Privacy Policy

Server logs

When you visit any page, our server records some basic technical details: your IP address, browser type, the page you requested, and when you visited. Every web server does this. We use it to keep the site running properly and to spot problems, not to build a profile of you.

Cookies

Cookies are small files that websites save to your browser. We use them for a few things: remembering your reading preferences between visits, understanding which content people find useful, and showing relevant ads. Our advertising partners place their own cookies too, which is covered in the advertising section below.

You can tell your browser to block cookies or warn you before accepting them. If you do, a few parts of the site may not work the way you expect.

On-device personalisation

As you browse, we build a small interest profile in your browser's local storage based on the countries, study levels, and topics you read about. We use it to surface scholarships and guides that are more likely to be useful to you. It never leaves your device and it is not connected to your name or any other identity.

You can delete it at any time by clearing site data for Pathlins in your browser settings. The storage key is pathlins:profile:v1.

Approximate location

We read your approximate country from a standard request header so we can show what is popular with readers near you. We don't store your IP address as part of your profile and we never try to pinpoint you beyond country level.

View counts

We count how often each opportunity is viewed and group those counts by country. This powers the "popular near you" suggestions. The counts are totals and do not identify individual readers.

Deadline reminders

If you ask to be reminded about a deadline, we save the email address you enter only for the purpose of sending that reminder. Nothing else. You can completely ignore this feature and still use everything on the site.

Advertising and Google AdSense

We use Google AdSense to show ads on some pages. Google is a third-party vendor and uses cookies, including the DoubleClick DART cookie, to show ads based on your previous visits to this site and other sites across the internet. This is standard behaviour for interest-based advertising.

You are not obligated to accept personalised ads. You can opt out at any time through any of the following:

• Google Ad Settings to turn off personalised ads from Google
• aboutads.info to opt out from participating advertising companies
• Network Advertising Initiative for a broader opt-out across member networks

You can read more about how Google uses data from partner sites in the Google Privacy and Terms.

External links and third parties

Pathlins links to scholarship pages, university sites, and funding bodies. Once you leave our site, this policy no longer applies and we have no control over how those sites handle your data. It is worth checking the privacy policy of any site you visit. The same applies to our advertising partners, each of which has its own privacy policy.

Children

Pathlins is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you think a child has submitted information through the site, please get in touch and we will remove it.

Your rights

If you are in the EU, UK, or California you have specific rights over your personal data, including the right to see, correct, or delete it. Because we store very little that is personally identifiable, clearing your browser's local storage for this site will handle most cases. For anything else, reach out and we will work through it with you.

Updates to this policy

We will update this page if our practices change. The date at the top tells you when it was last revised. Carrying on using the site after a change means you are comfortable with the updated policy.