What we collect
- When you join the Tier 1 list: your email address, your answer to “What do you do now?” if you give one, the link or post that sent you (its utm tags and the site you came from), and the date.
- When you use the contact form: your name, email, company or project if you give it, the topic and your message.
- When you take a course: your name, email and password (stored scrambled, never readable), your application if one is asked for, your lesson progress, exercise and exam results, and your certificate. Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store card numbers.
- When you use the site: the pages you open, how long each one is on your screen and how far down you scroll, the links and buttons you tap, which form fields you click into (not what you type in them), whether you start the sign-up form, how far you watch the free lesson, any errors on the page and how fast it loaded, your device type (phone, tablet or computer), and whether you came through the Facebook or Instagram app. These records carry a random ID from a cookie on this site, not your name, and we don't store your IP address in them.
Cookies
This site sets only its own cookies: one that keeps you signed in and lets the free lesson page open after you sign up, one that protects forms from forgery, and one random visitor ID (fdq_vid, kept for a year) for the site-use records above. There are no advertising cookies. The site also uses Microsoft Clarity to see how its pages get used: Clarity records your taps, scrolling and mouse movement on our pages so we can watch them back and see heatmaps. Email addresses and anything typed into a form are hidden from it, and it never runs on account, course, certificate or private-link pages, or for anyone signed in. Clarity sets two cookies of its own (_clck, kept for a year, and _clsk, kept for a day), and Microsoft handles what it collects under the Microsoft Privacy Statement. For visitors from the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Clarity sets no cookies, because the site doesn't ask for that consent. The sign-up, contact and resend forms use Cloudflare Turnstile to check that a person, not a bot, is filling them in, and Cloudflare handles the data that check needs under its own privacy policy. The site's fonts load from Google Fonts, so Google receives a request for them.
What we use it for
- To send what you asked for: lesson 1, the Weld Field Sheet and, if you join the list, a few emails around the Tier 1 launch.
- To answer your messages.
- To run the course and issue certificates.
- To see which posts and pages work, so the site gets better.
Who else sees it
We don't sell your information or share it with anyone for their own marketing. The companies that run parts of the site handle it for us: the web host, the network that serves the site, the email service that sends our mail, Microsoft for Clarity, and Stripe for payments. We'd also hand information over if the law required it.
Certificates are public on purpose. Anyone with a certificate's ID and the holder's last name can check it on this site, and the check shows the holder's name, the certificate and the date it was issued.
Every email from the Tier 1 list has a link to leave it. You can also ask through the contact page. Either way you're off the list right away, and always within 10 business days.
Your choices
Ask through the contact page to see the information we hold about you, to correct it, or to have it deleted. Certificates you've earned, and records the law requires us to keep, may be kept after a deletion request.
This site doesn't track you across other sites, so it doesn't change anything when your browser sends a Do Not Track signal. To keep Clarity off, block cookies from clarity.ms or use a content blocker. If you open the site inside the Facebook or Instagram app, that app's own browser applies Meta's policies to what it sees.
Children
The site and its courses are for working adults. They aren't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information.
Changes
If this notice changes, the new version goes on this page with a new effective date. If a change affects how we use information you've already given us, we'll tell you by email first.
Contact
Questions about this notice go through the contact page.