Privacy Policy
This policy explains what DLA Academy ("we", "us") collects, why, who sees it, and what you can do about it. We wrote it to be read.
1. Who we are
DLA Universal LLC, doing business as DLA Academy, runs academyofdla.com. We sell online entry-level driver training (ELDT) courses and DMV test-prep products. Email us at support@academyofdla.com. Support hours are 9am to 5pm Central Time, 7 days a week. Mailing address: 505 20th St North, Suite 1220-1495, Birmingham, AL 35203.
2. What we collect
- Your account and orders: name, email, what you bought and when.
- Your license details: date of birth, driver license number and the state that issued it. We need these because they go on the training completion record we file for you.
- Your course activity: lesson progress, time spent, quiz and final test scores, and the time and IP address from which you confirmed your details.
- Payment: you pay through Stripe. Your full card number never reaches our servers.
- Messages: emails and chat messages you send us.
- Your mobile number, only if you give it and tick the box to get texts from us (see section 12).
- Visits to the site: pages viewed, browser and device type, approximate location from your IP address, and how you found us, collected with cookies and similar tools (see section 6).
- Partners, resellers and fleets: business contact details, and for fleet seats the name and email of each student enrolled.
3. How we protect your license details
Your date of birth, license number and license state are encrypted before they are stored and are kept apart from the rest of your account. Only the process that files your completion record can read them. Everywhere else, including emails, support screens and logs, you see at most the last 4 characters of the license number. They are never put in analytics, advertising tools or support notes.
4. What we use it for
- To run your course and issue your certificate.
- To file your completion record with the FMCSA Training Provider Registry. You review your details and confirm them first. Once you confirm, the record is locked and filed.
- To take payment, send receipts and course emails, and help you.
- To prevent fraud, handle payment disputes and keep our systems secure.
- To see how the site is used, improve it and measure our ads.
- To send reminders about an unfinished cart or course, and offers, only if you opted in. You can opt out at any time with the link in the email.
5. Who we share it with
- The FMCSA Training Provider Registry, when we file your completion record.
- Companies that help us run the service: Stripe (payments), Railway (hosting and database), Resend (course and receipt emails), Twilio (text messages), Microsoft Outlook through GoDaddy (support email), and Google, Meta and TikTok (analytics and ad measurement). Until our move off Thinkific is finished, Thinkific also handles some course and order data.
- Your employer or school, if they bought your seat. They see your name, email, progress and whether you finished. They do not see your license details.
- Authorities and advisers, when the law requires it or to protect our rights, for example in a payment dispute.
We do not sell your personal information.
6. Cookies and ads
- Essential cookies keep your cart, keep you signed in and keep the site secure. They are always on because the site does not work without them.
- Analytics and advertising cookies (Google, Meta and TikTok) tell us how the site is used and how our ads perform. They can use your browsing to show you our ads on other sites, which some laws call "sharing". This includes our own cookie that remembers how you first found us (an ad, a search or a link) for up to 90 days, so we can see which of our marketing leads to sales. It is not shared with anyone, and it is turned off along with the others when you opt out. When you buy after clicking one of our Google ads, we tell Google Ads that the sale happened, its amount and whether it was later refunded, with the ad click and an encoded (hashed) copy of your email, so Google can tell which ads lead to sales. When you buy after clicking one of our TikTok ads, we tell TikTok the same way: that the sale happened, its amount, the ad click and a hashed copy of your email. Neither ever gets your phone number. This is turned off too when you opt out.
Use the "Your Privacy Choices" link at the bottom of every page to turn analytics and advertising cookies off. We also treat the Global Privacy Control signal from your browser as a request to turn them off. The site is for people in the United States.
7. How long we keep it
- Training records (your name, email, test scores, confirmation and filing result) are kept for at least 3 years.
- Your date of birth, license number and license state are deleted automatically after 3 years with no activity on your account. A new course after that means entering them again.
- Payment records are kept as long as needed for taxes and payment disputes.
- Marketing emails stop when you opt out.
8. Your choices and rights
Wherever you live, you can email us to see what we hold about you, correct it, ask us to delete it, or stop marketing emails. We answer within 45 days. To protect your account we may ask you to reply from the email address on it. If you want to fix a detail on your training record, email us before you confirm it, or tell us as soon as you notice a mistake. We may have to keep some records, such as a filed training record or payment records, and we will tell you if so. If we turn down a request you can ask us to look at it again.
9. Security
We use encryption in transit, encryption of sensitive fields when stored, access controls and a log of staff actions. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects you, we will tell you as the law requires.
10. Children
Our courses are for adults who are old enough to apply for a commercial driver license or endorsement in their state. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
11. Changes
If we change this policy we will post the new version here with a new effective date, and email account holders about significant changes.
12. Text messages
At checkout you can give a mobile number and tick a box to get texts from DLA Academy about that order: up to 2 reminders if you don't finish checking out, and a text when your completion is filed. If you tick the box when it says so, we may also send one text a few days after your completion is filed asking you to review us. The box is never ticked for you, and you don't need it to buy. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any text to stop them, or HELP for help. You can also email us.
We do not share or sell your mobile number or your consent to receive texts with anyone for their marketing. Your number is passed only to Twilio, which delivers our texts for us. Mobile numbers and text consent are excluded from every kind of sharing described in section 5. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
13. Contact
Privacy questions: support@academyofdla.com.