This policy is a working draft pending Daniel's final review.
What we collect
- Account details: your name, email address, password (stored as a hash, never in readable form), and whether your email is verified.
- Voice recordings: the audio of your answers in the speaking simulation, one recording per part of the test.
- Transcripts: the text of what you said, produced automatically from your recordings. Scoring runs on the transcript, so this is the part the evaluation actually reads.
- Test and result data: which questions you got, how long you spoke, your overall band estimate, your per criterion bands and any written feedback.
- Payment metadata: which product you bought, the amount, the currency, the status and Stripe's reference for the payment. The card number, expiry and security code go straight to Stripe and are never sent to or stored by us.
- Booking data: the time of a live session, the scheduling reference and the meeting link.
- Technical data: server logs of requests to the site, and the authentication cookies described in our cookie policy.
Why we hold it
- To run your account and let you sign in.
- To produce the evaluation you asked for. A human evaluation needs the recording because Daniel listens to it. An AI evaluation needs the transcript.
- To take payment and to keep the records that accounting and tax rules require.
- To schedule and run a live session.
- To email you things you need: verification, receipts, a result being ready, a booking confirmation.
- To keep the service working and to investigate abuse or fraud.
Who processes it
We use a small number of third party services to run the product. They act as processors for us and only receive what they need for their part.
- Stripe: payment processing. Receives your payment details directly from your browser and the amount and product reference from us. Stripe holds your card data; we do not.
- Calendly: scheduling for live assessment sessions. Receives your name, email and the chosen time.
- Brevo: transactional email. Receives your email address and the content of the message being sent.
- OpenAI: speech to text and the language model that produces the AI band estimate against the IELTS band descriptors. Receives your recording audio and transcript text.
- ElevenLabs: the synthesised examiner voice used in the speaking simulation, and the voice conversation where that mode is used. Receives the examiner prompts and, in a voice conversation, your speech.
- Our hosting and storage providers, which hold the database and the recording files.
What we do not do
- We do not sell your data.
- We do not use your recordings or transcripts for advertising.
- We do not run advertising or profiling trackers on the site today.
- We do not publish your recordings, transcripts or scores.
How long we keep it
Recordings, transcripts, results and account data are kept while your account is open so you can go back to your own history and compare attempts. Payment records are kept longer because accounting rules require it. Our data retention page gives the detail, and deletion on request is covered there and on the delete my data page.
Your rights
You can ask us to do any of the following, and you do not need to give a reason:
- See a copy of the data we hold about you.
- Correct anything that is wrong.
- Delete your recordings, transcripts, results and account, subject to the accounting records we are obliged to keep.
- Withdraw from marketing email at any time. Transactional email about something you bought will continue while your account is open.
Where data is held
The service and the processors above operate across more than one country, so your data may be processed outside the country you live in. [To confirm with Daniel: hosting region and the legal transfer basis to state here].
Children
The service is not intended for anyone under 16. If you believe a child has created an account, email us and we will remove it.
Contact
For anything about your data, email support@takeieltstest.com. That address is a placeholder pending confirmation. We will tell you what we hold and act on a deletion request by hand, because there is no self service deletion button yet.