Terms of Use
Last updated: October 6, 2026 · Version 2026-10-06-v2
1. Agreement and who we are
These Terms of Use apply to your use of the ALTON website and portals, provided by Alton Education LLC, a United States company ("ALTON," "we," "us"). ALTON offers an online SAT and AP practice platform, premium one-on-one tutoring, and educational consulting for middle and high school students. By creating an account or using ALTON, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy.
2. Eligibility
Students under 13 may enter registration pathways, subject to operational acceptance and required parental verification and consent before covered collection or access. Registration alone does not authorize collection or guarantee service availability. If you are under the age of majority where you live, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms and to any paid service on your behalf.
3. Your account
A free learning account includes practice tests, the mistake notebook, the vocabulary builder, and study materials approved for free access. It does not include tutoring or consulting. Provide accurate information, keep your login private, and tell us promptly if you think your account has been used without permission. You are responsible for activity under your account.
4. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- share your login, or let someone else use your account;
- copy, redistribute, resell or publish ALTON materials, questions or explanations;
- use scripts, bots or scraping to access or extract content;
- attempt to gain unauthorized access to ALTON, other accounts, or other users' data;
- upload unlawful, harmful or infringing content, or harass teachers, staff or other users;
- interfere with or disrupt the service.
5. Content and intellectual property
ALTON and its licensors own the platform, practice tests, questions, explanations, study materials and branding. We give you a limited, personal, non-transferable right to use them for your own study. You keep ownership of the notes, scratch work and other content you create, and you give ALTON permission to host and process it for the service under the Privacy Policy. Linked guardians may view permitted results, individual answers and lesson artifacts, but not your private personal notes or whiteboard work.
6. Educational disclaimer
ALTON does not guarantee any score, score improvement, admission or other outcome. Practice scores and estimates in ALTON are internal learning estimates. They are not official College Board scores and may differ from results on the actual SAT or AP exams. SAT and AP are trademarks of their respective owners, and ALTON is not affiliated with or endorsed by them unless we say so.
AP® and SAT® are registered trademarks of the College Board, which is not affiliated with and does not endorse Alton Education LLC or this website. Practice questions are written by ALTON; where a question uses a public-domain historical or literary source, the source is credited with the question.
7. Tutoring and consulting services
Premium tutoring and educational consulting are separate services governed by their own written agreement, signed electronically through DocuSign. If that agreement conflicts with these terms for those services, the agreement controls. Lessons and consultations may be held using Google Workspace and Google Meet.
8. Payments and refunds
Lesson credits are purchased through Stripe. Prices, payment terms, cancellation, rescheduling, expiry and refunds are set out in your tutoring agreement and at checkout. We do not store your card details; Stripe handles them under its own terms.
9. Privacy and children
Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information, including our commitment not to knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent where required by law.
10. Suspension and termination
You may stop using ALTON and ask to close your account at any time; closure follows a 30-day pending period and then deactivation, as described in the Privacy Policy. We may suspend or end access if you breach these terms, put others or the service at risk, or where required by law. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including content ownership, disclaimers, limitation of liability and governing law) will survive.
11. Disclaimers and limitation of liability
ALTON is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, and we do not promise that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, ALTON will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or opportunities. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid ALTON for the service giving rise to the claim in the 12 months before it arose (and is zero for free features, to the extent the law allows). Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
12. Governing law
California law and applicable federal law govern, subject to mandatory protections of other applicable jurisdictions. Disputes may be brought in a competent court subject to mandatory jurisdiction and venue rules. These terms do not require arbitration or waive nonwaivable rights.
13. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. We will change the "Last updated" date and version above and, for material changes, notify account holders through ALTON or by email. Continued use after changes take effect means you accept the updated terms.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. Contact us
Alton Education LLC — official@alton.education