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Privacy Policy and Your Privacy Rights

Privacy Policy and Your Privacy Rights

Effective November 4, 2026

  1. WHO WE ARE. Approved Colleges, LLC (“Approved Colleges,” "we," "us," or "our") owns and operates the websites, www.geteducated.com, www.perdiaeducation.com, www.faithbasedcolleges.org, and www.teachereducationonline.org (“websites”), as well as a mobile application, EMMA™ (“App”). The websites and App are collectively referred to in this Policy as our “Sites”. The Sites are designed to allow adult students to learn about various online degree programs, communicate with universities, apply for and enroll in an online degree program, and, if eligible, to track and earn post-graduation scholarships upon successful completion on a participating online degree program (“Services").

If you use our Sites and Services, we collect various types of data from you. In some instances, the data will be considered “personally identifiable information,” “personal information” or “personal data” under applicable laws. Generally, this type of data is information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that provides you with a powerful and secure online service. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to plainly and transparently disclose to you how we collect, use and share information, and how we attempt to safeguard the data you provide to us. We are committed to securing data that we collect concerning you (“you”) and complying with applicable data protection and privacy laws.

  1. HOW TO CONTACT US. If you have any questions regarding data protection or your rights, please contact us:

Approved Colleges, LLC
PO Box 458
Monterey, VA 24465
[email protected]

  1. PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY GENERALLY.
    1. Industry-Standard Protection. We utilize industry-standard security measures to safeguard the information we collect, maintain and use. These measures include technical and procedural steps to protect your data from misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, loss, alteration or destruction. However, we do not guarantee the performance or adequacy of such security measures.
    2. Limitation on Access. Access to any personal information we collect and store is generally restricted to our employees and/or contractors who require it to perform a job or other contracted function. We require vendors and contractors we work with to use reasonable, industry standard protocols to maintain the confidentiality, security, and integrity of information.
    3. Children. We do not intentionally collect any personal information from children under the age of eighteen (18). If you are under 18, please do not use the Sites or provide personal information to us.
    4. Processing of Data By App Store Providers. Approved Colleges makes its App available through various application stores. Approved Colleges assumes no responsibility for the collection or processing of data by Google, Apple or any other app store provider at the time of downloading the App or creating an account with such app store providers. Please refer to the data privacy statements of these providers. There is no exchange of data between us and the app store providers.
    5. Educational Institution Policies. As part of assisting you with enrollment and retention, Approved Colleges and your school may share information from your education records; this information sharing is allowed and governed by you school’s privacy policies, including policies related to the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”).
  1. TYPES OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT. Through your use of the Sites and Services, we may collect the following types of Personally Identifiable Information from you.
    1. Information you provide:
      • Contact information (name, mailing address, telephone number, electronic mail address)
      • Profile information (age, gender, location, education background, prior work experience)
      • Inquiry Information regarding certain schools or programs (if you send us inquiries)
      • School, enrollment status, credit hours, transcript information, anticipated degree information
      • Communications to and from you through the Sites and/or Services, including any posts on our forums or discussion areas
      • Your login information
      • Any other information you provide to us in your application for admission to a degree program
    2. Information we collect as you navigate our Sites. We automatically collect certain Personally Identifiable Information through your use of the Sites and Services, such as the following:
      • Usage Information. We collect information such as which of the pages on the Sites you access, the frequency of access, and what you click on while in the Site(s).
      • Technical Information. We collect technical information about your connection to our Sites, including the Internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, browser plug-in types and versions.
      • Device Information. We collect information about the device you are using, such as hardware model, operating system, application version number.
      • Mobile Device Information. In addition to the Device Information listed above, when you access our Sites via a browser on your mobile device, we collect and aggregate information about whether you are accessing the Sites via a mobile device or tablet, device type, and carrier.
      • Location Information. We collect location information from Site visitors on a city-regional basis.

We use cookies and other tracking technologies (such as pixels and web beacons) (collectively, “Cookies”) to collect information as you navigate our App. “Cookies” are small files of information that are stored by your web browser software on your computer hard drive, mobile or other devices (e.g., smartphones or tablets).

We use Cookies to: (a) estimate audience size and usage patterns; (b) understand and save your preferences for future visits, allowing us to customize the Sites and Services to your individual needs; (c) advertise new content, events and services that relate to your interests; (d) keep track of advertisements and search engine results; (e) compile aggregate data about Site traffic and Site interactions to resolve issues and offer better Site experiences and tools in the future; and (f) recognize when you return to the Site(s).

We set some Cookies ourselves and others are set by service providers. We use Cookies set by service providers to provide us with useful information to help us improve our Sites and Services, to conduct advertising, and to analyze the effectiveness of advertising.

Cookies can be blocked by changing your Internet browser settings to refuse all or some Cookies. If you choose to block all Cookies (including essential Cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of the Sites. You can find out more about Cookies and how to manage them by visiting www.AboutCookies.org.

You can understand which third parties have currently enabled Cookies for your browser or mobile device and how to opt-out of some of those Cookies by accessing the Network Advertising Initiative’s website or the Digital Advertising Alliance’s website. For more information on mobile specific opt-out choices, visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s Mobile Choices website.

  1. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION. We use the Personally Identifiable Information we collect to provide the Services to you, to provide you with information and Services, to improve our Services and Sites, and to protect our legal rights. If you begin requesting information about a school or degree program but do not complete your request, we may use the contact information you provided to send you a limited follow-up communication containing relevant educational information, degree program resources, or an opportunity to resume your inquiry. You may opt out of future marketing communications at any time. In addition, we may use the Personally Identifiable Information we collect to:
    • Allow you to participate in features and programs we offer on the Sites and Services, such as to participate in in our post-graduation scholarship program and ongoing education advising
    • Process your account registration
    • Email you information
    • Contact you regarding our products, services or promotions that we feel may be of interest to you
    • Communicate with you about our Sites or Services or to inform you of any changes to our Sites or Services
    • Provide support
    • Provide educational workshops, webinars and other materials
    • Tailor our content, advertisements and offers
    • Maintain and improve our Sites and Services
    • Defend our legal rights and the rights of others
    • Determine your location and manage digital content rights
    • Effectively maintain our business
    • Comply with applicable law.
  1. INFORMATION WE SHARE WITH THIRD PARTIES. We may disclose personal information to educational institutions, service providers, advertising partners, and other third parties as described below. We do not sell or rent student contact information, including names, email addresses, or telephone numbers, to third parties for their independent marketing purposes without appropriate authorization. We use third-party advertising technologies, including Meta Pixel and Google Ads, that may collect or receive information about visitors' interactions with our Sites. Certain disclosures through these technologies may constitute "sharing" of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising under California law, even when no monetary payment is received. We handle personal information and applicable privacy rights in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.
    1. With schools/online degree program providers.
      • We share the information you provide to us with our participating schools for the purpose of providing information and education-related services to you and to the schools. If you submit a request for information from one of our online degree program partners through our Sites, we will share the information you provide with the partner(s) from which you are seeking information. Those partners will then likely contact you directly with more information. If you wish to cease those communications, your request to unsubscribe or stop communications should go directly to the partner.
    2. With service providers. We may share information with service providers who:
      • perform data services on our behalf (e.g., email, hosting, maintenance, backup, analysis, etc.)
      • process payments on our behalf
      • to prepare, deploy and analyze advertising content on our behalf
      • provide other services on our behalf
      • To ensure that your Personally Identifiable Information receives an adequate level of protection, we have put in place appropriate procedures with the service providers we share your Personally Identifiable Information with to ensure that your Personally Identifiable Information is treated by those service providers in a way that is consistent with and which respects the applicable laws on data security and privacy. For example, we use cloud data storage; accounting software; payment processors; marketing service providers.
    3. Other. We also may share information in the following instances:
      • We may share information with other person or entity if you have consented to the disclosure. For example, if you engage with a school through our App and/or Services, you may consent to sharing information with that school.
    4. To meet our legal requirements or exercise our rights. We may share information with third parties in the following instances:
      • When we are required to do so by law
      • In connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings
      • To establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights, including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention
      • To any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that Personally Identifiable Information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that Personal Information
      • We may share information with other persons or entities as part of our own corporate transactions, such as during financing of our business, or any business or asset sale or merger.
  1. THIRD PARTY CONTENT AND ADVERTISING SERVICES.
    1. Third-Party Links. Our App may contain links to websites, platforms, applications or services operated by third-parties. These third-parties may use their own cookies, web beacons and other tracking technology to collect information about you. They may also ask you to provide information. This Privacy Policy does not cover those practices and we encourage you to review the privacy policies and procedures of any third-party App and services you use. We may engage or work with other third-parties to serve advertisements or other analytics on our App or Services.
    2. Google Analytics. We may use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics uses Cookies or other tracking technologies to help us analyze how users interact with the App and Services, compile reports on their activity, and provide other services related to their activity and usage. The technologies used by Google may collect information such as your IP address, time of visit, whether you are a returning visitor, and any referring website. The technologies used by Google Analytics do not gather information that personally identifies you. The information generated by Google Analytics will be transmitted to and stored by Google and will be subject to Google’s privacy policies. To learn more about Google’s partner services and to learn how to opt-out of tracking of analytics by Google, click here.
    3. Google Ads. We use Google Ads and related advertising technologies to measure advertising performance and deliver advertisements that may be relevant to your interests. These technologies may collect information about your interactions with our Sites, including pages visited, device identifiers, IP addresses, and advertising interactions. We may use this information for remarketing, which allows us to display advertisements to individuals who previously visited our Sites. Google may process this information in accordance with its own privacy policies. You can learn more about Google's advertising practices and manage your advertising preferences at https://myadcenter.google.com/.
    4. Meta Advertising (Facebook and Instagram).We use Meta Pixel and related advertising technologies to measure advertising effectiveness, understand how visitors interact with our Sites, and deliver advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta platforms that may be relevant to your interests. These technologies may collect information about your interactions with our Sites, including pages visited, device identifiers, IP addresses, and advertising interactions. Meta may use this information in accordance with its own privacy policies. You can learn more about Meta's privacy practices and manage your advertising preferences at https://www.facebook.com/adpreferences/ad_settings.
    5. Interest-based ads. We may use cookies and other technologies on our App to collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites you visit in order to provide you with interest-based advertising. You can generally opt-out of receiving interest-based advertisements from members of the Network Advertising Initiative or the Digital Advertising Alliance by visiting their opt-out pages: (https://optout.networkadvertising.org/) and (https://optout.aboutads.info/). When you opt-out using these links, please note that you may still receive advertisements. They just will not be personalized based on your interests.
    6. Browser Privacy Signals. Some web browsers offer privacy settings that communicate a user's preference not to have their online activity tracked. We do not currently respond to traditional "Do Not Track" (DNT) browser signals because there is no universally adopted standard for interpreting them. Certain browsers also support Global Privacy Control (GPC), which communicates a user's preference to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We are reviewing our practices regarding these signals and applicable privacy requirements.
  1. OPT-OUT AND CHOICES ABOUT YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION.

We respect your privacy and provide ways for you to choose whether to share your information with us or any third parties. You may opt-out of our services.

You may decline to provide information. You have the right to decide not to share information through our sites.

Review and request changes to your personally identifiable information. You may use your account to access, correct, or view certain Personally Identifiable Information we have collected and which is associated with your account. You may also contact us at [email protected] or by using our online form to request information or changes.

Request deletion. You may submit a request to update or delete your information my contacting us at [email protected] or by using our online form.

PLEASE NOTE, HOWEVER, THAT IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO PROVIDE US WITH CERTAIN INFORMATION OR ASK US TO DELETE YOUR INFORMATION, WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH THE FULL FUNCTIONALITY OF OUR SITES OR SERVICES (SUCH AS OBTAINING INFORMATION FROM SCHOOLS YOU REQUEST), OR ELIGIBILITY IN SOME OF OUR PROGRAMS, SUCH AS OUR SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMS AS WE NEED SOME PERSONAL INFORMATION TO ADMINISTER SUCH PROGRAMS.

Marketing communications. You may unsubscribe from marketing emails from us at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link included in our emails. You may also contact us at [email protected] or use our online contact form to request that we stop sending you marketing communications.

You may contact us using these methods to request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, subject to applicable law. California residents may also exercise the additional privacy rights described in Section 13 of this Privacy Policy, including the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information.

We will process applicable privacy requests in accordance with legal requirements.

If you wish to stop receiving text messages from us, reply STOP, QUIT, CANCEL, OPT-OUT, or UNSUBSCRIBE to any text message sent from us.

  1. HOW YOUR INFORMATION IS PROTECTED.

We have implemented a number of reasonable security methods that are designed to keep your information confidential and secure. It is important that you understand, however, that no commerce solution, website, application, database or system is completely secure or “hacker proof,” and we cannot anticipate all potential misuse of your information. We cannot and do not guarantee the security of any information you provide or otherwise transmit to us, and your use of one or more of our Sites indicates that you are willing to assume this risk. We have implemented the following steps:

Secure operating environments. We store your information in secure operating environments that are protected from the public and that we only allow authorized Approved Colleges employees and agents/contractors to access on a need-to-know basis. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect personal information; however, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Prior authentication for account access. We require individuals with registered accounts to verify their identity (e.g., email address, password) before they can access or make changes to their account information. This helps prevent unauthorized access to your account.

Measures we expect you to take. It is important for you to also play a role in keeping your information safe and secure. When signing up for an online account, please be sure to choose an account password that is hard for others to guess and never reveal your password to anyone else. If you use a shared or public computer, never choose to have your email address or password remembered and make sure to log out of your account every time you leave the computer. You should also make use of any privacy settings or controls we may provide you in our website community areas.

  1. DATA RETENTION.

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide our Services, fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and protect our legitimate business interests. Retention periods vary based on the type of information and the purpose for which it was collected.

Information collected through incomplete school or degree program inquiries may be retained for a limited period to provide relevant educational information, administer our Services, and maintain records of communications and privacy preferences.

We determine retention periods based on the nature of the information, the purposes for which it was collected, applicable legal requirements, and operational needs. Information that is no longer reasonably necessary will be deleted or deidentified, unless continued retention is permitted or required by law.

We may retain financial and transaction records for up to seven (7) years to comply with applicable tax and accounting requirements.

  1. ACCESSIBILITY.

We are committed to ensuring this Privacy Policy is accessible to individuals with disabilities.  If you wish to access this Privacy Policy in an alternate format, or would like to report an issue you are experiencing, please email us at [email protected]. You expressly agree to attempt to resolve any and all issues with accessibility directly with us and in good faith prior to instituting any legal action against us.

  1. NOTICE TO NEVADA RESIDENTS.

Nevada law allows Nevada residents to opt-out of the sale of certain types of personal information. Subject to a number of exceptions, Nevada law defines “sale” to mean the exchange of certain types of personal information for monetary consideration to a person for the person to license or sell the information to additional persons. We do not currently sell personal information as defined in the Nevada law. However, if you are a Nevada resident, you still may submit a verified request to opt-out of sales and we will record your instructions and incorporate them in the future if our policy changes. Opt-out requests may be sent to [email protected].

  1. NOTICE TO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS.

This Notice to California Residents supplements our Privacy Policy and describes the rights available to California residents under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (collectively, the ‘CCPA’). We are committed to respecting these rights and providing transparency about how we collect, use, retain, and disclose personal information.

This Notice applies to California residents whose personal information is subject to the CCPA. Certain information may be exempt from some requirements under applicable law. The remainder of our Privacy Policy provides additional information about our privacy practices. This Notice covers our collection, use, disclosure, and sale of California Consumers’ “Personal Information” (“PI”) as defined by the CCPA.

  1. COLLECTION AND USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION. We collect the categories of personal information described in Section 4 of this Privacy Policy, including contact information, educational interests, school and degree program inquiries, website activity, and technical information. We use this information for the purposes described in Section 5, including providing educational resources, responding to inquiries, improving our services, and communicating information about degree programs that may interest you. If you begin but do not complete a school or degree program inquiry, we may retain the information you provided and use it to send a limited follow-up communication containing relevant educational information. We disclose personal information as described in Section 6, subject to applicable law.
  2. SOURCES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION. We collect personal information directly from you when you use our Sites, complete or partially complete forms, request information, or communicate with us. We also collect information automatically through cookies and similar technologies and may receive information from educational institutions, service providers, and other sources as described in this Privacy Policy.
  3. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS. Subject to applicable law and certain exceptions, California residents may have the following rights regarding their personal information:
    1. Right to Know and Access: Request information about the personal information we collect, use, disclose, sell, or share, including access to specific personal information.
    2. Right to Delete: Request deletion of personal information we have collected, subject to legally permitted exceptions.
    3. Right to Correct: Request correction of inaccurate personal information we maintain.
    4. Right to Opt Out: Direct us not to sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under California law.
    5. Right to Limit Sensitive Personal Information: Request limitations on certain uses or disclosures of sensitive personal information, where applicable.
    6. Right to Non-Discrimination: Exercise your privacy rights without unlawful discrimination or retaliation.
      7. We will honor applicable privacy rights and requests as required by law. Certain information may be retained when necessary to comply with legal obligations, maintain security, complete requested services, or for other purposes permitted by law. How to Exercise Your Rights You may submit a privacy request by emailing [email protected] or using the online contact form identified in this Privacy Policy. We may request information reasonably necessary to verify your identity before fulfilling certain requests. You may also designate an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf, subject to applicable verification requirements. We will respond to privacy requests within the timeframes required by applicable law. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights.
  4. ADVERTISING AND SHARING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION. We use advertising and analytics technologies, including Meta Pixel and Google Ads, to measure advertising effectiveness and display advertisements that may be relevant to your interests. These technologies may collect information about your interactions with our Sites, including pages visited, device identifiers, and other online activity information. Certain disclosures of this information to advertising partners may constitute "sharing" of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising under California law, even when no money is exchanged. California residents have the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information as defined by the CCPA. You may contact us at [email protected] to request information about exercising your privacy rights. We are reviewing our procedures for processing privacy opt-out requests and browser-based privacy preference signals, including Global Privacy Control, to ensure compliance with applicable privacy laws.
  1. NOTICE TO RESIDENTS OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA. We do not operate in the European Economic Area and do not target or market our App or Services to individuals in the European Economic Area. However, to the extent the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) may apply to you, you have certain rights. The GDPR allows us to collect and use personal information from individuals within the European Economic Area only for one or more of the following reasons:
    1. To fulfill a contract we have with you;
    2. When we have a legal duty;
    3. When it is in our legitimate interest; or
    4. When you provide consent.

If you reside in the European Economic Area and we have a business or commercial reason to use your personal information, this is considered a legitimate interest.  We will tell you what that interest is in this Privacy Policy or any privacy notice provided to you at the time of the collection of the information.  We will not use your personal information if such use is against your own interest.

The GDPR and other regulations treat some types of sensitive personal information as particularly sensitive, including information about racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, trade union membership, health data and criminal records.  We will not collect or use these types of data without your consent unless the law allows us to do so.  If we do, it will only be when necessary for reasons of substantial public interest or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

If you reside in the European Economic Area, you have a number of rights under data protection laws in relation to the way we process your personal data.  These are set out below.  You may contact us directly to exercise any of these rights, and we will respond to any request received from you within one month from the date of the request.  In very exceptional circumstances we may need to extend this timescale, but we will always tell you in advance if we do, and our reasons why.

Number
Description of your Right
Right 1 A right to access personal data held by us about you, as well as information about how we are using your data.
Right 2 A right to require us to rectify any inaccurate personal data held by us about you.
Right 3 A right to require us to erase personal data held by us about you, and where the personal data has been made public, for other controllers processing the personal data to also erase links to, or copy or replication of, such personal data.  This right will only apply where (for example): we no longer need to use the personal data to achieve the purpose we collected it for; or where you withdraw your consent if we are using your personal data based on your consent; or where you object to the way we process your data (in line with Right 6 below). Removal of personal information will be processed within 60 days of your request. All requests are subject to our data retention policy whereby backups are stored for up to twelve months.
Right 4 A right to restrict our processing of personal data held by us about you.  This right will only apply where (for example): you dispute the accuracy of the personal data held by us; or where you would have the right to require us to erase the personal data but would prefer that our processing is restricted instead; or where we no longer need to use the personal data to achieve the purpose we collected it for, but you require the data for the purposes of dealing with legal claims.
Right 5 A right to receive personal data, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.  You also have the right to require us to transfer this personal data to another organization, at your request.
Right 6 A right to object to our processing of personal data held by us about you (including for the purposes of sending marketing materials to you).
Right 7

A right to withdraw your consent, where we are relying on it to use your personal data (for example, to provide you with marketing information about our services or products).

If you have consented to receive communications from us, you can contact us at any time to have your details removed from lists used by us or to update your marketing preferences. Please email
[email protected] and provide your name, email/telephone number/account number in the body of the email, telling us what you would like us to do.   You can also click “unsubscribe” on any of our emails, and we will ensure we don’t send you any communications of this nature in future.

If you have any concerns regarding our processing of your personal data, or are not satisfied with our handling of any request by you in relation to your rights, please get in touch with our team through the contact information provided in Section 2 of this Privacy Policy.

You may also reach out to your applicable Data Protection Authority (“DPA”) for more information.  There is a DPA located in each EU Member State.