Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how American Boating Foundation, a Texas limited liability company ("ABF," "we," "us"), collects, uses, discloses, and retains personal information in connection with americanboatingfoundation.com and our online boater safety courses.

Information you provide. Legal name, date of birth, mailing address, state of residence, email address, telephone number, payment information submitted directly to our payment processor, and the contents of support inquiries.

Online chat. The site may offer a chat feature operated by an automated artificial intelligence assistant rather than a person. Chat conversations may be recorded, retained, and reviewed by our staff and service providers in order to answer your question, resolve your issue, and improve the service. Please do not enter payment card numbers or other sensitive information into chat. You may ask to be transferred to a person at any time.

Information generated by the course. Enrollment records, lesson progress, examination attempts and scores, completion date, certificate number, and certificate issuance records.

Information collected automatically. IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, pages viewed, referring URL, session activity, cookie and tag identifiers, and email and text message delivery events.

We do not request or knowingly collect Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, health information, or biometric identifiers.

We use personal information to:

We and our analytics and advertising providers may use cookies, web beacons, pixels, tags, software development kits, and similar technologies on the site. Where used, these technologies support essential functions such as sign-in, checkout, and security; analytics that tell us how the site is used and how it performs; and advertising, including measuring campaign performance, attributing purchases to the advertising that produced them, and presenting our advertisements to people who have previously visited the site.

The providers whose technologies we may use include analytics and advertising services offered by Google, and advertising, social media, and email platforms that offer similar tools. Where such a technology is in use, the provider may collect information including your IP address, device and browser characteristics, the pages you view, and actions you take on the site, may set its own cookies or identifiers, and may combine that information with data it holds from other sources. Each provider's handling of that information is governed by its own privacy policy.

You may manage cookies through your browser settings; disabling essential cookies will prevent checkout and course access from functioning. We do not respond to browser "Do Not Track" signals, which are not standardized. We honor Global Privacy Control signals where required by applicable law.

State boating agencies. Upon successful course completion, we report the student's name, date of birth, address, course, completion date, examination score, and certificate number to the boating law administrator of the state for which the course was purchased. Records submitted to a state agency are thereafter governed by that agency's law and policies and cannot be withdrawn by us.

Service providers. We disclose information to vendors performing services on our behalf, including payment processing, course hosting and delivery, email delivery, website hosting, customer support tooling, and analytics and advertising. Service providers are permitted to use personal information only to perform those services.

Referral partners. Where a state agency or partner refers a customer to us, we may disclose that a referred purchase occurred.

Legal and safety. We disclose information where required by law, subpoena, regulatory audit, or where necessary to investigate fraud or protect the rights or safety of any person.

Business transfers. Student records may be transferred in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

We do not sell personal information for monetary consideration.

State boater education requirements apply to minors, and students under 18 regularly enroll in our courses.

A parent or legal guardian must complete the purchase and provide the student's information for any student under 18. The account and the purchase belong to that adult, and our communications regarding the course are directed to the account holder. We collect from minor students only the information required for state certification reporting: name, date of birth, address, and course results.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13 except as provided by a parent or legal guardian in connection with enrollment. A parent or legal guardian may review, correct, or request deletion of a child's information by contacting us at the address in Section 11, subject to the limitations in Section 7.

You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of the personal information we hold about you. Email support@americanboatingfoundation.com with the subject line "Privacy Request" from the email address associated with your account. We will verify your identity before acting on a request and will respond within the period required by applicable law.

We cannot delete certification records already reported to a state agency, or records we are required to retain for state audit, tax, or fraud-prevention purposes.

We maintain administrative and technical safeguards including encryption in transit, access controls limiting student records to authorized personnel, and use of a payment processor that prevents complete card numbers from entering our systems. No method of transmission or storage is entirely secure. We will notify affected individuals of a security breach as required by applicable law.

We operate in and store information in the United States. If you access the site from outside the United States, you consent to the transfer of your information to the United States.

What we collect. If you give us a mobile number and opt in to text messages, we collect your phone number and a record of your consent, including the time, the page or form where you opted in (the source), and the exact disclosure you agreed to.

Why we use it. We send transactional messages about your own course and certificate (for example your certificate link, course-ready notices and sign-in codes) only if you opt in to them. We send marketing messages (boating safety tips, renewal reminders and offers) only with your separate marketing consent.

Frequency and cost. Course and certificate messages are sent as needed; marketing messages are limited to 3 per week. Msg & data rates may apply.

Opt out and help. Reply STOP to any message to opt out, or HELP for help.

Mobile information will not be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. All other categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

See our SMS Terms.

We may revise this Policy and will update the effective date above. Material changes will be communicated on the site or by email.

See also our Terms of Use.