Privacy Policy

1. Information you give us

• Contact form: name, email, phone number, subject and message.
• Enrollment request: first and last name, email, phone number, the program you choose, class language and preferred schedule.
• Trade School waitlist: name, phone number, email, the program you are interested in, preferred schedule, class language and an optional message.
• Employer inquiry: company name, contact name, email, phone number, type of inquiry, number of employees and message.
• Telegram bot (@tradeprogressbot): your Telegram name and chat ID, the language you choose, the buttons you press (for example what training you need, whether you are a worker or a supervisor, where you work), the messages you send and the bot's replies, and your phone number if you choose to share it.
• Phone, email and in person: whatever you tell us when you call, write or visit.
• When you take a class: your legal name and contact details, the information the issuing program needs to issue your card (see section 5), sign-in and attendance records, and test results.
• When your employer enrolls you: your employer may give us your name and contact details so we can register you.

We do not take payments on this website. If you pay for a class, we keep the payment record our books require (amount, date, method); we do not store full card numbers.

2. Information collected automatically

This website runs on the Wix platform. Wix uses cookies and similar technologies to run the site and to count visits (Wix's built-in site statistics), which records technical information such as your browser, device, pages visited and approximate location. We have not added advertising cookies or any other analytics tools. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings.

The site also saves your language choice (English, Russian or Spanish) in your own browser so it opens in that language next time. That setting stays on your device.

3. How we use your information

• Answer your questions and requests
• Help you choose the right course, enroll you and run your class
• Issue and record your completion cards with the program that issues them
• Tell you about schedule changes, and contact waitlist members when enrollment opens
• Answer employer inquiries and arrange group or on-site training
• Keep the training records that OSHA, the NYC Department of Buildings and other programs require
• Keep our website and systems working and protect them from spam and abuse
• Comply with the law

We do not sell or rent your personal information, and we do not use it for targeted advertising. We do not use it to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

4. Automatic replies and staff alerts

Our Telegram bot answers automatically. Its replies are written by an AI model that runs on our own computers and uses only our published course information. It can make mistakes: anything it cannot answer is passed to our staff, and you can ask for a person at any time. Please do not send the bot sensitive information such as Social Security, bank or card numbers.

When you send a form or give the bot your contact details, our staff get an alert in our internal Telegram chat and by email so we can reply quickly. The alert contains what you sent us.

5. Who we share it with

• Service providers that run our systems: Wix.com (website hosting, forms and our contact inbox), Telegram (bot messages), a cloud hosting company in the United States that hosts our automation server, and our email provider. They may use your information only to provide their service to us.
• The course provider and the programs that issue your card, when you take a class: for NYC DOB courses (for example SST and scaffold courses), we give your name and the details the DOB requires to the independent, third-party DOB-registered course provider that certifies the course, and that provider records your training in NYC DOB Training Connect, the Department of Buildings system used to issue cards; for OSHA 30 and OSHA 10, the authorized trainer's class records go to the OSHA Outreach Training Program through its authorizing training organization. For FDNY Certificates of Fitness we only prepare you for the exam: you apply to FDNY yourself.
• Your employer: if your employer enrolled you or pays for your training, we share your attendance, completion and card status with them.
• When the law requires it: to respond to a subpoena, court order or government request, or to protect the rights and safety of our students, staff or others.
• If the business changes hands: as part of a merger, sale or transfer of our business, under the same protections described here.

Telegram, DOB, OSHA, FDNY, YouTube, LinkedIn and other websites we link to have their own privacy policies. Your use of Telegram is also covered by Telegram's privacy policy.

6. How long we keep it

• Questions, bot conversations and waitlist sign-ups: as long as they help us answer you and follow up, or until you ask us to delete them.
• Training records: at least as long as the program requires. For example, OSHA Outreach trainers must keep class records for five years after the class ends.
• Business and tax records: as long as the law requires.

7. How we protect it

Only staff who need your information can see it. Form submissions are stored on the Wix platform with access limited to our account, and our automation server and databases are password-protected and closed to the public. No method of storing or sending information over the internet is 100% secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Your choices and rights

• Ask what personal information we have about you and get a copy
• Ask us to correct it
• Ask us to delete it, except records the law or a training program requires us to keep
• Leave the waitlist or stop messages from us at any time; in Telegram you can also block the bot

To make a request, contact us by email or Telegram (section 12). We may need to confirm your identity first. We answer within 30 days and will not treat you differently for making a request. Some states give their residents additional privacy rights; we honor the requests above for everyone.

9. Children

Our website and training are meant for adults; the Trade School programs require students to be 18 or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.

10. Links to other websites

Our website links to government and third-party websites such as NYC DOB, OSHA, FDNY, Telegram, YouTube and LinkedIn. We are not responsible for their content or privacy practices.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our services or the law change. The new version will be posted on this page with a new "Last updated" date.