Privacy Policy
Updated October 31, 2026. Questions or requests: privacy@wheretofindscholarships.com
This policy covers wheretofindscholarships.com, a free directory of scholarship websites and sources.
The short version
- The site is free. There are no accounts.
- We collect what you type into our forms, basic technical logs, and, if you accept cookies, the pages and sources you use on the site.
- We do not sell your personal information.
- If you accept cookies, one cookie links what you do on the site. Global Privacy Control turns it off.
- Ad cookies load only if you accept them in our cookie banner.
- To delete your information, email privacy@wheretofindscholarships.com.
Who this site is for
- Students 13 and older, and parents, guardians, and counselors.
- The site is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from them.
- To sign up for emails, you must confirm you are 18 or older, or a parent or guardian giving your own email for a student who is 13 or older.
What we collect
Email signup. Your email, the page you signed up on, your age confirmation, and when you agreed to get directory updates and the wording you saw. Agreeing to updates is required to sign up.
Claim a listing or report a problem. The listing, your answers, your message, the page you were on, and your email. Email is required for claims and optional for reports. If a link brought you here, we also save its campaign tags and the name of the website that sent you.
Source feedback. When you send source feedback, we save your answers with a random session ID, your role (student, parent or counselor) and your device type for 12 months to review responses and improve the site. We also save the page and your browser language. No name, no email, no sign in.
Automatic. Our hosting provider logs IP address, browser type, and pages viewed to run and secure the site. We also use privacy friendly analytics from our CDN, which do not use cookies.
Spam control. When you send a form, we keep a short code made from your network address with a key that changes every day. We delete it within 2 days.
We do not store your browser user agent with any form.
When you use Start Here, we save your answers (your county or school, your role and your field of study) for 12 months to improve the site and understand who uses it. If you sign up for Get updates or send us feedback, we keep that for 12 months too.
If you answer “Do any of these describe you?”, such as gender, race or ethnicity, that answer stays in this browser and is used only to sort your results. We don’t store it on our servers, and it is never included in share links or emails. You can remove it anytime with Forget or by clearing your browser data.
If you accept cookies, we link what you do on the site (your Start Here answers, the pages and sources you view, save, compare or print, shared or emailed results, and any feedback or forms you send) to a random ID in your browser, for up to 12 months, to understand who uses the site and improve it. We never link your gender, race or ethnicity answer, which stays in your browser. We never link anything for anyone under 13. You can reject cookies or use Global Privacy Control, and you can ask us to forget you at any time.
If you claim a source or report a problem, we keep that request for up to 24 months.
How we use it
- Send directory updates to people who signed up.
- Reply to your claim or report. Our team gets a copy by email so we can follow up.
- Review listings by hand. A claim never changes a listing or a score by itself. We may contact you to confirm it.
- Improve our reviews of scholarship websites using source feedback. Feedback is not shown publicly.
- Run, protect, and fund the site, including display ads.
Signing up for directory updates does not sign you up for any other product or for paid service marketing.
Cookies and browser storage
Visitor cookie (wtfs_vid). We set one cookie named wtfs_vid only after you accept cookies or send us a form. It holds a random code, and we store only a scrambled (hashed) version. It lasts up to one year after your last visit.
- It is not used for ads.
- It is optional. Every form works without it, and blocking or clearing it never stops you from submitting.
- Your cookie choice controls it. If you reject cookies, we don't set it for browsing.
- If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we do not set or read this cookie when you send a form, and we remove any old one. GPC does not change your cookie choice.
- An older cookie from our earlier feedback form (sf_sid) is removed the next time you send a form or use Forget this browser.
Ad cookies. Our cookie banner covers ads and the visitor cookie. If you accept, we load Google AdSense to show ads. We ask Google to show only ads that are not personalized, but it may still use cookies or similar tools to measure ads and prevent fraud. If you reject, we do not load AdSense and no ad cookies are set. To change your choice later, use the cookie buttons under Forget this browser, or clear this site's data in your browser.
Stored only in your browser. Your Saved and Compare lists, your cookie choice, and your search, filters, and place on the page are kept in your browser. We do not receive them. Your search and place on the page clear when you close the tab. Clear your browser's site data to remove the rest. If you accept cookies, we also note which sources you save or compare and when, but not your full lists.
Forget this browser
This button deletes the visitor cookie, what we linked to it, and your saved Start Here answers. It does not unsubscribe you from Get updates. To delete your submissions, email privacy@wheretofindscholarships.com.
You have not chosen yet. Browsing is not linked until you accept.
Do Not Track
We do not respond to Do Not Track signals, because there is no common standard for them. Use Global Privacy Control or your browser's cookie settings instead.
We do not sell your information
We do not sell or rent your email or personal information to marketers, lead buyers, colleges, lenders, or anyone else for their own marketing. Ad networks that show ads on our pages are not given your email.
Who we share it with
Only service providers that help us run the site, and only for that purpose: our hosting and database provider, our email delivery and email providers, our CDN for analytics, and Google AdSense (only if you accept ad cookies).
We may also share information if the law requires it. If the site is sold or merged, we will give notice, and the new owner must follow this policy or let you delete your information.
Emails from us
- Directory updates go only to people who signed up for them.
- Some forms have an optional, unchecked box that lets us email you now and then for feedback, site updates, and invitations to new features, including accounts. We record when you gave or withdrew that permission and the wording you saw.
- Every email has an unsubscribe link, or use our unsubscribe page.
- When you unsubscribe, we add a scrambled code of your address to a do not email list so we never email it again.
How long we keep it
- Source feedback: deleted 12 months after you send it. Only totals that identify no one may remain.
- Claims and problem reports: deleted 24 months after their last status change.
- Visitor cookie link: deleted one year after your last visit, or soon after you use Forget this browser.
- Other linked visitor data: 12 months.
- Spam control codes: within 2 days.
- Email signups: kept for 12 months after the last time you signed up, then deleted. You can ask us to delete it sooner. Unsubscribing stops all emails right away.
- Do not email list: kept so we keep honoring your choice.
- Hosting logs: kept for a limited time by our hosting provider.
Your choices and rights
- Unsubscribe from any email at any time.
- Reject cookies in the cookie banner or with the buttons under Forget this browser.
- Turn on Global Privacy Control, or use Forget this browser, to stop the visitor cookie.
- Email privacy@wheretofindscholarships.com to see, correct, or delete your information. We reply within 30 days.
We honor these requests for everyone, wherever you live.
Security
All email addresses we store, including directory update signups and claim and report forms, are stored encrypted. We limit who can access our data. No system is perfectly secure.
Children
This site is not intended for children under 13. Please do not send us information about a child under 13. If we learn we have it, we will delete it. Parents can email privacy@wheretofindscholarships.com.
Changes
If we change this policy, we will update this page and the date above. For a big change, we will also email people who signed up.