Privacy Policy

Our Commitment to You

LifeLeveled is built on trust. Many of our users are young adults learning to navigate independence, and we take the responsibility of protecting their data seriously. This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, and the choices you have. We comply with FERPA, COPPA, and state student data privacy laws including Texas Education Code Chapter 32 (SB 820).

1. Information We Collect

Account information:

When you register, we collect your email address, date of birth (for age verification), and a password (stored as a secure hash). We never see or store your password in plain text.

Profile information:

During onboarding, you may share your age range, living situation, education and employment status, driving status, learning preferences, and goals. This helps us personalize your readiness plan and lesson recommendations.

Learning activity:

We track lessons completed, quiz scores, challenge progress, skill levels, badges earned, check-in responses, and AI coach conversations. This data powers your dashboard, reports, and mentor sharing features.

Uploaded files:

Photos uploaded to Camera Coach or AI Coach are stored securely and used only to provide feedback on that specific interaction. Uploaded media is automatically scheduled for deletion 30 days after analysis completes (see Section 6: Data Retention).

Usage analytics:

We collect anonymized usage events (pages viewed, features used, actions taken) to improve the platform. These events do not contain personally identifiable content. "Anonymized" means the data is stripped of names, email addresses, and other direct identifiers before being used for aggregate analytics.

2. How We Use Your Data

• To personalize your learning experience and readiness plan
• To generate weekly check-ins and monthly progress reports
• To provide AI coaching, roleplay feedback, and photo analysis
• To track and display your skill progress and achievements
• To share progress with mentors or family members you designate
• To improve lesson content, features, and platform reliability
• To process subscription payments via Stripe
• To comply with applicable educational privacy laws (FERPA, COPPA, state student data privacy agreements)

We do not sell user data to third parties. We do not use student data for targeted advertising.

3. FERPA Compliance (School & District Use)

When LifeLeveled is used under a school or district agreement, it qualifies as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest in the student data it processes, as defined under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(1).

• Student data is used only to provide the educational service contracted by the district.
• We do not sell, rent, or share student data for commercial purposes.
• We do not use student data for secondary purposes, including targeted advertising or building commercial profiles.
• Parents and eligible students may exercise FERPA rights (access, amendment, consent to disclosure) through the district's designated records official.
• When a district terminates its agreement, all associated student data is deleted within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.
• We maintain a data processing agreement (DPA) with each district and comply with all terms specified therein.

4. COPPA Compliance (Children's Privacy)

LifeLeveled is designed for users aged 13 and older. In compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. At account creation, we require a date of birth to verify age eligibility.

• If a user indicates they are under 13, account creation is blocked with a message stating LifeLeveled is for ages 13+.
• If we later learn that a user is under 13, we will close the account and delete all associated data within 30 days.
• Users under 18 should register with the awareness of a parent or legal guardian.
• Family plan accounts give parents and guardians control over their learners' data and privacy settings.

5. Texas Education Code Chapter 32 (SB 820)

LifeLeveled acknowledges and complies with Texas Education Code Chapter 32, enacted under SB 820, which governs the confidentiality and security of student data used by educational technology providers. For Texas school districts, we sign the statewide Texas Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) Data Privacy Agreement (DPA), which establishes the terms under which student data is collected, used, protected, and destroyed.

• We do not use student data to target advertising to students.
• We do not sell student data.
• We do not use student data to create a personal profile for any commercial purpose.
• We maintain reasonable security measures to protect student data from unauthorized access.
• Upon request from a district, we will delete student data and provide written certification of deletion.

6. Data Retention & Deletion

We retain your data only as long as necessary to provide the service and comply with legal obligations. Below are the retention timelines for each data type:

Account deletion turnaround: When you request account deletion (available in Profile Settings), we process the request and delete your personal data within 30 days of confirmed request. You will receive a confirmation email when deletion is complete. Some anonymized analytics data may be retained for platform improvement after account deletion — this data contains no personally identifiable information.

7. AI Conversations

Your conversations with the LifeLeveled Coach, Roleplay Lab, and Camera Coach are processed by AI language models to generate responses. We store conversation history so you can resume sessions and so your coach can reference past interactions. On the Family plan, parents and guardians can enable or disable AI conversation visibility.

8. Mentor and Family Sharing

You control whether your progress is shared. Mentor share links are generated only when you choose to create one, and can be revoked at any time. Family plan administrators can view progress for learners under their account, but AI conversation privacy controls allow learners to keep coaching conversations private.

9. Leaderboard & Community Privacy

School and city leaderboard participation is opt-in. Your real name is never displayed publicly on leaderboards or in the community. Instead, you choose a display name (defaults to your initials or an auto-generated handle) in your profile settings. Age ranges are never displayed publicly in the community.

10. Data Security

We use industry-standard security practices: encrypted password storage, secure API communication over HTTPS, role-based access controls, and row-level security on all user data. Payment information is handled entirely by Stripe — we never see or store your credit card details.

11. Breach Notification

In the event of a confirmed data breach involving personal or student data, LifeLeveled will notify affected users and districts within 72 hours of breach confirmation. Notifications will include the nature of the breach, the data affected, and the steps being taken to mitigate harm. For districts, notification will be sent to the designated district contact per the terms of the signed Data Privacy Agreement.

12. Your Rights

• Access your personal data at any time through your profile and dashboard
• Update or correct your profile information
• Control mentor sharing and family visibility settings
• Choose your public display name for leaderboards and community
• Opt in or out of school/city leaderboard participation
• Request export or deletion of your data
• Cancel your subscription at any time
• For district users: exercise FERPA rights through your district's records official

13. Subprocessors

We use the following third-party services to operate LifeLeveled. Each subprocessor receives only the data necessary to provide the specific feature you're using:

Each subprocessor is bound by a data processing agreement that limits their use of data to providing services on our behalf. We do not share student data with subprocessors beyond what is strictly necessary to deliver the educational service.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as the platform grows. Material changes will be communicated via email or in-app notice at least 30 days before they take effect. Continued use after changes take effect constitutes acceptance. District partners will be notified directly of any changes affecting student data.

15. Contact

Privacy questions, data requests, or FERPA/COPPA inquiries? Email us at info@lifeleveled.org. District officials may also contact us through the channels specified in the signed Data Privacy Agreement.