Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how TruckRules LLC (“TruckRules,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, and protects your information when you use our website and online courses. By using TruckRules, you agree to the practices described here.

We’ve written this in plain language on purpose. If anything is unclear, contact us at info@truckrules.com.

Who we are. TruckRules provides online educational courses about FMCSA and motor carrier compliance. We are an independent training provider. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the FMCSA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, or any government agency. Completing our courses is not a government certification or license.

Information you give us. When you create an account with our signup form, we collect your name, email address, and a password. We store your password only as a hash, which is a one-way scrambled version of it, so we cannot see your actual password. To confirm your email address, we email you a one-time code and keep a record of that attempt, including your email address, a hashed form of the code, when it was sent and when it expires, how many times it was resent, and how many wrong codes have been entered for it. Until you enter the code, that record can also hold the name you entered and your hashed password. When we send you a password reset link, we keep a hashed form of the link’s security token, when it expires, and whether it can still be used. If you contact us by email, we’ll have whatever information you choose to include in your message. If you use our contact form, we receive the name, email address, order number (if you give one), and message you enter.

Logging in with Google. If you choose “Continue with Google,” you log in on Google’s own page under Google’s privacy policy, and we do not see your Google password. Google then sends us an ID for your Google account, your email address, and profile details such as your name and a link to your profile picture, along with sign-in tokens. We store this information with the TruckRules account you log in to. If this creates a new account, the name and email address from Google become your account’s name and email address, which we use as described in “How we use your information” below. Google also tells us whether it has confirmed your email address. We create an account from Google only when it has and the address is a Gmail or Google Workspace address, and we treat that address as confirmed. Otherwise we ask you to sign up with your email address and a password instead. We use the Google account ID to recognize you the next time you log in with Google. We do not ask Google for access to anything else in your Google account, and we do not use the sign-in tokens to access your Google account.

Payment information. When you purchase a course, your payment is processed by a third-party payment processor. Your payment details go directly to our payment processor, or through Apple Pay or Google Pay if you choose one of them at checkout, and are handled under those companies’ own security and privacy practices. Apple describes its own practices in Apple Pay & Privacy, and Google describes its own in the Google Payments Privacy Notice. We do not collect or store your full card number. We receive limited information from our payment processor about your purchase, such as whether a payment succeeded, the amount, the payment’s reference numbers and receipt link, and any refund or payment dispute, including the reason given for a dispute and how it ended. We also record when you accepted our Terms at checkout. Before we charge a card, we check which country issued it, which our payment processor tells us, because we can only accept cards from certain countries. We do not store that country, but if we decline a card for it, our server logs record the order, the country, and whether a digital wallet was used. When you open our checkout page, our payment processor’s code runs in your browser. It may collect information about your device and browser and how you interact with our pages, such as mouse activity and time spent on a page, and it may load hCaptcha, a CAPTCHA service that describes what it collects in its privacy policy. Our payment processor uses this information for purposes that include detecting and preventing fraud, as described in its own privacy policy. If you would like to know which company processes our payments, email us at info@truckrules.com.

Information we collect automatically. We do not use analytics tools, and no advertising code runs on our pages. If you arrive by clicking one of our Google ads, we may keep a note of that click, as described under “Ads and ad measurement” below. When a password sign-in fails, when you sign up, when you ask for a verification code or password reset link, and when you send a message through our contact form, we record your IP address and the email address used. We use these records to limit repeated attempts and prevent abuse. Old records of this kind are deleted automatically, but not on a fixed schedule. Our hosting provider receives your IP address, the name of your browser and operating system, and the web address of each page you request when it delivers our pages to you, and it may keep these in its own logs. Those logs can also include error messages from our site that contain your email address or account ID. When you open our checkout page, our payment processor’s code also runs in your browser, as described under “Payment information” above.

Ads and ad measurement. We advertise our courses on Google. When you click one of our Google ads, Google adds a click reference, a string of letters and numbers, to the web address of the page you land on. If you arrive that way, our site saves the click reference and the time you arrived in a cookie in your browser for up to 90 days. A later click on one of our ads replaces it. We do not set this cookie if your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, or if our hosting provider reports that you are connecting from outside the United States. If you create an account while the cookie is set, we save the click reference with your account, along with the time you signed up and the date 90 days after the click, after which we delete it. Your account counts as created when you enter the code we email you, or when logging in with Google creates it. We later upload to Google the click reference and the time you signed up, so that Google can measure which of our ads lead to sign-ups. If you open our checkout page while the cookie is set, we add the click reference and the time you arrived to the payment record our payment processor keeps for your order. If you complete the purchase, we later upload to Google the click reference, your order number, the time you paid, and the amount you paid, so that Google can measure which of our ads lead to purchases. Google reports these results to us, and may also use them to decide where to show our ads. We do not send Google your name or email address. Google processes this information for us as our service provider. No advertising code from Google or any other company runs on our pages, and we do not use remarketing or build advertising audiences from your information.

Signed-in devices. When you sign in, we store the user agent your browser sends (a line of text naming your browser and operating system), when we first saw that sign-in, and when it was last active. We use this to show you, on your Account page, the devices that have signed in to your account, so you can log out any you don’t recognize. We do not store your IP address or location with it. Choosing “Log out device” or “Log out of all other devices” on your Account page deletes those records. Logging out in the usual way deletes the record for that device, and resetting your password deletes all of them. Older records are also deleted automatically, but not on a fixed schedule.

Your course activity. When you enroll in a course, we record when you enrolled, the status of your enrollment, which lessons you have completed and when, and when the course was marked complete. Each time you submit a quiz, we store the answer you chose for each question, your score, whether you passed, and when you submitted it. Passing or retaking a quiz does not remove your earlier attempts. We use these records to show your progress, unlock the next part of a course, issue your certificate, and check whether a course has been started under our Refund Policy. We may also review quiz results to improve our courses. If you ask us to correct the name printed on your certificate, we store the corrected name with your account.

Course reviews. If you leave a review of a course, we store your rating, your comment, when you posted it, and when you last changed it, linked to your account. Your rating and comment are public on that course’s pages, shown with your first name, the first letter of your last name, a “Verified student” label, and the month and year you posted it. We do not show your email address or your full last name. When you post or change a review, our site emails a copy of it to our team, with your email address, so we can read every new or changed review. To limit how often a review can be changed, we also record the times you save or delete one, and delete those records automatically, but not on a fixed schedule. If we hide a review, we record the reason, when we hid it, and which team member hid it, along with your email address, the course, and the star rating. We keep that record after the review is deleted, and if you then post a new review of the same course, we use it to keep the new review hidden until we take another look and show it again. You can edit or delete your review at any time from your certificate page.

Email records. We keep a record of each email our site sends you or tries to send you. It shows the address, the type of email, the subject line, when we sent or tried to send it, and whether our email provider accepted it, with the reason if it did not. For verification codes, password resets, and receipts, the record does not include the body of the email, which is where your code or reset link appears. When someone on our team writes to you, the record also keeps the text of the message and which team member sent it, and a copy of the message goes to our support inbox. Our site deletes these records once they are more than 365 days old. It does this only when it sends email, not on a fixed schedule, so a record can stay longer.

Cookies and similar technologies. We set no cookies on our public pages, with one exception: if you arrive by clicking one of our Google ads, we may set a cookie that remembers that click for up to 90 days (see “Ads and ad measurement” above). Otherwise you can read the course catalog, this policy, and the rest of our public site without our site storing anything in your browser. Our other cookies arrive only when you start to sign in or sign up, or when you open a page that requires an account. The cookie that keeps you signed in lasts up to 30 days after you last use the site, and you cannot stay signed in without it. The other sign-in cookies last no more than 30 minutes, or until you close your browser. We also use a cookie that remembers, for up to a year, whether you keep the lesson sidebar open or closed, and once you have zoomed a lesson image, we store a note in that browser tab so we stop showing the zoom hint. While you take a quiz, we also keep your answers in that browser tab until your result shows or you close the tab, so reloading the page does not lose them; they are not sent to us until you submit the quiz. When you open our checkout page, our payment processor may also set its own cookies and use similar technologies, for purposes that include preventing fraud (see “Payment information” above). We may, in the future, use analytics tools (such as Google Analytics) that use cookies to help us understand how visitors use our site so we can improve it. If we begin using analytics, this policy will be updated. You can control or delete cookies in your browser settings, though blocking the sign-in cookies will stop you from staying signed in. If you delete the ad click cookie before you sign up or open our checkout page, no ad click is saved with your account or added to your order. Each browser has its own instructions: Chrome, Safari on Mac, Safari on iPhone and iPad, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

Tracking by other companies. Our checkout page is the only page where another company’s code runs in your browser. We use no analytics or session recording tools, no advertising code runs on our pages, and we load no fonts, scripts, or other files from outside our own site, so on every other page no other company is in a position to collect information about your online activities over time and across other websites. On our checkout page, our payment processor’s code runs as described under “Payment information” above, and our payment processor uses what it collects for its own purposes, including preventing fraud, as described in its own privacy policy. Google knows when you click one of our ads, because the click happens on Google. If you then sign up or buy a course, we may report the sign-up or the purchase to Google as described under “Ads and ad measurement” above, and Google can connect it to that ad click. We do not track you on other websites.

Do Not Track. Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” (DNT) setting, and some send a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal. DNT asks a website not to track you across other websites, and GPC asks a business not to sell your personal information or share it for advertising. When your browser sends GPC, we do not set the ad click cookie described under “Ads and ad measurement” above, we do not save an ad click with your account when you sign up, and we do not add an ad click to your order at checkout. We do not otherwise act on either signal, because whether or not you send one, we do not track you across other websites, we do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising that follows you across other websites. DNT never became an industry standard.

How we use your information. We use your information to: create and manage your account; confirm your email address; give you access to the courses you purchase; track your course progress, score your quizzes, and issue certificates of completion; show the course reviews you post, as described under “Course reviews” above; process your payments (we use a third-party processor for payments and never store your card number); measure which of our Google ads lead to sign-ups and purchases, as described under “Ads and ad measurement” above; and send you emails about your account, purchases, and courses, such as verification codes, password-reset links, purchase receipts, and messages our team writes to you. We use our email records to check whether an email went out and to look into it if you did not receive one. We may also use your information to respond to your questions, improve our site and courses, and keep our site secure and working properly.

Marketing emails. We currently send only essential, transactional emails (like verification codes, password resets, receipts, and messages our team writes to you about your account or courses). If we later choose to send marketing or promotional emails, we will only do so in accordance with applicable law, and you will be able to unsubscribe at any time. Unsubscribing from marketing emails does not stop essential account emails.

How we share information. We do not sell your personal information. Course reviews you post are public, as described under “Course reviews” above. Apart from those, we share information only with service providers who help us run TruckRules, such as our payment processor (to process payments and refunds), Google (to measure our ads, as described under “Ads and ad measurement” above), our email delivery provider (to send the emails described above, and to deliver messages from our contact form and copies of course reviews to us), the company that hosts our email inbox (to receive and store the emails, contact form messages, and review copies sent to us, and copies of the messages our team writes to you), and our hosting and database providers (to operate the site). These providers may only use your information to provide services to us. We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect our legal rights, or in connection with a business transfer such as a merger or sale.

Links to other websites. Our site and courses may contain links to other websites, such as government resources like fmcsa.dot.gov. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those websites, and a link does not imply our endorsement of or affiliation with them. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of any website you visit.

Data retention. We keep your account information and course activity while your account is open. We keep your course reviews until you delete them or ask us to delete your account. We keep records of your purchases, including refunds and payment disputes, for accounting, tax, and dispute purposes. The ad click cookie expires 90 days after it is set. A click reference saved with your account is deleted 90 days after the click, and we stop using it then. A click reference added to a payment record stays with that record at our payment processor. We keep a record of the actions we take on customer accounts, orders, and reviews in our admin tools, for security and audit purposes. That record can include your email address and details such as a course name, a refund amount, the subject line of a message we sent you, a corrected certificate name, or why we hid a review. We delete email records as described under “Email records” above. If you sign up but never confirm your email address, we may delete the account automatically once it is more than 30 days old, as long as it has no purchases, course enrollments, or signed-in devices. Like our email records, these accounts and saved click references are deleted as the site runs rather than on a fixed schedule, so they can stay a little longer.

Deleting your account. You cannot delete your account yourself on the site. To ask us to delete it, email us at info@truckrules.com from the email address on your account. We handle these requests by hand, and we may need to verify your identity first. We remove your name, the name on your certificate, your email address, any password, any Google profile picture, and any ad click reference saved with your account, we delete any course reviews you left, and we disconnect any Google sign-in, so you can no longer sign in to it. We keep the records of any purchases and your course activity, which we may need for accounting, tax, refunds, and payment disputes. Our record of actions taken in our admin tools, and our email records, are not removed when your account is deleted, and they can include your email address and name. Emails you exchanged with us, contact form messages you sent us, and the copies of your reviews our site emailed to our team may remain in our inbox, and copies of deleted information may remain in database backups for a time. Our payment processor and our email delivery provider keep their own records of your payments, including any ad click reference added to them, and of the emails we sent, for periods they set. We do not remove sign-ups or purchases we have already reported to Google to measure our ads. Once your account is deleted, you cannot sign in to it, so you lose access to your courses, certificates, and receipts. Save any you want to keep before you ask.

Security. We take reasonable measures to protect your information, including storing passwords only as hashes and using reputable, secure service providers. However, no method of transmission or storage over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your choices and rights. You can ask us to correct the name on your account or on your certificate by contacting us at info@truckrules.com. We handle these requests by hand. We cannot change the email address on an account at this time, because it is also how you sign in. You can also ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you. Email us from the address on your account, and we will ask you to confirm the request by replying to a message we send to that address, so that we know it came from you. Nothing on the site assembles this for you, so we put it together by hand and email you a written summary. It covers your account details, any Google sign-in, your signed-in devices, any ad click reference saved with your account, your course activity, your course reviews, your purchases and any ad click reference added to them, our record of the emails we sent or tried to send you, the record of what our team did on your account in our admin tools, and the sign-in and rate-limit records kept under your email address, which can include an IP address you used. We leave out passwords, verification codes, and sign-in tokens: we hold the first two only as hashes we cannot read, and sending the third would not be safe. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights over your personal information. See the sections below.

California residents. California’s Consumer Privacy Act does not apply to us. It reaches businesses with annual gross revenue above a threshold that starts at twenty-five million dollars and is adjusted for inflation, businesses that buy, sell, or share the personal information of 100,000 or more consumers or households a year, and businesses that make half or more of their revenue from selling or sharing personal information. TruckRules is none of those. We offer the following anyway, to anyone who asks, wherever you live: you can ask what personal information we hold about you and what we use it for, ask for a copy of it, ask us to correct the name we have for you, and ask us to delete your account. “Your choices and rights” and “Deleting your account” above describe how a copy, a correction, and a deletion work, and what we keep afterward. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising that follows you across other websites, so there is nothing here to opt out of. We will not charge you a different price, or give you less than we promised, because you asked. Email us at info@truckrules.com and put “Privacy Request” in the subject line. We may need to verify your identity before responding.

Where we operate. TruckRules is operated from the United States, and the database that holds your account, course activity, and purchase records is located in the United States. Our courses cover United States federal and state requirements, and we list our prices in US dollars. We accept cards issued in the United States and in the other countries our Terms name. If you use TruckRules from outside the United States, your account, course activity, and purchase records are transferred to and stored in the United States. Our hosting provider runs data centers around the world. When you use our site, your information, including what you enter in our forms and the pages we send back to you, may be processed at the data center nearest you, which may be outside the United States. Our payment processor, Google, and our other service providers may also process your information in other countries, as described in their own privacy policies. If you are in a region with its own data protection laws, such as the European Union or the United Kingdom, those laws may give you rights over your personal information, including the right to access, correct, or delete it. To make a request, email us at info@truckrules.com. We handle these requests by hand, and we may need to verify your identity first.

Children’s privacy. TruckRules is intended for adults and for use in a professional or business context. Our courses and services are not directed to anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has created an account or given us personal information, contact us at info@truckrules.com and we will take steps to delete that information.

Changes to this policy. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version is always the one on this page. If we make significant changes, we’ll take reasonable steps to let you know. Your continued use of TruckRules after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Contact us. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your information, email us at info@truckrules.com.