Privacy Policy

Who can use Career-PathGPS

Career-PathGPS is for students 14 and older. When students sign up, they enter their birth year, and whether they've had their birthday yet this year when that matters. If they're under 14, we delete the account and email address right away. We save the birth year with the student's account. The yes-or-no answer about their birthday is used only for this check and isn't saved.

What we collect

• Account details: email address, first name, birth year, whether the student is in high school or college, and a username and password. Passwords are stored only in a protected (hashed) form that no one can read.
• Quiz answers and results, the careers a student loves or isn't interested in, private notes they write on careers they love, and the fields of study and school programs they love.
• Preferences they choose to give, such as a ZIP code, city or state, willingness to move, and how they like to learn.
• Counselor chat: the student's most recent questions to the AI career counselor and its answers, so the conversation is there when they come back.
• Activity on the site, such as logins, sections finished and careers opened, used to see how the site is used and to improve it, and feedback the student chooses to give (a 0–10 rating and an optional comment).
• If a student starts signing up but doesn't finish, we keep only their email address.

When anyone visits, our server sees their IP address and browser. We use the IP address briefly to stop abuse, such as too many sign-in attempts, and don't save it with the student's account. We also count how many times each public page (the home page, career, education & training, parents and privacy pages) is viewed each day, without recording who viewed it.

How we use it

• To match students with careers and show what those careers pay and where to train for them.
• To save their progress so they can continue later on any device.
• To send sign-up and sign-in links by email.
• To keep the site secure and to understand and improve how it's used.

We will never sell a student's information.

Who else receives information

• Our AI service receives a student's quiz scores, school level, the location they entered, their top career matches and the questions they type, if the student uses the counselor chat. It never receives their name or email address. The explanations of careers on a student's results are written about the careers alone, with nothing about any student.
• The U.S. Department of Labor's career information service (named at the bottom of this page) receives the location a student enters, to look up local pay and nearby schools.
• Our email service receives the email address, to deliver sign-up and sign-in links.
• Invite a friend: a friend's email address is used once to send the invite. It isn't saved, and the email doesn't name the student who sent it.
• We may share information if the law requires it.

Students' information is never shown to other students or the public.

Sponsored listings

Career and education & training pages, both public ones and the ones students see when signed in, can show a listing from a sponsor, such as a community college, apprenticeship program or employer, labeled "Sponsored by" and the sponsor's name. The bottom of a student's results page can show a general listing too. We review every sponsor and every listing before it runs. Listings are chosen by the career or program on the page, never by anything about the student: nothing about the student is used or sent to choose one. They never appear in a student's list of career matches or change its order. Sponsors see only how many times their listing was shown and clicked; they never receive anything about students. When someone clicks a listing, they go to the sponsor's website, which has its own privacy policy. Some listings also have a contact email: writing to it opens your own email app, and the sponsor gets your message and email address as with any email you send. We don't see or keep that email.

If you advertise with us

For a sponsor account we keep the business's name and website, a contact name, the email address, a password (in protected form only), the listings and images you submit, our review decisions, and daily totals of how often each listing was shown and clicked. We use them to run, review and bill your listings, and email you about them. Read the advertiser terms and ad policy.

Cookies and storage on your device

We use one cookie to keep a student signed in. The site also keeps a copy of the student's progress in the browser so pages load quickly; it's cleared when they sign out. We don't use cookies to track visitors on other websites.

How long we keep it, and your choices

We keep a student's information until their account is deleted. Students can clear their answers and results at any time with "Start over" or "Retake the assessment", and can sign out to clear the copy on their device. To have an account and everything in it deleted, contact us below.

Passwords and sign-in links are stored only in protected (hashed) form.

Changes and contact

If we change this policy, we'll update it here and change the date at the top.

Questions about privacy, or a request to see or delete a student's information: email cmcisaac2011@gmail.com. We'll answer within 30 days.