Privacy Policy

Updated June 24, 2026

Your privacy is important to us at College Kickstart LLC (“College Kickstart”). This Privacy Policy explains how the information we collect about you or the students you serve (“Personal Information”) is used, shared, and stored when using our website (“Website”) and services (“Services”) and how you can control its collection, correction and/or deletion.

This Policy also applies to individuals outside the United States, including in the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK), whose personal data we process. European and UK residents should also review the section “Information for European and UK Users” below, which sets out additional rights and information required under the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Please review this Privacy Policy in conjunction with our Terms of Service (“Terms”) as they govern your use of our Website and Services. Capitalized terms, if not defined in this Privacy Policy, are defined in the Terms.

How We Use Your Personal Information

When you use our Services, you authorize us to use the Personal Information you provide us about yourself or the students you serve, such as name, email address, test scores, GPA, class rank and college list.

The legal basis for this processing is: (a) performance of our contract with you where you are a subscriber, and (b) our legitimate interest in improving and providing our Services. Where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

We do not sell or share and have no rights to Personal Information except for the limited rights that enable us to offer the Services you requested. This includes running analyses on your behalf, tracking your or your students’ progress, generating reports, tracking aggregate statistics and providing technical support.

When you visit our Website, we also collect information such as date and time, browser type and IP address. This information is gathered to help us evaluate the functionality and performance of our Services. See the Cookies section below for how we use cookies and similar technologies on our Website.

Cookies

We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience, serve personalized ads or content, and analyze our traffic. By clicking 'Accept All', you consent to our use of cookies.

When you first visit our Website, we display a cookie consent banner that lets you accept all cookies or manage your preferences by category. You can change your cookie choices at any time by selecting Cookie settings in the site footer, which reopens the same preference controls.

We use Google Analytics, PostHog, and Google Ads conversion tracking to measure how users interact with content on our website. These tools use cookies and similar technologies to collect data about your interactions with our Website, including pages visited, session duration, and purchase outcomes (e.g., subscription conversions). Analytics and marketing cookies are placed only when you grant the corresponding preference in the cookie consent banner. The legal basis for analytics processing is our legitimate interest in understanding how our Website is used, subject to your consent where applicable law requires it for non-essential cookies.

How Long We Retain Your Personal Information

We will retain Personal Information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you Services. We will also retain and use Personal Information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Specifically, we retain data as follows:

  • Account and profile data: for the duration of your active account, plus 3 years after closure.
  • Student data provided by school subscribers: for the duration of the school’s subscription, plus any period required by applicable law.
  • Marketing and prospect contact data (including cold outreach contacts): until you opt out, after which we will cease marketing use within 10 business days. Suppression records are retained indefinitely to honor opt-outs.
  • Website log and analytics data: up to 26 months.
  • Financial and transactional records: 7 years, as required by applicable law.

How We Share Personal Information With Third Parties

We share Personal Information with third parties as follows:

  • To support our Services, such as processing your payments and offering customer service. These third parties are authorized to use Personal Information solely to provide these services to us and are obligated to keep your information confidential.
  • As required by law, such as to comply with reporting requirements, a subpoena or similar legal process.
  • In connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement or other unlawful activity or as we believe reasonably necessary to protect or enforce our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others.
  • With any other third party with whom you authorize us to share Personal Information.
  • With our parent company Beacon Software and affiliated entities, solely for internal operational and portfolio management purposes.

International transfers: Our servers and some of our third-party service providers are located in the United States. If you are located in the EU or UK, your personal data will be transferred to and processed in the US. We rely on the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses (SCCs) or other appropriate safeguards recognized under GDPR to govern such transfers. You may request a copy of the applicable transfer mechanism by contacting us at the address below.

If we are involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of all or a portion of its assets or bankruptcy, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Website of any change in ownership or uses of Personal Information, as well as any choices you may have regarding Personal Information.

How We Store and Protect Personal Information

We take appropriate precautions to protect Personal Information. This includes the use of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology to protect Personal Information such as user’s email or password during transmission over the Internet to secured servers operated by our hosting providers. All credit card transactions are processed by authorized third party service providers and credit card numbers are never stored in our database or servers. While we follow generally accepted standards and recommended practices to protect Personal Information, we cannot warrant absolute security.

Ultimately, protecting Personal Information is a shared responsibility. You are responsible for safeguarding your password and other authentication information you use to access the Services. You should immediately notify College Kickstart of any unauthorized use of your password or other authentication information. College Kickstart cannot secure personal information that you release on your own or that you request us to release.

If you have any questions about security on our Website or become aware of any bug or any actual or threatened breach of our security, please contact us at support@collegekickstart.com.

Compromise of Personal Information

We will promptly notify you should Personal Information be compromised. Where required by law, including GDPR, we will notify the relevant supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of a personal data breach. We will notify affected individuals without undue delay where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to their rights and freedoms. Notwithstanding, College Kickstart: (a) is not responsible or liable for any consequences that may result because you have released or shared Personal Information with a third party; or (b) that was the result of another party’s negligence, reckless or intentional actions.

Provisions Pertaining to High Schools Subscribing to College Kickstart

We comply with the requirements of FERPA and the regulations and guidelines applicable and adopted in accordance therewith. Personally identifiable information received by us will be used solely for legitimate educational interests.

Pursuant to FERPA, we receive personally identifiable student information from our high school subscribers in the capacity of a school official under FERPA Regulation Section 99.31 and are subject to the direct control of the school subscriber with respect to the use and maintenance of education records, and we shall only use such information as necessary to perform the services as set forth in the Terms.

In compliance with federal guidelines, student Personal Information received from school subscribers will not be used to engage in targeted advertising on any site, service, or application. Any advertising measurement tools (such as Google Ads conversion tracking) used on our marketing website operate only on visitor data from that website and do not use student data held under FERPA.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

College Kickstart does not currently use artificial intelligence tools that process, train on, or share your Personal Information or student data with any AI model or service. If this changes in the future, we will update this Privacy Policy to describe how AI is used and what safeguards are in place before any such use begins.

Miscellaneous

You agree that the Service shall be deemed solely based in California (where we have our headquarters). Nothing in this Privacy Policy limits any mandatory rights that users in the EU or UK have under applicable data protection law. This Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of the State of California, without respect to its conflict of laws principles, except that users in the EU and UK may rely on and enforce their rights under GDPR regardless of this governing law clause. Any claim or dispute between you and College Kickstart that arises in whole or in part from the Service shall be decided exclusively by a court of competent jurisdiction located in Alameda County, California.

The Service is operated from our facilities in the United States. We make our Services available globally, including to users in the EU and UK, and we comply with applicable data protection laws in those jurisdictions.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

If we make a material change to our privacy policies and procedures as to the collection, use or disclosure of your Personal Information, we will post a notice of those changes on our Website or notify you by email (sent to the email address specified in your account) to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it, prior to the change becoming effective. You are bound by changes to the Privacy Policy when you use the site after those changes have been posted. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

Prospect and Marketing Contact Data

This section applies to individuals who receive marketing or sales communications from us but are not yet customers, including college counselors and school administrators we contact about our Services.

Data we process: professional name, job title, professional email address, and institution name.

Source: We may obtain your contact information from publicly available sources (such as school directories or professional networks), third-party data providers, or through direct contact at events and conferences.

Legal basis: We process this data on the basis of our legitimate interest (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)) in promoting our Services to professionals whose roles are directly served by our product. We have conducted a Legitimate Interest Assessment and concluded that our interest is not overridden by your rights, given the professional nature of the contact, the direct relevance of our product to your role, and the safeguards we have in place.

Your right to object: You have an absolute right to object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing at any time. To exercise this right, click ‘unsubscribe’ in any email we send you, or contact us at support@collegekickstart.com. We will cease all marketing processing within 10 business days of receiving your request and will retain your details on a suppression list to ensure we do not contact you again.

Note on Germany and Austria: We rely on national opt-in consent requirements for residents of Germany and Austria and will only contact individuals in those countries with prior consent.

Information for European and UK Users

This section applies to individuals in the European Economic Area (EEA) and United Kingdom and supplements the information in this Privacy Policy.

Data controller: College Kickstart LLC, 251 Little Falls Drive Wilmington, DE 19808, United States. GDPR inquiries: support@collegekickstart.com.

Your rights under GDPR: You have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

  • Right of access (Art. 15): request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
  • Right to rectification (Art. 16): ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
  • Right to erasure (Art. 17): ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances.
  • Right to restriction (Art. 18): ask us to restrict processing while a dispute is resolved.
  • Right to data portability (Art. 20): receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
  • Right to object (Art. 21): object to processing based on legitimate interest, including direct marketing. For direct marketing, this right is absolute - we must stop upon request.
  • Right to withdraw consent (Art. 7): where processing is based on consent, withdraw it at any time without affecting prior processing.
  • Right to lodge a complaint: you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. In the EU, contact your national data protection authority (see edpb.europa.eu for a list). In the UK, contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@collegekickstart.com. We will respond within one month. Requests are free of charge.

How to Contact Us

For any privacy-related questions, requests, or complaints, please contact:

Email: support@collegekickstart.com

Post: College Kickstart LLC, 251 Little Falls Drive Wilmington, DE 19808, United States