Privacy Notice

Drone Edge — website and services

Last updated: 2026-10-09

This Privacy Notice describes how Drone Edge ("we," "us") handles personal information in connection with our website and digital offerings. It is published at the URL referenced in our Sales Agreement (see also our Terms of Service). This Notice is a general description of our practices; your school or organization may have additional obligations under contract or law.

1. Who this applies to

This Notice applies to visitors to thedroneedge.com, users who create accounts, students and educators who access courses through a school or organization, and individuals who contact us or book consultations.

2. Information we collect

  • Account and profile data: such as name, email address, username, and organization affiliation when you register or are invited to an organization.
  • Usage and technical data: such as device type, browser, approximate location derived from IP, pages viewed, and interactions with the platform. As described in our Terms of Service, we may use configuration, performance, security, and usage information to operate and improve the service, including in aggregated or de-identified form where permitted.
  • Payment data: payments are processed by our payment provider; we do not store full payment card numbers on our servers.
  • Communications: content you send through contact forms, email, or support channels.
  • Waitlist and mailing lists: your email address, which list you joined (for example Drone Building early access or our monthly Field Notes newsletter), the page you signed up on, the campaign link that first brought you to the site (if any), and when you consented, confirmed, or unsubscribed. The newsletter is for adults 18 and over.

3. How we use information

We use personal information to:

  • Provide, secure, and improve the Offerings;
  • Authenticate users, manage organizations, and track progress as described in the product;
  • Communicate about the service, respond to inquiries, and send transactional messages;
  • Send the waitlist and marketing emails you asked for. Every one has an unsubscribe link that works in one click. We never send marketing email to school or organization members because of their enrollment, and students using a school account cannot join our mailing lists;
  • Comply with law and enforce our agreements.

4. Schools, COPPA, and student data

Where a school or district is the customer, the school is often responsible for consent and authority for student data under applicable laws (including FERPA) and under our Sales Agreement. Where we collect personal information from children under 13 in an educational context, we rely on the school's consent and direction for use limited to educational purposes that benefit the school and not for unrelated commercial purposes, consistent with the Sales Agreement.

If you access courses through a school or organization, that organization's designated administrators and teachers can see your enrollment, lesson progress, video completion, exam results, and recent activity in the courses they provide. We do not use organization members' activity for marketing.

5. Sharing and subprocessors

We may share information with service providers who assist us (for example hosting, email delivery, analytics, or payment processing) under contractual safeguards. Waitlist and marketing emails are delivered through Amazon Web Services (Amazon SES), which reports back whether a message bounced or was marked as spam so we stop sending to that address. If you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics (Google LLC) receives usage data from our public pages (see § 6). We may disclose information if required by law or to protect rights and safety.

6. Cookies and analytics

We use cookies and similar technologies for session management (sign-in) and preferences. You can control cookies through your browser settings; blocking the session cookie will prevent sign-in.

First-party analytics. We measure how the website and courses are used with our own analytics, stored on our servers. To understand which pages lead visitors to create an account, we store a random identifier in your browser's local storage (it is not derived from your device, name, or email). Before you sign in it is linked only to page views of articles, course overviews, and pricing, and to clicks on our main sign-up buttons. If you later create an account, that identifier is associated with your account so we can see the path that led to sign-up. It is not created for members of school or organization programs, is never sold or shared with advertisers, and is removed when you clear your browser's site data.

Campaign links. When you arrive through a tagged link (for example one in an event announcement), we store the link's campaign tags (such as utm_source and utm_campaign) and the page you landed on in a first-party cookie named de_attr for 90 days. If the link came from an ad, this includes the ad platform's click identifier (such as Google's gclid or Meta's fbclid); we keep it on our own servers and do not currently send it back to any ad platform. When you first arrive from another website (for example a search engine or social network), we store only that site's name and the page you landed on in a first-party cookie named de_ref for 90 days. Neither cookie contains your name or contact details. If you then join a waitlist, create an account, start a checkout, or request a consultation, these are saved with that record so we know which announcement or site worked. A link that carries a discount code stores that code in a cookie named de_promo for 30 days so it can be applied at checkout.

Google Analytics (optional). On our public pages (home, pricing, articles, schools, and course overviews) we ask whether we may use Google Analytics to see how many people visit and where they come from. Nothing is sent to Google unless you click Accept, and it never runs inside courses, checkout, your account, or for students using a school account. If you accept, Google sets cookies named _ga and _ga_<id> for up to 13 months. We have turned off Google signals and advertising features, and Google Analytics does not store IP addresses. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as Decline. You can change your choice at any time with “Cookie settings” at the bottom of any public page; declining removes the cookies.

Newsletter emails. Links in our Field Notes newsletter pass through our tracking address (click.news.thedroneedge.com) before opening the page, and each email contains a small image that may report when it is opened. We record which links each subscriber clicks, so we know which sections are useful and can follow up with educators who ask about school programs; opens are counted only in total, not per person. We do not record your IP address or device for this, and we keep click records for 12 months. We keep these records only for the newsletter, not for waitlist confirmations or account emails.

We do not currently use third-party advertising pixels or cross-site tracking. If that changes, we will update this Notice and, where required, ask for your consent first. We also collect aggregate, non-identifying operational metrics (request counts, response times, error rates) to keep the service running.

7. Retention

We retain information for as long as needed to provide the service, meet legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Account and course-progress records are kept while your account exists. Detailed activity records (individual page views, video heartbeats, and similar events) are kept in our active systems for approximately 12 months, after which only aggregated summaries remain available in the product. When an account is deleted, its profile, progress, exam, comment, and activity records are deleted with it, along with any waitlist or newsletter signups for its email address, and our payment processor's customer record (which cancels any active subscription). Order and payment records are kept only as long as tax and dispute rules require, without a link to the deleted account. Activity records older than 12 months that we archive contain no account or device identifiers.

8. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information. No method of transmission over the Internet is completely secure.

9. Your choices

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict certain processing of your personal information. Contact us at james@thedroneedge.com to make a request. We may need to verify your identity before responding.

You can delete your account yourself at any time: sign in, open your Profile, and choose Delete account. Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone. If your account was created by a school or other organization, ask your teacher or administrator, or email us.

To stop waitlist or marketing emails, use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of them, or, if you have an account, the Email preferences on your Profile. You can drop one list or all of them, and it takes effect immediately.

10. Changes to this Notice

We may update this Notice from time to time. We will post the updated version on this page and revise the "Last updated" date. Material changes may be communicated through the service or by email where appropriate.

11. Contact

Questions about this Notice: james@thedroneedge.com