services. By accessing or using the BrokeScholar.com Services, you agree to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time (see Section 10 (Changes to our Privacy Policy)).

Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

We collect several types of information from and about users of the BrokeScholar.com Services, including information:

  • by which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number or any other information that is defined as personal or personally identifiable information under applicable law (“personal information”);
  • that is about you but individually does not identify you, such as your merchant, brand and coupon preferences, and your interactions with the BrokeScholar.com Services and our merchants; and/or
  • about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Site and the BrokeScholar.com Services and usage details.

We collect this information:

Directly from you when you provide it to us.

  • Automatically as you interact with or otherwise use the BrokeScholar.com Services (including usage details, IP addresses and information collected through cookies and other tracking technologies), such as when you:
  • Search for merchants, brands or coupons;
  • View, display, click, print or download a coupon;
  • Submit or redeem a coupon to a merchant; or
  • Interact with advertisements contained in the BrokeScholar.com Services.
  • From third parties, for example, (i) merchants and third party affiliate network operators with respect to the submission or redemption of coupons, (ii) referral sources to our Site, (iii) our service providers that furnish us with analytical information on users of the BrokeScholar.com Services and (iii) social networking sites or services (such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and other social media providers) through which you may interact with the BrokeScholar.com Services.

Information You Choose to Provide.

Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Site. This includes account and profile information you provide when registering for (or updating) an account to use any BrokeScholar.com Services, downloading/subscribing for an Application, posting material or requesting further services. We also may ask you for information when you enter a contest or promotion sponsored by us, and when you report a problem with the BrokeScholar.com Services.

Records and copies of your email, text and electronic communications, if you contact us. Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.

Information Automatically Collected Through Technology.

When you use or interact with the Services, we collect certain information by automated means, using various tracking technologies, about how the Services are used. Information gathered may include your Internet service provider, browser type, operating system, the date and time of visits, pages viewed and time spent on our sites. In addition, information collection may include Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or other device (computer, mobile device, tablet or other device) identifiers in connection with your interaction with the Services. To the extent we combine this information with Personal Information, the combined information shall be treated as Personal Information. For more information on the technologies used to automatically collect information, please see Cookies and Other Technologies below.

Social Media Services.

When you choose to register an account with BrokeScholar through a third party social media or social networking service or platform (including, but not limited to, Facebook and collectively, “Social Media Service”), we will use the information you have provided to the Social Media Service (such as your name, email address, gender and other information you make publicly available via the Social Media Service) to create your account. The information accessible to us through your Social Media Service is managed by you using the privacy settings of the Social Media Service. Other than what we may share with the Social Media Service as described below, the Personal Information a Social Media Service has about you is obtained by the Social Media Service independent of the Services, and BrokeScholar has no responsibility for it. By registering an account with BrokeScholar through a Social Media Service, you grant us permission to access all of the elements of your social media profile information that you have made available to be shared and to use it in accordance with the terms of use of the Social Media Service and this Privacy Policy.

We may also permit additional interactions between the Services and a third party website, service or other content provider, such as enabling you to “like” or share content to a third party Social Media Service. If you choose to “like” or share content, or to otherwise share information from or via the Services with a third party website or service, that information may be publicly displayed, and the third party may have access to information about you and your use of the Services (and we may have access to information about you from that third party). If you post information on a Social Media Service that refers to the Services (such as by using a Twitter hashtag associated with the Services), we may publish your post in accordance with the privacy policy of the Social Media Service. In addition, we may receive information about you if other users of a third party website give us access to their profiles and you are one of their “connections” or information about you is otherwise accessible through your “connections” web page, profile page or similar page on a Social Media Service platform or other third party website or interactive service.

Please note that your relationship with any Social Media Service is governed solely by your agreements with such Social Media Service. The information we collect in connection with Social Media Services is subject to this Privacy Policy. The information collected and stored by the third party remains subject to the third party’s privacy practices, including whether the third party continues to share information with us, the types of information shared and your choices with regard to what is visible to others on that third party website or service. If your Social Media Service account terminates, then functions enabled through the link between your BrokeScholar account and your Social Networking Service account may also terminate.

Third Party Information.

From time to time, we may receive information about you from third parties. For example, we may supplement the information we collect with outside records from third parties for various purposes, such as to provide you with information or services or to enhance our ability to serve you or tailor our content to you. We may combine the information we receive from those other sources with information we collect through the Services. To the extent we combine such third party sourced information with Personal Information we have collected about you on the Services, we will apply this Privacy Policy to the combined information. Third parties may also provide information about you in connection with Social Media Services, as described above. We are not responsible for the accuracy of any information provided by third parties or third party policies or practices.

How Do We Use The Information We Collect?

BrokeScholar may use information collected through the Services, including your Personal Information, as follows.

  • To manage and improve the Services and for other internal business purposes;
  • To enable you to use the Services, to process your registration and subscriptions, and to provide related user support;
  • To prevent and address fraud, breach of policies or terms, and threats or harm;
  • To help determine the types of content or services that may be of most interest to users;
  • To provide you with coupon and offer content and services that you have requested or that we believe will interest you;
  • To help track use of the Services and perform other analytics;
  • To respond to your questions, complaints or comments;
  • To improve the Services or other BrokeScholar.com websites, applications, marketing efforts, products, and services;
  • To contact you with regard to your use of the Services and with administrative messages, including, in our discretion, changes to policies governing the Services;
  • To communicate with you and provide additional information that may be of interest to you regarding BrokeScholar and our merchant partners, including special offers, coupons and marketing materials (for information on how to manage communications, please see “Changing Your Information and Preferences” below);
  • To tailor content, recommendations, and offers we display to you, based on factors such as your preferred merchants;
  • For purposes as disclosed at the time you provide your information, with your consent, and as further described in this Privacy Policy.

Cookies & Tracking Technologies

The technology used to collect information from BrokeScholar visitors by automated means may include the following:

Cookies (or browser cookies):

Like many websites, we use “cookies” to collect information. A cookie is a small data file placed on your computer or mobile device for record-keeping purposes. We may use both persistent cookies, which remain on your computer, and session ID cookies, which expire at the end of your browser session. Persistent cookies may be used to remember your device for future logins to the Services. Session cookies may be used to enable certain features of the Services, to better understand how users interact with the Services and to monitor web traffic routing from and aggregate usage of the Services. You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. If you disable or do not accept cookies, however, please note that some or all parts of the Services may not function properly and that you may not be able to use all functionality of the Services.

Flash Cookies:

Certain features of our websites and the Services may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Website. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies. For information about how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe's website. If you disable or do not accept cookies, however, please note that some or all parts of the Services may not function properly and that you may not be able to use all functionality of the Services.

Log Data:

When you interact with the Services our web servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website (“Log Data”). This Log Data may include information such as your device’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type, browser software version, the web page you were visiting before you came to our Services, pages from our websites and Services that you visit, the time spent on those pages, clicks, information you search for when using our Services, access times and dates, redemption information and other statistics.

Web Beacons:

We also may employ software technology known as “web beacons” or “tracking tags” to help us keep track of what content from the Services is effective and to serve relevant advertising to you. Web beacons are small graphics with a unique identifier that may be invisible to you and that are used to track the online activity of Internet users. Web beacons may be embedded in the web pages you view or email messages you receive. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count visitors or users of our Services, to monitor how users navigate or interact with the Services, to count how many emails were sent and opened, or to count how many specific items or links were viewed.

Third Party Analyitics Providers & Ad Services

We work with vendors (including network advertisers, advertising companies and analytics companies) to provide us with information regarding traffic on the Services, to serve advertisements, including our advertisements elsewhere online, and to provide us with information regarding the use of the Services and the effectiveness of our advertisements.

In connection with providing analytics and advertisement services, third parties may collect certain information about your interactions with the Services or other websites and online content. These third parties may set and access their own technologies (including cookies and web beacons) and may otherwise collect or have access to information about you. These technologies may be used to, among other things, target advertisements, prevent you from seeing the same advertisements too many times and to conduct research regarding the usefulness of certain advertisements to you.

You may exercise choices regarding the use of cookies from Google Analytics by going to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout or downloading the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Sharing Information With Third Parties

We may share non-Personal Information, such as aggregated user statistics, that does not identify you or has been de-identified, with third parties or affiliates for any purpose in our discretion. We do not share your Personal Information with any third parties or affiliates for those third parties' or affiliates’ own direct marketing purposes unless we first provide you with the opportunity to opt-in to such sharing. We also may share the information (including Personal Information) we have collected about you with your consent and as disclosed at the time you provide your information, as described in or consistent with this Privacy Policy, and in the following circumstances.

Service Providers.

We may employ third party companies and individuals to perform certain services on behalf of or relating to the business or administration of the Services, such as website hosting, providing website usage analytics, sending email or other communications, providing marketing assistance and data analysis, providing consumer affairs services or performing other business or administrative services. These third parties may have access to your Personal Information solely as necessary to carry out the services they are performing for you or for us.

Administrative and Legal Purposes.

BrokeScholar cooperates with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas), at the request of governmental authorities conducting an investigation, to protect the property and rights of BrokeScholar or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, illegal, unethical or legally actionable activity.

With Other Third Parties at Your Request.

You may be presented with opportunities to receive information or marketing offers from one or more third parties about their own products or services. If you agree at that time to have your Personal Information shared (by opting-in), your Personal Information will be disclosed to that third party for its own direct marketing purposes and will be subject to the privacy policy and practices of that third party. For more information, see “California Residents - Your Privacy Rights” below.

You also may request, such as through your use of a Social Media Service, that we share information about you with others, and we will typically do so under those circumstances. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of third parties, and, if you later decide that you no longer want to receive communications from a third party, you will need to contact that third party directly.

Business Transfers.

BrokeScholar may transfer or otherwise share some or all of its assets, including your Personal Information, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets (including as part of the due-diligence process with any potential acquiring entity) or in the event of bankruptcy, subject to this Privacy Policy.

Sweepstakes, Contests and Promotions.

We may offer sweepstakes, contests and other promotions (each a "Promotion") that may require registration. By participating in a Promotion, you are agreeing to the official rules that govern that Promotion, which may contain specific requirements of you, including, except where prohibited by law, allowing the sponsor or sponsors of the Promotion to use your name, voice, likeness or other indicia of persona in advertising or marketing associated with the Promotion. If you choose to enter a Promotion, in accordance with the official rules that govern that Promotion, your Personal Information may be disclosed to third parties or the public in connection with the administration of the Promotion, including, without limitation, in connection with winner selection, prize fulfillment or as required by law or permitted by the Promotion's official rules, such as on a winner’s list.

Changing Your Information & Preferences

If at any time you do not wish to receive marketing email messages from us please click the unsubscribe link provided within the email message or send us an email at [email protected]. Please note that certain communications relating to your account or use of the Services (for example, administrative and service announcements) may be unaffected if you opt-out of receiving marketing messages from the Services.

You can access, update and delete your contact information by emailing [email protected] and requesting this. If you have other requests or questions, would like to access or request a correction to any other of your personal information, please contact us at the addresses set out in “Contact Us” below.

Protection of Your Personal Information

BrokeScholar uses reasonable efforts and generally accepted industry standards to help secure the information we collect from and about you from loss, theft, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. However, no method of information communication or storage is one hundred percent secure. Thus, BrokeScholar cannot ensure and does not warrant the security of any information shared with us. You use the Services and provide us with your information at your own risk.

Pulic Information

Certain areas of the Services, such as store or user reviews, are designed to help you share information with the world. If you make information public through our Services, other users will have access to it and it will not be treated as Personal Information under this Privacy Policy. Please think carefully before making information public. You are solely responsible for information you make public.

Links to Other Websites & Services

External or third party websites and services that are accessible through links from our Services are not controlled by us and may have different privacy practices from ours. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those websites and services, and our Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by those websites and services. We recommend that you check the privacy policies provided by these other websites or services or their proprietors prior to using their services or providing them with information.

Changes to Privacy Policy

We may update the Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy and we may, in our discretion, contact you through the Services or via any contact information on file. You are advised to consult this policy regularly for any changes. However, we will not make material changes to how we use your previously collected Personal Information without providing you email notice and an opportunity to express choice.

Children's Privacy

The Services are intended for users eighteen (18) years of age or older and is designed for use by adults. By using the Services, you acknowledge that you are at least eighteen (18) years old. Note that the Services are not directed at or intended for use by children under thirteen (13) and that BrokeScholar does not knowingly collect information from children. If we discover that we have inadvertently collected information from anyone younger than the age of thirteen (13), we will delete that information as required by the U.S. Children’s Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”).

Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, please contact us at [email protected].

California Residents

California law permits customers who are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of Personal Information to third parties and affiliates for their direct marketing purposes. Alternatively, the law provides that a company may comply, as BrokeScholar does, by disclosing in its privacy policy that it provides consumers choice (to opt-out) regarding sharing Personal Information with third parties and affiliates for those third parties’ and affiliates’ own direct marketing purposes, and information on how to exercise that choice. As stated above in this Privacy Policy, BrokeScholar provides you choice prior to sharing your Personal Information with third parties or affiliates for their own direct marketing purposes. If you do not opt-in at the time BrokeScholar offers that choice, BrokeScholar does not share your Personal Information with that identified third party or affiliate for its own direct marketing purposes.

If you are a California resident and you have questions about our practices with respect to sharing information with third parties and affiliates for their own direct marketing purposes and your ability to exercise choice, please send your request in writing by email to [email protected].