Privacy Policy

Welcome to Highway Traffic School. We value your trust and are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how Highway Traffic School, LLC (“we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company”) collects, uses, shares, retains, and protects your personal information when you use www.highwaytrafficschool.com (the “Website”) and our courses, certificates, completion filing, and related services (the “Services”).

How this document works. Each section begins with a short plain-English summary marked “In short.” Those summaries are for convenience only — the full text of each section controls. This Privacy Policy is part of, and should be read with, our Terms of Use. The Services are intended for residents of the United States.

Key Points at a Glance

A convenience summary only — the numbered sections below control.

We collect what your state requires to enroll you, verify your identity, and file your completion — including, where required, your driver license number, partial SSN, citation details, and an identity-verification photo (Sections 2–3).
We don’t sell your data for money — and you can opt out of ad “sharing” (Section 7).
Texting is opt-in only, and your mobile information is never shared with third parties or affiliates for their marketing (Section 5).
Biometric data is consented, encrypted, and destroyed within one year after your course ends (Section 3).
Your card number never touches our servers — payments go directly to a Level 1 PCI-certified processor (Section 9).
Records are kept three years, then permanently deleted — and you can request deletion sooner (Section 10). Text-message consent records are the exception — kept four years after our last text to you (Section 5).
You can access, correct, or delete your data and opt out of marketing at any time (Section 11).

1. Scope and Acceptance

In short: This policy covers our website and courses. Using them means you’ve read it.

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information we collect through the Website and the Services. By using the Website or the Services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. It does not apply to websites or services operated by third parties, including courts, state agencies, and payment processors, whose own policies govern their handling of your information.

2. Information We Collect

In short: We collect your contact, license, citation, and course information because your state, court, or regulator requires it to enroll you, verify who you are, and file your completion — plus standard device and communication data.

Personal and enrollment information — collected from you to register you, verify your identity, deliver your course, and file your completion as your state or court requires:

Name, address, email, and mobile phone number;
Date of birth and demographic information required by your state’s filing forms;
Driver license or identification card number and, where your state or court requires it, partial Social Security number, alien number, or I-94 admission number;
Violation information (case or citation number, violation code, violation date, court date, court and county);
Photos of your driver license, ticket, or other court documents that you upload;
Identity-verification images as described in Section 3 (Biometric Information);
Payment information (handled as described in Section 9 — full card numbers never reach our servers).

Course information: your course progress, quiz and exam scores, timestamps, and completion status.

Device information: IP address, browser type, operating system, and device identifiers.

Communication data: correspondence you have with us, including emails and text messages.

We collect sensitive identifiers (such as a partial Social Security number or immigration document numbers) only where the state, court, or regulator associated with your course requires them for enrollment, identity verification, or completion filing.

3. Biometric Information

In short: If your course requires identity verification, we ask your consent before capturing a photo of you and your ID. The images are encrypted, never sold, used only to confirm you’re the one taking the course, and permanently destroyed within one year after your course ends.

What we capture and why. Where your state or course requires identity verification, you will be asked to provide a photo of your government-issued identification (such as a driver license or passport) and a snapshot of yourself, using your computer or smartphone camera. This data — which may include a scan of your face geometry — is used solely to verify that you are the person registered for and completing the course or exam, as required by state regulations and to protect the integrity of your certificate. Photos of your driver license or ticket that we only read text from (for example, at Arizona registration) are not biometric data; they are kept with your student record under Section 10.

Consent first. We obtain your consent before capturing any biometric data, through a separate acknowledgment presented at the time of capture. If you do not consent, we cannot provide courses that require identity verification, and you may contact us about alternatives where your state permits them.

Protection and limits. Biometric data is encrypted in transmission and storage. We do not sell, lease, or trade biometric data, and we do not disclose it except: to complete your identity verification (including to our identity-verification service provider, Amazon Web Services – Amazon Rekognition, which compares the photos on our behalf under confidentiality obligations); with your consent; or as required by law or legal process.

Destruction. Biometric data is permanently destroyed within one (1) year after your course ends — when you complete it, or when your enrollment expires or is canceled — and in all events within one (1) year after the purpose for collecting it has been satisfied. This paragraph constitutes our written retention and destruction policy for biometric data.

4. How We Use Your Information

In short: We use your information to run your course, verify your identity, file your completion, communicate with you, keep the platform secure, improve it, and — only with your permission — send marketing.

We use your information to:

Provide and manage our traffic school services, including enrollment, course delivery, and exams;
Verify your identity and protect the integrity of courses, exams, and certificates;
Process payments and issue completion certificates;
Report your course status to, and file your completion with, courts, state agencies, and the DMV where required;
Communicate with you about your course, account, deadlines, and updates;
Send text messages as described in Section 5 and emails as described in Section 6;
Detect, prevent, and address fraud, security incidents, and violations of our Terms of Use;
Analyze and improve our Website, courses, and services;
Send marketing communications, with your consent where required and always with the ability to opt out;
Comply with legal obligations, regulatory requirements, and audits.

5. SMS and Text Messaging

In short: Texting is optional. One unchecked box at registration — or a YES reply from your phone — signs you up for account/course texts plus occasional offers and review requests (no more than 4 a month). Leave the box unchecked and we send no texts. It’s never required to buy. Reply STOP anytime. Your mobile information is never shared for anyone else’s marketing.

Your consent. We send text messages only to people who opt in. You can opt in by (a) checking the optional “Text me updates and offers” box at registration — it is unchecked by default and never a condition of purchase; (b) texting JOIN to (442) 500-1570 and replying YES to our confirmation request; (c) asking our website chat assistant to text you and replying YES to the confirmation we send; or (d) if you ask for texts on a support call, texting JOIN to (442) 500-1570 as our representative directs — we do not enroll a number from a phone call alone. If you do not opt in, we will not text you. If you opted in before September 1, 2026 under our earlier terms, you receive account and course texts only unless you accept the current terms by one of the methods above.

What you’ll receive. One opt-in covers all of our text messages: transactional messages (account approval, course deadline reminders, identity-verification prompts, certificate issuance, updates on the filing of your completion, and replies to your support requests) and promotional messages (discounts or limited-time offers on our courses, and a request to review your experience after you finish a course). Promotional messages are limited to four (4) per month and are sent only between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in your local time zone. Message frequency otherwise varies. Message and data rates may apply; contact your carrier for details.

Opting out. Reply STOP to cancel (you will receive one final message confirming your opt-out). You may also opt out by replying with any other reasonable request that clearly expresses your desire to stop (such as QUIT, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, REVOKE, or OPT OUT), by emailing support@highwaytrafficschool.com, or by telling us on a call or in chat. We honor opt-out requests within ten (10) business days. Opting out stops all texts, including course reminders; it does not cancel your enrollment or stop the emails needed to deliver your course. To stop only offers and review requests and keep your course texts, reply STOP OFFERS or email us. Reply HELP for help, or contact support@highwaytrafficschool.com, or call or text 1-888-406-1726, Mon–Sat, 7am–7pm PT. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

Consent records. We keep a record of how and when you opted in or out — for example, the page and time you checked the box, your IP address, or the time of your YES or STOP reply — so we can honor your choices and demonstrate consent if we are ever asked to. We keep these records for at least four (4) years after our last text to you, even if the rest of your student record is deleted under Section 10.

Mobile privacy. Mobile information will not be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging originator opt-in data and consent will not be shared with any third parties.

The full program terms are at www.highwaytrafficschool.com/sms-terms/ and in Section 14 of our Terms of Use.

6. Email Communications

In short: Service emails come with your course. Marketing emails always have an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing never stops the emails you need to finish your course.

We send transactional emails — receipts, account notices, certificate delivery, and court-submission confirmations — as part of providing the Services. With your consent or as otherwise permitted by law, we may send promotional emails; every promotional email includes an unsubscribe mechanism, honored within ten (10) business days. Unsubscribing from promotional email does not stop transactional emails required to deliver the Services you purchased.

7. How We Share Information

In short: We don’t sell or rent your information for money. We share it with your court, DMV, and state regulator to file your completion, with vendors under contract, when the law requires it, or if the business is ever sold. We also use Google advertising and analytics cookies that may count as “sharing” under some state privacy laws — and you can opt out.

We do not sell or rent your personal information for monetary consideration. We share personal information only as follows:

Courts, DMVs, and regulators. If your course requires status reporting or completion filing, we share your personal and course completion information with the Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Transportation, or equivalent agency for your state; the court associated with your case or citation; and the regulatory agency that certifies or licenses traffic school operation in your state.
Service providers. Third-party companies that help us operate — payment processing, identity verification, message and email delivery, cloud hosting, and technical support — under contracts that limit them to processing information on our behalf and instructions.
Legal requirements. To comply with law, legal process, or enforceable governmental requests, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, our students, or others, including enforcing our Terms of Use and investigating fraud or course-integrity violations.
Business transfers. If the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of all or part of its business, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this Privacy Policy; we will provide notice of any material change in how your information is handled.
Advertising and analytics partners. We use Google Ads and Google Analytics, which use cookies and device identifiers to measure performance and show you targeted ads for our courses. When these tools share online identifiers with those partners for cross-context behavioral advertising, that activity may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information under the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the CPRA), the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, and similar state laws. This does not include your mobile or text-messaging information, which is never shared for third-party marketing (see Section 5). You can opt out as described below and in Section 11.

All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

We do not sell your personal information for monetary consideration. You can opt out of the advertising “sharing” described above at any time: email your request to support@highwaytrafficschool.com or submit it through the Data Deletion Request Form, and you can manage Google’s cookies through Google Ads Settings (adssettings.google.com) and the Google Analytics opt-out add-on. See Section 11 for your rights and Section 8 for cookie controls.

8. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

In short: We use cookies and analytics tools — including session-replay software that records how visitors interact with pages (with sensitive fields masked) — to keep the site working and make it better. Your browser settings control cookies.

We use cookies and similar technologies to operate and improve the Website:

Essential cookies keep you signed in, remember your course progress, and enable core functionality. Disabling them may prevent the Website from working.
Analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site (pages visited, traffic sources, general location). You can opt out using Google’s browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Advertising. We use Google Ads, which sets cookies and identifiers to deliver and measure targeted ads for our courses and to build remarketing audiences. As explained in Section 7, this may be considered “sharing” under certain state privacy laws. You can opt out at Google Ads Settings (adssettings.google.com) or by sending your request to support@highwaytrafficschool.com as described in Section 11.
Session replay and heatmaps. We use Microsoft Clarity, which records page interactions such as clicks, scrolling, and mouse movement to help us find usability problems. We configure it to mask sensitive form fields (such as payment, identification, and document-upload fields) so their contents are not captured.

You can manage or block cookies through your browser settings; doing so may affect site functionality.

9. How We Protect Your Information

In short: Data is encrypted in transit, stored on access-restricted cloud infrastructure, and your card number goes straight to a top-tier PCI-certified processor — it never touches our servers. No system is 100% secure, but we monitor ours continuously.

Encryption. Personal and payment data is encrypted during transmission, and biometric data is encrypted in storage.

Secure infrastructure. Your data is stored on access-restricted systems hosted on cloud infrastructure that maintains ISO 27001 certification

Monitoring. We regularly review our security practices to protect against unauthorized access.

Payment processing. Sensitive credit card information is collected directly by our payment processor and transmitted directly to the payment gateway through a Level 1 PCI-certified integration — the highest level of PCI compliance. Your card information is never stored on our servers, and we do not have visibility into it.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security; we work continuously to protect your information and will respond to incidents as described in Section 14.

10. Record Retention and Deletion

In short: We keep student records for three years (your state’s auditors require it), then permanently delete them. Biometric images are destroyed within one year after your course ends. Want your data deleted sooner? Use the Data Deletion Request Form — we review requests within seven days. Text-message consent records are the one exception — kept four years after our last text to you (Section 5).

We retain student information for three (3) years after registration or after completing a course or exam, whichever is later — or longer where required by applicable law or a regulator’s audit requirements. This period is based on state and local laws, auditing requirements of the regulatory agencies that certify traffic school operation in each state, state completion-filing requirements, and resolution of disputes regarding completions. After the retention period, personally identifiable information is automatically and permanently deleted from our database. Biometric data is destroyed on the shorter schedule in Section 3 — within one (1) year after your course ends. Sensitive credit card information is never stored on our servers. Text-message consent and opt-out records are retained for at least four (4) years after our last text to you, as described in Section 5.

Deletion on request. You may request deletion of your data at any time using the Data Deletion Request Form on the Website. We review deletion requests within seven (7) days. If your account has no state or local law retention restriction, it will be approved for removal, and you will receive email confirmation of the deletion — or an explanation of why deletion cannot occur yet due to state or local law.

11. Your Privacy Rights and Choices

In short: Wherever you live, you can ask for a copy of your data, fix mistakes, delete it (subject to required retention), and opt out of marketing. We verify it’s really you, respond within 45 days, won’t penalize you for asking, and you can appeal if we say no.

We extend the following rights to all of our users, regardless of state of residence:

Access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
Correction: update or correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
Deletion: request deletion of your personal data, subject to the legal and regulatory retention requirements in Section 10;
Marketing opt-out: stop promotional emails (via the unsubscribe link or by contacting us) at any time; stop promotional texts while keeping course texts by replying STOP OFFERS or contacting us; stop all texts by replying STOP (Section 5).

How it works. Submit requests to support@highwaytrafficschool.com or through the Data Deletion Request Form. We will verify your identity before acting on a request, using information associated with your account. An authorized agent may submit a request on your behalf with proof of authority. We respond within forty-five (45) days, and will notify you if we need additional time. If we deny a request, you may appeal by replying to our response or writing to support@highwaytrafficschool.com with “Privacy Appeal” in the subject line. We will never discriminate against you — in price, service, or course access — for exercising your privacy rights.

12. Children and Minors

In short: Under-13s can’t use our services at all. Drivers aged 13–17 can take a course only through an account their parent or guardian sets up or authorizes — and their data is handled the same careful way.

Our Services are not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13; if we become aware of such information, we will delete it promptly. Students under 18 may use the Services only through an account created or authorized by a parent or legal guardian, as described in Section 1 of our Terms of Use. Information about students under 18 is collected and handled as described in this Privacy Policy, as required to deliver their course and file their completion.

13. Third-Party Links

In short: Links to other sites — including your court’s or DMV’s — lead to privacy practices we don’t control.

The Website may contain links to third-party sites, including courts, state agencies, and other services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. Review their privacy policies before providing personal information.

14. Data Breach Notification

In short: If a breach affects your information, we’ll notify you and the authorities as the law requires.

If we determine that a security incident has resulted in unauthorized access to or acquisition of your personal information, we will notify affected individuals and applicable regulators as required by the data breach notification laws of your state, without unreasonable delay.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

In short: If we change this policy in a meaningful way, we’ll tell you by email or a site notice before the change takes effect.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email to the address associated with your account and/or by prominent notice on the Website before the changes take effect. The “Last Updated” date above reflects the most recent version. Please review this policy periodically.

16. Contact Us

In short: Questions? Email us any day, call or text us Mon–Sat, 7am–7pm PT, or write to us.

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices:

Email: support@highwaytrafficschool.com (answered 7 days a week)
Phone / text: 1-888-406-1726 (Mon–Sat, 7am–7pm PT)
Mail: Highway Traffic School, LLC, 1286 University Ave #1116, San Diego, CA 92103-3312

Thank you for trusting Highway Traffic School with your information.