Privacy Policy
This page explains what information Acadanow collects when you use acadanow.com, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have.
Who we are and what this policy covers
Acadanow publishes education news, scholarship listings, admission updates and study guides for Nigerian students. Our website is acadanow.com. The site was previously branded Realmina, and older pages or emails may still carry that name.
This policy covers the acadanow.com website, our email updates and any form you fill in on the site. It does not cover other websites we link to, or social media platforms where we also post.
In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Acadanow. “You” means anyone who visits the site or signs up for our updates.
Acadanow decides why and how your personal data is used, which makes us the data controller under Nigeria’s Data Protection Act 2023. For visitors in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we are the controller under the GDPR and UK GDPR.
We run a Nigerian education website. This page tells you exactly what we do with your information. If something here is unclear, email us and ask.
What information we collect
There are two kinds of information on this site. Information you choose to give us, and information that is recorded automatically when any browser loads a page.
Information you give us
- Your email address, when you sign up for scholarship and admission updates.
- Your name, if the signup form or a contact form asks for it and you fill it in.
- The message you write, when you contact us or leave a comment on an article.
- Anything else you type into a form, such as the course or level you are interested in.
You do not need an account to read anything on Acadanow. Giving us your email is optional, and you can leave at any time.
Information collected automatically
- Device and browser details, such as browser type, operating system and screen size.
- Your approximate location, worked out from your IP address at city or country level, not a precise address.
- Pages you view, how long you stay, and the links you click.
- The page that sent you here, for example a search engine or a social media post.
- Cookie and device identifiers set by us or by the third parties listed in this policy.
We do not ask for and do not want sensitive information such as your health details, religion, political views, bank details, BVN, NIN or examination numbers. Please do not send these to us.
Reading the site is anonymous to us. We only know your email address if you type it into a form yourself.
Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser. Some are needed for the site to work. Others help us understand how the site is used, or support advertising.
When you first arrive, a cookie banner asks for your choice. Until you accept, non-essential cookies are set to denied. We do this with Google Consent Mode v2, so analytics and advertising tools are told not to use cookies before you agree.
You can change your mind whenever you like. Open your cookie settings to review or withdraw your consent. You can also clear or block cookies in your browser settings, though blocking all cookies may break parts of the site.
| Category | What it does | Set by | Needs your consent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | Keeps the site working, remembers your cookie choice, and supports security and spam checks. | Acadanow | No |
| Analytics | Counts visits and shows which articles are read, so we know what to publish next. | Google Analytics 4, Microsoft Clarity | Yes |
| Advertising | Helps select and measure ads, and limits how often you see the same one. | Google and its advertising partners | Yes |
| Embedded content | Cookies set by videos or widgets from other sites when a page you open includes them. | The provider of that content | Yes |
Nothing optional runs until you tap accept. If you said yes and now want to say no, use the cookie settings link above.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4, measurement ID G-JNEHX5N4DS, to see how many people visit and which pages are useful. We also use Microsoft Clarity, which records how visitors scroll and click so we can find layout problems.
These tools report patterns across many visitors. We use them to decide what to write and to fix pages that confuse people. We do not use them to build a profile of you as a named person.
Both tools only run after you accept analytics cookies. If you decline, they stay switched off for your visit.
Google and Microsoft process this data as our service providers and under their own privacy terms. You can read how Google handles data at policies.google.com/privacy, and Microsoft at privacy.microsoft.com.
Advertising and Google AdSense
Acadanow is free to read, and advertising is how we pay for hosting and writing. We work with Google, including Google AdSense, to show ads on the site.
Google is a third-party vendor. Google uses cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies lets it and its partners serve ads to you based on your visits to Acadanow and elsewhere on the internet.
You can turn off personalised advertising at Google Ads Settings. More detail on how Google uses data from sites that use its services is at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Third-party vendors other than Google may also serve ads on this site in future. Where that happens, you can opt out of personalised ads from many vendors at optout.aboutads.info or youronlinechoices.com.
Advertising cookies only load if you accept them in the cookie banner. If you decline, you will still see ads, but they will not be personalised using cookies.
Ads keep the site free. You can say no to personalised ads and still read everything.
Email updates, Amazon SES and unsubscribing
You can give us your email address through the signup form on the site to receive scholarship alerts, admission news and deadline reminders. We only add an address when someone enters it on that form.
We send these emails using Amazon Simple Email Service, known as Amazon SES. Amazon processes the sending on our behalf and does not use your address for its own marketing.
Our email system records whether a message was delivered, opened or clicked, and whether it bounced or was marked as spam. We use this to remove dead addresses and to see which alerts are useful.
Every email we send has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. One click removes you. You can also email contact@acadanow.com and ask to be taken off the list.
We do not buy, sell, rent or swap email addresses with anyone. Your address is used to send you Acadanow updates and nothing else.
We email you only because you asked us to, and leaving takes one click. Your address is never sold.
How we use your information
- To publish and run the website, and to keep pages loading correctly.
- To send the scholarship and admission updates you signed up for.
- To reply when you contact us or leave a comment.
- To understand which articles help readers, and to plan what we write next.
- To show and measure advertising, which funds the site.
- To spot spam, abuse and attempts to break into the site.
- To meet legal obligations, and to deal with a complaint or legal claim if one arises.
We do not make automated decisions about you that have a legal or similarly significant effect, and we do not profile you to decide anything about your education or eligibility.
Our legal bases for using your data
The NDPA and the GDPR both require a lawful basis for each use of personal data. These are the bases we rely on.
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Email updates you signed up for | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Analytics and advertising cookies | Your consent, given through the cookie banner |
| Running the site, security and spam filtering | Our legitimate interest in keeping the site available and safe |
| Replying to your message | Your consent, or our legitimate interest in answering readers |
| Keeping records we are required to keep | Compliance with a legal obligation |
Withdrawing consent does not affect anything we did lawfully before you withdrew it.
Who we share information with
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with the service providers we need to run the site, and only for the purposes described here.
| Provider | What they do for us |
|---|---|
| Our web host | Stores the site and its database, and keeps server logs |
| Google Analytics 4 | Measures traffic and page performance |
| Microsoft Clarity | Shows how visitors scroll and click, so we can fix layout problems |
| Google AdSense and Google advertising partners | Select, deliver and measure advertising |
| Amazon SES | Delivers our email updates |
We may also disclose information if the law requires it, if a court or a regulator properly orders it, or to protect the rights and safety of our readers and our team.
If Acadanow is ever transferred to new owners, your data may transfer with it. This policy would continue to apply until you are told otherwise.
How long we keep information
We keep personal data only for as long as it serves the purpose we collected it for, then delete it or make it anonymous.
- Email subscribers: we keep your address while you are subscribed. When you unsubscribe, we remove you from the sending list and keep only the minimum record needed to make sure we do not email you again by mistake.
- Messages you send us: we keep them while we handle your question, and for a reasonable period afterwards in case you follow up.
- Analytics data: kept for the retention period set inside Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, after which those services delete it.
- Server and security logs: kept for a short period for troubleshooting and abuse investigation, then overwritten.
If you want to know how long we are holding something specific about you, email us and we will tell you.
How we protect information
The whole site is served over HTTPS, so what you send is encrypted in transit. Access to the website dashboard and the email platform is limited to the small number of people who need it, and those accounts are password protected.
We keep the website software and plugins updated, and we use spam and abuse filtering on forms and comments.
No website can promise perfect security, and we will not pretend otherwise. If a breach happens that puts your rights at risk, we will act on it and notify you and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission as the NDPA requires.
Your rights and how to use them
Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, and under the GDPR and UK GDPR if you are in the EEA or the UK, you have rights over your personal data.
- Access: ask what personal data we hold about you and get a copy.
- Correction: ask us to fix data that is wrong or out of date.
- Deletion: ask us to delete your data where there is no good reason for us to keep it.
- Withdraw consent: unsubscribe from emails, or change your cookie choice, at any time.
- Object or restrict: object to a use based on legitimate interest, or ask us to pause a use while a dispute is sorted out.
- Portability: ask for the data you gave us in a common machine readable format.
- Complain: take your complaint to a regulator if we fail you.
To use any of these rights, email contact@acadanow.com and say what you want. You can also reach us through our contact page. We will reply within the timeframe the law allows, and we may ask a question to confirm the request really comes from you.
Using these rights is free. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission at ndpc.gov.ng. Readers in the EEA or UK can complain to their national data protection authority.
Send one email asking for your data, a correction or a deletion, and we will handle it. You do not need a lawyer or a special form.
Children and young people
Acadanow writes about secondary school exams, university admission and scholarships, so we know many readers are students under 18. Anyone can read the site, and reading requires no account and no personal details.
Our email signup and contact forms are meant for people aged 18 and over. If you are under 18, please get a parent, guardian or teacher to agree before you enter your email address or any other personal detail.
We do not knowingly collect personal data from a child under 13. If we learn that a child under 13 has given us personal data without a parent or guardian agreeing, we delete it.
If you are a parent or guardian and you think your child has sent us personal data, email contact@acadanow.com and we will remove it.
Sending data outside Nigeria
Google, Microsoft and Amazon run servers in several countries, so some of the data described here is processed outside Nigeria, including in the United States and Europe.
The NDPA allows transfers abroad where the receiving country or organisation provides an adequate level of protection, or where another lawful condition applies. We use established providers that publish their data protection terms and, where relevant, rely on standard contractual clauses for EEA and UK data.
If you want to know where a particular piece of your data sits, ask us and we will tell you what we know.
Links to other websites
Scholarship and admission articles link out a lot, to university portals, funders, JAMB, WAEC and official application pages. Those sites are run by other people and have their own privacy policies.
We are not responsible for what another website does with your information. Before you fill in an application form on a site we link to, read that site’s privacy policy.
Be careful with any site that asks you to pay a fee for a scholarship or an admission slot. Acadanow never asks you to pay for a listing, and we never collect application fees.
Changes to this policy
We update this policy when the site changes, for example when we add a new tool or a new way to contact us. The date at the top always shows the current version.
If a change materially affects how we use your personal data, we will make it clear on the site, and we will email subscribers where that is appropriate. Continuing to use acadanow.com after a change means the updated policy applies to your visit.
Contact us
Get in touch
Questions about this policy, a request about your data, or a privacy complaint all go to the same place.
Email: contact@acadanow.com
Contact page: acadanow.com/contact
Write “Privacy” in the subject line and we will route it to the right person. We answer every privacy request, including a request to delete your data.