Privacy Policy

The documents it takes to prove certification eligibility (tax returns, operating agreements, military records, personal résumés) are among the most sensitive things a business owner has. This Privacy Policy explains what UnderstandMyCert (“we,” “us,” or “our,” operated by Understand My Policy, Inc.) collects, how we use and protect it, and the choices you have. It applies to understandmycert.com and the related services, tools, and features (the “Service”).

We built this Service on three promises, and we lead with them because they are the point:

The rest of this policy explains those promises in detail.

1. Information we collect

Documents you upload (“Your Content”). The business and eligibility documents you provide. These include tax returns, operating agreements, bylaws, stock ledgers, résumés, org charts, DD-214s and VA rating letters, licenses, leases, bank signature cards, and similar records, along with what the Service extracts from them to build and check your requirement checklist and organize your documents.

Sensitive information inside those documents. Certification programs are defined by personal characteristics: veteran status, service-connected disability, gender, race or ethnicity, and economic disadvantage. Documents proving eligibility necessarily contain this information, and your screener answers may state it directly. We treat all of it as part of Your Content: we use it only to provide the Service to you (Section 2), we never sell it, and we never use it to train AI models (Section 4). We do not use it for advertising or profiling of any kind.

Screener and questionnaire answers. Your answers to the free pre-screener and any in-product questionnaires, and the eligibility results and checklists we generate from them.

Account information. If you create an account, your name, email address, and login credentials, handled through our authentication provider, plus your business name and the programs you are preparing for.

Payment information. When you make a purchase, our payment processor collects and handles your payment details. We do not store your full card number. We keep a record of what you purchased and your subscription status.

Usage and device data. Standard analytics, pages visited, features used, general device and browser information, and product events (for example, that a document was uploaded or a checklist item was completed), collected to operate and improve the Service.

Communications. Messages you send us, including support requests, feedback, and reports of outdated rules.

2. How we use your information

We use your information to:

• Provide the Service: run the pre-screener, build your cited requirement checklist, map requirements to documents, organize your uploads, and track renewal deadlines you have enabled;
• Send transactional and account emails: receipts, account notices, and, where you have opted in, renewal reminders and rule-change alerts;
• Process payments and manage any subscription;
• Operate, secure, and improve the Service: including monitoring for abuse, debugging, and understanding which features help;
• Provide support and respond to you;
• Comply with law and enforce our Terms.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use your documents or the information in them to train AI models. (See Section 4.)

3. How AI processing works

To read your documents and answers, we may send their contents to AI service providers that generate the extractions, mappings, and explanations. These providers process your content only to return a result to us so we can serve you, under contractual terms that prohibit them from using your content to train their models. Your documents are inputs to a one-time reading task, not training data.

4. Our promise on training and selling data

We never use your documents, your screener answers, or the personal information in them, including veteran status, disability, gender, race, ethnicity, or financial information, to train AI models, ours or anyone else’s. We never sell your personal information.

We may produce and use de-identified, aggregated statistics (for example, how often applicants for a given program are missing a particular document) to operate, improve, and describe the Service. Before any information is used this way, it is stripped of identifiers and combined so that it does not identify you, your business, or your specific documents, and it is separated from your identity. Aggregated, de-identified statistics are not personal information and are not “your documents.” Your private, raw documents are never sold and never used for model training, full stop.

5. We never access government or certifier portals

We never file for you, and we never ask for your login credentials, and you should never give us your login credentials for SAM.gov, certify.sba.gov, VetCert, WBENC, NMSDC, a state UCP, or any other government or certifier portal. If you ever find a field in the Service asking for portal credentials, something is wrong: report it to us immediately.

6. How we protect your information

• Encryption. Your documents are encrypted in transit and at rest.
• Access controls. Access to your content is restricted to your account, enforced in our application and backed by database-level security rules as an additional safeguard.
• Minimization. We collect what the Service needs to work and no more. Where a requirement can be proven without a document containing extra sensitive detail, we tell you the minimum document that suffices.
• Vendors under contract. The third parties who help us run the Service are bound to protect your information and to use it only to provide their service to us.

No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. But protecting these documents is central to what we do, and we treat it that way.

7. A note on what to upload

Upload only the documents your checklist calls for. We recommend redacting information a requirement does not need before uploading. Social Security numbers of people other than the owners whose eligibility is being shown are a common example. We also recommend that you do not upload attorney communications or other privileged material, because uploading privileged material to a third-party service can affect that privilege. If you choose to upload such material, you do so at your own discretion.

8. Service providers we rely on

We share information only with the vendors that make the Service work, and only as needed for them to perform their function:

• Authentication: to manage sign-in and accounts.
• Hosting and database: to run the Service and store your data securely.
• AI providers: to read documents and generate checklists and explanations, under no-training terms (Section 3).
• Payment processing: to handle purchases; they receive payment details, not your documents.
• Email delivery: to send receipts, account notices, and reminders you enabled.
• Analytics: to understand product usage and improve the Service.

We do not authorize any of these providers to use your information for their own independent purposes. We do not share your information with the SBA, WBENC, NMSDC, any state agency, or any certifier. You file yourself, directly with them, and what you send them is between you and them.

9. When we may disclose information

We may disclose information if required by law, subpoena, or valid legal process; to protect the rights, safety, or property of our users, the public, or us; to investigate or prevent fraud or abuse; or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, in which case any acquirer remains bound by the commitments in this policy, including the promises in Section 4, and you will be notified of any change in ownership or material change in how your information is handled.

10. Your choices and rights

• Deletion. You can ask us to delete your documents and account information at any time by emailing support@understandmycert.com, and we will delete them from our active systems, and from backups within our normal backup-rotation cycle. De-identified, aggregated statistics that no longer identify you are not affected.
• Access. You can ask us what personal information we hold about you and request a copy of your documents.
• Correction. You can ask us to correct your account information.
• Email preferences. You can opt out of non-essential emails, including renewal reminders and rule-change alerts; we will still send essential transactional messages (like receipts and account notices) while you have an account with us.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights, such as the right to know what personal information we hold, to request its correction or deletion, and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. Florida residents have rights under the Florida Digital Bill of Rights, and residents of other states and regions may have comparable rights. To exercise any of these, contact support@understandmycert.com. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

11. Data retention

We keep your documents and account information for as long as needed to provide the Service, (including through renewal cycles if you have renewal tracking enabled) and then delete or de-identify them, unless a longer period is required by law (for example, retaining transaction records for tax and accounting purposes). You can ask us to delete your documents at any time (Section 10).

12. Businesses with multiple owners

Where your documents include information about other people (co-owners, officers, or family members named in an operating agreement, for example), you confirm you have permission to upload them. Anyone you add to your account or workspace may be able to see the documents in it. Manage access thoughtfully.

13. Children

The Service is intended for adults (18+) operating businesses and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.

14. International users

We operate in the United States, and your information is processed and stored here. If you access the Service from outside the U.S., you consent to processing in the U.S., where privacy laws may differ from those where you live.

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. We will not reduce the core promises in Section 4 (no training on your documents, no selling your personal information) without clear, prominent notice.

16. Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns about your privacy? Contact us at support@understandmycert.com.

UnderstandMyCert is an educational certification-prep tool. Your documents are private, never used to train AI models, and deletable anytime. We never touch your government or certifier portal credentials. You file yourself.