Emerald Isle Global (a service of Emerald Welcome Centre, CRO No. 754759) Registered/Operations Office: The Mill Enterprise Centre, Newtown Link Road, Green Hills, Drogheda, A92 CD3D, County Louth, Ireland Website: www.emeraldisleglobal.ie Email: admin@emeraldisleglobal.ie

Last updated: 19/09/2026

1. Who We Are

Emerald Isle Global ("we", "us", "our") is an international student recruitment and education agency service operating under Emerald Welcome Centre. We help prospective students apply to universities, colleges, and secondary schools, and we assist with related arrangements such as transportation and accommodation bookings where requested. Our website address is www.emeraldisleglobal.ie.

This policy covers both (a) how we handle your personal data as a prospective or current student/client, and (b) how our WordPress-powered website itself handles data for any visitor — including comments, media, and cookies.

2. ICEF Confidentiality Commitment

Emerald Welcome Centre holds ICEF Agency Status and follows the ICEF Code of Conduct for the Ethical Recruitment of International Students, which requires us to preserve the confidentiality of all personal and business information entrusted to us by students, families, and institutional partners. This Privacy Policy sets out how we meet that commitment.

3. What Personal Data We Collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

• Identity information: full name, date of birth, nationality, passport/ID details, photographs
• Contact information: address, email, phone number, WhatsApp number
• Academic information: transcripts, certificates, diplomas, references, English test results (e.g. IELTS)
• Application information: course choices, personal statements, application forms
• Financial information: proof of funds, payment records for the €100 Registration Fee and any transportation/accommodation payments made on your behalf
• Immigration/visa-related documents: where relevant to your application
• Data relating to minors: where a student is under 18 (for example, secondary school applicants), we also collect parent/guardian contact details and consent records
• Website comments: if you leave a comment on our site (e.g. on a blog post), we collect the data shown in the comment form, plus your IP address and browser user agent string, to help with spam detection
• Gravatar data: if you comment using an email address registered with Gravatar, an anonymised hash of that email may be checked against the Gravatar service (privacy policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/) to display your profile picture alongside your approved comment

4. Why We Collect It (Legal Basis)

We process your data to:

• Assess your eligibility and prepare your application to institutions (performance of a contract)
• Submit your application and supporting documents to universities, colleges, or secondary schools on your behalf (consent / contract)
• Arrange transportation or accommodation bookings where you have asked us to do so and paid us to act on your behalf (contract)
• Process the €100 Registration Fee (contract)
• Comply with legal or regulatory obligations, including anti-fraud checks (legal obligation)
• Communicate with you about the progress of your application (legitimate interest / contract)
• Operate core website functions such as comments, login, and spam prevention (legitimate interest)

We do not use your data for automated decision-making that produces legal effects on you.

5. Who We Share Your Data With

We share personal data only where necessary, including with:

• Partner universities, colleges, and secondary schools you are applying to
• Visa and immigration authorities, where an application requires this
• Transportation and accommodation providers, only where you have instructed us to book on your behalf
• IT and CRM service providers who process data on our behalf under confidentiality obligations
• Professional advisors (legal, accounting) where required
• An automated spam-detection service, if you leave a comment on our website
• Your IP address, if you request a password reset for a website account — this is included automatically in the reset email as a standard WordPress security measure

We do not sell personal data to third parties. Institutions receiving your application will process your data under their own privacy policies, which we encourage you to review.

6. Data of Minors

Where an applicant is under 18, we collect and process their data only with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian. Parents/guardians may contact us at any time to review, correct, or request deletion of their child's data, subject to Section 8 below.

7. Data Retention

Application and case data. We retain the personal data of prospective and current students only for as long as necessary to:

• Complete the application and enrolment process
• Comply with legal, tax, or regulatory retention requirements
• Resolve any disputes or enforce our agreements

Where an application does not proceed, we will retain data for a reasonable period (typically up to 24 months) in case you wish to reapply, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.

Website comments. If you leave a comment on our website, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely, so that any follow-up comments from you can be recognised and approved automatically rather than held in a moderation queue.

Website accounts. If any users register on our website, we store the personal information provided in their user profile. Users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

8. Your Rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request erasure of your data (subject to legal retention requirements)
• Restrict or object to certain processing
• Request a copy of your data in a portable format
• Withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent
• Lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission (DPC), 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2, D02 RD28, Ireland (www.dataprotection.ie)

If you have a website account or have left comments on our site, you can request an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, or request that we erase it. This does not include data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at admin@emeraldisleglobal.ie.

9. International Transfers

Where an institution or authority you are applying to is located outside the European Economic Area (EEA), your data may be transferred internationally as necessary to process your application. We take reasonable steps to ensure such transfers are subject to appropriate safeguards.

10. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, or misuse. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Visitor comments may also be checked through an automated spam-detection service as an additional security measure.

11. Cookies

We use cookies for the following purposes:

• Comments: if you leave a comment, you may opt in to saving your name, email address, and website in a cookie for your convenience on future comments. These last for one year.
• Login (if applicable): a temporary cookie checks whether your browser accepts cookies when you visit a login page; it contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. If you log in, further cookies save your login information and screen display choices — login cookies last two days (two weeks if you select "Remember Me"), and screen-option cookies last one year. These are removed when you log out.
• Editing content (if applicable): an additional cookie may be saved when editing or publishing content, containing no personal data beyond the relevant post ID. It expires after one day.
• General site functionality: cookies to improve functionality and understand site usage.

You can control cookie preferences through your browser settings. [Adjust or expand this section further once you confirm which analytics tools, if any, the site uses, e.g. Google Analytics.]

12. Media Uploads

If images are uploaded to the website, visitors to the site can download and extract any location data (EXIF GPS) embedded in those images. We take care to avoid uploading images with embedded location data where this could compromise a client's privacy.

13. Embedded Content from Other Websites

Pages or posts on this site may include embedded content (for example, videos or images from other websites). Embedded content behaves in the same way as if the visitor had visited the other website directly.

These other websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that content — including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top will reflect the most recent revision.

15. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, contact:

Emerald Isle Global Email: admin@emeraldisleglobal.ie Address: The Mill Enterprise Centre, Newtown Link Road, Green Hills, Drogheda, A92 CD3D, County Louth, Ireland