Privacy Policy for: for the love of grad, LLC DBA Fearless Grad
Last Updated: February 3, 2026
The Short Version
We take your privacy seriously. Here’s the quick summary: we collect your information to help you through the PhD admissions process, we don’t sell it, and you can ask us to delete it anytime. We use cookies and tracking tools to improve your experience and understand how our marketing is performing. If you’re visiting from outside the United States, we’ve included information about your rights under international privacy laws, including the GDPR. If you’re a California resident, we’ve included your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The full details are below.
1. Who We Are
Fearless Grad is a PhD admissions consulting service operated by For the Love of Grad, LLC, located at 100 Orchard Park Dr. #25502, Greenville, SC, United States. When this policy refers to “we,” “us,” or “our,” it means For the Love of Grad, LLC, doing business as Fearless Grad.
Our website is accessible at www.fearlessgrad.com. When this policy refers to the “Service,” it includes our website, our PhD competitiveness assessment quiz, our consulting programs, email communications, podcast, social media channels, and any other platforms through which we interact with you.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Information You Provide Directly
When you interact with Fearless Grad, you may voluntarily provide us with personal information, including:
- Your name, email address, and phone number (when booking a consultation, filling out a form, or contacting us)
- Academic background information such as your GPA, field of study, research experience, and target programs (when completing our PhD competitiveness assessment quiz or during consulting sessions)
- Payment information (processed securely through third-party payment processors; we do not store your credit card details)
- Any other information you choose to share with us via email, Slack, phone calls, or during consulting sessions
If you prefer not to provide personal information, you do not have to. However, choosing not to may limit your ability to take full advantage of our services, such as our quiz or consulting programs.
2.2 Information Collected Automatically
When you visit our website or interact with our emails, we automatically collect certain information through cookies and similar tracking technologies. This includes:
Device and browser information (IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device identifiers)
Usage data (specific pages visited, time and date of your visit, time spent on each page, referring and exit URLs, click patterns, and documents or resources downloaded)
Navigation data (links you click within our site, links from other sites that brought you to us, and links from our site to external sites)
Cookie and tracking data (see Section 4 for full details)
Email engagement data (whether you opened an email, which links you clicked, and when)
We use this automatically collected information to understand how visitors use our site, improve the user experience, administer our online resources, and measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.
2.3 Information From Third-Party Platforms
We may receive limited information about you from advertising and social media platforms. This typically includes aggregated or anonymized performance data, but may include identifiers if you interact with our ads or content on those platforms.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
To provide our consulting services, including evaluating your PhD competitiveness, guiding your application strategy, and delivering our program materials
To communicate with you about your consultation, program enrollment, scheduling, and ongoing support
To send you educational content, newsletters, podcast updates, and promotional materials (you can opt out at any time)
To improve our website, services, and marketing effectiveness through analytics and usage trends
To run and optimize advertising campaigns across platforms like Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, and Google
To process payments and manage your account
To comply with legal obligations and protect our rights
We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not rent or trade it, either. Your information is used solely to serve you and improve our business.
We retain your personal information in accordance with applicable law and only as long as necessary to carry out the purposes described above. See Section 7 for more detail on data retention.
4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use cookies, web beacons, pixels, and similar technologies to understand how you interact with our website and marketing materials. These include:
Essential Cookies: Required for core website functionality, such as remembering your session and enabling secure access. Without these cookies, the services you have requested cannot be provided.
Analytics Cookies: Help us understand how visitors use our site, which pages are most popular, and how users navigate between pages. We use this data to improve the user experience.
Advertising and Retargeting Cookies/Pixels: We use tracking pixels from platforms including Meta (Instagram/Facebook), Reddit, Google, and YouTube to measure ad performance and show you relevant ads after you visit our site. These pixels may collect information about your browsing activity across other websites.
Email Tracking: Our email service provider may use small tracking pixels to let us know when emails are opened and which links are clicked, helping us improve our communications.
4.1 Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc., to help us analyze how visitors use our website. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect information such as how often you visit our site, what pages you visit, and what other sites you visited before coming to ours. We use this information to improve our website and your experience. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics is governed by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
4.2 Managing Your Cookie Preferences
You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies, and you can usually find these options in your browser’s “Settings,” “Preferences,” or “Privacy” menu. However, disabling certain cookies may affect your experience on our site.
4.3 Do Not Track Signals
Some browsers include a “Do Not Track” (DNT) feature that sends a signal to websites requesting that your browsing activity not be tracked. At this time, our website does not respond to DNT signals. However, you can manage your tracking preferences through the cookie and opt-out options described above.
5. Third-Party Service Providers
We work with trusted third-party providers to deliver and improve our services. These providers may have access to your personal information only to perform specific tasks on our behalf and are obligated to protect it. The categories of service providers we work with include:
Customer relationship management (CRM) and email marketing platforms
Website hosting providers
Website analytics services (including Google Analytics; see Section 4.1)
Each of these service providers has their own privacy policies governing how they handle data. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services you interact with through our website. We do not control and are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third-party services.
6. How We Share Your Information
We may share your personal information only in the following circumstances:
With service providers who help us operate our business (as described in Section 5)
If required by law or in response to valid legal requests from public authorities (such as a court order or subpoena)
To protect the rights, safety, or property of Fearless Grad, our clients, or the public
In connection with a business transfer such as a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets (you would be notified in advance and your personal data would become subject to a different privacy policy)
With your explicit consent
To be clear: we do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes.
7. Data Retention
We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. Specifically:
- Consulting client records are retained for the duration of our engagement and for a reasonable period afterward to support ongoing inquiries and improve our services
- Quiz and assessment data is retained to help us improve our tools and provide follow-up communications
- Marketing and email list data is retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion
- Usage and analytics data is generally retained in aggregated or anonymized form
When we no longer need your personal information, we will securely delete or anonymize it.
8. Your Rights and Choices
You do not have to provide personal information to enjoy most features of our website. Regardless of where you are located, we believe you should have control over your personal information. You may have the following rights:
The right to access the personal information we hold about you
The right to request correction of inaccurate information
The right to request deletion of your personal information
The right to opt out of marketing communications at any time
The right to object to or restrict certain processing of your data
The right to data portability (receiving your data in a structured, machine-readable format)
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond to your request within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request to protect your security.
To unsubscribe from marketing emails, click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any email you receive from us.
9. California Privacy Rights (CCPA)
If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This section applies specifically to you.
9.1 What We Collect
We may collect the following categories of personal information from California residents:
Identifiers (such as your name, email address, phone number, and IP address)
Personal information described in California Civil Code Section 1798.80(e) (such as name, address, and phone number)
Commercial information (such as services purchased or considered)
Internet or electronic network activity (such as browsing history, search history, and interactions with our website)
Professional or employment-related information (such as your academic background and research experience, provided voluntarily through our quiz or consulting sessions)
Education information (such as GPA, field of study, and target programs)
9.2 Your CCPA Rights
As a California resident, you have the right to:
Know what personal information we have collected about you and how we use it
Request that we delete your personal information
Opt out of the sale of your personal information (though we do not sell personal information)
Not be discriminated against for exercising your privacy rights
You may exercise these rights up to two times within a 12-month period by contacting us at [email protected]. We will verify your identity before processing your request to protect your security, and we will respond within the time frames required by the CCPA.
Sale of personal information: We do not sell, and within the last 12 months have not sold, the personal information of California residents to third parties.
10. International Users and GDPR
Fearless Grad serves clients around the world, including in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), and Switzerland. If you are located outside the United States, please be aware that your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your country. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure your data is treated securely and in accordance with this policy.
10.1 Your Rights Under GDPR
If you are a resident of the EEA or UK, you have additional rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK-GDPR), including the rights listed in Section 8 above as well as the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe we have processed your data unlawfully.
10.2 Legal Basis for Processing
Our legal basis for processing your personal data depends on the context:
Contract performance: When processing is necessary to provide our consulting services to you
Legitimate interest: When processing is necessary for our business operations, such as improving our services and marketing
Consent: When you have given explicit consent, such as opting into email marketing or completing our assessment quiz
If you would like to exercise any of your GDPR rights, please contact us at [email protected]. We will respond without undue delay and in accordance with the time frames prescribed by applicable law.
11. Data Security
We take the security of your personal information seriously and use commercially reasonable measures to protect it, including encryption, secure servers, and access controls. We have adopted a security program that includes technical, organizational, and administrative measures designed to protect against anticipated or actual threats to the security of your personal information.
However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we become aware that your personal information has been compromised, we will notify you and any applicable authorities as required by law. If you have concerns about the security of your data, please contact us.
12. Children and Minors
Our services are designed for adults pursuing graduate education and are not directed at individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will promptly delete it. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from anyone under the age of 18, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers.
13. Links to Other Websites
Our website and communications may contain links to third-party websites, including university program pages, social media platforms, podcast directories, and other resources. We are not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or policies of these external sites. These sites are not controlled by us and have their own privacy policies and terms of use. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any site you visit.
14. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. When we make changes, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page. For significant changes, we will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our website prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
15. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact us:
