Privacy Policy

Last updated: January 19, 2026

👋 Quick Summary for Students and Families

Welcome to Pathly, your AI-powered guide for life after high school.
We take your privacy seriously. This policy explains how Pathly Ltd Co (“Pathly,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, and protects your information when you use our platform, website, or related services (“Services”).

If you are under 18, please review this policy with a parent or guardian. Pathly is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that a child under 13 has provided personal information, we will delete it.

1. Quick Summary

We protect your information and never sell your name or contact details.
Your data powers Pathly’s guidance and helps match you with schools, scholarships, or career paths.

You and your family can view, change, or delete your data at any time.
Pathly is free for students and may partner with trusted educational organizations to keep it that way.

2. Company Information

Pathly Ltd Co
6650 Rivers Ave, Suite 100
Charleston, SC 29406
📧 hello@pathly.com
📧 privacy@pathly.com

3. Information We Collect

Information You Provide

  • Account Details: Name, email, school, and graduation year

  • Profile Data: Interests, goals, activities, academic indicators, and career preferences

  • Educational Records: Transcripts or scores only with explicit consent

  • Engagement Data: Quiz answers, surveys, and goal-tracking inputs

  • Communications: Messages, feedback, and support requests

  • Financial Data: Payment information for optional premium features

Information Collected Automatically

We collect primarily de-identified or aggregated usage data to improve performance.

Examples include page views, session duration, device type, browser, and approximate region (state-level).

We do not store IP addresses, GPS data, or full session recordings.

Information from Third Parties

  • Educational Partners: Records or outcomes with student or parent consent

  • Parental Information: Consent and preference records

  • Optional Connections: Limited public social info if you link accounts

  • Data Enrichment: Anonymous trend or demographic datasets (no personal identifiers)

4. How We Use Information

To Power Your Experience

  • Deliver personalized college, career, and scholarship matches

  • Track goals and progress to improve recommendations

  • Connect you with verified schools or programs only with your permission

To Improve the Platform

  • Improve recommendations and platform performance using anonymous or aggregated data

  • Analyze usage trends to develop new features and support research

To Communicate and Support

  • Send alerts about deadlines, resources, or updates

  • Provide personalized non-advertising content

  • Share aggregate trends with education partners to improve program quality

  • Offer clearly labeled sponsored quizzes or learning tools (optional)

To Keep Pathly Free

We collaborate with trusted colleges, training providers, and scholarship platforms.

We never sell personal data. Partners may receive only anonymous, aggregated insights unless you opt in to share personally.

5. What We Don’t Do

Pathly does not operate as an advertising platform for third parties, and we are committed to protecting student privacy.

❌ We do not sell personal information.
❌ We do not allow third parties to use Student Data for their own targeted advertising.
❌ We do not share student chat transcripts with Institutions.

6. When We Share Information

For purposes of this policy, “Institution” means a school, district, or organization that provides access to Pathly.

With Your Permission

When you choose to connect with a school, scholarship, or partner program.

With Service Providers

For hosting, analytics, or support under confidential agreements prohibiting secondary use.

With Educational Partners

Only in aggregate or de-identified form unless you opt in for direct sharing.

With Institutions (Schools/Districts)

If your account is created through or linked to a school, district, or organization (“Institution”), authorized Institution staff (such as counselors) may access limited Student Data through Institution-facing administrative features for educational guidance purposes. The categories of Student Data accessible to an Institution depend on the Institution’s program configuration and access controls, and may include basic account information, progress indicators, and high-level guidance insights.

Chat information. Institutions may receive AI-generated engagement insights derived from metadata (such as message counts, saved careers, assessment results, and roadmap progress) along with suggested conversation starters. These summaries are generated from profile and activity data—not from analysis of chat content. Counselors do not receive chat transcripts, verbatim messages, or specific conversation topics.

Access controls and logging. Institution access is restricted to authorized personnel and scoped to students affiliated with that Institution. Administrative access may be logged and reviewed for security, compliance, and support purposes.

For Legal Reasons

To comply with law, protect rights or safety, or respond to court orders.
If Pathly is merged or acquired, we will notify users before data transfers.

7. Parental Rights and Youth Protection

Parents may review, update, or delete their child’s data at any time.
Pathly is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
Parents may opt out of communications or sponsored content.
We do not sell personal information or share Student Data with third parties for their targeted advertising.
Requests can be made at 📩 privacy@pathly.com.
If an account is linked to an Institution, certain requests may be coordinated through that Institution consistent with its policies and applicable law.

8. Your Controls and Choices

Edit or delete your profile information anytime.
Manage email and alert settings.
Opt out of research or partner data sharing.
Request complete account deletion at any time.
We may retain anonymized data for research or security purposes.

9. Data Retention

Active accounts: Student Data is kept to provide services. Student accounts belong to the student, not the Institution.

Institution contract termination: If a school or district terminates its agreement with Pathly, individual student accounts remain active. Students retain full access to their data and may continue using Pathly independently. Students may delete their accounts at any time.

Student account deletion: Upon student-initiated deletion, data is permanently removed within 15 days (after a brief grace period to allow restoration).

School data export: Upon contract termination, Pathly provides the Institution with an export of school-level data (roster, aggregated analytics, assessment completion status) as specified in the applicable data agreement. This export does not include student conversation history or individual chat content.

Business records: Non-student operational records (contracts, invoices, support logs) may be retained for up to three (3) years for legal, tax, or audit purposes.

De-identified data: Anonymous, non-identifiable data may be retained indefinitely for research and platform improvement.

10. Cookies and Tracking

Pathly uses cookies and similar technologies to keep the platform secure, maintain sessions, understand usage, and improve performance (for example, remembering preferences and measuring feature adoption).

Advertising and Retargeting (Pathly). We and our service providers may use cookies and similar technologies to market Pathly (including retargeting) and to measure and improve campaign performance. Where permitted, this may be based on interactions with our website or Services (for example, pages viewed or actions taken). We do not sell personal information, and we do not allow third parties to use Student Data for their own targeted advertising. We do not knowingly target children under 13 with interest-based advertising.

We may also use cookies to market Pathly to educators, parents, and other visitors; Student Data from Institution-linked student accounts is not used for that purpose.

You may control cookies through your browser settings and, where available, our cookie controls.

11. Third-Party Integrations

Certain features connect to external providers such as scholarship or training partners.

When you opt in to use those services, their own privacy policies apply. Pathly is not responsible for their data practices.

12. Legal and International Compliance

Your information is processed in the United States. For Institution-linked Student Data, Pathly configures services to use US-based data centers and does not intentionally transfer Student Data internationally. Non-student data (such as website analytics for general visitors) may be processed in other jurisdictions with adequate safeguards.

Pathly complies with FERPA (student records), COPPA (children under 13), CCPA/CPRA (California residents), GDPR (international users), and applicable state student privacy laws.

13. Data Security

We use encryption, access controls, and secure hosting to protect information.
While we take reasonable measures, no system is completely secure.

By using Pathly, you acknowledge that data transmission over the internet involves some risk.

Pathly is not liable for unauthorized access beyond our reasonable control.

14. AI Governance and Transparency

Pathly’s AI provides suggestions based on your inputs but does not make final decisions.
Your personal data is never used to train external AI systems.
AI outputs are reviewed for accuracy, fairness, and bias on an ongoing basis.

15. Your Privacy Rights

You may at any time:

  • Request access or correction of your data

  • Request deletion or closure of your account

  • Obtain a portable copy of your data

  • Opt out of analytics or partner data sharing

  • Request details about third-party data use

If your account is linked to an Institution, certain requests (access, correction, deletion) may be handled through the Institution consistent with its policies and applicable law.

Email privacy@pathly.com.

We verify identity before fulfilling requests and respond within 45 days where required by law.

16. Policy Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time.

If changes materially affect your rights, we will notify you at least 30 days before they take effect.

Continued use after that date means you accept the updated policy.

17. Contact Us

General Questions: hello@pathly.com
Privacy Requests: privacy@pathly.com
Mailing Address: Pathly Ltd Co, 6650 Rivers Ave, Suite 100, Charleston, SC 29406

18. Legal Notice and Limitation of Liability

This Privacy Policy does not create any contractual right beyond what is required by law.

To the fullest extent permitted, Pathly Ltd Co and its affiliates are not liable for any indirect or incidental damages arising from unauthorized access or misuse of data beyond our reasonable control.

Your Path. Your Pace. Your Future.
We’re committed to helping you explore your future confidently and safely.

By using Pathly, you agree to this policy and our commitment to ethical, secure, and student-first data practices. We’re here to help you explore your future—confidently and safely.