Privacy Policy

Who we are

LadderStar is operated by Ladder Star LLC, 30 N Gould St, STE R, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA. This policy explains what information LadderStar collects when you use the website and its AI practice partner, Co-Star, and how it is used.

What we collect

Account information: your name, email address and a securely hashed password, or your Google account's name and email if you sign in with Google.

Practice information: the practice plans Co-Star builds for you, text transcripts of your spoken practice sessions, the written reviews of those sessions, and your skill profile (short plain-text notes about your speaking strengths, things you're working on, patterns, goals and context).

Billing information, if you buy a paid plan: Stripe collects your payment details and billing address. We receive your Stripe customer ID, your plan, billing period, subscription status and renewal or end dates, and never your full card number.

Live Labs information, on paid plans: your Lab settings, the passage the speaker reads, a transcript of your interpretation and your Lab summary. Lab audio (the speaker and your voice) is sent to our AI provider for assessment and is not stored.

Voice usage information: how many tokens each practice session used with our AI provider, so we can understand and control costs.

Usage information: daily and monthly counters used to apply plan limits. For visitors without an account these counters are keyed to a one-way hash of the IP address; the IP address itself is not stored in them.

Technical information needed to run the service, such as sign-in sessions (including IP address and browser type, kept by our authentication system) and server logs.

Voice and AI processing

When you talk to Co-Star or practice by voice, your microphone audio is streamed in real time to Google's Gemini API, which generates Co-Star's spoken replies and the text transcripts. Text you type to Co-Star is also sent to the Gemini API. Reviews and skill-profile updates are generated by the Gemini API from your transcripts.

LadderStar does not record or store your audio. We store the text transcripts of practice sessions so we can show your review and history. Text chats on the home page are not saved by LadderStar.

Google processes this information as our service provider under its API terms. AI output can be wrong; reviews are practice feedback, not professional assessments.

Cookies and local storage

We use a sign-in session cookie when you have an account, a random visitor identifier so practice you do before signing up belongs to your browser (and moves to your account when you sign up), and a cookie that remembers your chosen language. Your light or dark theme choice is kept in your browser's local storage. We don't use advertising cookies.

How we use information

To provide practice sessions, reviews, history and your skill profile; to personalize Co-Star's practice using your skill profile; to apply fair-use limits and prevent abuse; to secure accounts; and to operate, support and improve LadderStar. We do not sell your personal information.

Your skill profile

You can view, edit, pin or remove any line in your skill profile, pause learning so reviews stop updating it, and undo automatic updates. The profile describes observed speaking behavior only; it does not assess appearance, identity or personality.

Service providers

We rely on providers to run LadderStar: Vercel (hosting), Neon (database), Google (Gemini API, and Google sign-in if you choose it), Stripe (payments, subscriptions and tax calculation) and Resend (account emails such as password resets). They process information on our behalf to provide their services. Stripe also processes payment information under its own privacy policy as needed to prevent fraud and meet legal obligations.

Retention and deletion

We keep account and practice information while your account is active. Content you remove in the product, such as skill-profile lines, is taken out of view and out of Co-Star's context rather than immediately destroyed. To delete your account and associated information, or to access or correct it, email privacy@ladderstar.com. We may keep limited records where required by law or to resolve disputes; for example, billing and tax records of paid plans are kept for as long as tax law requires.

Eligibility

LadderStar is intended for people who are at least 18 years old. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes and contact

We'll update this page when our practices change and revise the effective date. Questions or requests: privacy@ladderstar.com.