Privacy Policy
Effective date: 28 August 2026 · Last updated: 28 August 2026
CTI Group Worldwide Services, Inc. (“CTI Group”, “we”, “us”, “our”) respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, the legal basis on which we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have — wherever in the world you are.
We have written this in plain language on purpose. If anything here is unclear, email us and we will explain it.
1. Who we are and how to contact us
Controller: CTI Group Worldwide Services, Inc.
6600 NW 16th St, Suite 12, Plantation, FL 33313, United States
Privacy contact: compliance@cti-usa.com
CTI Group is an international workforce solutions company. Our role differs by programme, and that changes who is responsible for your data:
| Programme | Our role | Who else is a controller |
|---|---|---|
| BridgeUSA J-1 Exchange Visitor Program | Authorised third-party sourcing partner under written agreement with a sponsor designated by the U.S. Department of State (22 CFR 62.22(g)) | The DOS-designated sponsor and the host company are separate, independent controllers of the data they receive |
| Cruise ship placements | Recruiting partner to cruise lines under applicable maritime standards | The cruise line is a separate controller |
| Our own websites and marketing | Controller | — |
We are not a visa sponsor. We do not issue Form DS-2019 or Form DS-7002, and we do not decide visa applications. Those decisions rest with the sponsor and with U.S. consular officers.
2. What we collect
Information you give us
- Identity: full name as shown in your passport, date of birth, gender, nationality and citizenship, passport number and expiry
- Contact: email, telephone or WhatsApp number, home city and country, postal address
- Background: education and current enrolment status, institution, field of study, graduation date, work history, professional certificates, English proficiency
- Programme preferences: training track, preferred locations, earliest start date, availability, ability to fund programme costs
- Documents you upload: CV/resume, proof of enrolment or graduation, passport copy, certificates
- Prior immigration history you choose to tell us: previous J-1 participation, previous U.S. visa refusals
- Your communications with us: emails, form messages, notes from calls and interviews
Information we collect automatically
- Campaign attribution: which advertisement, post or page brought you to us
- Technical data: IP address, device and browser type, pages viewed, dates and times
- Cookies and similar technologies: see section 8
Information from others
- Sourcing partners, schools and agents who refer candidates to us, where you have agreed to that referral
- Sponsors and host companies, in the course of processing your placement
- Publicly available professional profiles, where relevant to a role you applied for
What we do NOT ask for on our website. We do not ask for health information, biometric data, racial or ethnic origin, religion, political opinions, trade union membership, sexual orientation, or criminal history through our public web forms. If information of that kind becomes necessary later in a placement — for example, a host’s medical clearance — it will be collected separately, with a clear explanation and, where the law requires it, your explicit consent.
We never ask for your password, and we never ask for payment through a web form.
3. Why we use it, and our legal basis
For anyone protected by the GDPR (or the UK GDPR), the legal basis for each purpose is:
| What we do | Why | Legal basis (GDPR Art. 6) |
|---|---|---|
| Assess whether you qualify for a programme | To tell you honestly whether to proceed | Steps at your request prior to a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Contact you, arrange and hold interviews | To progress your application | Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Share your details with a sponsor and host company | To obtain a placement decision and programme documents | Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Keep records required by the Exchange Visitor Program | U.S. regulatory duty binding on our sponsor partners and on us by contract | Legal obligation / legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(c), 6(1)(f)) |
| Prevent fraud and misuse of our name | To protect candidates from recruitment scams | Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Measure which campaigns and pages work | To spend our recruitment budget sensibly | Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)), or consent where cookie law requires it |
| Send you programme news you asked for | Because you opted in | Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) — withdraw any time |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed those interests against your rights and concluded they do not override them. You can ask us for that assessment.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
4. Automated processing and our eligibility screener
Our website may ask you a set of eligibility questions and calculate a score from your answers. That score decides only one thing: whether we invite you to book a call with a recruiter.
- It is not a decision about your eligibility for the J-1 programme. Eligibility is determined by a DOS-designated sponsor under 22 CFR Part 62, not by us and not by a website.
- It has no legal effect on you and does not deny you anything. If the screener does not open a booking, you can still register, and you can ask a human to review your situation by emailing us.
- Because of this, it is not “solely automated decision-making producing legal or similarly significant effects” under GDPR Art. 22. If you disagree, tell us and we will review your answers by hand.
5. Who we share it with
- The DOS-designated sponsor for your placement — currently one of Alliance Abroad Group, Inc., CIEE Inc., or Greenheart International dba Greenheart Exchange. The sponsor is an independent controller and applies its own privacy policy.
- The host company considering you, so it can decide on your placement.
- U.S. government authorities, where required: the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security receive exchange visitor data through SEVIS; consular posts receive visa application data.
- Our own offices and contracted sourcing partners involved in your recruitment.
- Service providers acting on our instructions (processors), including Zoho Corporation (forms, CRM, scheduling, meetings and email), Google (website analytics) and Meta Platforms (advertising measurement). They may use your data only to provide the service to us.
- Professional advisers, insurers and auditors, where necessary.
- A buyer or successor, if our business or part of it is transferred — with the same protections.
We do not disclose your information to anyone else without your instruction, unless the law compels us.
6. International transfers
CTI Group is based in the United States, our sponsors and host companies are in the United States, and our systems may process data in data centres outside your country. A J-1 placement cannot happen without your data being transferred to the United States.
Where we transfer personal data out of the EEA or the UK, we rely on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK Addendum) with the recipient; the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, where the recipient is certified; or Article 49(1)(b) — the transfer is necessary to perform, or take steps toward, the contract you asked us to pursue. You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards in place.
7. How long we keep it
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Registration and application records where you were placed | At least 3 years after the end of the exchange programme, as Exchange Visitor Program record-keeping requires (22 CFR Part 62) |
| Registration where no placement proceeded | 24 months from your last contact with us, so we can contact you if a suitable opportunity opens |
| Marketing consents | Until you withdraw, then a suppression record so we do not contact you again |
| Website and campaign analytics | 14 months |
| Financial and contractual records | As tax and corporate law requires |
When a retention period ends we delete the data or irreversibly anonymise it.
8. Cookies and tracking
Our sites use cookies and similar technologies that are strictly necessary to make pages work (session, security and preference cookies set by our website platform), and analytics and advertising technologies that help us understand which campaigns bring candidates to us.
The non-essential technologies currently running on cti-usa.com are:
| Technology | Provider | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 | Measures how visitors find and move through our site, so we can improve it and see which recruitment campaigns work | |
| Meta Pixel | Meta Platforms | Measures the results of our advertising on Facebook and Instagram |
You can control cookies through your browser, and you can opt out of Google Analytics using Google’s browser add-on. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may stop parts of the site working.
9. Your rights
Everyone. You may ask us to access the personal information we hold about you, correct it if it is wrong, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, receive it in a portable format, and withdraw consent at any time.
Exercising any of these rights will never disadvantage your application. We will not treat you differently, deprioritise you, or refuse you a programme because you asked.
Email compliance@cti-usa.com. We will verify your identity and respond within the time your law requires — 30 days under the GDPR, 45 days under California law, and sooner where we can. These rights are free to exercise.
If the GDPR or UK GDPR applies to you. You may also lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority, or with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. We would rather you came to us first, but you do not have to.
If you are in California (CCPA/CPRA). You have the right to know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, the sources, the purposes, and the categories of third party we disclose to — all set out in sections 2, 3 and 5 above. You may request deletion or correction, and you may appoint an authorised agent. We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. We do not discriminate against you for exercising any right.
If you are in another U.S. state with a privacy law. Residents of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas and other states with comprehensive privacy laws have comparable rights, including the right to appeal a refused request. To appeal, reply to our decision and we will escalate it.
If you are in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil or elsewhere. Comparable rights apply under Thailand’s PDPA, Vietnam’s Personal Data Protection Decree, Indonesia’s PDP Law, Brazil’s LGPD, and similar laws. Use the same email address and tell us where you are, so we can apply the right timescales.
10. How we protect your information
We use access controls, encryption in transit, multi-factor authentication on our business systems, and contractual protections with every processor. No system is perfectly secure, but we limit who can see your file to the people who need it to progress your application. If a breach ever affects your rights, we will notify you and the relevant authority as the law requires.
11. Children
Our programmes are for adults. Participants must be at least 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13 in the United States (COPPA). If you believe a minor has given us information, email us and we will delete it.
12. Fraud warning
CTI Group never asks for a payment that is not published on the relevant programme page, and never asks you to pay an individual. Every fee we charge is itemised on the programme page, as 22 CFR 62.10(a)(5) requires. If anyone requests a payment using our name, do not pay — report it to compliance@cti-usa.com and we will investigate.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. The “last updated” date changes when we do, and we will highlight material changes on this page. If a change materially affects how we use data you have already given us, we will contact you.
This page was prepared with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by CTI Group staff before publication.