Privacy Policy

Introduction

Here at Let’s Begin Overseas Education Consultancy, we recognize the significance of your privacy and are committed to meeting your expectations while adhering to all relevant privacy and data protection laws concerning your personal and sensitive information.

We understand your interest in the details, but to simplify, here's an overview of our privacy safeguards:

• We only gather information necessary to assist with your requests and deliver personalized content tailored to your interests.

• Unnecessary information is not retained; we'll promptly delete it if we no longer require it.

• We aim to provide clear and straightforward explanations about how we handle your information.

• You have control over how and what information you receive from us.

• Your information won't be shared with third parties for marketing purposes without your awareness.

For more comprehensive insights into our privacy and personal information management practices, please refer to the remainder of this policy.

Who Are We? Let’s Begin is an organization dedicated to aiding individuals in pursuing overseas education. As part of this mission, we collect personal information from you. In this document, "We," "us," and "our" all pertain to Let’s Begin Overseas Education Consultancy.

Specific definitions for terms mentioned in this policy can be found in the 'Glossary' section at the end of this document.

Contact Details for Data Controller:

Let’s Begin Overseas Education Consultancy

2nd Floor, Pampana Plaza

Rama Talkies Road, Visakhapatnam, 530003, Andhra Pradesh

You can reach our Privacy Officer via email at ops@letsbegin.in. We will make every effort to provide a timely response to your inquiries.

International Education Information, Guidance, and Advisory Services

Our range of services for facilitating your overseas study endeavors encompasses counselling, application support, visa assistance, exam preparation, training, student expos, and seminars. When you register on our website (www.letsbegin.in), app, or social media, or sign up for an event, we will gather personal details like your name, email address, contact information, educational history, country of residence, nationality, preferred study destination, and your intended study timeline.

Should you inquire about study opportunities directly with a counsellor, utilize our services, or seek our assistance with your study application, we may request additional information, including educational qualifications, work history, occupation, areas of interest, professional affiliations, and documents to verify your identity, such as passport copies, proof of citizenship, or photographs. This may also involve sensitive information such as your racial or ethnic background (derived from your country of origin) or health and medical data if required for your visa application.

The collection of your personal information enables us to:

• Support your pursuit of educational opportunities abroad.

• Provide pertinent information on study options.

• Present you as a candidate to your preferred institutions across various educational sectors, all of which seek international students interested in studying in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, or other countries.

• Match you with course vacancies at your preferred institution and convey provisional offers.

• Aid you in advancing your career following the completion of your studies at an overseas educational institution.

• Extend opportunities to participate in projects and programs as consultants.

• Solicit your feedback and testimonials regarding your experiences.

• Inform and update students, institutions, and other clients on developments in our services, including events and participation opportunities.

• Conduct research for statistical, analytical, and training purposes.

• Manage our internal business operations and events.

• Address your inquiries.

Essential Student Services: Let’s Begin offers supplementary services through third-party providers to support your overseas studies, which we refer to as Student Services. These services encompass Health Cover guidance, exam preparation, application support, shortlisting, accommodation arrangements, referral services, visa application assistance, and career skills training.

When you access these student services, we may collect personal details such as your name, date of birth, financial information, and sensitive information, such as health or medical information. However, please note that we do not retain payment information like credit card details.

The collection of your personal and sensitive information enables us to:

• Provide the health insurance provider you nominate with all the necessary information for your insurance.

• Facilitate your accommodation arrangements with third-party providers.

Australian Visa Application Services: We extend visa application services for Australian visas, guiding you through the application process and assisting in the preparation of essential documents for your chosen visa application. These visa application services encompass applications required for study. The collection of your personal and sensitive information, including information from your medical examination, enables us to:

• Assist you in your student visa application for Australia, including liaising with the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and other relevant organizations on your behalf to discuss your application.

• Supply the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) with all necessary information for your visa application.

• Act on your behalf to contact the DHA or other organizations to discuss or inquire about your visa application.

• Keep you informed about the progress of your visa application and communicate the outcome to you.

Keep in mind that Australian visas will be processed by Universities’ trusted partners but not directly by us.

Data Retention: At Let’s Begin, our vision is to create a global community of interconnected students, guiding them from the classroom to their careers. As a result, we aim to stay in touch for as long as you desire to hear from us. However, we will only retain your information for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was provided.

As a general guideline, we will retain your personal information for up to 7 years after commencing your studies or your last interaction with us, allowing us to continue supporting you throughout your journey unless legal or regulatory requirements necessitate a longer retention period.

Let’s Begin arranges a variety of events and conferences associated with international education and the assessment of English language teaching, which may be organized or presented by Let’s Begin itself or by third-party organizers. This may be done independently or under contract for another organization. The information we gather is pertinent to your participation and attendance.

Registering for or Participating in an event

When you register for or participate in an event, we collect personal information including your name, mailing and email addresses, date of birth, contact information, residential status, educational qualifications, work history, occupation, areas of interest, and professional affiliations.

The collection of your personal information enables us to:

• Facilitate your event registration.

• Provide event-related services, such as listing you as a speaker in the program or including you as an exhibitor or sponsor in our exhibitor directory.

• Address inquiries from you before and after the event.

• Keep you updated on the event you registered for and any future events.

• Manage event operations, including meeting legal requirements.

• Gather customer feedback on our services to enhance existing or develop new services.

• Collect data on website and app usage for performance monitoring.

Data Collected during market research and insights

In line with our dedication to international education, Let’s Begin conducts market research to gather feedback from customers, potential customers, and other stakeholders. The information gathered through research serves various purposes, such as enhancing our services, developing new products or services, assessing customer satisfaction, understanding decision-making patterns, or testing reactions to products, services, or communication.

If you already have an established relationship with Let’s Begin, we may reach out to you via email to invite your participation in our research. If you are not a current customer, you might also receive research invitations through social media or similar channels. We collect personal information from research participants to facilitate incentives or entry into prize draws (by the terms and conditions of such draws).

Data Retention: For the sole purpose of market research, we do not retain personally identifiable information. Contact information collected for prize draws may be retained for up to 6 months, as stipulated in the prize draw terms and conditions, to allow for a re-draw if necessary.

How the information is collected 

We will exclusively gather personal information through legal and equitable means. This information can be acquired directly from you or a representative authorized by you, or it may be sourced from a third party, such as a licensed entity or a representative authorized by us to deliver services to you. You have the option to provide your personal information to us in person while utilizing our websites, app, and digital tools, or when engaging with us through social networks and various online platforms, such as using your Facebook or Twitter credentials.

The collection of personal and sensitive information will only occur when it is reasonably necessary for our business functions or activities, and we will seek your consent before gathering any sensitive information. When you engage with our services, it is essential to disclose your identity for us to efficiently provide the necessary assistance. Consequently, we do not accommodate the use of aliases or pseudonyms. If you access our websites or apps, we may also collect additional personal information in the form of your IP address and/or domain name.

How we use and disclose personal information

We will employ your personal information solely for the purposes for which it was initially gathered. Any alternative use or disclosure of your information will only occur if you have provided consent, if such use or disclosure is reasonably expected, or if it is mandated by law.

While we may utilize your personal information for our own direct marketing, we will always ensure that you have the option to opt out of receiving any future communications of this nature. We make use of Facebook Custom and Lookalike Audiences to present targeted advertisements to Facebook users based on factors like email addresses, phone numbers, and visits to our websites and app. Information collected from you may also be utilized for displaying advertisements to our intended user base.

Sharing with Others

We may share your personal information with overseas recipients, such as educational institutions located outside your home country, foreign visa agencies, IELTS test centers, professional organizations, commercial entities, or regulatory authorities. This is done when you seek our assistance for applying to study at these institutions or when disclosure is essential for verification purposes. The location of these overseas recipients depends on the specific institutions to which you apply or where verification is necessary.

For events or conferences, with your consent, we may disclose certain information collected through the online registration form, such as your name or email address, to sponsors for marketing purposes. This information is stored and accessed only as required to deliver our services to you. When we transfer data to offshore servers, it is subject to usage restrictions and protections against unauthorized access.

The information disclosed to overseas recipients encompasses any data you have provided us to facilitate the relevant services. By availing of our services, you grant us consent to share your personal information with the pertinent overseas recipient, as previously mentioned. Let’s Begin takes appropriate measures to ensure there are ample safeguards in place for the transfer of your personal information, including standard protective measures.

Data Protection

We implement practical technical and organizational measures to safeguard the personal information under our custody from interference, loss, unauthorized access, misuse, alteration, or disclosure, among other forms of abuse.

 These measures include:

• The upkeep of computer technology, security protocols, and processes, such as firewalls, network security configurations, encryption, password usage, and other relevant measures for electronic data protection.

• Regular updates to security systems and configurations to fortify our systems against malicious activities.

• Restricting data access to staff members who require it for conducting our business operations.

• Ensuring that all our employees are obliged, as a condition of their employment, to handle the personal information we hold with the utmost confidentiality.

Nevertheless, it is crucial to recognize that the internet is not entirely secure when you transmit information to us electronically. While we take reasonable precautions to establish a secure channel for receiving information, we cannot offer absolute protection to personal information before it reaches us.

Data Retention: When the personal information we gather is no longer necessary, we will securely dispose of it, delete it, or ensure its de-identification in accordance with our data destruction and de-identification policy. This is done unless we are legally obliged to maintain a copy of the personal information.

Rights

You have the privilege to request access to any of your personal information held by us, unless there exists a valid reason, as per the Privacy Act or Data Protection Act, for us to withhold such information.

Valid reasons encompass:

• Our suspicion of unlawful activity or involvement in serious misconduct that, if accessed, could potentially hinder the appropriate actions to be taken concerning the matter.

• The information requested contains evaluative data generated within our organization, related to a commercially sensitive process.

If your personal information changes or you believe the information we have on you is inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated, please get in touch with us so that we can amend our records.

• Right to Erasure: Upon your request, we will delete all data we hold about you, except for data that we are legally obligated to retain.

• Right to Restrict Processing: You possess the right to limit the processing of your data when you have exercised any of the aforementioned rights and it may take some time to process your request. For instance, when you contact us to update your details, you have the right to request a restriction until your details are updated.

• Right to Withdraw Consent: In instances where we have sought your consent for specific processing activities, you retain the right to withdraw this consent at any time by unsubscribing from our messages or by contacting ops@letsbegin.in.

• Right to Object: You are entitled to object to the processing of your personal data.

• Right to Avoid Automated Decisions and Profiling: None of our processing activities are solely automated, and decisions are not made without human intervention. While there are cases where we process data to analyze or predict behavior, we will seek your explicit consent when such processing involves your personal data.

• Right to Data Portability: If you have provided us with your personal data under consent or contractual obligations, you have the right to request the data you've supplied to us in a machine-readable format if you decide to transition to another data controller.

• Making a Request: Requests for access, correction of your personal information, or the exercise of other privacy rights mentioned above should be directed to The Privacy Officer via email at ops@letsbegin.in. All requests will receive a written response within a reasonable timeframe. As part of this procedure, we will verify the identity of the individual making the request before granting access or making any modifications. If we cannot fulfill your request, we will provide you with an explanation.

We have procedures in place to deal with your inquiries or complaints. If you have any questions about our policy or any complaint regarding the treatment of your privacy by us, please contact ops@letsbegin.in. If you feel we have intruded on your privacy or misused your data, you are able to complain.

Updates to this Policy: This version of the policy was published on 27 Oct 2023. From time to time we may update this privacy policy. We encourage you to take the time to review it any time you provide us with personal information.

We aim for there to be no surprises in our dealings with your personal information. If we make significant changes to the policy and we have your email address, we will send you an email informing you of these changes, how they may impact you, and reminding you of your privacy rights.

• Personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not, and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

• “We”, “us”, “Let’s Begin”, “Lets Begin” and “our” refers to members of the Let’s Begin Overseas Education Consultancy.