MiniApply
Last updated 8 October 2026
Privacy Policy
This policy explains what information the MiniApply app (the “App”) and miniapply.com handle, why, and the choices you have. MiniApply is published by Commercium Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16456125), 14/2e Docklands Business Centre, 10-16 Tiller Road, London E14 8PX, United Kingdom (“we”, “us”). We are the data controller for the information described here. Questions: hq@thecommercium.com.
In short. There is no account. Your profile and your searches are stored on your phone. To answer a search, the App sends your answers to our server, which researches it with an AI model and sends the results back. We keep no copy of your answers. To count your free search and your Intake Pass searches, our server keeps the App's random device ID and a count, nothing else. Anonymous usage statistics can be turned off in the App.
What stays on your phone
Your profile (level of study, grade band and English test score), every search you run (subject, countries, start date), the results, the pages that were read and your follow-up questions are saved in the App's storage on your device. They are not backed up to us. Deleting a search in the App, or deleting the App, removes them.
The App also creates a random identifier when you first open it (the “device ID”). It is not your Apple ID, advertising identifier or phone number, and it is not linked to your name.
What the App sends to our server, and why
| Information | Why |
|---|---|
| Your profile and search answers, the results already on screen and any follow-up question | To decide the next question, run the research, and check each programme's minimums against your grades and English score. |
| The device ID | To give each device one free search, and to stop abuse with a daily limit. We store the device ID with the identifier of the search that used the free search; the daily counter is kept in memory only. |
| Your Intake Pass, if you bought one | The App sends the App Store's signed record of the purchase (product, transaction number and dates; no name, card or Apple ID). We check Apple's signature and store the transaction number with a count of searches, for the pass's fair-use limit. |
| Saved programmes, if you have a pass | When the App checks your saved programmes, it sends the addresses of their pages and the words to look for. Our server reads those pages, answers, and keeps nothing. |
| Website addresses of universities | To fetch the small site icons shown next to sources, so your phone does not contact those sites for them. |
Our server processes these to answer each request and then discards them, apart from the device ID and pass counts described above. It does not store your answers, and it does not build a profile of you. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in providing the service you asked for, and, for the daily limit, in keeping it available to everyone.
Research results we keep
When a search finishes, our server keeps its results (programmes, deadlines, fees, entry requirements and the addresses of the pages they came from) for 24 hours, so that the same search can be answered instantly. These results describe universities, not you. They are stored under the search itself (level, subject, countries and start date), without the device ID, your grades or your English score.
Payments
The Intake Pass is sold through the App Store. Apple handles the payment and never shares your card details or Apple ID with us. Apple's privacy policy applies to the purchase.
Notifications
If you allow notifications, the App shows them itself, on your phone, when a saved programme's page changes. We do not use a push notification service and do not hold a notification token.
AI processing
We use OpenAI, L.L.C. (the OpenAI API) as a processor to search the web and read university pages. For a search, OpenAI receives your level of study, subject, countries and start date, and the text of the university pages our server reads. For a typed follow-up, it receives your question and the list of programmes on screen. It does not receive the device ID, your grades or your English score. Under its API terms OpenAI does not use this data to train its models and may keep it for up to 30 days to detect abuse. OpenAI is based in the United States; transfers are protected by the UK International Data Transfer Addendum and the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
Anonymous statistics
To see whether MiniApply works for people, our server may record anonymous events such as “a search was requested”, “results were shown” or “a follow-up was answered”, with counts like the number of programmes found and the level, countries and start date of the search. These events carry a one-way scrambled form of the device ID, never your answers in free text, your grades or your English score. We use Amplitude, Inc. (United States) as a processor to store and analyse them, under the same transfer safeguards. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in improving the App.
You can switch this off at any time: open the App, open the menu at the top left, tap About MiniApply and turn off Share anonymous statistics. From then on, our server records nothing about your requests.
Our servers and the website
The App's server and miniapply.com run on servers we rent. Like most websites, they keep standard logs (IP address, time, the address requested and the browser type) to keep the service secure and fix faults; these are deleted on a rolling basis. miniapply.com uses no cookies, no advertising and no third-party analytics, and it loads its fonts from our own server.
What we don't do
- No account, no sign-in, no contact details collected in the App.
- No name, email, card or Apple ID: payments stay with Apple.
- No advertising, no selling or sharing of data with advertisers, and no tracking across other companies' apps or websites.
- No location, contacts, photos or microphone access.
Children
MiniApply is meant for people researching university study, typically aged 16 and over. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly process their information.
Your rights
Under UK and EU data protection law you can ask for access to, correction of or deletion of your personal information, object to or restrict its use, and ask for a copy in a portable format. Because we keep nothing linked to you, most requests are met simply by deleting searches in the App or deleting the App. Write to hq@thecommercium.com and we will answer within one month.
If you are not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, helpline 0303 123 1113. If you live in the EEA, you can also contact your local data protection authority.
Changes
If we change how MiniApply handles information, we will update this page and the date at the top.