1. The short version
- Kestrel does not sell your personal information.
- Kestrel does not sell your education, work, relocation, budget, roadmap, or community data.
- We use information to provide, secure, support, and improve the features you choose.
- Discord is optional, and Kestrel does not ingest full Discord message history, direct messages, private voice conversations, or unnecessary presence history.
- You may request access, correction, export, deletion, or disconnection, subject to verification and applicable exceptions.
2. Who we are and what this policy covers
Kestrel is a Mansa Merch LLC initiative. This policy applies to Kestrel websites, waitlist and account forms, member workspaces, official messages, subscriptions, support, and Kestrel-operated integrations.
It does not replace the privacy policies of schools, employers, government agencies, payment processors, Discord, linked websites, or other third parties.
3. Information you provide
Do not upload passport copies, banking credentials, account passwords, tax records, health records, or other highly sensitive documents unless a Kestrel feature specifically requests them and explains why they are needed.
- account details such as name, email address, profile image, age confirmation, and authentication records
- preferences such as study interests, work goals, target locations, time zones, accessibility choices, and notification settings
- route content such as saved schools, programs, roles, employers, destinations, comparisons, checklists, deadlines, notes, budgets, runway scenarios, and roadmaps
- support, feedback, safety-report, and official-message content
- billing contact, plan, entitlement, invoice, and subscription metadata when paid features are enabled
- Discord account identifier, username, connection status, policy acceptance, membership role, and role-sync history when you choose to connect Discord
4. Information collected automatically
We use this information for authentication, security, reliability, debugging, fraud prevention, accessibility, and aggregate product improvement. We do not use Kestrel route data for third-party targeted advertising.
Inside the member workspace, Kestrel also measures which pages and features are used, under a pseudonymous identifier derived from your account rather than your name or email address. This product analytics has no session recording and no automatic capture of clicks or keystrokes, and it never includes anything you type or save. It is on for new accounts and can be switched off at any time in Settings under Privacy and data; that choice is kept.
- IP address, browser, device, operating system, language, and approximate region
- pages and features used, referring URLs, timestamps, session events, and interaction metrics
- authentication, security, audit, provider-sync, error, and performance logs
- cookie or local-storage values needed for sessions, security, preferences, and product functionality
5. Payment information
When paid plans are enabled, a payment processor handles payment credentials. Kestrel may receive plan, customer, subscription, billing-status, invoice, tax, refund, chargeback, and paid-through metadata. Kestrel does not store full card numbers or bank-account credentials.
6. How we use information
- create, authenticate, and maintain your account
- personalize study, work, move, planning, resource, and accessibility experiences
- save comparisons, progress, checklists, budgets, deadlines, and roadmaps
- manage paid access, founding eligibility, billing status, and Discord roles
- send transactional, account, safety, subscription, and support communications
- answer requests, investigate reports, prevent abuse, and protect users and the service
- measure reliability and improve Kestrel using aggregate or deidentified analysis where practical
- comply with law, enforce agreements, and establish or defend legal claims
7. Legal bases for processing
Where law requires a legal basis, we process information to perform our contract with you, pursue legitimate interests such as operating and securing Kestrel, comply with legal obligations, protect vital interests in urgent safety situations, or act on consent where consent is the appropriate basis. You may withdraw consent for future processing where processing depends on consent.
8. Automated and assisted features
If Kestrel offers automated summaries, comparisons, recommendations, or drafting features, relevant route content may be processed to produce the requested result. We limit the data sent to providers to what is reasonably needed for the feature and apply provider terms and configuration appropriate to the service.
Kestrel does not use automated features to make final admissions, employment, immigration, credit, housing, insurance, or other legally significant decisions about you.
9. Discord boundary
Connecting Discord is optional. Kestrel may use limited account and role data to confirm policy acceptance, assign the correct community role, remove a role when membership changes, retry failed syncs, prevent abuse, and keep an audit record.
- We do not import full server message history into your Kestrel workspace.
- We do not ingest Discord direct messages or private voice conversations.
- We do not continuously monitor off-platform conversations.
- Discord processes data under its own privacy policy and account settings.
9A. Kestrel Apply, the browser extension
Kestrel Apply, the browser extension, is optional. It does nothing until you connect it with a key you generate in your Kestrel settings. After that it fills an employer's application form with details you have already saved in Kestrel and tells you what it filled and what it left alone, it saves a job posting from the page you are reading so Kestrel can tailor materials for it, and it records that you applied to a job when you tell it you did.
The extension never submits an application. Pressing submit is always yours, and because the extension does not press it, Kestrel cannot send an employer anything you have not read.
Kestrel Apply runs on Kestrel and on the application systems named in its store listing. On any other website it does nothing at all unless you open it and ask it to read the page you are on.
- The connection key is the only thing the extension keeps in your browser. It is held by the extension's background worker, which the websites you visit cannot read, and it is sent to Kestrel and to no one else.
- Your saved application details are sent into a page only to be typed into that page's form, only when you ask, and only on the application systems named in the listing. Nothing the page sends back to the extension carries them.
- When you ask Kestrel to save a posting, the extension reads that one page and sends its address, job title, employer name, location line, and description text. A posting saved this way is visible only to you, is never published in Kestrel's listings, and can be deleted from your workspace.
- When you tell Kestrel you applied, only the address of the page is sent, so Kestrel can work out which job you mean. The page is not read for this, and Kestrel has no way of knowing whether you pressed submit: the record is your own statement that you did.
- The extension contacts no service other than Kestrel. It sends no cookies, and it carries no analytics, advertising, tracking, or remotely loaded code.
- Kestrel does not receive the other pages you visit, your browsing history, your bookmarks, or the contents of any form you fill in yourself.
- Disconnecting a browser in Kestrel settings revokes that key, and the extension stops working on that browser until you connect it again.
11. Public, shared, and community information
Information you choose to post in a Discord channel, public event, shared record, or other community space may be visible to other participants and may be copied or reshared by them. Use care before posting personal, travel, financial, identity, or location information.
Kestrel cannot control screenshots, exports, or off-platform use by another member, but may enforce its policies when credible evidence shows harmful conduct affecting the community.
12. How we protect information
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed for the sensitivity and context of the information, including access controls, encrypted transport, server-side secrets, audit records, provider boundaries, and owner-scoped data access.
No service can guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for protecting your credentials, using secure devices, reviewing connected accounts, and telling us about suspected unauthorized access.
13. Retention and deletion
We retain information for as long as your account is active or as reasonably needed to provide the service, preserve source and audit history, complete transactions, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, prevent fraud and abuse, meet legal obligations, and maintain security.
Retention varies by category. For example, active route data may remain until you delete it or close your account; billing and tax records may be retained for legally required periods; security and role-sync logs may be retained to investigate abuse; and backups may expire on a delayed cycle.
When deletion applies, we delete or deidentify information within a reasonable period, subject to verification, legal holds, safety needs, provider backup cycles, and records we are permitted or required to keep.
14. Your rights and choices
Rights depend on where you live. We may verify identity and authority before fulfilling a request and may decline or limit requests where law permits. We will not discriminate against you for exercising applicable privacy rights.
- access or obtain a copy of personal information associated with you
- correct inaccurate information
- delete information, subject to applicable exceptions
- export supported account and route data
- disconnect integrations and revoke active sessions
- object to or restrict certain processing where applicable
- withdraw consent where processing depends on consent
- appeal a denied privacy request where applicable law provides that right
14A. Kestrel Line communications data
If Kestrel Line is enabled, we process assigned-number details, contacts you create, call and message routing metadata, message content, MMS media, voicemail audio, delivery and failure states, consent and opt-out records, usage balances, device or browser readiness, security signals, and provider references needed to operate and protect the service.
We do not support call recording. We do not expose telecom credentials, service-role keys, billing secrets, or raw provider identifiers to the browser. Administrative diagnostics are designed to show status and safe error information without showing message bodies or voicemail content.
Communications may be processed by approved telecom, storage, security, and billing providers in the United States or other service locations. Carrier and legal retention obligations may apply even after you delete a user-facing record or close Line.
- You control contacts, notes, blocking, eligible message history, and voicemail deletion through your account controls when available.
- Opt-out, abuse, fraud, security, payment, and audit records may be retained where reasonably necessary to protect users, providers, and the service or meet legal obligations.
- Browser voice tokens are short-lived; Kestrel stores an audit fingerprint rather than the usable token.
- Do not place Social Security numbers, financial credentials, passwords, passport images, or private portal credentials in messages or contact notes.
15. Communications choices
You may unsubscribe from marketing messages using the link provided. We may still send nonmarketing messages needed for accounts, transactions, billing, security, policy updates, safety, and support. Notification settings may control eligible product messages.
16. International data transfers
Kestrel is operated from the United States and is designed for people planning across borders. Information may be processed in the United States and in other countries where approved providers operate. Where required, we use recognized transfer mechanisms or other appropriate safeguards.
17. Children’s privacy
Kestrel accounts and community spaces are intended for adults age 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we learn that a person under 18 provided personal information, we will take reasonable steps to delete it and close the account.
18. Changes and privacy requests
We may update this policy to reflect changes in Kestrel, providers, operations, or law. We will update the date above and provide additional notice for material changes where appropriate.
For a privacy question or request, email hello@mansamerch.xyz with “Kestrel Privacy” in the subject line. Describe the request clearly, but do not email passwords, payment credentials, passport copies, or other sensitive identity documents unless we provide a secure verification method.