Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Apprentice Wizard ("we," "us," "our," or "Company") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and otherwise handle your information when you visit our website and use our services.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

• Account Information: When you create an account, we collect your email address, authentication credentials, and profile information.
• Application Data: When you use our Application Tracker, we store information about opportunities you've saved, applications you've submitted, and related notes and deadlines.
• Feedback: When you submit testimonials or feedback, we collect the content, your user ID, and optional information like your role or company.
• Location Data: If you enable location-based features, we collect your location to show nearby opportunities.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

• Log Data: IP address, browser type, pages visited, time and date stamps, and click-through data.
• Device Information: Device type, operating system, and unique device identifiers.
• Cookies & Tracking: We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience and analyze platform usage.

2.3 Third-Party Data

• We collect job listings from third-party sources including GOV.UK, Higherin (formerly RateMyApprenticeship), Not Going to Uni (NGTU), UCAS Career Finder, and curated GitHub job repositories published by SimplifyJobs, PrepAIJobs, SpeedyApply, and Vanshb03.
• This data is publicly available and does not include personal information about users.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• To provide, maintain, and improve our services
• To authenticate you and manage your account
• To personalize your experience and show you relevant opportunities
• To send transactional emails (account confirmations, password resets, etc.)
• To analyze platform usage and improve our features
• To detect and prevent fraud or security issues
• To comply with legal obligations
• With your consent, to send promotional emails and product updates

4. Data Sharing and Disclosure

4.1 Public Information

If you choose to make your testimonial public, it will be visible to all users of the platform. We will display it anonymously (without your name) unless you specifically provide your name.

4.2 Service Providers

We share data with third-party service providers who assist us in operating our platform:

• Supabase: Cloud database, authentication, and storage of support messages
• Vercel: Frontend hosting provider
• Stripe, Inc.: Payment processing for Apprentice and Premium plan purchases
• OpenAI: For AI-powered features (with user consent)
• Email delivery provider (SMTP): Sends transactional emails, including support reply notifications and service announcements
• Discord: Coaching sessions and direct messaging for Premium plan members (governed by Discord's own Privacy Policy)

These providers are contractually obligated to use your information only as necessary to provide services to us.

4.3 Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law or if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to: comply with legal obligations, enforce our agreements, or protect the rights, privacy, safety, or property of Apprentice Wizard, our users, or the public.

4.4 Business Transfers

In the event of a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will provide notice before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

5. Data Security

We implement comprehensive technical, administrative, and physical security measures to protect your information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

• Data encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS)
• Row-Level Security policies on database tables
• Secure authentication with Supabase Auth
• Regular security monitoring and updates

6. Your Rights and Choices

6.1 Access and Portability

You have the right to access your personal information and receive a copy of it in a portable format. You can download your application tracker data at any time from your dashboard.

6.2 Correction and Deletion

You can update your account information at any time. You may request deletion of your account and associated personal data by contacting us at support@apprenticewizard.co.uk. We will comply within 30 days unless legally required to retain the data.

6.3 Cookie Preferences

You can control cookie settings through your browser. Blocking certain cookies may affect your ability to use all features of our platform.

6.4 Opt-Out

You can opt out of promotional emails by clicking the "unsubscribe" link in any email we send or by updating your preferences in your account settings.

7. Children's Privacy

Apprentice Wizard is designed for users aged 16 and above. We do not knowingly collect personal information from users under 16. If we become aware that we have collected information from a user under 16, we will take steps to delete such information promptly.

8. International Data Transfers

Your information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in countries other than your country of residence. These countries may have data protection laws that differ from your home country. By using Apprentice Wizard, you consent to such transfers.

9. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide services. If you delete your account, we will delete or anonymize your information within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it by law (e.g., for tax or compliance purposes).

• Account data: Retained while account is active, deleted upon account deletion
• Application tracker entries: Retained while account is active, deleted upon account deletion
• Public testimonials: May be retained indefinitely unless requested to be removed
• Support messages: Resolved support conversations are automatically deleted 18 months after resolution; all support messages are deleted when your account is deleted
• Log data: Typically retained for 90 days

10. Third-Party Links

Our platform may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these external sites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing any information.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by updating the "Last updated" date and, in some cases, by sending you an email notification. Your continued use of the platform following such changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:

13. Additional Information for UK Users (GDPR/UK GDPR)

If you are located in the UK, you have additional rights under UK GDPR, including:

• The right to access your personal data
• The right to rectify inaccurate data
• The right to erasure ("right to be forgotten")
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object to processing
• Rights related to automated decision-making

To exercise these rights, please contact us at support@apprenticewizard.co.uk. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

14. Feedback & Support Data

When you use the in-app feedback feature (accessible from your Dashboard or Settings), we collect and store the following personal data:

• Your account email address (used to identify your submission and allow us to respond).
• The category you select (Bug, Feature Request, or General Feedback).
• The subject and message body you write.
• Any replies posted by Apprentice Wizard staff.

Legal basis: Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR), we use this data solely to improve our product and respond to your support queries. We do not use it for marketing or share it with third parties.

Retention: Feedback data is kept until you delete it yourself or until your account is deleted. There is no automatic expiry.

How to delete your feedback data:

1. Go to Settings in your Apprentice Wizard account.
2. Scroll to the Your feedback section.
3. Click the delete icon next to any submission you wish to remove.
4. Alternatively, deleting your account will permanently erase all feedback data.

To exercise any other data rights related to this data, contact us at support@apprenticewizard.co.uk.

14.1 First-Line Support Messages (paid plans)

Members on a paid plan can message our team directly from the in-app Support area. When you use it, we collect and store only what we need to help you:

• The message content you send and our replies.
• A reference to your account (so we can identify and respond to you).
• The time each message was sent and the status of the conversation (open, in progress, or resolved).

Please don't share sensitive personal information, such as health, financial details, or passwords, in support messages. We only need enough information to help with your question.

Legal basis: Performance of our contract with you (Article 6(1)(b) UK GDPR) and our legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)) in providing support and improving our service. We use support messages only to respond to you and operate the service; we do not use them for marketing.

Who can see them: Access is restricted to authorised Apprentice Wizard staff, and staff access to support conversations is logged.

Retention: Once a support conversation is marked resolved, it is automatically deleted 18 months later. If you delete your account, all of your support messages are deleted at the same time.

Notifications: When our team replies, we notify you in the app and by email. These are transactional service messages, not marketing.

14.2 Service Announcement Emails

We may occasionally email paid-plan members with service announcements and product updates relevant to your plan, on the basis of our legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR). Every such email includes an unsubscribe link; once you unsubscribe, we record your choice and stop sending you these updates. You will still receive essential account and support messages.

14.3 Wizard AI Interaction and Feedback Signals

When you use Wizard AI chat, we collect limited interaction signals to improve answer quality and monitor reliability. These signals include chat opens, message send events, typing-state events, response-delivery events, and thumbs up/down ratings.

What we store: your account reference, an internal chat session ID, event type, event timestamp, optional short response excerpt (for rating context), and optional technical metadata needed for debugging and quality review.

What we do not store:raw keystroke-by-keystroke text streams. Typing events are stored as lightweight state transitions (for example "typing started" and "typing stopped"), not full key logs.

Legal basis: Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR) to maintain service quality, investigate model failures, and improve Wizard AI output over time.

Retention: Wizard AI interaction and rating telemetry is retained for up to 24 months, then automatically deleted.

14.4 Founder Outreach Emails

We may occasionally reach out to registered users directly by email to ask for feedback on the product (for example, what has been useful and what has been missing), using your account email address and first name.

Legal basis:Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR) and, for existing users, the "soft opt-in" for similar products and services under Regulation 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), we only contact people who have already signed up to use Apprentice Wizard, about Apprentice Wizard itself, and never for third-party marketing.

What these emails are not: automated marketing campaigns or newsletters. They are sent individually and read and replied to by a person.

Opt-out:You can opt out of these emails at any time by replying "unsubscribe" or by contacting us at support@apprenticewizard.co.uk, and we will not contact you for this purpose again.

15. Coaching Inquiry Data

When you submit a coaching inquiry via the /coaching page, we collect and store:

• Your full name and email address.
• Your current stage (e.g. Year 12, University Y2).
• The message you write describing your search and goals.
• The status of your inquiry (pending, reviewed, invited, or declined).

Legal basis: Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR), we use this data solely to assess and respond to coaching inquiries. We do not use it for marketing or share it with third parties.

Discord:If you are accepted into the Premium coaching programme, your sessions and direct messages take place on Discord. Discord's own Privacy Policy governs data processed within their platform. We do not store Discord messages on Apprentice Wizard servers.

Retention: Inquiry data is retained for 24 months from the date of submission or until you request deletion, whichever comes first.

To request deletion of your inquiry data, contact us at support@apprenticewizard.co.uk.

16. Payment Data

Payments for the Apprentice (£49.99) and Premium (£99.99) plans are processed by Stripe, Inc. Apprentice Wizard does not store your card number, CVV, sort code, or full payment details. We receive and retain:

• A Stripe payment intent ID and customer ID (for support and refund purposes).
• The plan purchased and the date of payment.
• Your email address as provided to Stripe at checkout.

Legal basis: Contract performance (Article 6(1)(b) UK GDPR), we need this data to fulfil your purchase and provide paid features.

Stripe's privacy practices are governed by the Stripe Privacy Policy (stripe.com/gb/privacy). Payment records are retained for 7 years in accordance with UK financial and tax regulations.