Our Privacy Policy

Translated from the French version of our Privacy Policy.
In the event of a disagreement, the parties will refer to the Privacy Policy written in French, and available here.

1 – Definition and Nature of Personal Data

During your use of the website accessible at the address www.studyinfrance.org (hereinafter the “Platform”), which allows international students, teachers, doctoral students, and researchers to prepare for their stay in France and complete various administrative procedures with the partners of the Platform (hereinafter the “Partners”), we may ask you to provide us with personal data about yourself, referring to all data that allows the direct or indirect identification of an individual.

In this context, we collect the following data:

1.1 – Information you provide

For the proper execution of the services we offer through the Platform, we collect the following data:

• Information allowing your identification when opening your account or making a payment: name, first name, email address, postal address, nationality, date of birth.
• Information necessary to verify your identity: copy of your identity card, passport.
• Information related to payment: credit card numbers, BIC and IBAN numbers in the case of SEPA direct debits.
• Information enabling the completion of administrative procedures: proof of identity, proof of address, school certificate, lease agreement.
• Any information you choose to provide us, including a profile photograph.

1.2 – Information we automatically collect during your use of the Platform

During your use of the Platform and for the proper execution of the services, we may also automatically collect personal data about you through the tools and services offered on the Platform.

We may collect the following data:

• Geolocation information: during your use of certain Platform features, we may collect information about your location, especially through your IP address or your mobile device’s GPS. Most mobile devices allow you to control and disable geolocation functions from your device’s “settings” menu.
• Information about the use of the Platform’s tools and features: we collect information about your interactions with the Platform, including the pages or content viewed on the Platform and the links you have clicked on.
• Connection information and information about the equipment and devices you use to connect to the Platform: we collect device connection data when you access and use the Platform, even if you have not opened an account on our Platform. This includes your IP address, connection dates and times, data about the hardware and software used, unique identifiers, crash data, pages viewed or displayed before or after connecting to the Platform.
• Information about payment transactions: date and time of payment, payment method used, payment method expiration date, payment amount.

2 – Purpose of this Charter

The purpose of this charter is to inform you about the means we implement to collect and process your personal data, while respecting your rights. We inform you that we comply, in the collection and management of your personal data, with the French law n° 78-17 of January 6, 1978, relating to data protection, and the General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter “GDPR”).

3 – Identity of the Data Controller

The data controller responsible for the collection and processing of your personal data is StudyinFrance, a simplified joint-stock company registered with the Trade and Companies Registry of Rennes under number 917 935 520, with its registered office located at 90 Bis rue de Fougères, 35700 Rennes (referred to herein as “We”).

4 – Collection and processing of Personal Data

Your personal data is collected and processed to fulfill one or more of the following purposes:

• Manage your access to the Platform and the services accessible on the Platform and their use, as well as respond to any requests regarding your use of the services.
• Perform operations related to the management and monitoring of our relationships with users when using our services.
• Create a file of registered members and users.
• Send newsletters or informational messages about our news and/or any changes to our services. In the event that you do not wish to receive them, we provide you with the option to express your refusal at the time of data collection.
• Send advertisements, including targeted advertisements. In the event that you do not wish to receive them, we provide you with the option to express your refusal at the time of data collection.
• Develop usage and attendance statistics for our services.
• Optimize the operation and efficiency of the products and services we offer.
• Manage the handling of reviews by individuals about products, services, or content.
• Comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, particularly regarding the fight against bank fraud. In this regard, we have an obligation to verify or authenticate the information collected during payment transactions.

We inform you, when collecting your personal data, whether certain data must be provided or if it is optional. We also indicate the possible consequences of a failure to respond.

5 – Recipients of collected and Processed Data

Our company’s personnel, the controlling services.

We will also communicate your personal data to our Partners only when you have requested it, for example, when completing an administrative procedure. When your user account is linked to an educational institution, that institution also has access to some of your personal information (name, first name, email address, phone number). The Partner may use them for the same purposes and under the same conditions as those mentioned in this Charter. However, they are solely and exclusively responsible for complying with their legal and declarative obligations in the processing of your personal data, which they carry out themselves, with their own means, and for their sole needs. We are only responsible for our use of your personal data, to the exclusion of all other uses by our Partners.

Public bodies may also be recipients of your personal data solely to meet our legal obligations, as well as legal auxiliaries, ministerial officers, and organizations responsible for debt collection.

6 – Transfer of Personal Data

Your personal data will not be transferred, leased, or exchanged for the benefit of third parties, except for Partners with whom you agree to share your personal data.

However, you are informed that we reserve the right to communicate fully anonymized data to third parties, in an aggregated form, meaning in a way that does not allow your identification in any way.

7 – Duration of Personal Data retention

Regarding data related to the management and monitoring of relationships with users of our services: your personal data will not be retained beyond the period strictly necessary for managing our relationship with you. However, data that is necessary to establish the proof of a right or contract, to be retained under a legal obligation, will be kept for the duration prescribed by current law.

We retain your data for a maximum period of three (3) years from the collection of your data or the last contact initiated by the user or the closure of your account on the Platform.

In the three (3) months preceding the expiry of the three-year retention period for personal data, as set out above, we may contact you to ask for your consent regarding the continued receipt of information about our services.

For data related to bank cards: financial transactions related to the payment of financing operations and fees through the Platform are entrusted to a payment service provider responsible for their proper conduct and security.

For the needs of the services, this payment service provider may receive your personal data related to your banking details, including your credit card numbers, IBAN, or bank account numbers, which they collect and keep on our behalf. We do not have access to this data.

Your data related to your bank cards are kept for as long as your registration on the Platform and, at a minimum, until your last transaction. By checking the box expressly provided for this purpose on the Platform, you give us your explicit consent for this retention.

Data related to the visual cryptogram or CVV2 on your credit card is not stored. If you refuse the storage of your personal data related to your credit card numbers as specified above, we will not retain this data beyond the time necessary to complete the transaction.

In any case, data related to these transactions may be retained for evidence purposes in the event of a dispute regarding the transaction, in intermediate archives, for the duration specified by article L 133-24 of the Monetary and Financial Code, specifically thirteen (13) months from the debit date. This period may be extended to fifteen (15) months to account for the possibility of using deferred debit payment cards.

Regarding the management of opposition lists for receiving prospecting: information allowing the consideration of your right to object is kept for a minimum of three (3) years from the exercise of the right to object.

Regarding audience measurement statistics: information stored on users’ devices or other elements used to identify users and track their activity or attendance will not be retained for more than thirteen (13) months.

Regarding the archiving of data related to banking operations: Upon expiration of the retention period for your data as specified above, we inform you that we archive your data for a period of two (2) years to fulfill our legal obligations, especially regarding the fight against bank fraud and money laundering.

8 – Security

We inform you that we take all necessary precautions and appropriate organizational and technical measures to preserve the security, integrity, and confidentiality of your personal data, particularly to prevent them from being distorted, damaged, or accessed by unauthorized third parties.

9 – Transfer of Personal Data outside the European Union

La Plateforme ne procède pas au transfert de données personnelles en dehors de l’Union Européenne.
The Platform does not transfer personal data outside the European Union.

However, the use of certain tools may allow such a transfer. In such a case, the company StudyinFrance undertakes to verify that the service provider of the relevant service, if located outside the European Union, complies with all the principles and obligations set forth by the GDPR.

10 – Cookies

Cookies are text files, often encrypted, stored in your browser. They are created when a user’s browser loads a given website: the website sends information to the browser, which then creates a text file. Each time the user returns to the same site, the browser retrieves this file and sends it to the website’s server.

Three types of cookies, which do not have the same purposes, can be distinguished: technical cookies, social media cookies, and advertising cookies:

• Technical cookies are used throughout your browsing to facilitate it and perform certain functions. A technical cookie can, for example, be used to remember the answers entered in a form or the user’s preferences regarding the language or presentation of a website, when such options are available.
• Social media cookies may be created by social platforms to allow website developers to share the content of their website on these platforms. These cookies can be used by social platforms to track the browsing of Internet users on the relevant website, whether or not they use these cookies.
• Advertising cookies may be created not only by the website on which the user is browsing but also by other websites displaying advertisements, announcements, widgets, or other elements on the displayed page. These cookies can be used in particular to display targeted advertising, meaning advertising determined based on the user’s browsing.

We use technical cookies. These are stored in your browser for a period of thirteen (13) months.

We use social media cookies. These cookies are only deposited if you give your consent. You can find out about their nature, accept them, or refuse them. We also invite you to consult the privacy policies of the social platforms that originate these cookies to learn about the purposes of using browsing information they may collect through these cookies and the procedures for exercising your rights with these platforms.

We also use advertising cookies. These cookies are only deposited if you give your consent in your web browser settings.

We use Google Analytics, which is a statistical audience analysis tool that generates cookies to measure the number of visits to the Platform, the number of pages viewed, and visitor activity. Your IP address is also collected to determine the city from which you are connecting. The retention period of this cookie is mentioned in article 7 (v) of this charter.

We remind you that you can oppose the deposit of technical cookies and cookies generated by Google Analytics by configuring your browser. Such refusal may, however, prevent the proper functioning of the Platform.

11 – Consent

When you choose to communicate your personal data for the purpose of executing the services we offer through our Platform, you expressly give your consent for the collection and processing of such data in accordance with this charter and applicable legislation.

12 – Access to your Personal Data

In accordance with French law n° 78-17 of January 6, 1978, regarding data protection, and the GDPR, you have the right to access your data (article 15 of the GDPR) in order to obtain communication of it and, if necessary, rectification or erasure (articles 16 and 17 of the GDPR), through online access to your record. You can also contact us at:

• Email address: community@studyinfrance.org

It is recalled that any person may, for legitimate reasons, request the limitation of the processing of data concerning them (article 18 of the GDPR) or oppose such processing (articles 21 and 22 of the GDPR).

We will inform you that in the event of rectification or erasure of your personal data, as well as the limitation of processing, carried out following a request from you, we will notify these modifications to the persons to whom we have communicated your data unless such communication proves impossible (article 19 of the GDPR).

13 – Portability of your Personal Data

You have the right to the portability of personal data that you have provided to us, understood as data that you have actively and consciously declared in the context of access and use of services, as well as data generated by your activity in the use of services (article 20 of the GDPR). We remind you that this right does not apply to data collected and processed on a legal basis other than consent or the contract binding us.

This right can be exercised free of charge at any time, including when closing your account on the Platform, in order to retrieve and keep your personal data.

In this context, we will send you your personal data by any means considered useful, in a standard open format commonly used and machine-readable, in accordance with the state of the art.

14 – Filing a complaint with a supervisory authority

You are also informed that you have the right to file a complaint with a competent supervisory authority (the National Commission on Informatics and Liberties for France), in the Member State where you have your habitual residence, place of work, or place of the alleged violation of your rights, if you consider that the processing of your personal data under this Charter constitutes a violation of applicable regulations.

This recourse may be exercised without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial recourse. Indeed, you also have the right to an effective administrative or judicial remedy if you consider that the processing of your personal data under this Charter constitutes a violation of applicable regulations.

15 – Communication regarding a Personal Data breach

If we detect a security breach in the processing of your data that could pose a high risk to your rights and freedoms, we will inform you as soon as possible (article 34 of the GDPR). On this occasion, we will detail the nature of the breach encountered and the measures taken to put an end to it.

16 – Amendments

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify this charter in whole or in part at any time. These modifications will take effect upon publication of the new charter. Your use of the Platform following the entry into force of these modifications shall constitute acknowledgment and acceptance of the new charter. In the absence of such acceptance or if the new charter does not suit you, you should no longer access the Platform.

17 – Entry into force

This Privacy Policy entered into force on July 29, 2022.