Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 2024

Going Merry ("we," "us," or "Going Merry") is dedicated to protecting your privacy and handling any personal information you provide to us with care and respect. This privacy policy (“Policy”) explains the personal information we collect in connection with the Going Merry website ("Site") and mobile application ("App"), which we collectively refer to in this policy as the Services, as well as how we use and share that information.

By accessing and using the Services, you confirm that you have read and consent to the information practices described in this Policy. As explained below, this Policy may change, so please refer back to it periodically.

California consumers have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act. Our California Privacy Policy supplements the information contained in this Policy.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect the following categories of personal information from you when you use the Services. Unless otherwise noted, all information is options – voluntarily provided by you if you apply for a scholarship match. Actual types of information we collect vary depending on the scholarship or other award for which you are being considered.

  • Identifiers, such as your name and contact information. This information is collected when you create a Going Merry account, regardless of other Services you may request from us.
  • Personal Characteristics, such as age, gender, citizenship, ethnicity, religion, marital status, veteran or military status, or consumer health information. Further information about the collection of Consumer Health Information is described below.
  • Financial and Commercial information, such as your income.
  • Internet/Electronic Network Activity, such as your device ID, IP address, browsing history and interactions with our website. This information is collected when you visit the Going Merry Site or App, regardless of other Services you may request from us. This Activity is further described below.
  • Professional/Employment-related information, such as your employment history, place of employment, or career interests.
  • Education Information, such as school(s) attended, grade point average, college plans, and school activities.

We may also request information about organization memberships, involvement in community activities, personal essays, or video recordings. These are also optional and dependent on the scholarship provider’s application.

  • CONSUMER HEALTH INFORMATION

    We may collect health information from you, specifically medical conditions or diagnoses, in order to identify potential scholarships for you. Any health information you provide is optional only; you do not need to provide any health information in order to use this service. We do not use, sell, share, or otherwise disclose your health information to any entity except to those entities who offer scholarships to people with health characteristics that you provide. You may access your account at any time to update or delete any information you provide us or contact us at support@goingmerry.com to delete your account.


Regarding Internet/Electronic Network Activity, our servers also automatically collect and store certain technical information when you visit or use the Services.
  • Log Information – Our servers automatically record certain information your browser sends whenever you visit our Site and stores it in log files. This information includes your internet protocol (IP) address, browser type, browser language, refer/exit pages, your operating system, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser. We use this information to analyze trends, to administer the site, to track users’ movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.
  • Cookies – we use first and third party cookies, web beacons, local shared objects, and similar technology (“Cookies”) to collect information that can be used for various purposes as described in this policy, including to help us protect your account’s security, and allow us to personalize your Going Merry experience. We also use cookies to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our service. Cookies are small data files that may have unique identifiers, and reside, among other places, on your computer or mobile device, in emails we send to you, and on our web pages. Cookies may transmit information about you and your use of the Services, such as your browser type, preferences, data relating to advertisements that have been displayed to you or that you have clicked on, and the date and time of your use.

    The following is a list of the types of cookies that Going Merry and its third-party service providers use:
    • PROCESSES
      These Cookies make the Services work in the way you expect it to.
    • AUTHENTICATION, SECURITY, AND COMPLIANCE
      We use authentication and security cookies to prevent fraud, protect your data from unauthorized parties, and comply with a variety of data security, privacy, and other legal requirements.
    • PREFERENCES
      These Cookies help the Services remember information about how you prefer the Services to behave and look.
    • NOTIFICATIONS
      We use these Cookies to give us notice of information or options that we think could improve your use of the Services.
    • ANALYTICS
      These Cookies help us understand how visitors use the Services.
    • MARKETING
      Third-party Cookies may be used to display ads to you about our services. Some State laws permit you to opt-out of the use of third-party cookies. If you are a resident of California, please see our California Privacy Policy. If you are a resident of another state that permits you to opt out of targeted advertising, including through the use of third-party cookies, please contact us at support@goingmerry.com.

COOKIE MANAGEMENT

Generally speaking, web browsers automatically accept cookies by default. Some browsers have a “do not track” feature that lets you tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked, but doing so may affect your ability to use the Services. The method for disabling cookies may vary by device and browser, but can usually be found in preferences or security settings.

HOW WE USE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We use the information we collect to help you apply for scholarships and fill out the FAFSA form so that you can apply for financial aid. We also use this information for other purposes related to the Services, including:

  • To provide, maintain, protect and improve our Services, to develop new ones, and to protect Going Merry and our users;
  • To send you operational communications as well as to notify you about changes to our products or Services;
  • To troubleshoot or help solve any issues you might be facing;
  • To market products and services offered by Going Merry or our partners to you or others, including by email, direct mail, messaging, or in the Services themselves;
  • To offer you tailored content and evaluate the success of particular marketing campaigns;
  • To enforce or apply our Terms of Service;
  • To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it or otherwise give your consent;
  • To analyze how visitors use the Services and various features;
  • To conduct and report on certain analytical research, performance tracking and benchmarking through the use of anonymous, aggregated information; and/or
  • To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including retaining personal data or responding to any government or regulatory request.

INFORMATION WE SHARE

We share information we collect through the Services in the following ways.

  • SCHOLARSHIP AND FINANCIAL AID PROVIDERS
    By submitting an online application through Going Merry, you acknowledge and agree that we may disclose any and all of your information to the providers of the specific programs for which you are applying. We are not responsible for the use and security of the information once it is in the care or control of such third parties. These third parties may maintain an independent privacy policy with specific terms for applicants to their respective programs. In these cases, the terms contained within these independent policies supersede the terms of this privacy policy.
  • AFFILIATES
    Going Merry is part of the Navient family of companies, which includes Earnest LLC, Earnest Operations LLC, Earnest Home LLC, Navient Corporation and Navient Solutions, LLC and their respective subsidiaries, affiliates, agents, successors, and assignees. Going Merry shares information with our affiliates (companies related by common ownership or control) for a variety of reasons, including for Going Merry’s and our affiliates everyday business purposes and so that Going Merry and our affiliates can market products and services to you.
  • SERVICE PROVIDERS
    Going Merry outsources some of its functions to third-party service providers, such as data storage providers, platform administrators, mailing vendors, and analytics providers. We may share information from or about you with these third-party providers so that they can perform the requested services or complete your requests.
  • MARKETING PARTNERS
    We also share personal information with business partners in order to market products and services that may be of interest to you. For example, we may market our or our business partners’ products to you based on your personal information and we may share your information with our business partners when you express an interest in a particular product.
    In addition, from time to time, you may access our Site through the website of one of our marketing partners. We will try to show clearly whether a page is co-branded by placing our marketing partner’s name or logo in a prominent place or otherwise. If you provide your information on a co-branded page, your registration information may be shared with our marketing partner.
  • SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS AND OTHER THIRD PARTIES
    We may also share information with your school administrators or other third parties, when you have authorized or directed us to share your information with them.
  • LAW ENFORCEMENT
    We may disclose information from or about you if we have a good faith belief that such investigation or disclosure is (a) reasonably necessary to comply with legal process and law enforcement instructions and orders, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, judicial proceeding, or other legal process served on us; (b) helpful to prevent, investigate, or identify possible wrongdoing in connection with the Site; or (c) protect our rights, reputation, property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public.
  • AGGREGATED INFORMATION
    We may share aggregated, anonymized information with third parties, such as partners, service providers, and other third-parties. For example, we share aggregated, anonymized information with analytics providers and marketing partners for certain analytical research, performance tracking, and benchmarking. We and/or our third-party service providers may publish summary or aggregate results relating to metrics comprised of research data, from time to time, and distribute or license such anonymous, aggregated research data for any purpose, including but not limited to, helping to improve products and services and assisting in troubleshooting and technical support.
  • BUSINESS TRANSITIONS
    In the event we go through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, personal information will be among the assets transferred.
  • LINKS
    The Site may contain links to unaffiliated third-party websites. Except as described in this Policy, we do not share your personal information with them, and are not responsible for their privacy practices. We suggest you read the privacy policies on all such third-party websites.

PROTECTING YOUR INFORMATION

Going Merry takes your privacy and security seriously. Going Merry takes steps to safeguard your personal information through vigorous electronic and operational policies and practices, including through strong access control measures, defined service access points, and robust physical security measures. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to the Services. Even under the best of circumstances, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Any transmission of personal information is done at your own risk.

If you have any questions about security on our site, you can email us at security@goingmerry.com.

CHANGES TO PERSONAL INFORMATION

Your account profile information and certain additional data you provide is available to be reviewed through your online account. You can review and make changes to your profile information by logging into the Services and visiting your account profile page.

Unless prohibited by law, you may, upon reasonable notice, view any information collected from you through your visits to or use of our Site or Services, make corrections to such information if necessary, or request that such information be removed from our systems. You may do so by contacting us at the address indicated at the end of this Policy.

Certain information about you cannot be changed due to legal restrictions or requirements and we may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or cause the information to be incorrect.

COMMUNICATIONS FROM GOING MERRY

Going Merry may send you notifications regarding your account. You cannot opt out of these notifications as they are in place to comply with legal requirements and help protect your privacy and security, but you can opt out of certain marketing communications by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any marketing emails you receive.

CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

We do not intend to collect personal information from children under 13 years of age. If we learn that we have collected such information from a child under the age of 13, we will promptly take all reasonable steps to delete the data from our system.

We do collect and disclose the personal information of consumers between the ages of 13 and 15 solely in order to fulfill the services requested related to an account with Going Merry if an account is opened for a consumer in that age range, but do not process such data for purposes of targeted advertising, profiling the consumer, or selling the personal information.

LINKS TO OTHER SITES

This privacy policy applies to information collected on our site. The site contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by Going Merry. Please be aware when you leave our site and read the privacy statements of other sites that you visit.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

We will post any changes to the Privacy Policy on this page.

Any updates to this Policy become effective when we post the update on the Site and in the App and replace all prior Policy versions posted by Going Merry. We reserve the right to change our Policy. Your use of our Services following any update to this Policy means that you accept the terms of the updated Policy.

CONTACT INFORMATION

For additional information, or if you have any questions regarding this Policy or the privacy practices at Going Merry, please submit your questions or comments directly at: support@goingmerry.com.

California Privacy Policy

This California Privacy Policy supplements the information contained in our Online Consumer Information Privacy Policy, and applies solely to all visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California ("consumers" or "you"). We adopt this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this notice.

Other State Laws

You may have rights under the laws of your state of residence with respect to your personal information. This section describes these rights and how to exercise them, subject to exceptions as permitted under these and other laws.

The Right to Know
You have the right to request the categories of your personal information we have processed, and to obtain a copy of the personal data in a portable format.

The Right to Delete
You have the right to request deletion of personal information about you, subject to exceptions under the law such as maintaining the information to service your account.

The Right to Correct
You have the right to request correction of inaccurate information we may have about you.

In order to exercise the rights above, you may complete the Consumer Privacy Rights Request form, or call us at (888) 601-2801. We will need to verify your identity before processing your request and may therefore need to ask additional personal information from you. We only use this additional information to comply with your request.

We will respond to your request within 45 days of receipt. If we are unable to process your request within that time frame, we will inform you of the delay.

The Right to Opt-Out
You have the right to inform us that you do not want us to process your personal information for the purposes of targeted advertising, sell your personal information, or use your information to create a profile about you, as defined by applicable state law. We do not sell your personal information or create a profile. To opt out of targeted advertising, click here.

The Right to Non-Discrimination for the Exercise of Your Privacy Rights
You have the right to be protected from discrimination for exercising your rights under applicable state law.

The Right to Appeal
If we deny your request to exercise one of your rights above, we will explain the reason(s) why we cannot comply. You may appeal our decision by resubmitting a request and we will information you of any additional action we take and explain our decision within 60 days of receiving your request.