Privacy notice

Effective November 13, 2026. Steptrail is run by PJM Designs LLC.

Who we are

PJM Designs LLC operates Steptrail. Contact: PJM Designs LLC, 5157 E Condensery Rd, Sheridan, MI 48884. Phone (616) 320-2342. Email information@pjmdesigns.biz. We answer privacy questions within 10 business days.

What we collect about children

A parent enters, and can change at any time:

• The child's first name or a nickname, grade, and learning settings (for example, the dyslexia plan, text size, letter spacing).
• An optional picture: one of our built-in characters, or a photo taken on your device. You can turn photos off in Personalize. Photos are stored on our server and shown only inside your account.
• Optional extra words from school.

While a child practices, Steptrail records:

• Each answer, whether it was right, and how long it took. This is how the lessons decide what to review and when to move up, and how the report card is built.
• Practice days and minutes, stickers earned, game scores, and one-minute check scores a parent enters.
• Optional reading recordings. In Story Time a child can tap "Read and record" to save their voice reading a page, so you can hear progress. We keep the newest 40 recordings per child and delete older ones on their own. Nothing listens to or analyzes the recordings; they are only played back to you.

Steptrail does not ask children for their full name, address, phone number, email, school, or location, and it has no chat or messaging between users.

What we collect about grown-ups

• Your name, email address, and password (stored only as a one-way hash we cannot read back), and the grown-up PIN (also hashed).
• Email addresses you enter for the weekly summary.
• Your plan and payment status. Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card number; Stripe tells us only whether a payment went through.
• Our hosting company's servers record the network address of every visit, as all web servers do, to keep the service running and secure.

How we use it

Only to run Steptrail for your family: to plan each day's practice, save progress, show reports and the weekly email, keep accounts secure, take payment, and answer your questions. We may use totals with no names (for example, how many lessons were finished this month) to improve the lessons.

Who we share it with

Only the companies we need to run the service, and only what they need:

• InMotion Hosting, which runs our servers and stores the data.
• Stripe, which handles payments. Stripe gets the paying grown-up's email and payment details. It gets no information about children.

We do not share children's information with anyone else. If the law requires us to share information, for example a valid court order, we will only share what is required. If PJM Designs LLC ever sells Steptrail, we will tell you first, and the buyer must keep these promises or delete the information.

Cookies and storage on your device

We use one cookie to keep your device signed in, and small settings saved on the device (such as the color a child picked for the games). There are no advertising or tracking cookies.

How long we keep it

• While your account is active, we keep your children's progress so the lessons can build on it.
• If a free trial ends without a plan, or a plan ends, we keep everything for 90 days in case you come back. We email you 7 days before we delete it. Then the account, its children, their answers, recordings and photos are deleted.
• When you remove a child or delete your account, we delete that information right away. Copies in our daily backups are overwritten within 14 days.
• Stripe keeps payment records as tax and financial laws require.

Your choices and rights

As the parent or guardian you can, at any time:

• See everything about your child on the progress and report card pages, and download all of it in Settings, "Download your data".
• Change or remove anything you entered, remove a child (Personalize, then "Remove" with the child's name), or delete the whole account (Settings, "Delete account").
• Stop us from collecting more by removing the child or deleting the account. You can also turn off photos and stop using reading recordings.
• Ask us any question about your child's information at the contact above.

Parent consent

The children's privacy law in the United States (COPPA) asks us to confirm that a parent agrees before children use the service. When you sign up, you confirm you are the child's parent or guardian and agree to this notice, and the children's screen does not open until you confirm your email address through the link we send.

Schools

When a school or district uses Steptrail with its students:

• The school is in charge of the records. We act for the school as a "school official" under the federal student records law (FERPA), use student information only to provide Steptrail to that school, and follow its directions.
• The school gives consent for students. As the children's privacy law (COPPA) allows for school use, the school agrees in place of parents, and Steptrail is used only for school purposes. Parents may ask the school to see or delete their child's records.
• Less information. For students we keep only a first name and last initial, grade, class and the practice record described above. No email, birthday, address or student ID.
• Teachers see their own classes. A teacher sees only the students in their classes; the person who runs the school's account sees every class. Changes to classes, students and teachers are logged.
• No ads, no selling, no profiles. We never use student information for advertising, never sell it, and never build profiles for any purpose other than the school's (Michigan's student online privacy law, MCL 388.1295, and the same rules everywhere else).
• Leaving. The school can download all its data at any time and delete its account; we delete student records on the school's request and 90 days after its plan ends.
• Agreements. We sign student data privacy agreements, including the Michigan agreement, on request.

Security

Every page is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Passwords and PINs are stored only as one-way hashes. Each family's information is walled off so no other account can see it. Only PJM Designs LLC can reach the servers. We review our security at least once a year, and if a breach ever affected your information we would tell you promptly.

Changes

If we change this notice in a way that affects children's information, we will email you before the change takes effect and ask for your consent again where the law requires it.