What MaCote collects, and why
MaCote only collects what's needed to show you where you stand against the programs and bursaries you care about: your cégep, your program, your session, grades you choose to enter, your confirmed or estimated R-score, the university programs you're targeting, and tags you choose yourself (volunteering, sports, arts, etc.) to surface bursaries you might qualify for.
Each category of data serves one specific purpose: your cégep and program filter your local foundation's bursaries; your grades feed your R-score calculation; your tags are used only for bursary matching. None of this data is used for a different purpose without your separate, explicit consent for that new purpose.
MaCote never asks, and never will ask, for: your income or your family's income, your financial situation, your credit standing, or any other data tied to your financial means. Bursary matching runs only on your cégep, program, session, and activity tags.
Before an account: your data stays in your browser
You can use MaCote — enter your score, see the programs you already clear, explore bursaries — without creating an account. In that case, everything you enter is stored locally in your browser (via localStorage) and never sent to a server. If you switch devices or clear your browser data, that local information is lost — that's expected.
Creating an account moves this data into storage tied to your account, so it persists across sessions and devices.
If you're under 14
MaCote is built for cégep students, generally aged 16 to 19. Quebec law requires parental consent to collect personal information from anyone under 14, unless the collection is manifestly for that minor's benefit.
If you're under 14 and using MaCote, or if a parent or guardian believes we've collected information about a child under 14 without parental consent, contact us at value to be confirmed before launch: we'll delete that information.
Default privacy settings
By default, none of your tags are selected, no target programs are added, and nothing in your profile is visible publicly or shared with other users. You actively choose every piece of data you add to your profile — nothing is pre-selected or defaulted to a less private setting.
Who can access your data, and where it's hosted
Nobody but you can access your grades, R-score, or program targets — this data is protected by access rules (Row Level Security) that restrict every account to its own data.
Technical hosting: value to be confirmed before launch. A privacy impact assessment will be completed before finalizing a hosting provider, particularly if any data leaves Quebec.
Your rights: access, portability, deletion
You can request a copy of your personal information in a structured, commonly used format (e.g. JSON), and you can request full deletion of your account and data at any time.
Right now, these requests go through email to value to be confirmed before launch rather than a self-serve button in the app — a self-serve tool is planned but not yet built. See LEGAL-REVIEW-NOTES.md for the exact status.
If a privacy incident happens
If an incident presenting a risk of serious harm affects your personal information, MaCote commits to notifying Quebec's Commission d'accès à l'information and the affected individuals, and to keeping an incident register, as required by law. See LEGAL-REVIEW-NOTES.md for this process's implementation status.
Person responsible for the protection of personal information
value to be confirmed before launch is responsible for the protection of personal information at MaCote. For any question or complaint, write to value to be confirmed before launch.