Searching for Scholarships Online: Protect Your Privacy

If you're going to be heading off for college, then you know how much scholarships can help with tuition. There are plenty of places to search online for scholarships, but you have to be careful about where you give your personal information. Many of the free scholarship search websites make their money by selling your name and other information, which means that you could be compromising your privacy by entering such information at unprotected sites. Research each website -- particularly their privacy policy -- before conducting your search.

In most case, searching for scholarships requires that you fill out a questionnaire or profile. In addition to requesting your name, your major and other information about the school of your choice, they will also request information that doesn't even relate to your scholarship search. Common questions include:

---Are you looking for a college credit card?
---Do you enjoy renting movies?
---Have you purchased furniture for your dorm room?
---Will you be looking for off-campus housing?
---How often do you use ____ website for shopping needs?

These questions are geared toward sending you offers and advertisements for various products, but it doesn't always stop there. Your e-mail address, phone number and physical address may be sold to other businesses without your consent. If the website has a privacy policy, it will probably give details for how your information is shared, but if there is no privacy policy, you should be careful about what information you give.

One of the best ways to search for scholarships online is to avoid answering questions that you don't like. In most cases, you'll have the option of "skipping this step", which allows you to opt-out of any offers and will probably keep your information confidential. Although you will probably be required to include your e-mail address, most won't demand that you enter your physical address or any other contact information. Rather than filling in those blanks, just skip over them and try to continue your search for scholarships.