Privacy Policy

CertGeek (certgeek.net) is a free certification study site operated from the United States. This policy explains what we collect, why, and what you can do about it.

The short version: we collect information needed to run CertGeek, provide learning features, keep the site secure, and improve it. We don't run ads, and we don't sell your data.

1. What we collect

• Account details: your name, your email address, and your password. We store only a protected form of your password, never the password itself.
• Study activity: the sessions you complete, your scores, the answers you give, time spent, lab progress, game scores and progress, and study streaks. This powers your progress pages.
• Security information: when you sign in or request something sensitive (like a password reset), we may record technical information, such as your IP address and the email you typed, to keep the site secure and spot abuse.
• Server logs: our hosting provider keeps standard logs (such as your IP address and the pages requested) under its own policies.

2. Cookies and browser storage

We use only the cookies needed to keep you signed in and protect your session. We also remember your light or dark theme in your browser. We don't use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

We use website analytics to count visits to our pages.

3. How we use your information

• To run your account, sign you in, and send verification and password-reset emails.
• To show your progress, streaks, and study suggestions.
• To keep the site secure and prevent abuse.
• To fix problems and improve the site.

We don't use your information for advertising, and we don't sell it or hand it to anyone for their own use.

4. Who helps us run the site

We use trusted service providers to help run CertGeek. They process information only to provide their services to us:

• Hosting and website analytics keep the site running and give us basic visit statistics.
• Data storage holds the information described above.
• Email delivery sends our emails, so it receives your email address and the content of the message.

Our service providers may store and process your information in the United States and other countries. If you use CertGeek from outside the United States, your information may be transferred to those places.

5. How long we keep it

• Account and study data: kept while your account exists.
• Accounts that never verify their email: deleted automatically after a short period.
• Security and abuse-prevention records: kept only as long as needed to keep the site secure, then deleted.
• When an account is deleted: its study history is deleted, and security records tied to it lose your email and IP address, except where we need to keep information for security or legal reasons.
• Backups and our service providers may keep copies briefly under their own policies.

6. Your choices

You can ask us at any time for access to, correction of, or deletion of your information and, where the law requires, a copy of it. Email certgeek.support@gmail.com and we'll respond within the time the law requires. For now, these requests are handled by email, not by a button on the site. You can change your password in your account at any time.

Depending on where you live (for example the EU, the UK, or California), you may have legal rights over your personal data, including access, correction, deletion, and objection. Email us and we'll honor them.

7. Age

CertGeek is for people 16 and older. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you think we have, email us and we'll delete it.

8. Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your information, including secure connections, password protection, and access controls. No online service can guarantee complete security. If a breach affects your information, we'll notify you as the law requires.

9. Changes to this policy

We'll update the effective date when this policy changes, and we'll try to give notice of significant changes, for example on the site or by email.

10. Contact

Questions or requests: certgeek.support@gmail.com