Privacy Policy

1. Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to the processing of personal data by EBSC Technologies Private Limited in connection with the products and services offered under the BridgeBeyond brand, whether such interactions occur through the BridgeBeyond Platform or through other channels.

This Privacy Policy applies to personal data processed when you: visit or use the BridgeBeyond website or any mobile application operated by us; create an account or register for our Services; submit enquiries, applications or documents through the BridgeBeyond Platform; engage with our education counselling, overseas recruitment, workforce mobility, immigration support or related services; participate in interviews, assessments, webinars, seminars, education fairs or recruitment events organised or facilitated by us; communicate with us through email, telephone, messaging platforms, social media, video conferencing platforms or other communication channels; visit our offices or interact with our employees, consultants or authorised representatives; or otherwise provide personal data to us in connection with our business activities.

This Privacy Policy applies irrespective of the medium through which personal data is collected, including online platforms, physical documentation, email correspondence, telephonic conversations, video conferencing, recruitment drives, education fairs, customer support interactions and other lawful means.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to the processing of personal data carried out by third parties that act as independent controllers or data fiduciaries, including partner universities, employers, educational institutions, examination bodies, visa or immigration authorities, government authorities or other organisations that determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data independently of BridgeBeyond. Such organisations process your personal data in accordance with their own privacy notices and applicable laws, and we encourage you to review those privacy notices before providing your personal data.

However, where BridgeBeyond engages third-party service providers to process personal data solely on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions — for example, cloud hosting providers, payment processors, information technology service providers, customer relationship management platforms, communication service providers or other operational vendors — such processing forms part of our Services and remains subject to this Privacy Policy.

2. Who We Are

EBSC Technologies Private Limited, operating under the brand name "BridgeBeyond", is an Indian company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and having its registered office at 1/1, Pollock Street, Kolkata, West Bengal, India, 700001.

BridgeBeyond facilitates creation of an international education, recruitment and workforce mobility platform that provides services including overseas education counselling, university admissions assistance, international recruitment, workforce mobility, visa and immigration facilitation, career support and other related services.

For the purposes of applicable data protection laws, BridgeBeyond may act in different capacities, including as: a Data Fiduciary under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023; a Controller under the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679; a Data Processor or Processor, where we process personal data solely on behalf of and in accordance with the documented instructions of another organisation; or a joint controller, where BridgeBeyond and another organisation jointly determine the purposes and means of processing personal data, to the extent recognised under applicable law.

3. Personal Data We Collect

The categories of personal data that we collect depend upon the nature of your interaction with BridgeBeyond, the Services you request, applicable legal requirements and the information that you choose to provide. We only request personal data that is reasonably necessary for the relevant service.

Identity Information: Full name, photograph, date of birth, gender, nationality, passport details, government-issued identification numbers (where required), signature, and any other information necessary to verify your identity.

Contact Information: Residential and correspondence address, email address, mobile and telephone numbers, emergency contact details, and communication preferences.

Academic Information: Where you seek overseas education or related services — educational qualifications, academic transcripts, marksheets, degree and diploma certificates, school and university details, Statements of Purpose (SOPs), Letters of Recommendation (LORs), academic portfolios, language proficiency certificates (IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, etc.), standardised test scores (GRE, GMAT, SAT, ACT or similar), and other documents required by educational institutions.

Employment and Recruitment Information: Where you use our recruitment, placement or workforce mobility services — CV or résumé, employment history, job title and employer details, professional qualifications and certifications, skills assessments, interview notes, salary expectations and employment preferences, reference information, professional licences, and any other information relevant to recruitment or placement.

Immigration and Mobility Information: Where required for overseas education, employment or mobility services — passport information, visa application details, immigration history, travel history, work permits, residence permits, sponsor details, financial guarantor information, and documents required by immigration authorities.

Financial Information: Where necessary for providing our Services — bank account details, scholarship or sponsorship information, education loan information, proof of funds, billing information, payment transaction records, and other financial information required for processing applications or payments. BridgeBeyond does not store complete debit card, credit card or payment instrument details. Such information is processed directly by authorised payment service providers.

Technical and Device Information: When you access the BridgeBeyond Platform, we may automatically collect IP address, browser type and version, device identifiers, operating system, log files, session information, time zone settings, website usage information, cookies and similar technologies, and other diagnostic information.

Communications Information: Records of our communications with you, including emails, chat messages, support requests, customer service interactions, feedback, survey responses, telephone conversations (where recorded after appropriate notice), and video conferencing communications.

Verification Information: Where required by law or by our education or recruitment partners — background verification reports, employment verification, academic verification, police clearance certificates, identity verification records, and other due diligence documentation.

Special Categories of Personal Data: In limited circumstances and only where necessary for providing the Services or complying with legal obligations, we may collect medical or health information, disability-related information, medical fitness certificates, biometric information (where required by law or government authorities), information contained in police clearance certificates, and other information requiring enhanced protection under applicable law. Where required by applicable law, we process such information only after obtaining the necessary consent or where another lawful basis is available.

Information Received from Third Parties: We may receive personal data from educational institutions, employers, recruitment partners, government authorities, visa and immigration authorities, background verification agencies, test-conducting organisations, service providers engaged by BridgeBeyond, your authorised representatives, and publicly available sources, where permitted by applicable law.

4. Accuracy of Personal Data

You are responsible for ensuring that the personal data provided to BridgeBeyond is accurate, complete and up to date. If any of your personal data changes, you should promptly notify us so that our records remain accurate. For further information on your rights relating to your personal data, including the right to request correction, completion, updating or erasure, please refer to the Contact Us section of this Privacy Policy.

5. How We Collect Personal Data

BridgeBeyond collects personal data through a variety of lawful sources, depending on the nature of the Services you request and your interaction with us. We collect personal data directly from you, automatically through your use of our Platform, and, where permitted by applicable law, from third parties.

Information You Provide Directly: We collect personal data that you voluntarily provide when you create an account or register on the BridgeBeyond Platform; complete enquiry, registration or application forms; submit documents required for education, recruitment, immigration or workforce mobility services; communicate with us through email, telephone, messaging platforms, video conferencing or social media; participate in counselling sessions, interviews, webinars, recruitment drives, education fairs or other events; make payments for our Services; respond to surveys, questionnaires or feedback requests; or otherwise correspond with us in connection with our Services.

Information Collected Automatically: When you access or use the BridgeBeyond Platform, certain technical information may be collected automatically through cookies and similar technologies, including IP address, browser type and version, device identifiers, operating system, website usage information, pages visited, date and time of access, referring website, session information, and diagnostic and performance data. Further information is available in our Cookie Policy.

Information Received from Third Parties: Subject to applicable law, we may receive personal data from educational institutions, employers and prospective employers, recruitment partners and staffing agencies, authorised representatives acting on your behalf, parents or legal guardians (where applicable), scholarship providers or sponsors, test-conducting organisations, background verification agencies, government authorities, visa and immigration authorities, payment service providers, and publicly available sources.

Information Generated During Our Relationship: During the course of providing our Services, we may generate or record additional information relating to your interactions with BridgeBeyond, including counselling notes, interview feedback, application status updates, communications history, customer support records, service preferences and account activity.

6. How We Use Your Personal Data

BridgeBeyond processes your personal data only for specified, legitimate and lawful purposes connected with the provision of our Services, the operation of our business and compliance with applicable legal obligations.

To Provide Our Services: We use your personal data to provide, administer and manage the Services requested by you, including overseas education counselling, university admissions assistance, recruitment, workforce mobility, visa and immigration support, and other related services.

To Process Applications: We process your personal data to assess applications, communicate with educational institutions, employers and other authorised stakeholders, verify eligibility, coordinate interviews or admissions, and facilitate the delivery of the Services requested by you.

To Verify Information: We may process your personal data to verify your identity, educational qualifications, employment history, professional credentials, supporting documents and other information where necessary for providing our Services or complying with legal, regulatory or contractual requirements.

To Communicate With You: We use your personal data to respond to your enquiries, provide customer support, send service-related communications, notify you of updates relating to your applications or account, and otherwise communicate with you regarding our Services.

To Improve Our Services: We may process personal data to analyse the performance of the BridgeBeyond Platform, improve our products and services, enhance user experience, develop new features, conduct internal analytics and maintain the security and functionality of our systems.

To Send Marketing Communications: Where permitted by applicable law or where you have provided your consent, we may use your personal data to send newsletters, promotional communications, information regarding our Services, educational opportunities, recruitment opportunities, events and other updates. You may opt out of such communications at any time.

To Comply With Legal and Regulatory Obligations: We may process your personal data where necessary to comply with applicable laws, regulatory requirements, judicial orders, governmental requests, contractual obligations, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

To Protect Our Business and Users: We may process personal data to maintain the security of the BridgeBeyond Platform, prevent fraud and misuse, investigate suspected unlawful activities, enforce our Terms and Conditions, protect our rights and interests, and safeguard our users, personnel and business operations.

7. Legal Bases for Processing

The applicable privacy and data protection laws provide for certain justifiable grounds for collection and processing of personal data, commonly referred to as the legal basis of processing. BridgeBeyond processes personal data on the following legal bases:

Providing Service — where processing is necessary to provide our Services or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.

Compliance with a Legal Obligation — where processing is necessary to comply with applicable laws, regulations or lawful requests from competent authorities, including protecting our legal rights, seeking remedies, and defending against claims.

Legitimate Interests — where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests or those of a third party, provided such interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms.

Consent — where you have voluntarily provided your consent for a specific processing activity and such consent is required under applicable law.

Protection of Vital Interests — where processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of you or another individual.

Public Interest or Official Authority — where processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority, where applicable.

8. Sharing and Disclosure of Personal Data

BridgeBeyond values your privacy and does not sell your personal data to third parties. We disclose personal data only where it is necessary for providing our Services, complying with applicable legal obligations, protecting our legitimate interests, or where you have authorised us to do so.

Educational Institutions and Employers: We may share your personal data with educational institutions, universities, employers, recruitment partners and other organisations involved in evaluating applications, facilitating admissions, recruitment, placement or workforce mobility services.

Service Providers: We may engage third-party service providers to support our business operations, including providers of cloud hosting, information technology, customer relationship management, communication services, payment processing, analytics, cybersecurity and other operational support services. Such service providers process personal data on our behalf and are contractually required to protect it in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Professional Advisers and Business Partners: We may share personal data with our professional advisers, including legal advisers, auditors, accountants and consultants, as well as trusted business partners and affiliates, where such disclosure is necessary for providing our Services, obtaining professional advice or supporting our business operations.

Government and Regulatory Authorities: We may disclose personal data to courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory authorities, immigration authorities, embassies, consulates, Healthcare Licensing Authorities or other governmental authorities where required by applicable law or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or protect the rights, property or safety of BridgeBeyond, our users or others.

Corporate Transactions: Where BridgeBeyond undergoes or proposes to undergo a merger, acquisition, restructuring, investment, financing or sale of all or part of its business or assets, personal data may be disclosed as part of that transaction, subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations and applicable law.

Other Disclosures: We may disclose your personal data where you have expressly authorised us to do so, where you request us to share your information with a third party, or where such disclosure is otherwise permitted or required under applicable law.

Where personal data is shared with third parties acting on our behalf, we take reasonable steps to ensure that such recipients process personal data only for authorised purposes, implement appropriate security measures, maintain appropriate confidentiality obligations and comply with applicable data protection laws and contractual requirements.

9. International Transfers

Given the nature of our Services, international transfers of personal data may be an integral part of providing overseas education, international recruitment, workforce mobility, immigration support and other related services. Accordingly, your personal data may be transferred to, accessed from or processed in countries other than the country in which it was originally collected.

Such transfers may occur where educational institutions, employers or business partners are located outside your country of residence; third-party service providers engaged by BridgeBeyond operate from another jurisdiction; the transfer is necessary for providing the Services requested by you; or the transfer is otherwise required or permitted under applicable law.

BridgeBeyond implements appropriate contractual, technical and organisational measures to safeguard personal data transferred internationally and endeavours to ensure that such transfers are carried out in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

10. Data Retention

BridgeBeyond retains personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including the provision of our Services, compliance with applicable legal, regulatory or contractual obligations, resolution of disputes and enforcement of our legal rights.

The retention period applicable to your personal data will depend on the nature of the information, the purpose for which it was collected, and the applicable legal or operational requirements.

Where personal data is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected, and there is no legal or regulatory requirement to retain it, we will securely delete, anonymise or otherwise dispose of such personal data in accordance with our internal retention practices and applicable law.

Where technically feasible and appropriate, we may retain information in an anonymised or aggregated form for statistical, research, analytical or business improvement purposes.

11. Information Security

BridgeBeyond is committed to protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the personal data entrusted to us. We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to safeguard personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to personal data.

These measures may include, where appropriate: access controls and authentication mechanisms; encryption and secure transmission technologies; network and application security measures; monitoring and logging of system activities; periodic security assessments and vulnerability management; employee confidentiality obligations and access restrictions; and business continuity and disaster recovery measures.

While we take reasonable steps to protect personal data, no method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure. Accordingly, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of personal data transmitted to or stored by us. Users are encouraged to take appropriate precautions to protect their account credentials and to notify us immediately if they become aware of any unauthorised access to or misuse of their account.

12. Cookies and Similar Technologies

BridgeBeyond uses cookies and similar technologies to ensure the proper functioning of the BridgeBeyond Platform, enhance user experience, analyse website usage and improve our Services.

Cookies may be used to: remember your preferences; maintain secure sessions; understand how users interact with the Platform; improve website performance and functionality; and support analytics and other operational purposes.

Where required by applicable law, you will be provided with appropriate notice regarding the use of cookies and the ability to manage your cookie preferences. Additional information regarding our use of cookies, including the categories of cookies used and the choices available to you, may be found in our Cookie Policy.

13. Marketing Communications

BridgeBeyond may use your contact information to communicate with you regarding our Services, educational opportunities, recruitment opportunities, events, newsletters and other information that may be of interest to you. Where required by applicable law, we will send marketing communications only where you have provided your consent or another lawful basis exists.

You may opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by: using the unsubscribe mechanism included in our communications; updating your communication preferences through your account (where available); or contacting us using the details provided in this Privacy Policy.

Please note that even if you opt out of marketing communications, we may continue to send you administrative or service-related communications that are necessary for providing our Services.

14. Recruitment and Candidate Information

Where you apply for educational opportunities, employment opportunities or workforce mobility programmes through BridgeBeyond, we may process your personal data for the purposes of evaluating your application, verifying your qualifications, facilitating recruitment or admissions processes, coordinating interviews, communicating with prospective employers or educational institutions, and providing related support services.

Where appropriate and in accordance with applicable law, your personal data may be retained after the completion of a recruitment or admissions process in order to: consider you for future opportunities that may match your qualifications or preferences; maintain records of previous applications and recruitment activities; respond to enquiries relating to previous applications; and comply with applicable legal, regulatory or contractual obligations.

Where required by applicable law, or where processing is based on your consent, you may request that your personal data be removed from our talent pool or candidate database by contacting us using the details provided in this Privacy Policy. Please note that educational institutions, employers and other organisations to whom your personal data has already been disclosed may continue to process such personal data in accordance with their own privacy policies and applicable legal obligations.

15. Children's Personal Data

BridgeBeyond's Services are generally intended for individuals who are capable of entering into legally binding arrangements under applicable law. However, certain education-related services may involve the processing of personal data relating to children or minors.

Where BridgeBeyond processes the personal data of a child, we shall do so in accordance with the applicable requirements of the laws governing such processing, including, where required, by obtaining verifiable consent from a parent or lawful guardian or relying on another lawful basis recognised under applicable law.

Parents or lawful guardians who believe that a child has provided personal data to BridgeBeyond without the necessary authorisation may contact us using the details provided in this Privacy Policy. Subject to applicable legal requirements, we will take reasonable steps to review such requests and, where appropriate, delete or otherwise address the personal data concerned.

16. Personal Data Breaches

BridgeBeyond maintains policies and procedures designed to identify, investigate, contain and respond to actual or suspected personal data breaches.

Where a personal data breach occurs, BridgeBeyond will take such steps as are appropriate to assess the nature and impact of the incident, mitigate its effects, and implement corrective measures to reduce the likelihood of recurrence.

Where required under applicable law, BridgeBeyond will notify the affected individuals and the competent regulatory or supervisory authority of a personal data breach within the applicable timelines and in the manner prescribed under such law. We encourage users to notify us promptly if they become aware of any actual or suspected unauthorised access to, disclosure of or misuse of their personal data or their BridgeBeyond account.

17. Changes to this Privacy Policy

BridgeBeyond may amend, update or revise this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our Services, business operations, applicable laws, regulatory requirements, technological developments or other operational requirements.

Where material changes are made to this Privacy Policy, we will take reasonable steps to notify affected individuals by publishing the updated Privacy Policy on the BridgeBeyond Platform or through such other communication channels as may be appropriate under the circumstances. The revised Privacy Policy shall become effective from the date specified at the beginning of this Privacy Policy unless otherwise stated.

18. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or the manner in which BridgeBeyond processes your personal data, you may contact us at:

EBSC Technologies Private Limited, 1/1, Pollock Street, Kolkata, West Bengal, India, 700001. Email: support@bridgebeyond.in

BridgeBeyond will endeavour to respond to privacy-related requests and grievances within the timelines prescribed under applicable law.