Privacy Policy
At dungeonporch, we believe education works best when you know exactly how we handle your information. This privacy policy walks you through what we collect, why we need it, and what we do to keep it safe—because trust matters when you're learning something new.
We've built our platform with privacy at its core. Every piece of data we gather serves a purpose in making your educational experience better, whether that's remembering your progress through a course or suggesting content that matches your interests.
This document applies to all users of dungeonporch's educational services and explains your rights regarding the personal information we process. We update this policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements, so checking back occasionally helps you stay informed.
Information Collection Practices
When you create an account with dungeonporch, we ask for specific information that helps us deliver our educational services. The data we collect falls into several categories, each serving different purposes in your learning journey. Some information you provide directly—like when filling out registration forms or updating your profile—while other data gets collected automatically as you navigate through courses and interact with our platform.
We're transparent about what we gather because you deserve to understand the complete picture. Not all information is equally sensitive, and we treat different data types with appropriate levels of protection based on their nature and the purposes they serve.
Account and Profile Information
Your basic account details form the foundation of your dungeonporch experience. We collect your name, username, password (stored in encrypted form), and date of birth to set up your account. Profile information might include your educational background, learning preferences, profile photo, and biographical details you choose to share. This information helps us personalize your dashboard and connect you with relevant courses and communities.
Educational Activity Data
As you progress through courses, we track your completion rates, quiz scores, assignment submissions, and interaction with course materials. We record which videos you watch, how long you spend on different modules, and where you pause or replay content. These learning patterns help us understand how students engage with material and allow instructors to see where learners might need additional support.
Payment and Transaction Information
When you purchase courses or subscriptions, we collect payment card details, billing addresses, and transaction histories. Our payment processors handle the sensitive financial data directly—we never store complete credit card numbers on our servers. We do retain records of your purchases, refunds, and subscription status to manage your account properly.
Technical and Device Information
Your device and browser automatically share certain technical details when you visit dungeonporch. We collect IP addresses, browser types, operating systems, device identifiers, and screen resolutions. Connection data includes your internet service provider, referring URLs, and the pages you visit within our platform. This technical information helps us troubleshoot problems, prevent fraud, and ensure our platform works smoothly across different devices.
Cookie Usage
Cookies are small text files that live in your browser and help dungeonporch remember you between visits. We use several types of cookies for different purposes—some are essential for basic functionality, while others enhance your experience or help us understand how people use our platform. Session cookies disappear when you close your browser, but persistent cookies stick around to remember your preferences across multiple visits.
Essential cookies keep you logged in and remember your language preferences. Analytics cookies track aggregated usage patterns so we can see which features people find most useful. Preference cookies store your display settings and accessibility choices. You can control cookie settings through your browser, though disabling certain cookies might limit some functionality on our platform.
How We Process Your Data
Everything we collect serves specific purposes in running our educational platform. We don't gather data just for the sake of it—each piece of information helps us deliver better courses, support your learning, or keep the platform secure. Understanding these purposes helps you see the practical reasons behind our data collection practices.
Primary Educational Functions: Your account information lets us authenticate your identity and maintain your unique learner profile. We process educational activity data to track your progress, save your place in courses, and generate certificates when you complete programs. Assessment data determines your scores and provides feedback on your performance.
- Content Personalization: We analyze your course history, interests, and learning patterns to recommend relevant educational content. When you show interest in web development courses, we might suggest related programming topics or complementary skills. Your interaction patterns help us understand which teaching methods work best for different learning styles.
- Platform Improvement and Analytics: Aggregated usage data shows us which features people love and which ones need work. We study how learners navigate through courses, where they get stuck, and what helps them succeed. This research drives our product development decisions and helps instructors refine their teaching approaches.
- Communication and Support: We process your information to send course updates, respond to your questions, and provide technical assistance. Transactional emails—like purchase confirmations or password resets—require your contact details. Optional marketing communications share new courses or platform features you might find interesting.
- Security and Fraud Prevention: Your IP address and device information help us detect suspicious login attempts or unauthorized account access. We monitor patterns that might indicate payment fraud, account sharing violations, or automated bot activity. This protective processing keeps your account safe and maintains platform integrity.
- Legal Compliance and Safety: Sometimes we process data because laws require it—like retaining financial records for tax purposes or responding to valid legal requests. We also investigate potential violations of our terms of service and take action when necessary to protect our community.
The legal basis for our processing varies depending on the purpose. Most educational functions rely on our contract with you—we need this data to deliver the services you signed up for. Some processing happens because we have legitimate interests in running our business, improving our platform, and preventing fraud. In certain cases, we ask for your explicit consent, particularly for marketing communications or optional features.
Data Collected Through External Tools
Running a modern educational platform means working with specialized service providers who help us deliver better experiences. These third-party tools handle everything from video streaming to payment processing, and each one collects certain information as part of providing their service. We're selective about our partners and only work with companies that meet our standards for data protection.
When you use dungeonporch, several external services work behind the scenes. Some are obvious—like when you pay through a payment processor—while others operate invisibly to improve performance or provide analytics. Understanding these relationships helps you see the complete picture of how your information flows through our educational ecosystem.
Analytics and Performance Monitoring
We use analytics services to understand how people use our platform and identify technical problems. These tools collect information about your visits, including pages viewed, time spent on site, and navigation patterns. They help us see aggregate trends—like which courses are most popular or where users encounter errors. The data is typically anonymized and helps us make informed decisions about feature development and infrastructure improvements.
Payment Processing Services
When you purchase a course, your payment information goes directly to our payment processors—we never see or store your complete credit card details. These processors handle the sensitive financial data according to strict industry standards. They share transaction confirmations and basic billing information with us so we can activate your access and maintain purchase records.
Video and Content Delivery
Course videos stream through content delivery networks that cache and distribute media files efficiently. These services collect viewing data—which videos you watch, playback quality, and buffering events. This technical information helps us deliver smooth playback and troubleshoot streaming issues. Some video analytics show instructors general engagement patterns with their content.
Communication Platforms
Our messaging and email systems run through external providers who process your communications. When you send a message to an instructor or receive a course notification, these services handle the delivery. They might access message content to filter spam or provide features like search, but they're contractually required to protect your privacy and use data only for providing their specific services.
Each third-party service operates under agreements that restrict how they can use your data. They're not allowed to sell your information or use it for purposes beyond delivering their specific service to dungeonporch. When possible, we anonymize or aggregate data before sharing it with external tools, especially for analytics and research purposes.
Security of Your Information
Protecting your data isn't just about technology—it's about building security into every aspect of how we operate. We've implemented multiple layers of protection, from encrypted data storage to strict access controls. No security system is perfect, but we work constantly to stay ahead of evolving threats and maintain industry-standard protections for your information.
Our approach combines technical safeguards with organizational policies and regular security assessments. We train our team on data protection best practices and limit access to personal information based on job requirements. When we discover vulnerabilities or face security incidents, we respond quickly to minimize any potential impact.
Technical Security Measures
All data transmissions between your device and our servers use encryption protocols that prevent eavesdropping. Your password gets hashed before storage—we can verify your login without ever knowing your actual password. Our databases sit behind firewalls and include intrusion detection systems that alert us to suspicious access attempts. Regular security patches keep our systems protected against known vulnerabilities.
- Access Control Systems: Only authorized personnel can access personal information, and we grant the minimum permissions necessary for each role. Administrative actions get logged for audit purposes. Multi-factor authentication protects our internal systems from unauthorized access.
- Data Backup and Recovery: We maintain regular backups of educational data so nothing gets lost if technical failures occur. These backups are encrypted and stored securely. Our disaster recovery procedures ensure we can restore services quickly while maintaining data integrity.
- Vendor Security Requirements: Third-party services we work with must meet our security standards before integration. We review their practices, require appropriate data protection agreements, and periodically reassess their security posture. If a vendor experiences a breach, we evaluate the impact and take necessary protective measures.
- Incident Response Procedures: Despite our precautions, security incidents can happen. We maintain response plans that outline how we detect, contain, and remediate breaches. Depending on the severity, we'll notify affected users and provide guidance on protective steps they should take.
Special Provisions
Certain user groups and services involve additional data considerations. Instructors who create courses on dungeonporch have access to learner data for their specific courses—including progress metrics and assessment results. This access helps them provide effective teaching but comes with responsibilities to respect student privacy and use data only for educational purposes.
If you're under 18, we require parental consent before collecting personal information. We limit data collection for younger users and don't serve targeted advertising to children. Parents can review their child's information, request corrections, or ask us to delete the data entirely.