What we collect, why we collect it, and what happens to it. Written to be read by a parent.
Effective August 8, 2026 · Last updated August 13, 2026
Certain Step is operated by Joshua Alexander Motes, a sole proprietor doing business as Certain Step. Throughout this policy, "we" and "Certain Step" mean that business. "You" means whoever is using the site, whether that's a parent, a learner, or a visitor.
We collect a buyer's name and email at checkout, and a learner's first name and email at account setup. We store lesson progress. We don't sell anything to anyone, we run no advertising trackers, and learners under eighteen never receive marketing email from us.
We never see or store card numbers. Payment details go directly to Stripe and never touch our systems.
We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits. It's privacy-first and cookieless. It tells us how many people viewed a page, roughly what country they came from, and which site sent them. It doesn't identify individuals and it doesn't follow anyone across the web.
We don't collect a Social Security number, a home address, or audience size on this form. Approved affiliates are issued a promotion code redeemed at Stripe checkout, and we never see the buyer and affiliate connected outside that code.
We use no advertising cookies, tracking pixels, or third-party marketing trackers. Because of that, you won't see a cookie consent banner on this site.
We do store a small amount of information in your browser after a learner signs in, so they don't have to sign in again on every page. That information stays on the device and is shared with nobody. Clearing your browser data removes it.
Our courses are built for learners aged fourteen to eighteen. This part matters, so we're stating it plainly.
We don't sell personal information. We don't rent it, trade it, or hand it to advertisers. There's no version of this business where we do.
A small number of established services run parts of the site. Each one does a specific job.
Processes payments. Holds buyer name, email, and card details. We never receive card data.
Stores accounts, enrollments, and lesson progress.
Sends purchase confirmations and account emails.
Hosts the website and runs the code behind checkout and login.
Provides cookieless visitor analytics.
Each of these has its own privacy policy governing how it handles data on our behalf.
PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle aren't listed above because we don't send them data automatically. We send affiliate payouts by hand, so a payment handle is something we read and use ourselves, not something our systems transmit to them.
Course access is permanent, so we keep account and enrollment records for as long as the account exists. Payment records are kept as long as tax and accounting rules require, generally seven years. Analytics data is aggregate and holds nothing that identifies a person.
We keep an affiliate application, active or declined, for as long as needed to pay out commission already earned and to meet tax record-keeping requirements, generally seven years for anyone paid.
Email hello@certain-step.com from the address on the account, or from the address used to purchase, and ask us to delete it. We'll confirm and complete the deletion within thirty days.
Deleting an account removes the learner record and all lesson progress, and it ends course access. That can't be undone. We keep the payment record itself, because we're required to.
A declined or inactive affiliate can ask us to delete their application the same way, unless we're required to keep payment or tax records for commission already paid.
Account data sits behind row-level security and is only reachable through our own server code. Card data never touches our systems. Everything runs over an encrypted connection.
Being honest about the limits: at launch, a learner signs in with their email address alone. That's a deliberate tradeoff for a course aimed at teenagers, where extra login friction stops people finishing. Anyone with access to a learner's device could reach their courses. We're adding email-link sign-in to close that gap. Nothing sensitive lives in an account, and payment information is never visible inside one.
Certain Step is based in Florida and built for customers in the United States. Our services store and process data in the United States. Using the site from elsewhere means agreeing to that.
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we handle your information, we'll email account holders.
Certain Step
Joshua Alexander Motes, sole proprietor
923 Cassia Dr, Davenport, FL 33897
hello@certain-step.com