Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

LaunchPoint APP (“LaunchPoint,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is an academic planning platform that helps students see exactly where they stand, what comes next, and every path forward. We also give institutions the cohort intelligence they need to support their students better.

LaunchPoint APP is operated by Rachel Jackson, a sole proprietor based in California. This policy is governed by the laws of the State of California.

2. What This Policy Covers

This policy applies to everyone who interacts with LaunchPoint, at every stage of the platform.

This includes:

• Visitors to launchpointapp.co and any subdomains
• Students who join our waitlist, create an account, or use any platform feature
• Institutional representatives who submit a Letter of Intent, create an institution account, or access any administrative feature
• Anyone who contacts us directly

This policy covers the full LaunchPoint platform, including the pre-launch waitlist, the active student dashboard, institutional analytics tools, connected third-party integrations, and all future features.

3. Information We Collect

We only collect what we need to provide you with a great experience.

From students on the waitlist:

Name, email address, school name, expected graduation year, and how you heard about LaunchPoint.

From students with active accounts:

• Account credentials (email and password, or authentication through a linked account)
• Academic profile information you enter (major, degree program, enrollment status)
• Education records and academic history you connect, upload, or provide
• Pathway planning inputs, scenario history, and planning records
• Documents you store in your account vault (resumes, transcripts, letters of recommendation)
• Career and opportunity tracking entries (applications, deadlines, mentor connections)
• Messages you send to us through the platform

From institutional representatives on the LOI form:

Name, email, institution name, job title, phone number, institution type, enrollment size, and a description of your interest.

From institutional representatives with active accounts:

Account credentials, institution profile information, and administrative actions taken within the institution dashboard.

Automatically, when you use the platform:

Pages visited, features used, time spent, and actions taken within the platform. Device type, browser type, and operating system. IP address (used for security and fraud prevention only). Referring URLs and session identifiers.

We use this usage data in aggregate to understand how the platform is being used and to make it better. It is not linked to your identity for marketing purposes.

We do not use advertising cookies. We do not sell your data to advertisers. We do not track you across other websites.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to do the following, and nothing else.

To run the platform:

Creating and managing your account, delivering degree audit and pathway planning features, generating cohort analytics for authorized institutional users, and sending transactional emails like confirmation receipts and platform updates.

To improve the platform:

Analyzing aggregated usage patterns to understand which features are most valuable, identifying and fixing bugs, and developing new features based on how students and institutions use the service.

To communicate with you:

Responding to your questions and support requests, notifying you of material changes to the platform or this policy, and sending you relevant updates about LaunchPoint (you can opt out of these at any time).

To keep the platform secure:

Monitoring for unauthorized access, suspicious activity, and misuse, and enforcing our Terms of Service.

To meet legal obligations:

Maintaining records as required by applicable law and responding to lawful government requests.

We do not use your information for advertising, behavioral profiling for commercial purposes, or anything not described here.

5. Student Education Records and FERPA

Your education records belong to you. Here is exactly how we handle them.

LaunchPoint is designed to handle student education records responsibly, in alignment with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). We treat student academic data with the highest level of care on the platform.

You own your data.

Your academic records, pathway history, and planning documents are yours. LaunchPoint stores and processes them only to provide services to you. We do not claim ownership of your data. When you close your account, your data is deleted.

Your FERPA rights.

You have the right to access your education records, request corrections, consent to or refuse disclosure to third parties, and request deletion. LaunchPoint supports all of these rights.

Institutional access is consent-gated.

Institutional users can see aggregated, cohort-level analytics about their student population. Individual student records are only accessible to institutional users when:

1. You have created a LaunchPoint account and connected to that institution, and
2. You have explicitly turned on institutional visibility in your account settings, and
3. The institutional user has been granted the appropriate role by their institution's LaunchPoint administrator.

Your consent is logged.

Every time you grant an institution access to your data, we log the event with a timestamp, the scope of access, and which institution received it. You can review and revoke these consents at any time from your account settings.

We never sell education records.

We do not sell, license, or transfer student education records to any third party for commercial purposes. Ever.

De-identification standard.

When student data is included in aggregated institutional analytics, it is de-identified in accordance with FERPA's de-identification standards as defined by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). De-identified data cannot be used to identify any individual student.

6. Connected Services and Third-Party Integrations

LaunchPoint can connect to external academic platforms so your data flows into one place automatically.

How connections work.

When you choose to connect an external platform, such as your institution's learning management system or student information system, you are authorizing LaunchPoint to retrieve your data from that platform on your behalf. You are directing us to act as your authorized agent in accessing your own records. You control which platforms you connect and can disconnect any of them at any time from your account settings.

What we access.

LaunchPoint requests only the data categories necessary to populate your dashboard. We do not retrieve data beyond the scope you authorize.

Credentials.

For platforms that do not offer a direct authorization flow, you may provide your institutional login credentials to initiate a connection. Those credentials are used only for the duration of that session and are never stored, logged, or retained by LaunchPoint in any form.

Third-party terms still apply.

When you connect an external platform, you remain subject to that platform's own terms of service. LaunchPoint is not responsible for the policies, availability, or data practices of any third-party platform.

No guarantee of connector availability.

Third-party platforms can change their access policies, update their systems, or restrict access at any time. LaunchPoint does not guarantee continuous availability of any specific connector. If a connector becomes unavailable, the data already in your LaunchPoint account remains intact.

When you disconnect.

Disconnecting a connector stops LaunchPoint from retrieving new data from that platform. Data already synced to your account is retained until you delete it or close your account.

Institutional connectors.

When an institution provides a direct data integration as part of a formal institutional agreement with LaunchPoint, that data flow is governed by the terms of the institutional agreement rather than individual student authorization. Those agreements include FERPA-compliant data sharing provisions and explicit data use restrictions.

7. AI Features and Your Data

We want to be completely clear about how AI works in LaunchPoint, because we know it matters.

LaunchPoint uses AI and machine learning to power features like pathway modeling, risk flagging, and planning recommendations. Here is exactly how we use your data with AI, and what we do not do.

What we do.

We use your academic data to generate personalized pathway models, flag risks, and surface recommendations within your dashboard. This processing happens in the context of providing you with the service.

What we do not do.

We do not use student education records to train, fine-tune, or improve any AI or machine learning model, including our own models or any third-party AI service. Your academic records are never used as AI training data. This is a firm commitment, not a default setting.

Institutional data and AI.

Aggregated, de-identified cohort analytics used in the institutional dashboard are not used to train AI models. Identified student records are never used for AI training under any circumstances.

AI outputs are informational.

Pathway recommendations, risk scores, and planning suggestions generated by LaunchPoint's AI features are informational tools to support your decision-making. They are not official academic advising, do not constitute guarantees of any outcome, and should always be verified against your institution's official degree requirements and with a qualified advisor.

Third-party AI processors.

LaunchPoint uses third-party AI processing services to power certain platform features. These providers are contractually restricted from using your data for any purpose other than providing the service to LaunchPoint. They may not retain, train on, or independently use your data.

8. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. Here is a complete picture of when and how we share it.

Service providers.

We work with a limited set of third-party service providers to operate the platform. Each provider is contractually restricted to using your data only to deliver their specific service to us. Our service providers fall into these categories:

• Cloud infrastructure and database services
• Transactional email delivery
• Product analytics and usage tracking
• AI and machine learning processing

A full list of our current service providers (subprocessors) is available to institutional clients upon written request.

Institutional users.

As described in Section 5, authorized institutional users may access cohort-level analytics and, where applicable and with your consent, individual student records scoped to their institution.

Legal requirements.

We may disclose your information if required by law, valid court order, or lawful government request. Where we are legally permitted to do so, we will notify you before disclosing.

Business transfers.

If LaunchPoint is acquired or merges with another entity, your information may transfer as part of that transaction. We will notify you and give you the opportunity to delete your account before any transfer is completed.

We share your information with no one else.

9. Federal Funding Program Compliance

LaunchPoint is designed to work alongside federally funded institutional programs, not create compliance headaches for them.

Many of our institutional clients receive federal funding through Title III, Title IV, Title V, TRIO, NSF REU, and similar programs. These programs carry their own data handling requirements layered on top of FERPA. LaunchPoint's data practices are structured to be compatible with these requirements.

Specifically:

• Student data is never used for purposes inconsistent with the educational mission of federally funded programs
• Aggregated cohort data available for grant reporting is de-identified per NCES standards
• Data exports for grant compliance reporting (Title III, Title V, TRIO, NSF REU, and others) are formatted to meet the reporting requirements of those programs
• Institutions may request a data processing addendum that documents LaunchPoint's compliance posture for federal program audits

If your institution has specific federal compliance requirements you would like to discuss before signing an institutional agreement, contact us at legal@launchpointapp.co.

10. Data Retention and Deletion

We keep your data for as long as it takes to provide you with the service, and not a day longer than necessary.

Active accounts.

We retain your information for as long as your account is active and for a reasonable period afterward to allow reactivation and meet legal obligations.

Waitlist submissions.

Retained until the platform launches and you have had an opportunity to create an account, or for two years from submission, whichever is shorter.

LOI submissions.

Retained for the duration of any active partnership discussion and for three years following last contact, or as required by law.

Deleting your data.

You can request deletion of your account and all associated personal data at any time by emailing privacy@launchpointapp.co. We will complete the deletion within 30 days. Some data may be retained in anonymized or aggregated form that cannot identify you individually.

Deletion logging.

When an account is deleted or a deletion request is fulfilled, we log that the deletion occurred and the date it was completed. This log exists for legal compliance purposes and does not contain the deleted data itself.

11. Your Privacy Rights

You have rights over your personal information. Here is how to use them.

You have the right to:

• Know what personal information we hold about you
• Access a copy of your personal information
• Correct anything that is inaccurate or incomplete
• Delete your information from our systems
• Export your data in a machine-readable format
• Opt out of non-essential communications at any time

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@launchpointapp.co. We will respond within 30 days.

12. California Residents — Additional Rights

If you live in California, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA).

Right to Know.

You can ask us to tell you exactly what personal information we have collected about you, where it came from, why we collected it, and who we share it with.

Right to Delete.

You can ask us to delete your personal information. We will comply with limited exceptions permitted by California law.

Right to Correct.

You can ask us to correct inaccurate personal information we hold about you.

Right to Opt Out of Sale or Sharing.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Right to Limit Sensitive Data Use.

We use sensitive personal information, including your account credentials and education records, only to provide the platform. We do not use it to infer characteristics about you for commercial purposes.

Right to Non-Discrimination.

We will never treat you differently for exercising your California privacy rights.

To submit a California privacy rights request, email privacy@launchpointapp.co. We will respond within 45 days as required by California law.

13. Data Security

We take the security of your information seriously.

Our security practices include:

• Encrypted data transmission (HTTPS/TLS) on all platform communications
• Encrypted storage for sensitive information
• Role-based access controls that limit who can see what
• Authentication requirements for all account access
• Ongoing monitoring for unauthorized access and anomalous activity

Your data is stored and processed in the United States.

No system is completely immune to security risks. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at security@launchpointapp.co. In the event of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you as required by California law.

14. Children and Minors

LaunchPoint is designed for college students and institutional administrators.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If we discover we have done so, we will delete it promptly. If you believe a child under 13 has submitted information to us, please contact privacy@launchpointapp.co.

If you are between 13 and 17, you need parental or guardian consent to use the platform. By using it, you represent that you have obtained that consent.

15. Multi-State Privacy Compliance

LaunchPoint serves students and institutions across the United States. We are committed to complying with applicable state privacy laws in every state where our users and institutional clients are located, including but not limited to the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, Colorado Privacy Act, Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, and other state privacy frameworks as they apply. If you have questions about your rights under your state's privacy law, contact us at privacy@launchpointapp.co.

16. Changes to This Policy

We will update this policy as LaunchPoint grows and evolves. When we make changes that materially affect how we handle your data, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top and notify you by email. Continuing to use the platform after an updated policy is posted means you accept the changes.

17. Contact Us

Questions, concerns, data requests, or anything else privacy-related: