Terms of Service

Effective Date: January 12, 2025

Service Improvement Through Data

Your conversations help us improve the AI coach. Chat data is analyzed to enhance coaching quality, fix issues, and develop new features. Personal information is kept secure and access is limited to authorized team members.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing and using Software Career Coach ("the Service"), you accept and agree to be bound by the terms and provision of this agreement. If you do not agree to abide by the above, please do not use this service.

2. Description of Service

Software Career Coach is an AI-powered career coaching platform designed specifically for software engineers. The Service provides:

  • Personalized career guidance and advice
  • Interview preparation assistance
  • Career planning and development strategies
  • Salary negotiation guidance
  • Professional growth recommendations

3. Data Processing and Privacy

3.1 Information We Collect

We collect the following information to provide our coaching services:

  • Profile Information: Name, years of experience, location, current work situation, career goals
  • Chat Messages: All conversations between you and the AI coach
  • Account Information: Email address, authentication data
  • Usage Data: Message counts, session times, feature usage

3.2 How We Use Your Data

Service Improvement and Analytics

We use your chat conversations to improve our AI coaching service:

  • Quality Enhancement: Analyzing conversations to improve coaching responses and accuracy
  • Feature Development: Understanding user needs to build better coaching features
  • Issue Resolution: Identifying and fixing problems with the AI coach
  • Pattern Analysis: Learning common career challenges to provide better guidance
  • Safety Monitoring: Ensuring the AI stays focused on career topics and maintains appropriate boundaries

3.3 Data Access and Security

  • Limited Access: Only authorized team members can access chat data for service improvement
  • Secure Storage: Data is stored in Google Firebase with industry-standard security
  • No Personal Identification: We analyze conversation patterns, not individual user identities
  • Professional Use Only: Data access is strictly for improving the coaching service

3.4 Data Storage and Retention

  • Chat History: Stored in Google Firebase and retained to maintain conversation context and improve services
  • Profile Data: Stored both locally in your browser and in our secure database
  • Account Data: Managed by Firebase Authentication with industry-standard security
  • Retention Period: Data is retained while your account is active and for service improvement purposes. You may request deletion at any time

3.5 Data Sharing

We DO NOT sell your personal information to third parties. Your data is used to provide and improve coaching services. Limited data sharing occurs only with:

  • Google AI Services: Messages are sent to Google's Gemini AI for coaching responses (Google's privacy policies apply)
  • Firebase/Google Cloud: For secure data storage and authentication
  • PayPal: For subscription payment processing (only payment data, not coaching content)
  • Service Improvement: Authorized team members may access conversations to improve the AI coach

4. AI Coach Limitations

Our AI coach is designed specifically for career guidance and:

  • Provides advice based on general career development principles
  • Cannot replace professional career counselors or therapists
  • Focuses exclusively on career-related topics
  • Does not provide coding help, technical tutorials, or debugging assistance
  • May not have knowledge of very recent industry changes

5. User Responsibilities

You agree to:

  • Provide accurate information for personalized coaching
  • Use the service only for career development purposes
  • Not attempt to reverse engineer or exploit the AI system
  • Not share your account credentials with others
  • Respect the AI's boundaries and focus on career topics

6. Subscription and Billing

  • Free Trial: 5 free messages to try the service
  • Premium Subscription: $9.99/month for unlimited messages and advanced features
  • Billing: Processed securely through PayPal
  • Cancellation: You may cancel your subscription at any time
  • Refunds: Contact us for refund requests within 7 days of billing

7. Intellectual Property

The Software Career Coach platform, including its AI coaching methodology, user interface, and content, is owned by us and protected by intellectual property laws. You retain ownership of the content you provide (your messages and profile information).

8. Limitation of Liability

The Service is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. We are not liable for any career decisions made based on AI coaching advice. Always use your professional judgment and consider consulting with human career professionals for major decisions.

9. Data Rights (GDPR Compliance)

If you are located in the EU, you have the right to:

  • Access your personal data
  • Correct inaccurate data
  • Delete your data (right to be forgotten)
  • Data portability
  • Object to processing

10. Contact Information

For questions about these terms, privacy concerns, or data requests, contact us at:

Email: privacy@swcareercompass.com
Website: https://swcareercompass.com

11. Changes to Terms

We may update these terms occasionally. We will notify users of significant changes via email or through the platform. Continued use of the service after changes constitutes acceptance of the new terms.

Questions?

If you have any questions about these terms or our data practices, please don't hesitate to contact us. We're committed to transparency and protecting your privacy.