Privacy Policy

Introduction

Ascend Speech and Debate Communications ("we," "us," or "our") respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes what information we collect through our website, ascendspeech.org (the "Site"), how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It is written to reflect what the Site actually does. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use the Site.

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date above. Meaningful changes will be reflected on this page, and your continued use of the Site after a revised policy is posted means you accept the revision.

Information You Provide to Us

We only collect personal information that you (or a parent or guardian) type into a form on the Site. There are three such forms.

Program Registration and Checkout

When you register for a program through our store, we collect:

About the student: first and last name, email address, phone number, sex, preferred pronouns (optional), school, state, incoming grade, and t-shirt size.
About parents or guardians: first and last name, email address, and phone number for one parent or guardian (required) and a second (optional).
Program details you choose to share: dietary restrictions, how you heard about Ascend, and anything else you want us to know. These free-text fields are optional; please share only what you are comfortable with us knowing.
Order details: the programs in your cart and the amounts paid.

Card details go to Stripe, not to us. When you continue to payment, you are taken to a checkout page operated by Stripe, our payment processor. Stripe collects your card details, billing address, and phone number. We never see or store your card number. After a successful payment, we receive from Stripe and keep with your order: the order status and amount, and the billing name, email address, phone number, and billing address you provided at checkout. Our team uses these to administer registrations. Stripe's handling of your data is described in Stripe's Privacy Policy.

Coaching Application

Name, email address, phone number, state, the role and programs you are applying for, your education, competitive and coaching experience, qualifications, school affiliations, your answers about recruiting and anticipated tenure, the student levels you would like to coach, familiarity with our curriculum, and why you want to work at Ascend. Resumes are submitted separately by email, not through the Site.

Student Council Application

Name, email address, grade, school, state, and why you want to join.

Information Collected Automatically

We keep this to a minimum, and it is less than you may be used to from other websites:

Server logs. Our hosting providers automatically log basic technical information about visits, such as IP address, browser type, and the pages requested, for security and reliability purposes.
Your cart. The contents of your store cart are saved in your own browser's local storage so your cart survives page reloads. This stays on your device and is not sent to us until you check out.
Privacy-friendly visitor counts. We use Vercel Web Analytics to see which pages are visited and roughly where visitors come from. It is cookieless and does not identify you: it records the page, the referring site, and coarse details like country and device type, with no persistent identifier that follows you between visits or across other websites.
No advertising trackers. The Site uses no advertising pixels, no fingerprinting, and no cross-site tracking, and our own code sets no cookies.
Video embeds. A few pages embed YouTube videos using YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode. If you play one, YouTube may set its own cookies under Google's Privacy Policy. Simply visiting those pages without playing a video does not send information to YouTube.

How We Use Your Information

Process and fulfill program registrations and payments, including refunds.
Communicate with you about your order, registration, and camp logistics.
Respond to messages you send us by email.
Evaluate coaching and student council applications.
Operate our programs safely, including communicating dietary needs to the staff who need them.
Send program updates and marketing emails, which you can opt out of at any time.
Send text messages related to camp operations, described below.
Protect against fraud and abuse, and comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

Text Messages (SMS)

When you provide a phone number during registration, you consent to receive text messages from us related to our services, such as camp activity updates, check-in and check-out confirmations, and health and safety notifications. Message frequency varies, and message and data rates may apply. You can opt out at any time by replying STOP to any message or by emailing info@ascendspeech.org. Opting out of texts does not affect other communications, but may limit time-sensitive notifications about your camper during a session.

Who We Share Information With

Service providers. We use a small set of vendors to run the Site and our programs, and they process your information only to provide their service to us:

Stripe for payment processing.
Supabase for our database, hosted in the United States.
Vercel for website hosting and privacy-friendly visitor analytics.
Email delivery providers for transactional and marketing email.

Our team. Registration and application information is visible to authorized Ascend staff who run admissions, camp operations, and hiring.

Legal requirements. We may disclose information if required by law, or where we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of our students, staff, or others.

Business transfers. If we merge, are acquired, or transfer our assets, your information may transfer to the successor, which will be bound by commitments at least as protective as this policy for previously collected data.

Data Retention

We keep registration and order records as long as needed to operate our programs and meet legal, accounting, and safety obligations. Contact messages and applications are kept as long as they are useful for the purpose you sent them for. You can ask us to delete your information at any time; see "Your Choices and Rights."

Security

We use administrative and technical measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections to the Site and access controls on our database and admin tools. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to protect the information you trust us with.

Children's Privacy

Our programs serve students in grades 4 through 12, so much of the information we hold describes minors. Program registration is designed to be completed by a parent or legal guardian, and the student information we collect at checkout is provided to us by that parent or guardian. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13 without parental consent. Parents and guardians may review, correct, or request deletion of their child's information at any time by emailing info@ascendspeech.org.

Your Choices and Rights

Email. Marketing emails include an unsubscribe link, and you can also opt out by emailing us.
Texts. Reply STOP to any message.
Access, correction, and deletion. Email info@ascendspeech.org to ask what information we hold about you or your student, to correct it, or to have it deleted. We will honor deletion requests except where we need to keep records for legal, safety, or accounting reasons, and we will tell you if that is the case.

California Privacy Rights

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes. We do not share personal information with third parties for their direct marketing. California residents may still submit such a request using the contact information below.

If you are under 18, reside in California, and have posted content on the Site, you may request its removal by contacting us with the email address you used and a statement that you reside in California. We will remove it from public display, though residual copies may remain in our systems for a period.

Do Not Track

The Site does not track visitors across other websites, so there is nothing for a Do Not Track signal to disable. We treat all visitors as if DNT were enabled.

Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, or want to exercise any of the choices above, contact us at:

Ascend Speech and Debate Communications
info@ascendspeech.org