Privacy Policy

01Who we are

Path Plaza (SMC) Pvt Ltd, operating publicly as Path Plaza and listed as Path Plaza: Education & Visa Consultants, is a study-abroad consultancy based in Lahore, Pakistan. We provide education guidance, admission support, documentation guidance, and visa file preparation assistance for four destinations: United Kingdom, Turkey, Ireland, and Malaysia.

For the purposes of applicable data-protection law, Path Plaza (SMC) Pvt Ltd is the party responsible for deciding how your personal information is used ("data controller").

02What we collect

What we collect depends on how you engage with us. We collect only what is needed for the service you asked for.

2.1 Enquiry form information (you give us this)

• Identity & contact: full name, phone/WhatsApp number, email address, city.
• Study profile: current qualification, target destination, target degree, English test status (e.g., IELTS/PTE), preferred intake, budget range.
• Practical details: consultation preference (online/phone/in-person), decision-maker (student self / parent jointly / sponsor involved), and anything you type in the optional message box.
• History flag: a Yes/No answer on whether any visa application has ever been refused — or you may choose "prefer to discuss privately," in which case details are taken only in a private consultation, never on the public form.

2.2 Service information (only if you become a client)

If you proceed to a paid service, we ask for the documents your applications genuinely require — for example academic transcripts and certificates, passport copy, CV, personal statement, English test results, and financial/sponsor documents for visa file preparation. We tell you at each step why a document is needed before we ask for it.

2.3 Technical information (collected automatically)

• Form metadata: submission time, form version, the page you submitted from, and referring link.
• Marketing source data: campaign tags (such as utm_source, gclid, fbclid) that tell us which advert or link brought you to us.
• Site usage: standard analytics data such as pages visited, device and browser type, and approximate region (see Section 11).

2.4 Conversations

Records of WhatsApp chats, emails, calls, and consultation notes, so we can give you consistent advice and keep an accurate file for your case.

03What we never collect Important

04How we use your information

We do not use your information for automated decision-making, profiling that affects you legally, or anything incompatible with the purposes above.

05Consent & your choices

Our forms use two separate consent checkboxes — we never bundle them:

• Contact consent (required to submit): permission for us to contact you about your specific enquiry. Without this we cannot respond, so we do not accept the enquiry.
• Marketing consent (optional, unticked by default): occasional tips and updates. Skipping this box never reduces the service you receive.

Each consent is recorded with its source, the policy version you saw, and the date and time. You can withdraw either consent at any time by messaging "STOP" on WhatsApp, replying to any email, or writing to info@pathplaza.com. Withdrawal does not undo anything already done with your earlier consent.

06Who we share it with

We share personal information only when it is necessary for a service you asked for, and only the minimum needed:

• Universities, colleges, and pathway institutions — when you instruct us to apply, your application data goes to those institutions and, where applicable, their official application portals.
• Application channels and recruitment platforms — we may submit applications through verified application channels and trusted recruitment platforms, including the GeeBee/Unisetu partner network (use of any channel is subject to current verification, and we claim direct partnership only where a signed agreement exists).
• Visa and immigration authorities — where you instruct us to prepare a visa file, its contents are submitted to the relevant embassy, high commission, or official system by the official route.
• Our service providers — hosting, CRM (customer-record system), email, and analytics providers who process data on our instructions under confidentiality and security obligations.
• Legal requirements — to regulators, courts, or law-enforcement only where the law compels us.

07International transfers

Study abroad services cross borders by nature. When you instruct us to apply, your application data is transferred to institutions and authorities in your chosen destination country (the United Kingdom, Turkey, Ireland, or Malaysia) and to any application platform used for that route. These transfers happen because you requested the service, and are limited to what the application requires. Where we use service providers located outside Pakistan, we require them to protect your data to a standard consistent with this policy.

08How long we keep it

• Enquiries that do not proceed: kept up to 24 months so we can answer follow-ups, then deleted or anonymised.
• Client case files: kept for the duration of your engagement and up to 5 years after case closure, for record-keeping, reference if you return, and any legal or regulatory requirement.
• Marketing consent records: kept while the consent is active, plus a short suppression record so we honour your withdrawal.

You can ask us to delete your information sooner (Section 10). Retention periods are reviewed as Pakistani data-protection law develops; this section will be updated accordingly.

09How we protect it

• Access to client data limited to the people working on your case, on a need-to-know basis.
• Password-protected, access-controlled systems for records and CRM; sensitive documents handled through secure channels rather than public forms.
• No card payments are taken or stored through the website.
• Staff guidance and internal rules on confidentiality, honest file preparation, and never requesting your personal account credentials.

No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we will not pretend otherwise. If we ever become aware of a breach that affects your information, we will tell you promptly and tell you what we are doing about it.

10Your rights

You may, at any time and free of charge, ask us to:

• Access — confirm what personal information we hold about you and receive a copy.
• Correct — fix anything inaccurate or out of date.
• Delete — remove your information where we no longer need it for a service or legal reason.
• Withdraw consent — stop marketing or further contact (see Section 5).
• Raise a concern — complain about how your information was handled (see Section 15).

To use any of these rights, email info@pathplaza.com or WhatsApp +92 315 5009620 from the same number/address you used with us, so we can verify it is really you. We respond within 14 days.

11Cookies & analytics

pathplaza.com uses a small number of cookies and similar technologies:

• Essential cookies — make the site and forms work (for example keeping your form progress). These cannot be switched off.
• Analytics — privacy-conscious, aggregated statistics about which pages are visited, used to improve the website. Does not identify you personally.
• Advertising measurement — tags such as gclid/fbclid tell us which campaign brought you to us, so we know whether an advert was worth running.

You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings; the site will still work, though form convenience features may not.

12Students under 18

Many of our students are minors when they first enquire. If you are under 18, please involve a parent or guardian before submitting any form, and send enquiries through their contact details where possible. Where we learn we hold information submitted by a child without a guardian's knowledge, we will delete it on the guardian's request and continue the conversation with the family directly.

13Third-party links

Our website and messages link to university sites, official government and visa portals, and other external resources. We choose these links carefully, but their privacy practices are their own — once you leave pathplaza.com, their policies apply, not this one. Read their policies before sharing information with them.

14Changes to this policy

We review this policy as our services and the law develop. The version number and effective date at the top always show the current edition. Material changes are noted on this page before they take effect, and the consent version recorded with your enquiry always tells you which edition applied when you submitted it.

15Contact & complaints

Questions about this policy, your data, or a complaint about how it was handled:

We take privacy complaints seriously and answer them personally — you will receive a substantive reply, not an automated one, within 14 days.