Legal✦

Privacy Policy

Who operates QScout

QScout is operated by Henrique, an individual developer. QScout is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Queen's University.

What QScout collects

When you create an account, QScout stores your account email and password (via Supabase Auth), and the profile information you provide: your name, program, year, study stage, academic standing, financial need, residency, eligibility groups, preferred funding amount, career interests, and skills. QScout also stores which scholarships you've saved, their application status, and your notification preferences (deadline reminders and the weekly quick-wins email). Alongside these, QScout keeps a small amount of state so the app behaves sensibly between visits: which awards were already strong matches the last time you opened the home page, so it can show you what is new, and whether you have already seen each guided tour.

Sign-up security and IP addresses

To stop someone using the sign-up form to send repeated confirmation emails to an address, QScout counts recent sign-up and resend attempts per email address and per IP address. Those counters store the email address or the IP address the request came from, together with a count and a timestamp. They are used only for this rate limit, are never linked to your profile, and are not used to identify or track you.

What stays on your device

Your individual answers to scholarship-specific eligibility questions are stored only on your own device (browser local storage), never sent to QScout's servers, and are cleared automatically when you sign out. They are not synchronized across devices. QScout also keeps a temporary local cache of your profile so pages load without re-fetching it — this cache is cleared on sign-out the same way. PostHog, QScout's analytics provider, also sets its own cookie and local storage entry on your device to recognize repeat visits anonymously — this is separate from QScout's own storage described above and is not cleared when you sign out.

Who QScout shares data with

QScout uses a small number of service providers, and shares only what each one needs to do its job: Supabase for authentication and database storage (access is restricted to your own account via Row Level Security); Resend for delivering your sign-up confirmation code, deadline reminder emails, and the weekly nudge email; Google Gemini for the optional chat assistant — only if you use it: the messages you type into the chat, plus a limited set of profile fields (your name, program, year, study stage, academic standing, funding amount, interests, skills, and funding-route preferences). QScout itself never includes your residency, financial need, or eligibility-group answers in what it sends to Gemini — but anything you type into the chat is sent as-is, so avoid volunteering sensitive details there. The chat assistant runs on Google's free Gemini tier, whose terms allow Google to use what is submitted to improve its models — another reason not to type anything sensitive into it. Vercel hosts the application itself. PostHog collects product analytics (page views and interactions) to help improve QScout — no scholarship-profile fields are sent to it. QScout does not currently offer a way to turn analytics off from inside the app; if you want your analytics data removed, email the address below. Your browser's own Do Not Track or tracking-protection settings, and blocking third-party scripts, also prevent it. QScout does not sell your data or share it with anyone else.

Sensitive information

Residency, financial need, and eligibility-group (identity) questions are optional wherever QScout's matching logic allows it, and your answers to them are never shown publicly or to other users.

How long QScout keeps your data

Your account and profile are kept for as long as your account exists. QScout does not automatically delete inactive accounts, so if you are finished with QScout, ask for deletion using the address below rather than simply not signing in. Sign-up rate-limit counters are separate from your account and are not deleted with it; each counter is reset the next time the same email address or IP address is seen, so a counter for an address that never returns is simply left behind. Emails QScout has already sent you stay in your own inbox and are outside QScout's control.

Your rights

You can update most of your information yourself in Settings. To access, correct, or delete your account data, email qscout@sponch.dev — account data is deleted within 30 days of a verified request.

Governing law

This policy is governed by the laws of Ontario, Canada, and Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

Contact

Questions about this policy: qscout@sponch.dev.

Terms of Service

What QScout is

QScout is a scholarship discovery and eligibility assistant built for Queen's University students. QScout is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Queen's University.

Guidance, not a decision

Eligibility results shown in QScout are guidance to help you narrow down scholarships worth investigating — they are not a final award decision. The official scholarship description published by Queen's, and Queen's itself, are always the authoritative source. QScout does not guarantee that any listed award is currently open, unchanged from its published source, or accurately summarized.

No warranty

QScout is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind. QScout is not liable for missed deadlines, denied applications, or any decision made based on information shown in QScout.

Your account

You must provide accurate information and keep your account credentials secure. Each person may hold one account. You must be eligible to attend or be attending post-secondary study to use QScout's core features.

Acceptable use

Do not scrape, automate, or abuse QScout's services, misuse the chat assistant, or attempt to circumvent its access controls.

Ending your account

QScout may suspend or terminate an account that violates these terms. You may stop using QScout and delete your account at any time by contacting qscout@sponch.dev.

Changes to these terms

These terms may be updated from time to time; the "Last updated" date above reflects the most recent change. Continuing to use QScout after a change means you accept the updated terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Ontario, Canada.

Contact

Questions about these terms: qscout@sponch.dev.