Last Updated: 09/10/2025
This Privacy Policy (the “Privacy Policy”) describes how we collect and use personal information you provide to us when you use the Award Advisor mobile software application (the “App”). By accessing or using the App, you hereby consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by us through any other application or context. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, you must not use the App and must delete it. We will not collect, obtain, use, or share personal information in connection with your use of the App except as described in this Privacy Policy, unless you consent.
1. Personal Information We Collect or Obtain.
We collect or obtain several types of personal information from and about the users of the App, including:
- Contact information including your name, e-mail address, and phone number.
- Other personal information you provide through using the App, such as your state of residence and intended academic year of enrollment.
- Information derived from your uploads including information about your financial aid awards such as your grant, loan, and work-study offers.
- Automatically-collected information including technical information about your devices, browsers, or operating systems.
We collect or obtain the information described above from a variety of sources, including:
- You directly, based upon information you provide when you create an account, use the App, and correspond with us (such as via email or text message).
- From your use of other VSAC services, we may combine information collected about you from your use of other VSAC services.
- Automatically through your use of the App on a device or browser.
- From third parties including information about your interactions with service providers acting on our behalf or our social networking pages.
2. Why We Collect, and How We Use, Your Personal Information.
We collect and use the personal information described above for a variety of purposes:
- To assist you with using the App to compare financial aid packages and learn more about access to education and associated costs.
- To connect you with VSAC or other nonprofit lenders that may be able to offer loans or other education funding resources.
- To provide educational content on financial literacy.
- To contact you with service updates, marketing information, or reminders.
- To communicate with you about your use of the App.
- To improve your experience on the App.
- To measure, improve, and customize the App and other products and services, including to train our artificial intelligence model to improve our ability to compare financial aid packages.
- For the purposes described below under “Sharing and Disclosure of Personal Information.”
- For any other purpose with your consent.
We also may use data in a de-identified way for other purposes. For example, we may use de-identified data to conduct research on topics such as financial award trends.
3. Sharing and Disclosure of Personal Information.
In the course of providing the App to you, we share or disclose personal information with other parties as described here.
The information we collect and/or obtain about you when you use the App may be shared with other nonprofit lenders that may offer you loans or other education funding resources. You authorize us to share such information and acknowledge that we may be paid for facilitating such connection. If you do not want your personal information shared or sold, please delete your account or contact us using the information in the “How to Contact Us” section below and discontinue use of the App.
We may also disclose information about you with individuals and companies we use to perform services on our behalf. This includes service providers that provide us services such as marketing assistance, data analytics, data processing, data security, sending postal or electronic mail, sending text messages, customer service, and collections. Any service providers we use must agree to keep such information confidential and not use it for any purpose we do not authorize.
Finally, we may also disclose information about you if necessary to comply with applicable laws and regulations; to respond to any legal process or other lawful request for information we receive; to protect vital interests of you or another natural person; to detect, prevent, and investigate fraud, abuse, or other illegal activity; to defend our legal interests where necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of others; or to otherwise protect our rights. In addition, we may transfer personal information we have about you in the event we sell or transfer some or all of our business or assets.
4. Retention of Personal Information.
We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to achieve the purposes listed under “Why We Collect, and How We Use, Personal Information” section above, and to provide customer service, to perform any other necessary tasks regarding our products and services, or to satisfy our legal obligations. After that period, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, we may delete, anonymize, de-identify, or dispose of your information.
5. Links to Third-Party Websites and Apps and Advertising.
The App contains both “internal” links (links to other parts of the App), and “external” links (links to other sites on the web or other applications). This Privacy Policy applies only to the App. Other websites and apps likely have their own privacy policies and terms of use that you may be bound by. You agree to be responsible to review those documents, and your use of those sites and apps is at your own risk.
6. Notice Regarding Children’s Privacy and Minor’s Rights.
We do not knowingly or intentionally request, collect, use, or share personal information from children under 13 years of age. If we discover or are notified that this has occurred, we will immediately delete the information from our servers and instruct any third parties with whom we have shared the information to do so as well.
Minors may have the right to request that parental access to private data be denied. To exercise this right, please contact us using the information in the “How to Contact Us” section below.
7. Your Rights with Respect to Your Information.
To learn what personal information we have about you, and to update, correct, or delete that information, you can revise your information in the App directly. If you require additional assistance exercising your data rights in the App, please contact us as indicated in the “How To Contact Us” section below.
Please note that if you contact us to withdraw your consent or ask us to modify or delete your data, the request must include sufficient detail so that we can understand, evaluate, and respond to the request.
Regardless of where you reside, we will consider all requests you make regarding your information and will respond within any time period required by applicable law. Please note, however, that certain information may be exempt from such requests, such as if we need to keep the information to comply with our own legal obligations or to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. Your rights and our response obligations also may vary based on your state or country of residency. Please note that you may be located in a jurisdiction where we are not obligated, or are unable, to fulfill a request. In such a case, your request may not be fulfilled.
8. Notice for European Economic Area and United Kingdom Residents.
This section applies only to residents of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or the United Kingdom (“UK”). For purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the UK GDPR, VSAC is a data controller as defined in these laws with regard to any data we collect from and about you that can be used to personally identify you (“personal data”).
If you are resident of the EEA or the UK, GDPR allows us to process your “personal data” only if we have a “legal basis” to do so. Our legal bases for processing your personal data are as follows:
- Where you have given your consent (in such cases, you may withdraw your consent at any time as described in “Your Rights with Respect to Your Information”)
- To enter into contracts/transactions with you and perform our obligations pursuant to those contracts/transactions with you
- To comply with our legal obligations
- For our legitimate business interests or the legitimate interests of others (see the purposes listed at the beginning of the “Why We Collect, and How We Use, Your Information” section)
If you have questions or concerns about why we are collecting and how we are using your information, please contact us as indicated in the “How to Contact Us” section in our Privacy Policy.
If you are resident of the EEA or the UK, you have the following rights, unless certain exceptions apply:
- To access information we have about you
- To have any incorrect or incomplete information we hold about you corrected or updated
- To object to our processing of your information or prevent the processing your information for direct-marketing purposes
- To withdraw your consent at any time where we are relying on consent as the basis for processing your information
- To restrict the use of your information
- To have the information we have about you deleted in certain circumstances
- To receive a portable copy of the information we have about you and to request that we transfer it to you or to a third party, with certain exceptions
- To not be subject to automated or algorithmic decision-making using your information that has legal or other significant effects on you
To exercise any of these rights, please see the “Your Rights with Respect to Your Information” section above. In addition, you have the right to lodge a complaint regarding our data practices with the data protection authority in your country of residence.
9. Notice Regarding International Use.
Please note that VSAC is located in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, you should be aware that any personal information you provide to us is transmitted, processed, and stored in the United States. Your personal information will be protected subject to this Privacy Policy and applicable laws, which may not be as protective as the laws in your country. To understand your rights with regard to your personal information, please contact or visit the website of the appropriate data protection authority for your region.
10. Protection of Your Information.
We maintain reasonable safeguards in order to protect your personal information from accidental or unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, destruction, or loss. These safeguards include technological measures such as encryption at rest and in transit, multi-factor authentication for individuals authorized to access the information, and password protection; administrative measures such as employee training and periodic risk assessments; and physical safeguards designed to ensure the security and confidentiality of your information.
11. Changes to this Privacy Policy.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to reflect changes to our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. Whenever we make any changes to this Privacy Policy, we will update the “Last Updated” date above and may notify users if required by applicable law. We encourage you to check our Privacy Policy often to always be up-to-date on the current version and to review any updates we have made.
12. How to Contact Us.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, or if you would like us to update information we have about you or any preferences you might have given us, you may contact us by mail at:
Vermont Student Assistance Corporation
10 East Allen Street
PO Box 2000
Winooski, VT 05404
You may contact us by phone at 1-800-642-3177 or 1-802-655-9602 or by email at support@awardadvisor.org. You may find more detailed contact information here.
25111642.7
