Privacy policy

Who we are

Admission Puzzle is run by Zinc Dynamics (Aitezaz Ahsan, sole trader), Cyprus. He is the data controller for the personal data described on this page. Privacy questions and requests: support@admissionpuzzle.com.

What we collect

• Your account. Your email address. Your password is stored only as a scrambled code that cannot be turned back into the password. If you use "Continue with Google", we receive your Google account's ID number and your email address — nothing else from Google.
• Your answers about yourself. Name, nationality, date of birth, where you live, the countries and level you want to study, your qualifications, grades, language tests and budget — and a phone number only if you type one.
• The documents you upload (transcripts, degrees, test results, letters, your CV and similar), and the details read from them. A detail only becomes part of your file after you check it and confirm it.
• What you write in the app. Your questions to Zinc and the answers; interview-practice answers and practice interviews; motivation-letter drafts; screenshots you give the form helper and the answers it produces; your own marks on checklists; and your answer to "can you show the visa money?" (yes, not yet, or not sure). We do not ask for bank statements.
• Your plan. Whether the full package is active and until when. No card number ever enters this app.
• Technical information. One login cookie (see Cookies). Your IP address is used for a short time, in the server's memory, to slow down password guessing and mass sign-ups; it is not saved in our database. Our hosting company keeps short-lived technical logs (such as IP address and the page requested) to run and protect the service.

What we do not collect: no advertising ID, no location, no contacts, no analytics or tracking tools from other companies. A photo you upload is stored exactly as you send it, including anything your camera wrote inside the file (some cameras add the place a photo was taken). We do not read or use that information.

Your passport

Today, a passport you upload is handled like your other documents: the file is stored on our server and read by the AI companies listed below, and the details (including the passport number) are saved in your file after you confirm them. You can delete it at any time on your Documents page.

We are changing this. The app is being rebuilt so that your passport is read on your own phone and only your nationality and date of birth are sent to us. This page will say so on the day that change is live.

We do not keep ID cards or bank statements. If one is uploaded, the reader recognises what it is, the app deletes the file, and no detail from it is saved — only a note that a file of that kind was removed.

AI reading

To read a document, write a draft or answer a question, the app sends what that feature needs — the uploaded file or screenshot, or the text you wrote together with the confirmed details of your file — to one of these companies and gets the result back. It never sends your password or your whole account.

• Mistral AI — France (European Union). Reads your documents and form screenshots, writes motivation-letter drafts and interview-practice feedback, and works out what a question to Zinc is about. Their terms.
• Google (Gemini API) — Google may process requests outside the European Union, including in the United States. A second reader: used when a document needs a more careful read, or when the first reader is not available. Their terms.
• Amazon Web Services (Bedrock) — European Union (Ireland region). A backup reader and writer, used only when the other two are not available. Their terms.

We ask first. Before anything of yours is sent to these companies, the app asks for your permission once, naming them. You can take the permission back at any time on your Profile page; from then on nothing new is sent, and you can still fill in your details by hand.

Whatever the AI reads is shown to you to check. Nothing it reads counts until you confirm it, and AI can be wrong. Zinc's answers are put together by our own code from your confirmed file and our checked sources; the AI company only works out what your question is about.

Training. We have switched off "use my data to train models" on our Mistral account. Google's terms for the European Economic Area say it does not use what we send to improve its products, and keeps it for a limited time only to detect abuse. Amazon does not give the makers of the models any access to what we send.

Why we may use your data (GDPR legal bases)

• Contract: to give you the service you signed up for — reading your documents, matching programmes, building your journey and your drafts.
• Consent: sending your documents and texts to the AI companies above. You can withdraw it at any time on your Profile page.
• Legitimate interest: keeping the service secure — slowing down password guessing, stopping abuse, and keeping safety copies so a fault cannot destroy your file.

Who else receives your data

• Render — hosts the app and its database in Frankfurt, Germany.
• The AI companies above — only what a feature needs, only to return the result to us.
• Google — only if you choose "Continue with Google", and only to sign you in.
• Namecheap and Google (Gmail) — carry the emails you send to our support address.

Each of these companies receives only the data its job needs, and each is required by its contract with us to give your data the same or equal protection as described in this policy. We have no other data-sharing relationships: no advertising networks, no analytics companies, no data brokers.

We never sell your data. And we never send anything to a university, an embassy or anyone else for you — you copy, paste and submit yourself.

Our own support staff can open your file when you ask for help, or when it is needed to keep the service working.

Where it is kept

Your account, your file and your uploaded documents are stored in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany). AI reading happens at the companies listed under AI reading; one of them, Google, may process requests outside the European Union, including in the United States.

How long we keep it

We keep your data while your account exists. You can delete any single document on your Documents page, delete your whole file but keep your login, or delete your account completely — all from inside the app, at Profile → Delete, with no email and no waiting. If you cannot log in, use the delete-account page.

Deleting removes your data from the live app at once: your login, your answers, every uploaded file, the details read from them, your matches, drafts, practice answers, form-helper screenshots and chats. We keep nightly safety copies of the database for 7 days, so a deleted account disappears from those copies within 7 days. Any other backup copy is erased within 30 days.

Your rights

• See and take your data: Profile → "Download everything we hold" gives you one file with everything in your record.
• Correct it: edit your details in the app at any time; re-check any document.
• Delete it: see above.
• Withdraw your permission for AI reading: Profile → AI reading. It does not affect the rest of your account.
• Object, restrict or ask a question: write to support@admissionpuzzle.com. We answer within one month.
• Complain: you can complain to your data protection authority — in Cyprus, the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection (dataprotection.gov.cy).

Cookies

One essential cookie keeps you logged in for up to 30 days. There are no advertising, analytics or tracking cookies. Your browser also remembers a few display choices on your own device (for example where you moved Zinc on the screen); they are not sent to us.

Age

You must be at least 16 years old to use Admission Puzzle. If we learn that a younger child has an account, we delete it.

Changes to this page

When what the app does with your data changes, this page changes on the same day, and the date at the top changes with it.

Contact

Questions about your data: support@admissionpuzzle.com · Support · Terms of use