Privacy Policy

Information we collect

We collect the information you provide as you build your application, and a small amount of technical data needed to run the service:

• Account data — your email address and a securely hashed password.
• Application data — the fifteen sections of the wizard: personal and contact details, emergency contact, academic history, test scores, activities, essays, and recommender information.
• Sensitive information — guardian and sponsor financial details, citizenship, passport, visa and immigration history, and identity documents (passport, residence card, application photo). We collect these only after you give explicit consent inside the application.
• Uploaded documents — the files you place in your document vault (transcripts, diplomas, certificates, and the sensitive documents above).
• Technical data — session cookies for signing in and basic request logs used to keep the service secure and reliable.

Your consent for sensitive information

Some sections of the application ask for sensitive categories of personal data — sponsor finances, immigration and visa history, and identity documents. We do not collect or store any of this until you grant explicit consent through the consent step shown before those sections. If you do not consent, those sections stay closed and the related documents cannot be uploaded. You may decline at any time by not completing them; withdrawing consent for data already submitted is handled by contacting us or deactivating your account.

How we use your information

We use your information solely to operate the platform and deliver MAEDA’s consulting service: to build your profile, let MAEDA’s staff reviewers check and improve your application, assemble the document package a school requires, and submit applications on your behalf. We do not sell your personal information or use it for advertising.

Who we share it with

• Schools in Japan — the application package you approve is sent to the institutions MAEDA proposes and you accept, for the purpose of your admission.
• MAEDA staff — assigned reviewers and consultants who prepare your application.
• Infrastructure providers — we host the platform on Cloudflare, which stores data and files in the Asia-Pacific region on our behalf.

We do not share your information with any other third party except where required by law.

Storage and retention

Your data and documents are stored on Cloudflare’s infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region. We keep your information for as long as your account is active. If you deactivate your account, access ends immediately and your data is retained for 30 days before deletion, after which it is removed from our active systems.

Your rights

You can view and correct most of your information at any time by editing your application. You can request a copy of your data, request corrections, or delete your account from Settings → Privacy & data, or by emailing us. Deleting your account starts the 30-day deletion process described above.

Security

We protect your information with encrypted connections, hashed passwords, session-based access controls, and download links that are never public. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep your information safe and to limit access to the MAEDA staff who need it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the platform evolves. When we make a material change we will update the date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.