Privacy

Privacy policy

Last updated 21 October 2026

• Who we are
• What we collect
• Our product
• Cookies
• Who we share with
• Transfers
• How long
• Your rights
• Changes

1. Who we are

This website, meridianstanding.com, is run by Nikita Kotelnikov and Andris Otisons under the name Meridian Standing ("Meridian", "we"), based in Oslo, Norway. We are the controllers of the personal data described here.

Our company is being registered in Norway. Once it is, the company becomes the controller, and this page will show its legal name, organisation number and address.

Questions about privacy go to nikita@meridianstanding.com. We reply within one month, usually much sooner.

Norway is part of the European Economic Area, so the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, through the Norwegian Personal Data Act.

2. What we collect, why, and on what legal basis

When	What we collect	Why	Legal basis
You send the request form	University or college, your name, work email, phone number, and what you asked about (sample report, pricing, further services or contact). Optionally: the programmes and competitors you'd like in the sample report.	To answer you, prepare your sample report and arrange a call to present it.	Our legitimate interest in answering business enquiries (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).
You book a call	Your name, email, chosen time and anything you add to the booking.	To hold the call and send the invitation.	Steps you asked for before a possible contract (Art. 6(1)(b)), and our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)).
We email or speak with you	Your messages, our replies and notes from our conversations.	To follow up on your request and keep track of our discussions.	Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)).
Your institution becomes a client	Names, roles and contact details of the people we work with, and invoicing details.	To deliver the reports and calls, and to invoice.	Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) and legal obligations such as bookkeeping (Art. 6(1)(c)).
You visit the website	If you accept cookies: pages visited, referring site, approximate location and device type, linked to your form submission.	To understand which pages are useful and how visitors find us.	Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)). You can withdraw it at any time.

Where we rely on legitimate interest, we have weighed it against your interests. We only contact people at institutions about our services, in a business context, and you can object at any time; we will then stop.

The form needs the four contact fields so we can reply. Everything else is optional.

3. What our product does and does not collect

Meridian measures what AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity say about universities. We ask the engines questions written the way applicants ask them and analyse the public answers and the sources they cite.

These questions are written by us. We don't collect, receive or store personal data about students or applicants, and we don't need access to a client's systems or student records. If a client chooses the optional referral-traffic service, we use a read-only connection to aggregated website statistics. Those statistics contain no personal data.

4. Cookies

We use HubSpot to receive form submissions and, if you allow it, to measure visits. When you first visit, a banner asks for your choice. Statistics cookies are only set after you accept them. Strictly necessary cookies, such as the one that remembers your choice, are always set.

You can change your choice at any time: Cookie settings. You can also delete cookies in your browser settings.

The website's font is loaded from Google Fonts. To deliver it, Google receives your IP address. [Delete this paragraph once the font is hosted on our own server.]

5. Who we share your data with

We share personal data only with service providers that process it for us under a data processing agreement, and only as far as needed:

• HubSpot (customer database, forms, meeting booking, website statistics). Data stored in HubSpot's EU data centre in Germany.
• Google Workspace (email, calendar and video calls).
• Our website hosting provider (processes visitors' IP addresses in order to deliver the website).

We may also share data if the law requires it, or with our accountant for invoicing. We never sell personal data, and we never share it with the universities, directories or websites that appear in our analysis.

6. Transfers outside the EEA

Some of these providers are US companies or use US sub-processors. Where personal data leaves the EEA, it is protected by the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, where the provider is certified, or by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

7. How long we keep your data

• Enquiries that don't lead to a contract: deleted 24 months after our last contact with you, or sooner if you ask.
• Client contacts: kept for as long as we work together, then 24 months after the contract ends.
• Invoices and accounting records: kept as long as Norwegian bookkeeping law requires (currently five years).
• Cookies: for the period shown in the cookie banner, at most 13 months.

8. Your rights

You can ask us to:

• tell you what personal data we hold about you and give you a copy;
• correct data that is wrong or incomplete;
• delete your data;
• restrict how we use it;
• send the data you gave us to you or to someone else in a machine-readable format;
• stop using it on the basis of legitimate interest. If you object to being contacted about our services, we will always stop.

Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Email nikita@meridianstanding.com. We may ask you to confirm who you are before acting on a request.

If you think we handle your data wrongly, please tell us first so we can fix it. You also have the right to complain to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, Datatilsynet, or to the supervisory authority where you live or work.

9. Changes to this policy

We will update this page when our services or providers change. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change significantly affects you, we will tell you by email.