Privacy Policy

Last Updated: April 25, 2025

1. Introduction

Welcome to VarsityScape Ltd. (“VarsityScape”, “we”, “us”, “our”). Our mission is to provide experts and institutions with the tools to create learning programs that empower the next generation of skilled professionals through impactful cohort-based learning experiences. We are headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.

This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect from you when you use our website, platform, mobile applications, and related services (collectively, the “Services”), how and why we collect and use this data, and with whom we share it. It also outlines your rights and choices regarding your Personal Data.

By accessing or using our Services, you signify that you have read, understood, and agree to our collection, storage, use, and disclosure of your Personal Data as described in this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service.

2. Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Table of Contents
• 3. Definitions
• 4. What Data We Collect
  • 4.1. Information You Provide Directly
  • 4.2. Information We Collect Automatically
  • 4.3. Information from Third Parties
• 5. How We Use Your Data
• 6. Who We Share Your Data With
• 7. Cookies and Similar Technologies
• 8. Your Rights and Choices Over Your Data
• 9. Data Security
• 10. Data Retention
• 11. International Data Transfers
• 12. Children’s Privacy
• 13. Third-Party Links and Services
• 14. Updates to This Privacy Policy
• 15. Contact Us

3. Definitions

• Academy Creator: An individual, expert, or institution using our Services to create, manage, market, and deliver learning programs, known as “Academies.”
• Student: An individual enrolling in, invited to, or otherwise participating in an Academy created on our platform.
• User / You: Collectively refers to Academy Creators, Students, individuals browsing our public-facing websites, and any other visitors or users of our Services.
• Personal Data: Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. This can include information that you provide to us and information which is collected by us.
• Platform Data: Data generated through the use of the platform, including but not limited to course content, student interactions, communications, and analytics.

4. What Data We Collect

We collect Personal Data to provide and improve our Services, ensure personalized user interaction, and fulfill our operational needs. The types of data we collect depend on how you use our Services.

4.1. Information You Provide Directly

• Account Registration Data:
  • For Academy Creators: To create and manage an Academy, we collect your name, email address, password, phone number, organization details (if applicable), areas of expertise, and payment information (e.g., bank account details, PayPal email) for receiving payouts from sales of your Academy offerings. Passwords are always stored in an encrypted format.
  • For Students: To enroll in an Academy and create an account, we collect your name, email address, and password. You may optionally provide additional profile information.
• Profile Data: You may choose to provide additional information for your User profile, such as a profile picture, biography, social media links, professional credentials, and areas of interest. This information helps others in the community connect with you. Academy Creators may also provide branding information for their Academy profile.
• Academy Content Data (for Academy Creators): When you create an Academy, you provide content such as course syllabi, videos, text, documents, presentations, quizzes, assignments, grading rubrics, pricing information for your courses, and custom branding assets (logos, color schemes, custom domain information).
• Student Generated Content: Students may generate content within an Academy, including assignment submissions, quiz answers, project work, forum posts, comments, questions, messages to instructors or peers, reviews, and other feedback.
• Communication Data: We collect information when you communicate with us, such as when you contact customer support (including your name, email, and the content of your inquiry), participate in surveys or promotions, subscribe to our newsletter, or communicate with other Users through platform features (e.g., direct messaging, cohort discussion forums).
• Payment Data:
  • For Students making purchases: When you purchase access to an Academy or other paid Services, we (or our third-party payment processors) collect payment information, such as credit/debit card details or other payment service credentials. We do not store full credit card numbers; this is handled by our PCI-compliant payment processors.
  • For Academy Creators receiving payouts: We collect necessary financial information to process payouts, as mentioned under “Account Registration Data.”
• Talent Marketplace Data: If you participate in our Talent Marketplace (either as an expert offering services like course instruction or marketing, or as an Academy Creator seeking such services), we collect information you provide, such as your skills, portfolio, service descriptions, rates, availability, and any reviews or ratings.
• Information for Events and Webinars: If you register for or participate in events, webinars, or conferences hosted or co-hosted by VarsityScape, we collect registration and participation information.

4.2. Information We Collect Automatically

When you access or use our Services, we automatically collect certain information about your device and your interaction with our Services:

• Usage Data: We collect data about your interactions with our Services, such as features used, pages visited, content viewed or downloaded, courses enrolled in or created, time spent on specific pages or features, search queries, clicks, and other activities on the platform.
• Device and Technical Data: We collect information from your device, including IP address, browser type and version, operating system and version, device identifiers (like IDFA or Android ID), preferred language, screen resolution, and location information (e.g., country and city derived from your IP address).
• Cookie Data: We use cookies, web beacons, pixels, scripts, tags, and similar technologies to collect information about your browsing activities and to personalize your experience. This includes information about your login sessions, preferences, and interaction with our website and platform features. For more details, please see our Cookie Policy (a separate, detailed Cookie Policy should be linked here).
• Cohort Interaction Data: We collect data related to your participation in cohort-based learning activities, such as contributions to group discussions, interactions with peers, and collaborative project work.
• Learning Progress Data: For Students, we track your progress through courses, including course completion rates, quiz scores, assignment grades, time spent on learning materials, and certificates of completion earned. This information is also made available to the respective Academy Creator.
• Academy Performance Data (for Academy Creators): We collect data related to the performance of your Academy, such as student enrollment numbers, engagement rates, completion rates, revenue generated, and student feedback.

4.3. Information from Third Parties

We may also obtain information about you from third-party sources:

• Linked Accounts (e.g., Social Media): If you choose to link your VarsityScape account with a third-party service (like Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn) for sign-up or profile enrichment, we may receive information from that service, such as your name, email address, profile picture, and other public profile information, as permitted by that service and your privacy settings.
• Payment Processors: Our payment processors may provide us with information about your payment transactions, such as confirmation of payment, but not your full financial details.
• Analytics Providers: We use third-party analytics services (like Google Analytics) to help us understand platform usage. These services may collect information sent by your browser or mobile app, including your IP address or device ID, and their use of it is governed by their own privacy policies.
• Academy Creators (regarding their Students): Academy Creators may provide us with information about their Students as necessary for managing their Academies and facilitating Student participation (e.g., inviting students via email).
• Advertising Partners: We may receive information from advertising partners about your interactions with our ads on third-party platforms to measure campaign effectiveness.

5. How We Use Your Data

We use your Personal Data for the following purposes:

• To Provide and Manage Our Services:
  • Create, maintain, and secure User accounts.
  • Enable Academy Creators to design, build, customize, market, and deliver their Academies and learning content.
  • Facilitate Student enrollment, access, and participation in Academies.
  • Process payments for course purchases and process payouts to Academy Creators.
  • Deliver course content, track learning progress, and issue certificates.
  • Enable communication features between Users (e.g., Students and Academy Creators, peer-to-peer within cohorts).
  • Operate and facilitate connections within the Talent Marketplace.
  • Provide customer support and respond to your inquiries.
• To Improve and Personalize Our Services:
  • Understand how Users interact with the platform to enhance usability and User experience.
  • Personalize your experience by, for example, suggesting relevant Academies, content, or features.
  • Develop new features, products, and functionalities.
  • Provide data-driven insights and analytics to Academy Creators about their Academy performance, Student engagement, and learning outcomes (this may involve aggregated or de-identified data to protect individual Student privacy where appropriate).
• To Communicate With You:
  • Send important service-related announcements, updates, security alerts, and administrative messages.
  • Respond to your requests, questions, and feedback.
  • Send you marketing communications, newsletters, and promotional offers (only with your consent where required by law, and you can opt-out at any time).
  • Notify you about changes to our Terms of Service, this Privacy Policy, or other policies.
• For Security, Legal Compliance, and Safety:
  • Prevent, detect, and investigate fraud, abuse, security incidents, and other harmful activities.
  • Enforce our Terms of Service and other platform policies.
  • Comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, or governmental requests.
  • Protect the rights, property, or safety of VarsityScape, our Users, or the public.
  • Resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
• For Analytics and Research:
  • Analyze trends, usage patterns, and User demographics to improve our Services and for strategic decision-making.
  • Conduct research and analysis on the effectiveness of our platform and educational approaches (often using aggregated or de-identified data).

6. Who We Share Your Data With

We do not sell your Personal Data. We may share your Personal Data with the following parties and in the following circumstances:

• Academy Creators:
  • If you are a Student, your Personal Data (such as your name, email, profile information, course progress, assignment submissions, quiz scores, and communications within the Academy) is shared with the Academy Creator(s) of the Academies you are enrolled in. Academy Creators need this information to manage their Academy, interact with you, assess your progress, and provide support. Academy Creators are independent data controllers for the Personal Data of Students within their Academies.
• Students:
  • If you are an Academy Creator or an instructor within an Academy, your profile information (name, bio, profile picture) and Academy details will be visible to Students enrolled in or considering enrolling in your Academy.
  • Within specific Academies, especially those utilizing cohort-based learning, some Student information (e.g., name, profile picture, posts in discussion forums, peer reviews) may be visible to other Students in the same cohort or Academy, as configured by the Academy Creator and platform settings.
• The Public:
  • Certain profile information of Academy Creators (e.g., name, expertise) and details about their Academies (e.g., Academy name, description, course list, pricing) may be made publicly visible on our platform or through search engines, especially if designated as such by the Academy Creator for marketing purposes (e.g., a public landing page for an Academy).
  • Any content you post in public areas of our Services (e.g., public forums, blog comments, public reviews of Academies) may be visible to the public.
• Service Providers (Third-Party Vendors):
  • We engage trusted third-party companies and individuals to perform services on our behalf. These include payment processors (e.g., Stripe, PayPal), cloud hosting providers (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud), data analytics services (e.g., Google Analytics), email service providers, marketing and advertising partners, customer support tool providers, and security service providers. These service providers only have access to the Personal Data necessary to perform their specific functions and are contractually obligated to protect your data and use it only for the purposes for which it was disclosed.
• Talent Marketplace Participants:
  • If you participate in our Talent Marketplace, information you provide for your Marketplace profile (e.g., skills, services offered, portfolio, rates if you are an expert; or project requirements if you are an Academy Creator seeking services) will be shared with other Marketplace participants to facilitate connections and engagements.
• Business Transfers:
  • If VarsityScape is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, sale of all or a portion of our assets, or transition of service to another provider, your Personal Data may be transferred as part of such a transaction. We will notify you (e.g., via email and/or a prominent notice on our website) of any change in ownership or uses of your Personal Data, as well as any choices you may have regarding your Personal Data.
• Legal Requirements and Safety:
  • We may disclose your Personal Data if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to:
    • Comply with a legal obligation, subpoena, court order, or other lawful request from public authorities.
    • Protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of VarsityScape, our Users, or the public.
    • Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Services.
    • Enforce our Terms of Service or other agreements.
• With Your Explicit Consent:
  • We may share your Personal Data with other third parties when we have your explicit consent to do so. For example, if an Academy Creator wishes to integrate a third-party tool into their Academy that requires access to Student data, we would seek appropriate permissions.

7. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies, web beacons, and other similar tracking technologies to collect information about your browsing behavior, to remember your preferences, to secure your account, and to help us analyze how our Services are used. For more detailed information about the cookies we use, why we use them, and how you can manage your cookie preferences, please refer to our separate Cookie Policy.

8. Your Rights and Choices Over Your Data

We respect your privacy rights and provide you with reasonable access to the Personal Data that you may have provided through your use of the Services. Depending on your location and applicable data protection laws (such as GDPR in Europe or CCPA in California), you may have the following rights:

• Right to Access: You can request access to the Personal Data we hold about you and receive a copy of it. You can typically access much of your account information directly by logging into your account.
• Right to Rectification: You have the right to request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete Personal Data we hold about you. You can usually update your profile information directly in your account settings.
• Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): You can request that we delete your Personal Data. We will comply with such requests, subject to certain exceptions, such as when retention is necessary for legal or contractual obligations, to complete transactions, for security purposes, or to exercise or defend legal claims.
• Right to Restrict Processing: You may have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your Personal Data under certain circumstances (e.g., if you contest the accuracy of the data).
• Right to Data Portability: You may have the right to receive your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to transmit that data to another controller, where technically feasible.
• Right to Object to Processing: You may have the right to object to our processing of your Personal Data, particularly for direct marketing purposes or where processing is based on our legitimate interests (unless we have compelling legitimate grounds for the processing).
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Where our processing of your PersonalData is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
• Managing Communication Preferences: You can opt-out of receiving promotional or marketing emails from us by using the “unsubscribe” link provided in those emails or by updating your communication preferences in your account settings. We may still send you essential service-related and administrative communications that are necessary for the provision of our Services.

Exercising Your Rights: To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at contact@varsityscape.com or through your account settings if such options are available. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe and in accordance with applicable laws. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

Information for Students of Academies: If you are a Student and your data request pertains to an Academy you are enrolled in, you should typically direct your request to the Academy Creator of that Academy first. Academy Creators are primarily responsible for the Student data within their Academies. VarsityScape will provide reasonable assistance to Academy Creators to help them respond to data subject requests from their Students.

9. Data Security

VarsityScape takes the security of your Personal Data seriously. We implement a variety of technical, administrative, and organizational security measures designed to protect the data we collect from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These measures include:

• Encryption of data in transit (using TLS/SSL) and at rest (where appropriate).
• Storing passwords in an encrypted (hashed) format.
• Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning.
• Access controls to limit access to Personal Data to authorized personnel who need it to perform their job duties.
• Staff training on data security and privacy.

However, please be aware that no security system is impenetrable. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors may compromise the security of User information at any time.

Your Responsibility: It is also your responsibility to protect your login credentials. Choose a strong, unique password and keep it confidential. Do not share your password with others. If you believe your account has been compromised, please change your password immediately and notify us at contact@varsityscape.com. Academy Creators are also responsible for maintaining the security of the content and student data within their own Academies, including setting appropriate access controls and permissions.

10. Data Retention

We retain your Personal Data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including to provide our Services, comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and for other legitimate business purposes. The retention periods vary depending on the type of data and the context:

• Account Data: We retain your account information for as long as your account is active and for a reasonable period thereafter in case you decide to re-activate the Services, or as needed for our legitimate business purposes (e.g., record-keeping, fraud prevention).
• Academy Content (for Academy Creators): We retain Academy content as long as the Academy Creator’s account is active or as directed by the Academy Creator. Upon account deletion, this content may be deleted according to our policies.
• Student Data within Academies: Data related to a Student’s participation in an Academy is generally retained as long as the Academy is active and the Student is enrolled, or as determined by the Academy Creator’s policies and our platform capabilities.
• Usage and Log Data: We may retain usage data and system logs for purposes such as analytics, service improvement, security, and troubleshooting. This data is often aggregated or de-identified for longer retention periods.
• Payment Information: Payment transaction information (excluding full card details) is retained for as long as necessary for accounting, tax, and legal compliance purposes.
• Anonymized/Aggregated Data: We may retain anonymized or aggregated data indefinitely for statistical analysis, research, and service improvement, as this data no longer identifies you.

You can request the deletion of your account and associated Personal Data as described in the “Your Rights and Choices Over Your Data” section. However, please note that some information may be retained in our archives or backups for a limited period or as required by law, even after your account is deleted.

11. International Data Transfers

VarsityScape is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, and our Services are accessible globally. Your Personal Data may be transferred to, stored, and processed in countries other than your country of residence, including Nigeria and other locations where our servers or third-party service providers are located. These countries may have data protection laws that are different from the laws of your country.

When we transfer your Personal Data internationally, we will take appropriate safeguards to ensure that your data is protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws. This may include relying on adequacy decisions, using Standard Contractual Clauses approved by relevant authorities, or obtaining your consent for such transfers where required.

12. Children’s Privacy

Our Services are not directed to individuals under the age of 13 (or a higher age threshold applicable in certain jurisdictions, such as 16 in the European Economic Area, unless national law provides for a lower age). We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under these age limits without verifiable parental consent.

If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected Personal Data from a child below the applicable age limit without appropriate consent, we will take steps to delete such information as soon as possible.

For Academy Creators: If you use VarsityScape to create Academies that may be accessed by children, you are responsible for complying with all applicable children’s privacy laws, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in the United States and similar regulations elsewhere. This includes obtaining any necessary parental consents for the collection and use of children’s Personal Data within your Academy.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with Personal Data without your consent, please contact us at contact@varsityscape.com.

13. Third-Party Links and Services

Our Services may contain links to third-party websites, services, and applications that are not operated or controlled by VarsityScape (e.g., links to external resources within an Academy, or integrations with third-party tools). This Privacy Policy does not apply to the privacy practices of these third parties.

We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services you access or use to understand their data collection, use, and sharing practices. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of these external sites or services.

14. Updates to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, Services, or applicable laws. When we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting the updated policy on our website, sending an email notification to the email address associated with your account, or through an in-app notification. The “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy will indicate when it was last revised.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. Your continued use of our Services after any changes or revisions to this Privacy Policy shall indicate your agreement with the terms of such revised Privacy Policy.

15. Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please do not hesitate to contact us:

VarsityScape Ltd. Email: contact@varsityscape.com Headquarters: Lagos, Nigeria.

We will endeavor to respond to your inquiry as promptly as possible.