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Privacy at Ready Set Onward
Your story belongs to you. Ready Set Onward is an education, career, credential, employment, and support navigation platform. We intentionally limit the information we collect and do not require highly sensitive enrollment documents to build an initial Route.
Information we may collect
Depending on how you use Onward, we may receive information such as your name, contact information, age range, location, education or employment situation, goals, career interests, schedule realities, family responsibilities, support barriers, saved options, provider connections, referrals, progress, and learner-reported outcomes. Youth participants age 16–17 are asked for date of birth for the youth-account age safeguard and transition to independent status at 18.
What we do not require to get started
Ready Set Onward does not require you to upload a Social Security card or number, government ID, birth certificate, guardianship papers, transcript, FAFSA record, IEP file, court record, medical record, benefits record, or similar confidential enrollment document to build your first Route. When an independent school, training provider, employer, government agency, or other organization needs its own records, that organization is responsible for its own process.
Why we use information
We use information to build and improve your Route, provide requested tools and support, save progress, respond to requests, show relevant local options, measure movement through the platform, prevent abuse, maintain security, and improve Ready Set Onward. We may also use aggregated or de-identified information for research, product improvement, pathway intelligence, and institutional analytics as described in our Data & Intelligence Principles.
Provider connections are permission-based
Creating an account or accepting general Terms does not authorize Onward to send your personal information to every partner. When you choose a direct connection, the authorization applies to the organization you selected and the information described for that handoff. Onward records connection activity so we can document what was authorized and when.
Service providers and operations
We may use service providers that help operate the platform, such as hosting, database, authentication, email, analytics, security, and technical-service vendors. They may process information as needed to provide those services. We do not treat service-provider access needed to operate Onward as permission to use learner information for unrelated purposes.
Families and minors
Ready Set Onward does not knowingly permit children under 16 to create independent learner accounts. Parents and guardians may use Onward on behalf of younger children. Participants age 16–17 use youth accounts with guardian safeguards. At age 18, a youth account becomes an independent adult account and guardian access associated with minor status ends. See Youth & Family Privacy.
Cookies, logs, and technical information
Like most online services, Onward may process technical information needed to operate and secure the service, such as device/browser information, session information, pages visited, referral or campaign source, timestamps, and diagnostic events. We aim to use these signals for platform operation, measurement, security, and improvement rather than building hidden profiles of personal vulnerability.
Retention
We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose it was collected, to provide requested services, maintain security and audit records, meet legal obligations, resolve disputes, and document prior consent or transactions. We intend to avoid keeping information merely because it might be useful someday.
Security and incidents
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and operational safeguards appropriate to the information we hold. No online system can guarantee absolute security. If an incident creates a legal notification obligation, Ready Set Onward will follow applicable notification requirements.
Your choices
You can manage sharing, family relationships, alerts, and certain data requests through Your Privacy Choices and the Journey Privacy Center.
Changes
We may update this policy as the product changes. Material changes should be reflected in the posted version and, where appropriate, in a new consent or notice flow.
Important future triggers
If Ready Set Onward begins receiving school or district education records under institutional contracts, directly serves children under 16, materially expands collection of highly sensitive records, introduces materially different personalized advertising practices, or begins selling or licensing new categories of personal data, the privacy framework should be reviewed again before that change is launched.