Privacy Policy

Effective Date: October 11, 2026

Built Without the Degree (“BWTD,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) helps people discover career paths through career information and stories from real people.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and the choices available to you.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or would like to make a privacy or deletion request, contact us at cole@builtwithoutthedegree.com.

1. Information We Collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with BWTD.

Newsletter signups

If you subscribe to the BWTD newsletter, we collect:

• your email address;
• where on the site you subscribed, such as the homepage, footer, career page, story page, or About page; and
• the page from which you subscribed.

Newsletter subscriber information is sent to our email newsletter provider. BWTD does not currently store newsletter email addresses in its own database.

Sharing your own story

If you submit your own story, we may collect:

• name;
• email address;
• career;
• your description of your career path or story;
• confirmation that you are at least 18 years old;
• permission for BWTD to contact you;
• optional phone number;
• optional city and state;
• optional education information;
• optional information about why you believe your story could help others;
• optional pay information;
• optional social or profile links; and
• optional information about how you heard about BWTD.

Submitting a story gives BWTD permission to review your submission and contact you. Submitting a story does not give BWTD permission to publish it.

Publication requires separate permission.

Nominating someone

If you nominate another person, we may collect information about both you and the person you nominate.

Information about the nominator may include:

• name;
• email address;
• optional phone number;
• confirmation that the nominator is at least 18 years old; and
• permission for BWTD to contact the nominator.

Information provided about the nominee may include:

• name;
• career;
• optional contact information;
• whether the nominee knows about the nomination;
• the nominator's relationship to the nominee;
• optional city and state;
• optional education information;
• a description of the nominee's career path;
• optional social or profile links; and
• information about why the nominator believes the story could help others.

Information provided by a nominator about another person has not necessarily been verified by that person.

A nomination does not give BWTD permission to contact, interview, use AI to process an interview, or publish information about the nominee on the nominee's behalf. Those permissions must come from the nominee where required.

Partner inquiries

If you contact BWTD about a partnership, we may collect:

• name;
• work email address;
• organization;
• optional role or title;
• the type of partnership you are interested in; and
• your message.

Interviews and published stories

If you participate in a BWTD interview, we may collect information you voluntarily provide, such as:

• name and professional information;
• location;
• education history;
• job title and employer;
• career history;
• certifications;
• age at the time of the interview;
• interview date;
• years in a career;
• social or website links;
• photographs;
• compensation information, when separately authorized;
• video or audio, when separately authorized;
• interview answers, recordings, or transcripts; and
• other information you choose to share about your career experience.

We also maintain records of the permissions you give us, including separate permissions where applicable for your story, photograph, compensation information, and video or audio.

Interview participants must be at least 18 years old.

Email and other communications

If you email us directly, we receive the information contained in your message, including your email address and anything else you choose to provide.

2. Information Collected Automatically

BWTD currently does not use public-site analytics or advertising cookies.

Our hosting provider may process technical information as part of operating and securing the website, including IP addresses, browser information, device information, and request logs.

For spam prevention and rate limiting, BWTD temporarily creates a coded visitor identifier based in part on technical request information. BWTD does not store the visitor's raw IP address in its database for this purpose.

These rate-limit records rotate and are ordinarily deleted within approximately 75 minutes.

Different forms use separate rate-limit identifiers, so using one form does not consume another form's allowance.

Administrative areas of BWTD use authentication cookies necessary for signed-in administrators.

3. How We Use Information

We may use information we collect to:

• provide and operate BWTD;
• review story submissions and nominations;
• contact people who have asked to hear from us;
• conduct interviews;
• prepare, edit, and publish stories when permission has been given;
• manage newsletter subscriptions;
• respond to partnership inquiries;
• respond to questions, corrections, privacy requests, and deletion requests;
• send internal administrative alerts;
• prevent spam, fraud, abuse, and misuse;
• protect the security and integrity of the website;
• improve BWTD's content and services; and
• comply with applicable legal obligations.

We do not publish a person's story merely because they submitted a form or were nominated.

4. AI-Assisted Story Drafting

When an interviewee has been informed and agrees, BWTD may use a third-party artificial intelligence service to help organize an interview transcript into a draft story.

The transcript text may be sent from BWTD's server to Anthropic's API for this purpose.

BWTD's transcript workflow is designed so that:

• the interviewee must first be informed of and agree to the AI processing;
• nominators cannot give that agreement for another person;
• BWTD does not retain the transcript inside the BWTD application after the active drafting workflow;
• unused AI suggestions are discarded;
• only text an administrator accepts or edits may become part of a draft story;
• AI-generated text is never automatically published;
• a person reviews and edits every story before publication;
• publication remains a separate decision requiring appropriate permission; and
• AI is not used as the source of BWTD's career pay data or other career-wide factual data.

Anthropic processes information according to its own applicable commercial terms, privacy practices, and data-retention policies.

An interviewee may decline AI processing. Declining AI processing does not prevent BWTD from preparing the story manually.

5. When We Share Information

BWTD uses service providers to operate the website and related services.

These currently include:

• Supabase — database hosting, file storage, and administrator authentication.
• Vercel — website hosting and web-request processing.
• beehiiv — newsletter subscriptions and email delivery.
• Resend — limited administrative email notifications.
• Anthropic — AI-assisted transcript processing when an interviewee has agreed to that processing.
• Google Workspace and Gmail — business email and receipt of certain administrative communications.

These providers may process information as necessary to provide their services and are subject to their own terms and privacy practices.

BWTD may also disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, respond to lawful requests, protect rights or safety, investigate misuse, or protect the security of BWTD.

6. Published Stories and Media

Information that an interviewee approves for publication may become publicly available.

Depending on the permissions provided, this may include:

• the person's name;
• location;
• professional background;
• career story;
• photograph;
• approved compensation information;
• social or website links; or
• approved video or audio.

Interviewees retain ownership of their original stories, photographs, and other materials they provide.

Where permission is granted, BWTD may edit and organize approved story content for clarity, length, and readability while remaining faithful to the substance of what the interviewee shared.

Photos, pay information, and video or audio require their applicable permissions.

7. Newsletter and Email Communications

Newsletter subscriptions are managed through beehiiv.

You may unsubscribe from newsletter emails using the unsubscribe option provided in the email.

beehiiv may process information relating to email delivery and engagement according to its own privacy practices.

BWTD may also send non-marketing communications that are necessary to respond to something you requested, such as a story submission, partnership inquiry, privacy request, or other direct communication.

Before BWTD begins sending commercial newsletter emails, BWTD will provide the legally required sender information, including a valid physical postal address.

8. Data Retention

Different categories of information are retained for different periods.

Rate-limit records are short-lived and are ordinarily deleted within approximately 75 minutes.

BWTD does not store interview transcripts inside its application after the active AI-drafting workflow.

Unused AI-generated suggestions are discarded. Accepted or edited material becomes part of a story draft.

BWTD currently does not have a fixed automatic deletion period for:

• story submissions;
• nominations;
• partner inquiries;
• person records;
• story drafts;
• consent records; or
• approved media.

These records may remain until they are manually deleted, are no longer reasonably needed for the purposes described in this Policy, or must be retained for legitimate legal, security, consent-recordkeeping, or operational reasons.

Newsletter data is managed through beehiiv and may remain there until the subscriber unsubscribes, the record is deleted, or retention is otherwise governed by beehiiv's applicable practices.

9. Your Choices and Requests

You may contact BWTD at cole@builtwithoutthedegree.com to request that we:

• correct information about you;
• provide information about data we maintain about you;
• delete information about you;
• withdraw previously granted story permissions; or
• answer questions about how your information is used.

Depending on where you live, applicable law may provide additional privacy rights.

We may need to verify that a request actually comes from you before acting on it.

Some information may need to be retained when reasonably necessary for legal obligations, security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, or records of permissions previously granted.

10. Changing Your Mind About a Story

An interviewee may ask BWTD to withdraw previously granted permission by contacting cole@builtwithoutthedegree.com.

When appropriate, BWTD will stop new use of the material and remove it from channels BWTD controls within a reasonable period, subject to legal or recordkeeping requirements.

Material that has already been copied, shared, indexed, archived, or otherwise distributed by third parties may remain outside BWTD's control.

11. Children

BWTD's general website and newsletter do not currently impose an 18+ age restriction.

However:

• a person submitting their own story must be at least 18;
• a person submitting a nomination must be at least 18; and
• BWTD interview participants must be at least 18.

BWTD is not intended to knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information directly to BWTD, contact cole@builtwithoutthedegree.com.

12. Cookies, Analytics, and Do Not Track

BWTD currently does not use analytics or advertising cookies on its public website.

Google Analytics is not currently installed.

Because BWTD does not currently use public-site behavioral advertising or analytics tracking, we do not currently maintain a separate response to browser “Do Not Track” signals.

Service providers involved in hosting, security, newsletter delivery, or email communications may process technical information under their own practices.

BWTD does not currently permit third-party advertising networks to use the public website to track visitors across unrelated websites for behavioral advertising.

If these practices change, this Privacy Policy will be updated.

13. Security

BWTD uses administrative, technical, and organizational measures intended to protect information, including restricted administrative access and two-factor authentication for privileged administrative functions.

No website, database, email system, or transmission method can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

14. Third-Party Links

BWTD may link to third-party websites, employers, training providers, government sources, social profiles, or other services.

BWTD is not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites or services.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as BWTD changes.

When we make material changes, we will update the effective date shown at the top of this Policy.

16. Contact

For privacy questions, corrections, deletion requests, or other questions about this Policy:

Built Without the Degree

cole@builtwithoutthedegree.com