Privacy and data use

What we collect

It depends on what you do here. Nothing is collected from you just for reading the page.

• If you apply for a course: your name, your email, your phone number if you give one, whatever you write in the free-text box, whether you asked about a scholarship, and your age band. If the applicant is under 18, a parent or guardian name and email as well.
• If you make an account: your email, your name, and your sign-in credentials, which Clerk holds. We keep your account id and your email and name so an instructor can tell who is asking to be let in.
• If you are given a place on a course: a record of that place, which course it is on, whether you are on the waitlist, accepted, or registered, the fee set for you, and any payment or scholarship recorded against it.
• If you are the parent or guardian named on the application of someone aged 13 to 17, and you sign in here with the same email address the application gives for you: a record linking your account to that place. It holds which account and which place, whether the link is proposed, confirmed by MMEG staff, or withdrawn, how we found it, and who at MMEG confirmed it and when.
• If you pay a course fee: the amount, the date, and the reference Stripe gives the payment. The card details themselves are typed on a page Stripe hosts and are never sent to this site. MMEG never sees them and never stores them.
• If you ask about a scholarship: that you asked, and the decision and amount if one is awarded. Asking is recorded separately from your application decision and does not affect it.
• If you sign a course agreement here: your typed name, whether you signed as the learner or as a parent or guardian, which agreement and which version of it you signed, and the date. We keep that because it is the record of what you agreed to.
• If you take part in the pre-pilot research: which stages you open, how long they take, your Shop Mode result, and the answers you choose to give. This only happens after you agree to it separately, and only if you are 18 or over.
• Standard server logs from our host, including your IP address and the time of the request.
• When an application is sent, we count how many have come from that connection in the last hour so nobody can flood the form. What we store for that is a one-way fingerprint of the address rather than the address itself, it cannot be turned back into an address, and it is deleted within two days.

Cookies

We set the cookies needed to sign you in and keep you signed in. That is all. There are no advertising cookies, no analytics cookies, no tracking pixels, and no third-party scripts on this site.

That is why you are not being asked to accept cookies: there is nothing here to opt out of. If that ever changes, we will ask first rather than assume.

Separately, if you work through Shop Mode, your browser saves your progress on your own device. That stays on your device. We do not read it and it is never sent to us. Clearing your browser data clears it.

The transmitter task also keeps your draft, drawings, attached photos or recordings, and any optional facilitator notes in this browser. Files you choose to open are processed here. Nothing is submitted automatically. Export a copy when you want to keep it elsewhere or share it with your instructor; clearing browser data clears the local draft.

Why we hold it

To answer your application and talk to you about a course. To let an instructor admit you to the training. To run the course. To report to the funders who pay for this work, and for that we use combined, de-identified figures, never your name or your email.

Who else touches it

We use a small number of services to run this site. They process your information on our behalf and for no purpose of their own.

Clerk

Accounts and sign-in. Holds your email, name, and sign-in credentials.

Vercel

Hosting. Keeps standard server logs, including IP addresses.

Neon (a Databricks company)

Runs our database, which holds the records we keep, such as applications, account details, places on a course, payments, and signed agreements.

Google (Gmail)

Sends the application emails, to you and to MMEG staff.

Stripe

Takes the course fee when you register. Your card details go to Stripe and never to MMEG or to this site. We keep the amount, the date, and Stripe’s reference for the payment.

What we do not do

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. We do not use it to build a profile of you.

People under 18

Our courses are open to all ages, so some applicants are minors. If the applicant is under 18, we ask for a parent or guardian name and email, and we contact the guardian.

If the applicant is under 13, a parent or guardian has to submit the application. We do not ask a child under 13 for an email address or a phone number, and everything we send about that application goes to the parent or guardian, not to the child. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from a child under 13. If we find out we have, we delete it. A parent or guardian can email us to see what we hold about their child, correct it, or have it deleted.

If the applicant is 13 to 17, the parent or guardian can act on the place from their own account. When an adult signs in with the guardian email address on the application, we record a proposed link between their account and the place. That link lets them do nothing until MMEG staff have confirmed it with the guardian. Once it is confirmed, the parent or guardian registers and pays for the place and signs the agreements from their own account. The learner sees their place but not the fee.

Consent for photographs, and for taking part in the research, is asked for separately and is never bundled into the application.

How long we keep it

We keep an application for three years after we last hear from you, and then we delete it. If you join a course, those three years start at the end of your last course with us.

The record of your place on a course, what was paid for it, and the agreements you signed is kept on the same clock and deleted with it.

A link between a parent or guardian account and a place is kept on the same clock and deleted with the place. If a link is withdrawn, we keep the withdrawn link with the place until then, so the same adult is not proposed for that place again.

Two things change that. We delete it sooner if you ask us to. We keep it longer only where a funder contract or the law requires it, and only for as long as that requires.

Funder reporting uses combined, de-identified figures, so none of it depends on us keeping your name.

What you can ask for

Email admin@mmeg.us and you can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. You can withdraw your agreement to be contacted at any time, and you can withdraw from the research at any time without giving a reason and without it affecting your place in a course.

Depending on where you live you may have further rights under your local law. Ask us and we will honour them.

Keeping it safe

Access to the database is limited to MMEG staff who need it. Traffic to this site is encrypted. No system is perfect, and we will tell you promptly if something happens that affects your information.

Changes

This page carries a version and a date. If we change it in a way that matters, we will raise the version and say what changed. Questions go to admin@mmeg.us.

What changed in version 2026-10b: the list of services that touch your information now names Neon, a Databricks company, which runs our database. The page used to list Vercel for the database as well as for hosting. Vercel hosts the site. What we collect and why we hold it have not changed. The terms of use did not change; they carry the same version number as this page.

Earlier changes. Version 2026-10, in effect 9 October 2026: the transmitter task saves drafts, drawings, attached photos or recordings, and optional facilitator notes on your own device. It does not automatically submit that work to MMEG.