Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 12, 2025

Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy explains how TESTERLY (“we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, and protects your personal information when you use our career interest assessment platform and website. We are committed to handling your personal information in accordance with applicable privacy laws where they apply, including:

• Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
• the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

By using our website or services, you consent to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with these practices, please do not use TESTERLY's services. We have written this policy in clear language so that even students and young users can understand their rights and our practices.

You Own Your Data

We will never:

• Sell your contact information to third parties.
• Contact you without your permission for marketing purposes.
• Share your personal information with third parties without your consent, unless required by law.
• Keep your personal identifying information longer than necessary or without your permission.

Information We Collect and How We Use It

We collect different types of information depending on how you interact with our platform:

When You Take the TESTERLY Career Inventory:

• Inventory Responses: We collect your answers to the psychometric survey questions. We use these answers to calculate your interest profile, personality traits, and how well you match various careers. Your answers generate your personalized results. We may also use your answers and scores in an anonymized form (with all personal identifiers removed) for research and development. For example, we may use anonymized answers to improve our questions, validate our scales, or build comparison benchmarks. Anonymized data means it cannot be traced back to you individually.
• Name and Email (Optional): We may ask for your first name, last name, and email address. You do not have to provide this information. When provided, we use this information to email you a link to view your results and to let you return to your assessment later. You can take the assessment anonymously if you prefer. Providing an email simply helps you retrieve your results. If you do give us your contact details, you can ask us to delete them at any time. We will never use your email to send promotional material unless you have given us permission, and you can opt out at any time.
• Demographic Information (Optional): We may ask for optional demographic details like your gender or ethnicity. This information is entirely voluntary and does not affect your assessment results in any way. We use demographic info only to monitor and ensure our test is fair and unbiased for all groups. For instance, we might analyze aggregate (group-level) results to check that the test works equally well for different demographics. Any findings or reports that use demographic data will be presented in aggregate form, with no personally identifying information.

When You Speak with a Guidance Counselor (Optional)

If your school or organization offers the option to review your results with a guidance counselor (or career coach) through our platform, we will ask for your permission before sharing any of your information. With your consent, we share your assessment scores and contact info with the counselor so they can assist you in understanding and using your results. We do not share this information with a counselor or anyone else without your say-so.

When You Visit Our Website (General Browsing):

• Usage Data: Like most websites, our servers automatically collect some basic information about your visit in log files. This includes details such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, referral links, pages you visit on TESTERLY's website, and the date/time of your visit. We only use this information in aggregate form (as broad statistics) to understand how people use our site and to help us improve it. For example, logs can tell us which pages are most popular or if users encounter errors. This data does not personally identify you and is used purely for analytics and system maintenance.
• Cookies & Analytics: We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience and analyze usage of our website. In particular, we use PostHog, a privacy-focused analytics tool, to understand how users interact with our site. For example, the tool tells us which pages are visited, how long is spent on each page, and what buttons or links are clicked. PostHog uses cookies to collect this usage information. All data collected through PostHog is anonymized. It does not include your name, email, or any directly identifying details. This analytics data helps us improve website functionality and content. You have control over cookies. When you first visit, we will ask for your consent to use non-essential cookies. You can choose to reject analytics cookies, and the site will still function normally. If you opt out, your actions on the site will not be tracked by our analytics tool.

Cookies and Your Choices

Cookies are small text files stored on your device to help websites remember information about you TESTERLY uses cookies to ensure our site works properly and to understand how it’s being used. We do not use cookies to run ads or to track you across other sites.

• Necessary Cookies: Some cookies are essential for the website to function. For example, cookies are required to keep you logged in and to remember your progress on the assessment. These cannot be turned off because the site won’t work without them.
• Analytics Cookies (Optional): As mentioned, we use PostHog for analytics which sets cookies to collect usage data. These cookies are optional. We will ask for your consent before using them. If you decline, we will not set these cookies on your device. You can also change your mind later. Most browsers allow you to delete or block cookies, and you can adjust your cookie preferences on our site at any time.
• No Third-Party Advertising Cookies: We do not use third-party advertising or social media tracking cookies on our site. We do not sell or share your browsing behavior with advertisers.

Your choice: If you ever want to clear cookies, you can do so in your web browser settings. This will remove identifiers and may sign you out of the site or reset preferences. Rejecting or deleting cookies will not affect your ability to use our site, although some convenience features, such as staying logged in, might not work without cookies enabled.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect from you only for the purposes described in this policy. In summary, those purposes include:

• Providing the Service: We use your assessment answers to calculate results and provide you with personalized career insights. Any optional info you give (like email) is used to deliver the service to you (e.g. sending your results link or letting you resume your test).
• Improving and Researching: Anonymized data (stripped of personal identifiers) helps us improve TESTERLY. We analyze data to refine our questions, ensure the test is fair to all users (e.g., across demographics), and enhance the platform’s usability and content.
• Communication: If you provide contact information, we may send you necessary communications about the service. For example, we may send the link to your results, password resets, or important updates about the platform. We will not send you marketing emails unless you specifically opt-in. If you do opt-in, you can opt-out at any time.
• Support and Guidance: If you choose to work with a guidance counselor through our platform, we use your information to facilitate that service (with your consent), by sharing your relevant data with the counselor to help guide you.
• Legal Obligations: In rare cases, we may use or disclose your information to comply with legal requirements. For example, if we are required by law, regulation, or a court order to disclose data, we may do so. We will only share what is necessary and will inform you if possible (unless prohibited by law).

Importantly, we do NOT sell your personal information to anyone, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing or other purposes.

Data Storage and Retention

Storage Location: All personal data collected by TESTERLY is stored on secure servers located in Ireland (within the European Union). This means your information is hosted under strong EU data protection regulations. By using our services, you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to and stored in Ireland. If you are located outside of the EU, this may involve transferring your data from your country to our EU servers. Regardless of where you live, we will protect your data under this Privacy Policy and applicable laws. Our hosting facilities are highly secure and operated with strict access controls to prevent unauthorized access.

Retention Period: We keep your personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this policy or as required by law. If you provide personal identifying information (like your name or email), we typically retain that information for about 2 years. We do this so that you can come back, view your results, or continue your assessment over an extended period without losing your data. After 2 years, or sooner if the information is no longer needed, we take steps to anonymize or delete your personal data. This means we remove or separate any information that could identify you personally (such as your name or contact details) from your assessment responses and results. The remaining data (which no longer identifies any individual) may be kept indefinitely for research or statistical purposes, as it helps us improve our services over time.

Deletion Upon Request: You have the right to request deletion of your data at any time (see “Your Rights” below). If you ask us to delete your personal information, we will do so, unless we are required to keep it for legal reasons. Once deleted, your data will no longer be accessible to you, so make sure you have saved any reports or results you might want to keep.

Backups and Residual Copies: Please note that when we delete data from our active systems, it may still reside in our secure backups for a short period until those backups are updated. We have retention schedules for backups as well, after which old backups are destroyed. Any data in backup is protected and not used for any other purpose.

Data Security Measures

We take security very seriously and use a variety of measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse. Some of the key security practices we employ include:

• Encryption: Whenever you provide personal information on our site, the connection is encrypted using industry-standard SSL/TLS encryption. This means data transmitted between your browser and our servers is scrambled to anyone who might intercept it.
• Secure Hosting: Our servers are hosted in a high-security data center with strict physical and digital access controls. Only authorized personnel have access to the servers, and the facilities are protected 24/7.
• Minimization of Sensitive Data: We purposely do not collect or store highly sensitive personal information that isn’t necessary for our service. For example, we never handle your credit card information on our servers. If payments are involved, they are processed through secure, compliant third-party providers so that your payment details never touch our database.
• Password Protection: If you create an account or are given a login code, any passwords or access codes are stored using one-way encryption (hashed with industry-standard algorithms). This means even we cannot read your password. Always choose a strong, unique password and keep it secret.
• Regular Security Audits: We regularly review and test our security procedures and systems. This includes running security assessments, keeping our software up to date, and monitoring for potential vulnerabilities. By staying proactive, we aim to meet or exceed industry security standards.

While we work hard to protect your information, it’s important to understand that no method of internet transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of data sent over the internet. However, we continuously update our security practices to respond to new threats.

You also play a role in keeping your data safe! Please keep your account credentials (like any login link or password) confidential and secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately.

Your Rights and Choices

You are in control of your personal information. In line with laws like PIPEDA and GDPR, you have a number of rights regarding the data we hold about you. These include the right to:

• Access Your Information: You can request a copy of the information we have about you. We will provide you with the data in a commonly used format.
• Correct/Update Your Information: If any personal details we have are incorrect or outdated (for instance, if you notice a typo in your name or you change your email address), you have the right to have it corrected. Let us know what needs to be changed, and we will fix it.
• Delete Your Information: You can request that we delete your personal information. As noted in the retention section, we generally anonymize or remove personal identifiers after 2 years, but you don’t have to wait. If you want your data removed sooner, just ask. Once we delete your identifying information, your assessment data will either be also deleted or kept only in an anonymized form that cannot be linked to you.
• Withdraw Consent/Opt Out: If at any point you change your mind about us holding or using your optional data, you have the right to withdraw your consent. For example, if you previously gave us your email and agreed to receive updates, you can opt out of further contact. Every marketing email (if we ever send one) will have an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom for your convenience. You can also contact us directly to opt out of any future communications beyond necessary service messages.
• Data Portability: (GDPR-specific right) If you are an EU resident, you may request that we provide your personal data to you (or to a third party you designate) in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. This right allows you to take your data to another service if you wish.
• Object or Restrict Processing: You can ask us to stop using your data in certain ways. For instance, you might request that we no longer use your data for research analysis. If you have concerns, let us know and we will either accommodate your request or explain why we need to keep using your data in that manner (if applicable under law).

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in the “Contact Us” section below. We may need to verify your identity (to make sure we’re giving the information to the right person) before processing certain requests. We will respond to your inquiries or requests as soon as possible and at most within the timeframe required by law.

Please note that these rights are subject to some exceptions under applicable laws. If we cannot fulfill a certain request, we will explain the reason. However, we strive to honor all valid requests and give you full control over your information.

Children’s Privacy

Our services are generally intended for high school students and older, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 without parental consent. We comply with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar regulations:

• If you are under 13 years old, please do not use TESTERLY or provide any personal information (such as your name or email) on this site unless your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to your use of our services.
• If we learn that we have collected personal data from a child under 13 without parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. For example, if a middle school student under 13 accidentally takes the test and submits personal info without their parent’s consent, we will erase their data once we become aware of the situation.
• If you are a parent or guardian and you believe your child under 13 has provided personal information to us without your consent, please contact us immediately so that we can take appropriate action.
• For minors aged 13 to 18: We recommend that you involve a parent, guardian, or teacher when using career guidance tools like TESTERLY. Although COPPA does not apply to teens, it’s always a good idea to have guidance when sharing personal information online. We encourage young users to understand their rights and to reach out if they have any questions about their privacy.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update or revise this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or for other operational reasons. Whenever we make changes, we will post the updated Privacy Policy on our website with a new "Last Updated" date.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed. Your continued use of TESTERLY's website and services after any changes to this Privacy Policy means you accept those changes. If you do not agree with the changes, you should stop using our website and services and contact us if you have concerns.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal data, we’re here to help. Please contact us through any of the methods below:

We will do our best to respond promptly to your inquiries and address any issues you bring to our attention. Your privacy and trust matter to us, and we welcome your feedback.