Why Student Data Matters When the College Search Moves Online
GyanSanchaar says its admissions process is built around consent and sharing a student’s information only with the institution they choose.
A college application contains information that students and families may not want circulating everywhere: contact details, academic records and documents used during admission. Once that information is submitted online, the student should know where it is going and why.
That concern is increasingly relevant as education admissions move online. A student can fill in a form expecting to hear from one college and instead receive calls or messages from institutions they did not intend to contact. GyanSanchaar has positioned its admissions platform around a different approach.
The company’s stated process is consent-first. Under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, the platform’s material points to the requirement that consent for processing personal data should be free, informed and specific.
GyanSanchaar says its process is designed around that principle.
When a student chooses a college, their profile is shared with that institution for the specific application, with a timestamped consent record maintained for the action. The company says it does not broadcast the profile to a list of colleges or hand student information to third-party vendors.
That approach matters because an admission profile is more than a name and phone number. It can contain marksheets, certificates and other documents that students expect to be used for the purpose for which they provided them.
Students are also given the ability to withdraw consent and request access to, correction of, or erasure of their data. GyanSanchaar says it maintains a Data Protection Officer function to oversee this area.
For a student, the idea is fairly straightforward: choosing a college should also mean choosing who receives their information. That is particularly important for a platform working with students and families who may be using an online admissions service for the first time.
The data approach sits alongside GyanSanchaar’s broader admissions model. Students create one free profile, use it to apply to listed colleges and receive support from the team through WhatsApp up to the admission interview. When the student pays the admission fee, the payment goes directly to the chosen college.
The company’s emphasis on consent is therefore closely connected to the overall admission experience. Students are not simply completing an online form; they are trusting a platform with information connected to an important educational decision.
GyanSanchaar is operated by Sanchaar EduTech Private Limited, a DPIIT-recognised startup and Udyam-registered MSME based in Guwahati. The platform is live at gyansanchaar.com.
For the company, protecting student information is not presented as a separate feature. It is part of the basic trust that an admissions platform needs to earn from the people using it.
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Krishna Kumar Prasad PhD
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