Privacy Policy

Introduction

SmartOST ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our portfolio tracking application.

Information We Collect

We collect information that you provide directly to us, including:

• Account information (email address, password)
• Portfolio evidence and achievements you add to the application
• Payment information processed securely through Stripe
• Communication data when you contact us

We also record how you use SmartOST automatically, as you use it. This information is linked to your account:

• Which features you use, and when. Signing up and signing in; opening the interview, coaching and portfolio pages; adding portfolio evidence and uploading documents; generating a portfolio PDF; starting and finishing a practice conversation; buying minutes; and unlocking portfolio access.
• Which pages you view, recorded by page name.
• Your sessions. When one begins, when it ends, and how long it lasted. A session starts at your first activity and closes after thirty minutes without any.
• Errors you run into. An error report carries the error message, the technical detail of where in the application it happened, the full web address of the page you were on at the time, and your browser's user-agent string, which identifies your browser and operating system.

We record this to understand how the application is used and to find faults in it.

Patient Data and Sensitive Information

Patient data, personal health information, and identifiable patient information are strictly prohibited from being uploaded to SmartOST under any circumstances. We do not collect, process, or store patient data. Violation of this provision will result in immediate termination of your account and may subject you to legal liability. We reserve the right to remove any content that we believe violates this provision.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve our services
• Process your transactions and manage your account
• Send you technical notices and support messages
• Respond to your comments and questions
• Analyze usage patterns to improve user experience

Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including encryption in transit, access controls, regular backups, and monitoring. Access to customer data is limited to personnel who need it to operate the service. We also use reputable third-party providers for hosting, storage, and payments, under contracts that require security and confidentiality. If we become aware of a personal data breach likely to pose a risk to you, we'll notify you and (where required) the ICO. You're responsible for keeping your password secure.

Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to provide our services and fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required by law.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access and receive a copy of your personal data
• Correct inaccurate personal data
• Request deletion of your personal data
• Object to processing of your personal data
• Request restriction of processing your personal data

Cookies and Advertising

SmartOST loads Google's advertising tag on every page, for every visitor, as soon as the page opens. It sets cookies in your browser so that Google can recognise a return visit and connect it to an advertisement you may have clicked.

We use it for one purpose: to find out whether our advertising reaches people who go on to sign up or buy. What we send is that a sign-up or a purchase happened and what it was worth. We do not send your name, your email address, or anything from your portfolio.

We also report purchases to Google from our own server. If you reach SmartOST by clicking a Google advert, we store an identifier for that click alongside your purchase, and once a day we send Google the sale, what it was worth, that identifier and our own order reference, and nothing else. This only applies to people who arrived from an advert.

If you would prefer the tag did not run, you can block third-party cookies in your browser, or use Google's own advertising controls at myadcenter.google.com. Neither affects your account or anything you have bought, and neither stops the reporting from our server.

Third-Party Services

We use the services below to run SmartOST. Each receives some of your information in order to do its job. Each has its own privacy policy, and we encourage you to review them.

• Supabase — hosts our database, our accounts and our server functions. Your account details, your portfolio evidence and the documents you upload are stored there.
• Stripe — processes payments. Your card details go to Stripe directly and are never held by us.
• Vapi — runs the voice practice conversations, and so receives what you say during one.
• Google — used in two separate ways. Google Gemini receives the transcript of a practice conversation in order to produce your assessment of it. Google Ads receives a signal when a sign-up or a purchase happens, including the amount paid, which we use to measure our advertising. That signal is sent both from your browser and, for purchases that followed an advert, from our own server.
• Sentry — receives the error reports described above, including the page address and the browser information they carry.
• Better Stack — receives the usage events described above, along with our server logs.
• Resend — sends our email, and so receives your email address.

Coaching sessions and webinars are booked on Calendly and Zoom. Those are separate websites: we do not send them your information, and anything you enter there is covered by their policies rather than this one.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: hello@smartost.co.uk