Privacy Policy
Last updated: March 27, 2026 · Effective date: March 27, 2026
1. Introduction
TransferU™ ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding your data when you use thetransferu.com and related services.
2. Information We Collect
- Account information: name, email address (via Clerk authentication)
- Profile information: school, major, GPA, transfer timeline (only what you voluntarily provide)
- Search data: course searches and equivalency results you save
- Transcript data: course codes parsed from uploaded transcripts
- Usage data: pages visited and features used (collected in aggregate and not linked to personally identifiable information)
- Connection data: when institutions connect with you through our platform
3. How We Use Your Information
- To provide course equivalency search results
- To save your searches and transfer plan in your Student Hub
- To enable schools to discover and connect with you (only if your profile visibility is set to "visible")
- To improve our matching algorithms (aggregated, anonymized only)
- We do NOT sell your personal data to any third parties
- We do NOT use your data for advertising purposes
4. FERPA Compliance
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of student education records. TransferU operates as a school official under FERPA when processing transcript data on behalf of students who have consented to our service. We do not share student education records with third parties without your explicit consent.
- Transcript data you upload is processed by AI to extract course codes only. Raw transcript files are not permanently stored on our servers after processing is complete.
- Parsed course data is stored securely in your account and used only to provide you with transfer equivalency results.
- Institutions can only see your profile information if you have explicitly enabled profile visibility in your Student Hub settings.
- You may withdraw consent at any time by disabling profile visibility or deleting your account.
If you believe your FERPA rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Student Privacy Policy Office at studentprivacy.ed.gov.
5. Data Sharing
We share data only with the following trusted service providers necessary to operate our platform:
- Clerk — authentication and account security (SOC 2 certified)
- Google Cloud / Neon — secure encrypted data storage
- Resend — transactional email notifications only
By enabling profile visibility in your Student Hub, you consent to being contacted by partner institutions through the TransferU platform. You may withdraw this consent at any time by disabling profile visibility in your settings.
Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of substantially all of TransferU's assets, user data may be transferred to the acquiring entity as part of that transaction. We will notify users via email at least 30 days prior to any such transfer. The acquiring entity will be required to honor the commitments made in this Privacy Policy, or users will be given the opportunity to delete their accounts before the transfer takes effect.
We never sell data to data brokers, advertisers, or employers.
6. Your Rights
- Access your data at any time in your Student Hub
- Delete your account and all associated data directly from your Student Hub → Profile tab, or by emailing info@thetransferu.com
- Opt out of institutional discovery by disabling profile visibility
- Request a copy of your data: info@thetransferu.com
- California residents may have additional rights under CCPA
7. Data Security
All data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS) and at rest. Authentication is managed by Clerk, a SOC 2 Type II certified provider. We conduct regular security reviews.
8. Data Retention
We retain your data for as long as your account is active. Upon account deletion (initiated by you in the Student Hub or by emailing us), all personal data is removed within 30 days. Anonymized aggregate data (e.g., search volume statistics with no PII) may be retained for service improvement purposes.
- Transcript files: not permanently stored; processed and discarded after course extraction
- Parsed course codes: retained in your account until you delete your account
- Search history: retained until you delete individual searches or your account
- Email communications: retained per our email provider's standard retention policy (90 days)
9. Children's Privacy
TransferU is intended for users 13 years of age and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact info@thetransferu.com immediately.
10. Changes to This Policy
We will notify registered users of material changes via email at least 14 days before they take effect.