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 if you volunteer as a mentor (shown as a badge to students choosing a mentor); modules you add and reviews or tips you submit; checklist choices saved on your device; content you create (messages, anonymous questions and answers, polls, 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.
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, 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. 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.
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.
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, and account emails such as sign-up and password reset are sent through our email provider. We never sell your data.
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
This app is for current University of Manchester students.