1. Who we are
Ed-Options (“we”, “us”) is an education consultancy with offices at Opposite Emporium Mall, Johar Town, Lahore, Pakistan and Innovista Chenab, 2nd Floor, DHA, Multan, Pakistan. We operate the website edoptions.net, the student portal and related services. We are responsible for the personal information described in this policy.
Questions about privacy can be sent to info@edoptions.net or (+92) 301-2891111.
2. What we collect
| Category | Examples | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Contact details | Name, email, phone number, city or country | You, through forms, bookings and your account |
| Study profile | Level, subjects, destinations, intake, budget range, qualifications, grades, English test status and scores | You, through the study plan builder and portal |
| Documents | Passport, transcripts, certificates, test results, references, statements, financial evidence | You, when you upload them to the Document Centre |
| Application information | Shortlisted universities, applications, offers, stages, appointments, messages with counsellors | You and our staff, while we support you |
| Guardian details | Name and email of a parent or guardian, for students under 18 | You or your guardian |
| Technical data | A session cookie, a keyed hash of your IP address (for security and rate-limiting), browser type, and push-notification subscription details if you enable them | Your device |
We do not ask for, and you should not send us, passwords for other services or bank card numbers. Financial evidence for visa purposes should be shared only through the secure Document Centre.
3. How we use it
- To answer enquiries, schedule consultations and send confirmations.
- To build and update your study plan, shortlist and application tracker.
- To review your documents and give feedback, and to prepare applications and visa documentation at your request.
- To send service messages and reminders (by email, in the portal, or as push notifications if you turn them on).
- To keep the platform secure, prevent abuse and fix problems.
- To improve our guidance and services, using aggregated or de-identified information where possible.
- To send occasional updates about intakes and services, only if you opt in. You can opt out at any time.
4. Legal bases
Depending on where you live, data-protection laws may require a legal basis for each use. We rely on: your consent (for example, marketing messages, AI personalisation, push notifications); providing the service you asked for (counselling, applications, the portal); our legitimate interests (security, service improvement), balanced against your rights; and legal obligations where they apply. You can withdraw consent at any time without affecting earlier processing.
5. Who we share it with
- Universities, colleges and application systems you choose to apply to, only with your instruction.
- Test providers or official bodies only where you ask us to help with a specific step.
- Service providers who host our website, deliver email and (if enabled) provide AI processing, under contracts that limit their use of your data.
- Authorities when the law requires it.
We never sell your personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers.
6. International transfers
Studying abroad means your information may travel: to institutions in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the USA or Canada when you apply, and to service providers whose servers may be outside Pakistan. We share only what is needed and use providers with recognised security practices.
7. The AI assistant
The assistant answers study-abroad questions using Ed-Options information (our universities, guides and services) and, when enabled, a web search for current rules, with links to its sources.
If you are a logged-in student and have allowed it, the assistant can also read your own portal: your profile, applications and their stages, document statuses and reviewer feedback, appointments, notifications and shortlist. It never sees other students' records, and it cannot open your uploaded files. Staff using the assistant can only see the students they are already allowed to see, and those lookups are logged.
When AI processing is enabled, your question and the information needed to answer it are sent securely from our server to our AI provider (OpenAI). We ask the provider not to store it or use it for training. Web searches are made by the provider. Conversations are stored on our systems for quality and safety review. If you ask the assistant to pass your details to our team, it creates an enquiry only after you agree. You can turn off portal access for the assistant in Portal › Privacy & settings. The assistant gives general guidance only and never makes decisions about you.
8. Notifications
If you allow push notifications, your browser gives us a subscription address so we can send alerts (for example, “Your document was reviewed”). We store that address and which account it belongs to. You can turn notifications off in your browser or app settings, or in the portal, and we delete the subscription when it stops working.
9. How long we keep it
| Enquiries from people who don’t become students | Up to 24 months after the last contact, then deleted |
| Student accounts, plans and applications | While your account is active, and up to 36 months after your last activity, unless you ask us to delete it sooner |
| Uploaded documents | Until you delete them, or up to 12 months after your last application is completed |
| Security and audit logs | Up to 24 months |
We may keep some records longer if the law requires it.
10. How we protect it
- Encrypted connections (HTTPS) across the site and portal.
- Documents are stored privately, never at a public link, and downloaded only by you or staff assigned to your case.
- Role-based access: counsellors see only the students assigned to them.
- Passwords are stored as one-way hashes; sign-ins and forms are rate-limited.
- Access to records and documents is logged.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects you, we will tell you and the relevant authorities where required.
11. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or export your information, object to or restrict certain uses, and withdraw consent. Logged-in students can download their data and request deletion from Portal › Privacy & settings. Anyone can also email info@edoptions.net. We will respond within 30 days and may need to verify your identity. You may also complain to your local data-protection authority.
12. Students under 18
We welcome younger students who are planning ahead, with a parent’s or guardian’s involvement. Students under 18 should register with a guardian’s knowledge, and we may ask for guardian details and consent before providing application services.
13. Cookies
We use essential cookies: a session cookie to keep you signed in and protect forms.
Website analytics. On our public website (not in the student, counsellor or admin portals) we use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages help visitors. Analytics cookies are set only if you choose “Allow analytics”; otherwise Google receives limited, cookieless measurements under Google Consent Mode. We do not send your name, email, phone number, messages, documents or application details to Google, and page addresses are sent without search terms or filters. Advertising features are switched off. Google acts as our service provider; see Google’s privacy policy. You can change your choice at any time on our cookie policy page.
See our cookie policy for the full list.
14. Changes to this policy
We will update this page when our practices change, and tell registered users about significant changes by email or in the portal.
15. Contact us
Ed-Options, Opposite Emporium Mall, Johar Town, Lahore, Pakistan and Innovista Chenab, 2nd Floor, DHA, Multan, Pakistan
Email: info@edoptions.net · Phone: (+92) 301-2891111 · (+92) 302-2891111