Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 6, 2026 · Version 2026-10-06-v2

1. Who we are

ALTON is operated by Alton Education LLC, a United States company ("ALTON," "we," "us"). We provide an online SAT and AP practice platform, premium one-on-one tutoring, and educational consulting for middle and high school students. This policy explains what personal information we collect through the ALTON website and student, parent/guardian, teacher and consultant portals, how we use it, and the choices you have.

2. Information we collect

Depending on how you use ALTON, we collect:

Account information: name, email address, date of birth, grade, and (optionally) school.
Learning data: practice test attempts, answers (including any written responses you type), scores and results; saved questions; vocabulary lists; and your mistake notebook.
Study work: notes, whiteboard scratch work and highlights you create while studying.
Usage data: activity information such as the last day you were active.
Consultation and family information: consultation requests and the contact information of a parent or guardian.
Tutoring records: lesson records and communications between you, your family, your teacher and ALTON staff.
Contract and payment records: signed agreements and records of lesson-credit purchases. Card details are entered with Stripe and are not stored by ALTON.

Practice scores shown in ALTON are internal learning estimates. They are not official College Board scores.

3. How we use information

To create and run your account, grade practice tests, and show your results, mistake notebook and vocabulary builder.
To generate AI-estimated scores and feedback for written practice responses, as described in the AI-Estimated Scoring section below.
To provide tutoring and consulting, including scheduling, lessons held over Google Meet, and lesson records.
To manage contracts, lesson credits and payments.
To communicate with you and your family about your account, lessons and service updates.
To maintain, secure and improve ALTON, prevent misuse, and meet legal obligations.

A free learning account does not start tutoring, a contract, or any payment.

4. Who can see your information

You: your own account data.
Your teachers and ALTON administrators: your notes, whiteboard work and highlights are private to you and the teachers and administrators who work with you.
Linked parents or guardians: once a parent or guardian is linked to your account, they can view your practice results, scores, and individual answers and explanations. They cannot see your private notes or whiteboard work.
ALTON consultants: consultants see an aggregated learning summary only, not individual answers, notes or whiteboard work.

We may also disclose information when required by law or to protect the safety, rights or property of ALTON, our users or others.

5. Service providers

We use trusted providers to operate ALTON. They process personal information only on our behalf and for the purposes described here:

Supabase — database and authentication.
Vercel — website hosting.
Google — Workspace, Calendar and Meet, used for lessons and consultations.
DocuSign — electronic signature of tutoring contracts.
Stripe — payment processing for lesson credits.
Anthropic — AI model provider used to generate estimated scores and feedback for written practice responses.
An email delivery provider — account, scheduling and service emails.

6. No sale of data, no advertising profiling

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for advertising profiling or share it with advertisers for that purpose.

7. Children and COPPA

Students under 13 may enter registration pathways. Covered collection, use, and disclosure require prior direct parent notice and verifiable parental consent unless a lawful exception applies. Operational acceptance is separate from age verification and consent. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information without a parent or guardian's involvement, contact us at official@alton.education and we will take steps to delete it. A parent or guardian may ask to review, correct or delete their child's information at any time. The direct notice and consent form for a child under 13 is available at Parent Notice and Consent for a Child Under 13.

8. Retention and account closure

We keep account and learning records while your account is active. If an account is closed, it first enters a 30-day pending period and is then deactivated. Retention periods are set out in the Retention Schedule below.

9. Security

We use access controls, role-based permissions and encrypted connections to protect information. No online service can be perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

10. Your choices and rights

You may ask us to access, correct or delete your personal information, or to close your account. Parents and guardians can make these requests for their child. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under local law. We may need to verify your identity first, and we may keep information we are required by law to retain. Send requests to official@alton.education.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date above and, for material changes, notify account holders through ALTON or by email.

12. AI-Estimated Scoring of Written Responses

For some practice exams (for example AP English Language, AP English Literature and the AP history essay questions), you may type a written response and ALTON can generate an AI-estimated score and feedback for it. When this feature is on, ALTON sends the text of your written response, together with the question, any source documents and scoring guidance, to Anthropic, an AI model provider acting on our behalf. We do not send your name, email address or other contact details with it.

ALTON stores the estimated score, the feedback, the model used and its cost with your practice attempt so you can review it. These records are treated as learning data under the Retention Schedule below. ALTON does not opt in to any use of your written responses to train AI models.

AI-estimated scores are practice feedback only. They are estimates and can be wrong, they are not official College Board scores, and they do not predict a score on any real exam. Please do not include sensitive personal information in your written responses.

13. Regular-lesson media and AI records

Video Recording, Audio Recording, Transcription, and AI Lesson Notes

This section covers four items for regular lessons and follow-up consultations: video recording and retention of the recordings, audio recording and retention of the recordings, conversion of speech into a text transcript and retention of the transcript, and AI-assisted preparation and storage of lesson notes and summaries (Smart Notes) and retention of those notes and summaries. Currently provided: transcripts and Smart Notes. Video recording and audio recording are not currently provided; this section applies to them if and when ALTON offers them, and ALTON confirms the applicable consents before any recording is activated. Covered content may include participant images, voices, names, spoken questions and answers, shared lesson screens, instructional materials, and meeting metadata. These processes support instruction, review, preparation, quality and safety management, and teacher handover.

Consent coverage is separate from execution. Trial lessons are always excluded from recording, transcription and AI meeting notes, including after a contract is signed. A first consultation is excluded from video and audio recording and from retained transcripts; AI meeting notes of a first consultation are prepared only where the requester consented when requesting the consultation, are visible only to ALTON staff, and are eligible for deletion one year after the consultation ends. Recording, transcription, and AI notes for regular lessons and follow-up consultations apply only after the applicable agreement and all required participant consents are complete. Signing or accepting this section does not itself start any recording, transcription, or note-taking. The signing participant expressly consents to the four items above for authorized regular lessons and follow-up consultations. A parent or legal guardian authorizes processing of the named child's participation within their lawful authority. ALTON provides notice before recording and obtains consent from all participants as required by applicable law. Additional attendees must receive notice and give required consent before capture begins. A parent signature does not substitute for another participant's consent. Recording must not start until the applicable agreement, required parental verification, and participant consent are complete.

ALTON uses designated Google Workspace, Meet, Drive, and Gemini services and authorized providers acting for the stated purposes. Recordings, transcripts, and AI notes are stored with restricted access. Authorized teachers and staff may access them for their duties. Students and verified guardians may view lesson artifacts made available to their accounts; this does not grant unrestricted download, redistribution, or access to another family's records or private student notes and whiteboards. No public posting, unrelated advertising, sale, or unrestricted model training is authorized by this consent.

Video and audio recordings (if offered), transcripts, and AI notes and summaries become eligible for deletion one year after the end date of each lesson or consultation, regardless of continued enrolment or re-enrolment (the full retention schedule appears in the Privacy Policy), and lesson materials are kept for 1 year after the last lesson. Preservation exceptions are limited to what is necessary for a legal requirement, an active dispute or legal hold, or an accounting or safety need, and are reviewed at least every 12 months. Children's information is deleted earlier when its purpose is achieved or a parent requests deletion, except where a preservation exception applies. Other records are kept only as reasonably necessary for the stated purposes, the student's service relationship, and applicable legal obligations or claims. Records no longer needed are securely deleted, subject to lawful preservation requirements. Parents and participants may request access, correction, deletion, or withdrawal of consent at official@alton.education. Withdrawal applies prospectively and does not make prior authorized processing unlawful. ALTON stops affected processing as required and resolves future lessons and unused paid credits under the applicable agreement without imposing a penalty for exercising statutory rights. Free learning access is not conditioned on agreeing to lesson recording.

AI notes and transcripts may contain omissions, speaker errors, or inaccuracies. Corrections may be requested. AI output alone does not conclusively determine attendance, wages, fees, refunds, or disputes. Material changes receive updated notice and renewed consent when required.

14. Retention schedule

Retention schedule. ALTON keeps records for these periods. Preservation exceptions are limited to what is necessary for a legal requirement, an active dispute or legal hold, or an accounting or safety need, and are reviewed at least every 12 months:

Contracts, pricing, and consent records; payments, refunds, and the lesson-credit ledger; and teacher and consultant payout and pay records: 7 years after the contract or transaction ends.
Attendance, bookings, lesson-credit history, and learning history (homework, note results, reviews, confirmed attendance, and quality-review outcomes): 3 years after the last lesson. Free-member learning records: 3 years after last activity.
Lesson video and audio recordings (if offered in the future), transcripts, and AI lesson notes and summaries (Smart Notes): eligible for deletion 1 year after the end date of each lesson or consultation, regardless of continued enrolment or re-enrolment; lesson materials: 1 year after the last lesson. Children's information is deleted earlier when its purpose is achieved or a parent requests deletion, except where a preservation exception applies.
Chat and consultation records: 2 years after the matter ends.
Security and access audit logs: 1 year after creation. Notifications: 90 days.
Account closure: a 30-day period in which a closure request can be cancelled; deleted data in backups is removed within 35 days. A closed account keeps only what a retention basis above requires, with restricted access.

15. Privacy requests

Contact official@alton.education for access, correction, deletion, account closure, or withdrawal requests. Applicable statutory rights and response deadlines prevail. Account deactivation is not a promise that all records have been deleted. Required records and legal holds are retained only as needed. Material processing changes require renewed consent when applicable; continued website use alone does not authorize a new recording practice.

16. Contact us

Alton Education LLC — official@alton.education