Effective date: June 11, 2026 · Last updated: October 8, 2026
What changed on October 8, 2026 (free demo): we added Section 14, Free demo, for people who enter their information to access the free demo of License Ladder Online (Changes and Contact moved down one number), plus short notes about the demo in Sections 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 and 12. Section 03 now says that starting the free demo means you agree we may email you about License Ladder.
What changed on October 7, 2026: the AI assistant is now called Exam Coach. Nothing about how it works or how we handle your information changed.
What changed on October 3, 2026: the AI tutor is now called the AI assistant, and Section 02 no longer names a report button.
What changed on October 2, 2026: we added Section 05, The AI assistant (the sections after it moved down one number), plus short notes about the assistant in Sections 01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 08, 09 and 13.
01The short version
- We collect what we need to sell you the bundle, ship it, and run the apps (mobile and web), and not much else.
- We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it with advertisers or data brokers. No targeted-advertising cookies, period.
- Your study activity stays in your account and is used to power your own readiness score.
- If you enter your information to access the free demo, we keep it for 24 months after the last time the demo form is sent with your email address (a record of any calls or texts to you is kept longer, Section 14) and may email you about License Ladder (you can unsubscribe any time). Nothing you do inside the demo is saved, and none of it is sent to us except what goes with a question you ask Exam Coach (Section 14).
- If you use Exam Coach, our AI study helper, your questions go to an AI service run by Cloudflare to write the answer. We keep Exam Coach conversations for 30 days (90 if you report an answer), and neither we nor Cloudflare use them to train AI models. In the free demo, we don't keep them at all.
- You can ask us to show you, correct, or delete your data at any time, and we won't treat you differently for asking.
02What we collect
- Order information: your name, email, shipping address, and what you bought. Payment card details go directly to our payment processor; we never see or store your full card number.
- Account information: your email and password (stored hashed), and your chosen trade deck.
- Study activity: which cards you've flagged, practice-test results, time spent, and your readiness score. This is the engine of the adaptive system.
- Exam Coach conversations: the questions you type, Exam Coach's answers, which screen and study item you had open when you asked, how many questions you ask each day, your Exam Coach settings (like quiet mode and which welcome messages you've already seen), and any reports you send about an answer, including your note. In the free demo, questions and answers are not stored (Section 14).
- Free demo sign-ups: your name and email; your phone number, years in the trade, and when you plan to take the test, if you give them; whether you checked the call-or-text box; the exact wording you were shown and when you submitted; your language; and where you came from (the campaign tags in the link that brought you, the website that sent you, and the page you landed on). Our bot check also sees your IP address and browser details. The free demo creates no account and no password (Section 14).
- Device & usage data: basic logs like app version, device type, IP address (which gives us your approximate region), crashes, and pages visited on the site, used to keep things working and secure.
- Messages & submissions: anything you send us: support questions, and reviews or stories you submit (which we only publish with your permission).
We don't ask for, and you shouldn't send us, sensitive personal information like government ID numbers, health information, or precise location. That includes Exam Coach: please don't type personal details into it.
03How we use it
- To fulfill orders: process payment, ship the cards and guides, and give you app access on your phone or computer.
- To run the adaptive system: your flags and test results drive your personal study plan and readiness score (more in Section 04).
- To run Exam Coach: answer your questions about the study material, the exam, and the app, and keep daily limits fair. When you report an answer as wrong, people on our team read that answer and the conversation around it so we can fix the mistake (more in Section 05).
- To run the free demo and follow up: start your demo, email you about License Ladder, call or text you only if you checked that box, reply if you contact us, see which links and websites bring people to the demo, and learn whether the demo helps people decide to buy, by checking whether a demo email later appears on an order (more in Section 14).
- To support you: answer questions, handle returns and replacements, and honor the pass guarantee, which is why we keep your readiness-score history.
- To improve the product: aggregated, de-identified usage patterns (for example, which questions are most missed) help us improve the question bank. De-identified data isn't tied back to you.
- To keep things secure: detect fraud, abuse, bots, and account-sharing, including with a bot check on the free demo form.
- To send essential email: receipts, shipping notices, and important account or policy updates. Marketing email only if you agreed to it, for example by starting the free demo (Section 14), and every email tells you how to unsubscribe.
04The adaptive system & your study data
The adaptive system is the product, so here's exactly what it does with your data: it reads your own flags and test answers to decide which cards and questions you see next, and it computes your readiness score from your card mastery and practice results. That's it.
- Your study data is used to teach the system about you, not to profile you for ads, and never sold.
- Your readiness score is visible to you in the app, on your phone or computer, and syncs to one account. We look at it only if you ask us to (support) or when verifying a pass-guarantee claim.
- Exam Coach (Section 05) doesn't change your readiness score, your study plan, or your study history.
- If you delete your account, your study history is deleted with it (Section 09).
- In the free demo, your study activity stays in your browser tab and isn't sent to us, except what goes with a question you ask Exam Coach, like the answer you picked on a practice question you ask about (Section 14).
05Exam Coach
License Ladder Online includes Exam Coach, an AI assistant that answers questions about the study material, the exam, and the app. Here's exactly how your questions are handled:
- Nothing goes to the AI service until you ask. Exam Coach's welcome messages are built into the app. What you type goes to the AI service only when you send a question.
- What gets sent: your question, your recent messages with Exam Coach, which deck and screen you're on, your language setting, and the study content on your screen (like the card, guide section, practice question, or drill you have open, plus the answer you picked if you've already answered that question). Our own instructions and exam facts go along with it. We don't include your name or email, and we never send your personal notes or highlights.
- Who processes it: an AI model run by Cloudflare writes the answer. Cloudflare processes it for us as a service provider, doesn't use it to train AI models, and doesn't share it with its other customers. We've turned off logging for Exam Coach, so your questions and Exam Coach's answers aren't saved in Cloudflare's request logs.
- How long we keep it: Exam Coach conversations are deleted automatically after 30 days. If you report an answer as wrong, we keep a copy of that answer, your note, and the recent messages before it for 90 days so we can fix the problem. Our count of how many questions you ask each day is deleted after 35 days.
- In the free demo: your question, your last few messages, and the study item on your screen go to Cloudflare's AI service to write the answer, the same as above, but we don't store your questions or Exam Coach's answers, and nobody on our team sees them. We count questions (numbers only) to keep the demo within its limits (Section 14).
- Who sees it: you, and the people on our team who review reported answers, help you with a support request, or look into misuse or a technical problem. A copy of each report also goes to the workplace tools our team uses to review reported answers, and that copy is deleted on the same 90-day schedule. We may also use AI tools to help us review reported answers. We don't sell Exam Coach conversations or use them for advertising.
Exam Coach can make mistakes, and its answers aren't legal advice. The Exam Coach section of our Terms of Service explains more.
06Who we share it with
Only the service providers it takes to run the business, under contracts that limit what they can do with it:
- Payment processing (Shopify, which runs our checkout) to charge your card and prevent fraud.
- Shipping carriers to deliver the physical materials.
- Cloud hosting, email delivery, and analytics to run the site and app and understand aggregate usage.
- AI processing (Cloudflare) to write Exam Coach's answers, as described in Section 05, including in the free demo.
- Workplace tools our team uses to review reported answers from Exam Coach, including AI tools that help with that review, as described in Section 05.
- Bot protection (Cloudflare Turnstile) to check that a person, not a bot, starts the free demo. It sees your IP address and browser details.
- Google Workspace, where our team keeps a copy of free demo sign-ups so we can follow up.
- Resend, which sends the thank-you email after you start the free demo.
- Phone service (the business phone line our team calls and texts from), for people who check the call-or-text box on the free demo form.
We may also disclose information if the law requires it (we'll push back on overbroad requests), to protect our rights or users' safety, or as part of a business transfer like a merger or acquisition, in which case this policy still applies and you'd be notified of any meaningful change.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising as California law defines those terms. We have no advertising partners to send it to.
07Cookies & tracking
- Essential cookies keep the site working: things like remembering your cart and keeping you signed in. These can't be turned off without breaking the site.
- Analytics cookies tell us, in aggregate, how the site is used: which pages help and which confuse. We use these to improve the site, not to follow you around the internet.
- No advertising cookies. We don't use third-party advertising or social-media tracking pixels.
- Free demo: the demo sets no cookies of its own and uses no analytics. It keeps a short-lived demo pass and a few small settings, like your language, in that browser tab's session storage. None of it is personal, and the demo pass stops working when the demo ends, after 30 minutes without use, or after 2 hours. Cloudflare, which runs our hosting and the bot check, may set its own short-lived security cookies.
Your browser can block or clear cookies at any time. Because we don't sell or share personal information, opt-out signals like Global Privacy Control have nothing to opt you out of, but we honor the spirit of them by not tracking you for advertising in the first place.
08Your choices
- Marketing email: every marketing email tells you how to unsubscribe. This includes email we send after you start the free demo; we stop within 10 business days. Transactional email (receipts, shipping, account notices) still sends, because you need it.
- Calls and texts from the free demo: if you give a phone number on the free demo form, we call or text you about License Ladder only if you also check its box. Our first text asks you to reply YES, and we don't call or text again unless you do. If you don't check the box, we use your number only to reply if you contact us. Reply STOP to opt out, or write to support@licenseladder.com (Section 14).
- Free demo sign-up: email support@licenseladder.com to have it deleted.
- App notifications: turn push notifications on or off in your device settings.
- Exam Coach: using it is up to you. Nothing goes to the AI service unless you send a question. Quiet mode turns off most of its welcome messages. To have your Exam Coach conversations or reports deleted sooner than the times in Section 09, email support@licenseladder.com.
- Your data: ask us to show you, correct, export, or delete it; Section 10 explains how.
- Account closure: email support@licenseladder.com and we'll close your account and delete the data we're not legally required to keep.
09How long we keep it
- Order records: as long as tax and accounting rules require (generally up to seven years).
- Account & study data: while your account is active. When you close it, we delete this data within 30 days, except what we must keep for legal, security, or dispute reasons.
- Exam Coach conversations: deleted automatically after 30 days. A reported answer, with your note and the recent messages before it, is kept for 90 days, and so is the copy in the tools our team uses to review reports. Daily question counts are deleted after 35 days. If you close your account sooner, your Exam Coach conversations and reports are deleted along with the rest of your account data, and any copy of a report in our review tools is still deleted within those 90 days.
- Free demo sign-ups: deleted 24 months after the last time the demo form is sent with your email address, or sooner if you ask. If we call or text you, a short record of that is kept for 5 years after our last call or text, and a number on our do-not-text list stays there (Section 14). What you do in the demo and demo Exam Coach questions are never stored.
- Support messages: long enough to resolve the issue and a reasonable period after, so we have context if you come back.
- De-identified, aggregated data (like overall question-miss rates) may be kept indefinitely; it isn't about you.
10Your California privacy rights
If you're a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the CPRA) gives you the right to:
- Know and access the personal information we hold about you, including a portable copy;
- Correct inaccurate personal information;
- Delete your personal information, with limited legal exceptions;
- Opt out of sale or sharing (not applicable here, because we don't sell or share personal information);
- Not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights. Same product, same price, same service.
To make a request, email support@licenseladder.com with "Privacy request" in the subject. We'll verify it's really you (usually by confirming control of your account email), respond within 45 days, and extend once by another 45 days if the request is complex (we'll tell you if so). You can use an authorized agent; we'll still confirm the request with you directly. We extend these same rights to everyone, wherever you live.
We have not sold or shared personal information in the preceding 12 months, and we don't offer financial-incentive programs in exchange for personal information.
11Security
We use industry-standard safeguards: encrypted connections (HTTPS) everywhere, hashed passwords, encryption of data at rest with our cloud providers, and access controls so only the people who need customer data to do their jobs can see it. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach ever affects your data, we'll notify you and regulators as the law requires.
12Children
The Products are for adults preparing for a professional license: you must be 18 to hold a California contractor license, and 18 to buy from us or to use the free demo. The Products are not directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us personal information, email us and we'll delete it.
13Where your data lives
We're a U.S. business and your data is stored in the United States. Some service providers, like Cloudflare, run networks around the world and may process parts of it in other countries while delivering the service (for example, when Exam Coach writes an answer). If you use the Products from outside the U.S., you're sending your information to the U.S., where privacy laws may differ from your home country's.
14Free demo
You can try License Ladder Online in the free demo at webapp.licenseladder.com/demo. You enter your information to access the free demo, and it doesn't create an account. Here's what happens with what you enter:
- What we collect: your name and email; your phone number, years in the trade, and when you plan to take the test, if you give them; whether you checked the call-or-text box; the exact wording you were shown and when you submitted; your language; and where you came from: the campaign tags in the link that brought you (like utm_source), the website that sent you, and the page you landed on. We don't collect ad or click IDs.
- Bot check: Cloudflare Turnstile checks that a person, not a bot, is starting the demo. It sees your IP address and some details about your browser. To keep the demo fair, we also count demo starts and questions using a scrambled code made from your IP address, never the address itself, and we delete those counts within 2 days.
- How we use it: to start your demo; to email you about License Ladder, starting with one thank-you email; to call or text you only if you checked that box; to reply if you contact us; to see which links and websites bring people to the demo; and to learn whether the demo helps people decide to buy, which we do by checking whether a demo email later appears on an order. Starting the demo means you agree we may email you about License Ladder. Every email tells you how to unsubscribe, and we stop within 10 business days.
- Calls and texts: if you give a phone number and check the box, a member of our team may call or text you about License Ladder, including by automated text. Our first text asks you to reply YES, and we don't call or text again unless you do. Agreeing isn't required to buy. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help. If you don't check the box, we use your number only to reply if you contact us. We don't share your phone number or your text consent with anyone for their own marketing. If you reply STOP or ask us in any other way to stop calls or texts, we put your number on a do-not-text list and keep it there, even after the rest of your information is deleted, so we never call or text it again.
- Nothing you do in the demo is saved. The cards you rate, your answers, notes, highlights, and progress live only in that open browser tab while the demo runs, and they're gone when the demo ends. We never receive them, except what goes with a question you ask Exam Coach: when you ask about a practice question you already answered, the answer you picked goes along to help write the reply (see the next point), and it isn't stored.
- Exam Coach in the demo: your question, your last few messages, the study item on your screen, and the answer you picked if you already answered that practice question go to Cloudflare's AI service to write the answer, as Section 05 describes, but we don't store your questions or Exam Coach's answers, and Cloudflare doesn't use them to train AI models. We count questions (numbers only) to keep the demo within its limits.
- Who we share it with: only the service providers in Section 06: Cloudflare (hosting, the bot check, and Exam Coach), Google Workspace (the sheet our team uses to follow up), Resend (the thank-you email), our database host, and the phone service our team calls and texts from. We don't sell it or share it for advertising.
- How long we keep it: 24 months after the last time the demo form is sent with your email address, then we delete it automatically, including the copy in our team's sheet (that sheet's edit history can hold it for up to a month longer, until we replace the sheet with a fresh copy). A number on our do-not-text list stays there. If we call or text your number, we keep a short record of it (the number, when the box was checked and the wording shown, the dates of our calls and texts, and your replies) for 5 years after our last call or text, even if you ask us to delete the rest, so we can show we had your permission. To have it deleted sooner, or to stop calls, texts, or email, write to support@licenseladder.com. Your rights in Section 10 apply to this information too.
The free demo is covered by our Terms of Service.
15Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in a meaningful way, we'll update the date above and flag the change on this page before it takes effect. If a change would meaningfully weaken your rights over data we already hold, we'll ask for your consent rather than bury it.
16Contact
Privacy questions or requests: support@licenseladder.com (subject line "Privacy request" gets the fastest handling).