Privacy Policy
Who we are
Sermo is an independent app for University of Manchester students, developed and run by Fikret Dara Aktaş. It is open to students of every faculty. Sermo is not affiliated with or endorsed by the University of Manchester or any student society. For any privacy question, contact support@sermocampus.com.
What we collect
Your university email; your name; profile details you provide (faculty, subject or department, year of study, fee status, academic interests, social interests, career goals, whether you are open to mentoring and how many people you can mentor, bio, optional profile photo); a gender option, which you can leave blank unless you volunteer as a mentor (it is shown, as a badge to students choosing a mentor, only if you volunteer); modules you add and reviews or tips you submit; the societies you follow; checklist choices saved on your device; content you create (messages, anonymous questions and answers, polls, your votes on polls and answers, events you suggest, RSVPs, event check-ins, reports, the opportunities you save along with any application status and notes you add to them, and the list of people you have blocked); and a device push-notification token if you enable notifications. When you use Add to Calendar, Sermo opens your device's own add-event screen filled in with that event or date, and you decide whether to save it; on the web it downloads a calendar file instead. Sermo does not read your calendar, and nothing about it is sent to us.
How we use it
To run the service — matching you with a mentor, enabling chat, showing events and opportunities, sending notifications you have enabled, and keeping the community safe through moderation. Your faculty, subject, year of study and fee status decide which opportunities and scholarships you are shown, so you are not sent to a home-only bursary you cannot apply for. Your subject is also used to match you with a mentor on your course or in your field first. Fee status also sets an internal home/international marker that we use to help match you with students in a similar position. You tell us your fee status yourself: we never check it against university records, it is not a record of your immigration status, it is not shown on your profile, and we never use it for immigration or visa purposes.
Usage statistics
To see which parts of Sermo students use and what to improve, the app counts which screens are opened and when a few actions are completed, such as saving an opportunity, voting in a poll or sending a message (never what it says). Each count comes with the device model, screen size, operating system and app version, and a random code made on your device. The counts are not linked to your account and carry no name, email, account ID, location, or anything you write; there are no session recordings. Our analytics provider, PostHog, receives your IP address when the counts are sent but does not keep it, and stores the counts in the European Union (Frankfurt) for up to one year. You can turn usage statistics off at any time in Settings → Privacy → Usage statistics; the setting applies on the device where you change it.
About "anonymous" posts
Posts on the anonymous wall and polls are shown to other students without your name. However, your identity is stored privately and is visible to Sermo's moderators so we can act on abuse. Anonymous content is not anonymous to the moderators.
Legal basis
We process your data on the basis of your consent (which you can withdraw by deleting your account) and our legitimate interest in running a student community service. AI help with problems (see below) has its own consent, which you can withdraw at any time in Settings → Privacy. Usage statistics rely on our legitimate interest in improving Sermo, and you can turn them off at any time in Settings → Privacy.
Who we share it with
Data is stored using Supabase (our hosting and database processor) in the UK (London). Push notifications are delivered via Expo and Apple or Google. Account emails such as sign-up and password reset, and the emails you send to our support address, go through our email provider (Hostinger), and usage statistics (PostHog, in the EU) go to our analytics provider. Each of these providers processes your data only to provide that service to us, under a written agreement, and gives it the same or equal protection as this policy. Our website, sermocampus.com, including the web version of Sermo and the pages that the links in our emails open, is hosted by Vercel, which receives your IP address when you visit it; in a browser, Sermo keeps your sign-in and settings in that browser's storage on your device. The app and its servers send no personal data to any AI service. An AI model reads public web pages, such as employers' careers pages, to suggest opportunity listings: a person checks each new listing before it is published, and after that its dates follow the employer's page. Separately, the developer uses an AI assistant (Claude, made by Anthropic) as a tool when maintaining Sermo and looking into faults and reports. It is shown your account data, including anything of yours that someone has reported, only if you have allowed AI help with problems: Sermo asks the first time you contact support from Settings, the setting is off until you allow it, and you can change it at any time in Settings → Privacy. Without your permission it is never shown your account data. We never sell your data and do not use it for advertising or tracking.
Retention
We keep your account data while your account is active. Deleting your account (Settings → Delete my account) removes your profile, matching data, messages, posts and uploaded profile photos. Information that others have already seen or saved outside Sermo cannot be recalled.
Your rights (UK GDPR)
You can access, correct, export or erase your data, and object to processing. You can edit your profile and delete your account in-app at any time. For any other request, contact support@sermocampus.com. You may also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Security
Data is encrypted in transit and protected by row-level security so users can only access what they are permitted to. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable measures.
Age
Sermo is for current University of Manchester students aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18; if you believe we have, contact support@sermocampus.com and we will delete it.