Student Data: How We Collect, Use, and Share Your Data

 

We collect, use, share, and otherwise process your personal information through automated and other means as necessary to perform our contracts with you. We also give you the opportunity to increase your knowledge of graduate management opportunities, when you consent to us sharing your information with schools and other organizations, enabling them to learn about your aspirations and contact you about their programs, career opportunities, and other information related to graduate management education.  With your consent (if required), we may use your data to contact you via email, text, and other channels to inform you about products and services that we think would interest you.  

We may also collect, use, share, and otherwise process your personal information if doing so is reasonably necessary for a legitimate business interest, but only if we have carefully considered and determined that the use of your data has a minimal privacy impact on you, relative to the benefit gained.  We also consider whether we are processing your data in a way that you would reasonably expect, whether because we have informed you of that use, or a similar use, or because it is a typical way to use data.  Sometimes our use of your data directly benefits you, such as when we send you personalized recommendations for programs that you may be interested in as part of our free “My Recommendations” service or when we use your data to determine scholarship awards.  Sometimes using and sharing your data benefits schools and the field of graduate management education by providing insights about prospective students.  Other legitimate uses serve GMAC and other test takers, such as when we use video monitoring at our test centers to protect the integrity of our tests.

When we indicate that we may share your data, we may share it with organizations that may be outside of the country where you are located. These countries may have different privacy protections than the country where you are located.   When transferring your data, we use internationally-recognized safeguards.  See the table below for the safeguards we typically employ for common types of recipients.

Recipient

Typical Cross-Border Data Transfer Safeguards

Our vendors

  • When they are in a location designated by the EU regulators as having adequate privacy protections
  • When they are certified under the US’s Privacy Shield program
  • When they have signed model data privacy clauses approved by the EU regulators

Schools

  • To perform our contract with you, such as when we send your score reports to the schools you select
  • With your consent, when they are authorized to send you recruiting and marketing communications

Sponsors, exhibitors

  • With your consent, when they are authorized to send you recruiting and marketing communications

Researchers

  • When they are in a location designated by the EU regulators as having adequate privacy protections
  • When they are certified under the US’s Privacy Shield program
  • When they have signed model data privacy clauses approved by the EU regulators

 

To better understand how we collect, use, share, and otherwise process your personal data, including for our legitimate interests, continue reading our Privacy Statement below.

Account creation

We collect most information about you directly from you. To create an account on one of our websites (mba.com, gmac.com, nmat.org, businessbecause.com), we need your name, email address, and password so you can create and access your account. To provide you with access to certain products and services, you may be required to include additional information in your account profile.  

Candidate profile

When you visit one of our websites we may ask you to provide contact details, background information, and other information, so we can use that information and combine it with additional information to create your Candidate Profile.  Your Candidate Profile may also include information not directly provided by you, such as inferences based on the school pages you visit on our websites and your geolocation.  We use your Candidate Profile and other personal data for legitimate purposes, including research and development, communications, advertising, security, and corporate and legal matters, as well as sharing that data with the GMAC family companies and others for the same purposes.

To achieve our mission of providing the solutions necessary for schools and candidates to discover and evaluate each other, we may use data from your Candidate Profile to assist us in creating predictive models and tools.  We may also apply predictive models and tools to your Candidate Profile and other personal data to advance this mission.  For example, we may analyze data concerning your field of interest, selected schools, and preferred location of study to identify schools that might be a good fit for you and to enhance your opportunities to connect with them at one of our tour events. 

Sharing data within the GMAC family companies

GMAC believes that talent and opportunities should have no boundaries. Our mission is to provide the solutions necessary for schools and candidates to discover and evaluate each other from anywhere in the world. To facilitate these global connections, GMAC operates through several legal entities across the globe . 

GMAC family companies

Through these entities, we continue to invest in relevant solutions that give you access to meaningful information and opportunities.  For this purpose, we have a legitimate interest in sharing your personal information among the GMAC entities. Each GMAC entity has agreed to comply with internationally recognized data protection standards.  This should give you assurance that we will respect your rights and take appropriate measures to protect your information.  To obtain a copy of those measures, contact privacy@gmac.com.  

Examples of Inter-Company Data Sharing

BusinessBecause (a GMAC subsidiary)

to

Graduate Management Admission Council (US)

GMGC (India)

to

GMAC (US)

Our businessbecause.com website technology notices when you click on articles about schools in a specific region. That tells us that you might be interested in going to school in that region. BusinessBecause might share that information with its parent company, Graduate Management Admission Council, so when you visit mba.com, you can be guided to information about going to school in that region. We don’t restrict what you see, we just help you see what you might be interested in faster.

At an event hosted by our NMAT by GMAC assessment team, you might have answered a questionnaire telling GMGC (India) that you have several years of experience and think a full-time MBA program isn’t a good fit for you. Our GMGC (India) team might share that information with our Executive Assessment team at GMAC (US) to communicate with you about Executive MBA programs.

 

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