Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how DecisionTier, operated by Atheonix, collects, uses, shares, stores, and protects information when you use decisiontier.com, the DecisionTier mobile application, and related services.

DecisionTier is an educational planning service. It helps students compare admissions likelihood, estimated cost, and related planning information. It is not a university, admissions office, lender, financial adviser, or scholarship provider.

When you create or manage an account, we collect your email address, optional display name, and account security information. We store a cryptographic password hash, not your readable password. We also store whether and when your email was verified.

You may provide academic and financial planning inputs, such as GPA, test scores, residency, income range, budget, aid offers, deadlines, and school preferences. You may also voluntarily submit an application outcome so DecisionTier can evaluate and improve its estimates.

• Account information: email address, optional display name, account creation date, and membership status.
• Planning inputs: academic credentials, household financial ranges, budgets, school choices, aid details, and career preferences.
• Outcome reports: application cycle, school or program, admission result, predicted range, optional aid and net-price figures, and optional notes.
• Support communications: information you include when contacting support@atheonix.com.

When you sign in, your applicant profile and custom school list are stored with your DecisionTier account so they can synchronize across signed-in browsers and devices. We also keep a local copy on the device for continuity. If you are signed out, changes remain on that browser or device until you sign in and synchronization succeeds.

Decision-file calculations, theme preference, and a membership key may also be stored locally in your browser or on your device. When you request an estimate, the inputs needed for that calculation are sent to the DecisionTier API. We do not add a standalone calculation result to your account unless it is included in your synchronized profile or school list, or you separately submit an outcome report.

DecisionTier uses an essential, secure session cookie to keep you signed in. The session cookie contains an opaque token, not your password. We do not use third-party advertising cookies.

Stripe processes DecisionTier payments. Stripe receives the payment details you enter at checkout. DecisionTier does not receive or store your complete card number or card security code.

DecisionTier stores the information needed to fulfill and audit a membership, including purchase email, amount, membership key, status, expiration date, and Stripe customer, checkout-session, or payment-intent identifiers. Your account may retrieve transaction status and a Stripe-hosted receipt link when one is available. Stripe may retain transaction records under its own privacy policy and legal obligations.

Our hosting and security providers may process standard technical information such as IP address, request time, browser or device type, requested URL, response status, and security events. We use hashed request identifiers and short-lived security-event records to rate limit account registration, login, password recovery, and other sensitive actions.

We use information only for legitimate service, security, improvement, and legal purposes.

• Create and protect accounts and authenticated sessions.
• Send requested password recovery messages and account verification messages.
• Calculate admissions, affordability, aid, and planning results requested by you.
• Process payments, activate memberships, send receipts through Stripe, and handle refunds.
• Synchronize your applicant profile and school list across devices when you are signed in, while retaining a local device copy for continuity.
• Evaluate calibration and improve the accuracy and honesty of DecisionTier estimates.
• Respond to support requests, investigate errors, prevent fraud, and enforce our Terms of Service.
• Meet tax, accounting, payment, security, and other legal obligations.

We do not sell personal information. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising.

We share information only with service providers that help us operate DecisionTier, when you direct us to do so, when required by law, or as part of a legitimate business transfer. Current infrastructure providers include Stripe for payments, Cloudflare for web delivery and security, Fly.io for application and database hosting, and Resend for transactional account email.

Voluntary outcome reports are not linked to an email address in the outcome record. They may be used in deidentified or aggregate calibration results. Do not put your name, email address, application ID, or other identifying information in an outcome note.

We retain account information while your account is open. Account sessions normally expire after thirty days and can be revoked sooner. Password reset links expire after thirty minutes, verification links expire after twenty-four hours, and both are single use. Rate-limit events are retained only as needed to enforce their short security windows. You may delete your account from the account page. Deletion removes the login record, synchronized profile and school-list documents, recovery tokens, revokes sessions, and invalidates attached membership access.

The browser where you delete the account also clears its DecisionTier profile and school-list cache. Information stored only in another signed-out browser or device may remain there until that local storage is cleared. Payment, tax, fraud-prevention, and transaction records may be retained by DecisionTier or Stripe when legally required. Voluntary outcome reports may be retained in deidentified or aggregate form for calibration and research integrity.

For a request involving information that cannot be managed from the account page, contact support@atheonix.com from the email address associated with your account.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of personal information, and to appeal a denied privacy request. You may update your name or email, change your password, and delete your account from the account page.

We may need to verify your identity before completing a request. We will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right. To make a request or appeal, email support@atheonix.com.

DecisionTier is not directed to children under thirteen, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under thirteen. If you believe a child under thirteen has provided personal information, contact support@atheonix.com so we can investigate and delete it.

If you are under eighteen, use DecisionTier with the involvement and permission of a parent or legal guardian. Students should avoid entering highly sensitive information or direct identifiers in optional notes.

We use reasonable administrative and technical safeguards, including encrypted connections, salted password hashing, opaque session tokens, hashed one-time recovery tokens, rate limiting, restricted database access, and hosted Stripe Checkout. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Protect your password and membership key. Contact support@atheonix.com if you believe your account or membership key has been compromised.

DecisionTier is operated in the United States. If you use the service from another country, your information may be processed in the United States or other locations where our service providers operate. Those locations may have different data-protection laws than your home jurisdiction.

We may update this Privacy Policy as DecisionTier changes. We will post the revised policy with a new effective date and provide additional notice when a change materially affects how we use personal information.

Questions, privacy requests, and appeals may be sent to support@atheonix.com.