Where data is stored
The application and its database run on a dedicated server at Hetzner Online GmbH, in Helsinki, Finland — inside the EU. The database is not a separate third-party service; it runs on the same host as the application.
What we collect about a learner in a team
For a learner added to an organisation’s account, we hold:
- Name and email address.
- Lesson and scenario progress, attempts, and pass/fail results.
- Completions and any certificates earned.
- Organisation membership: role, group and assigned learning path.
Who can see it
- The learner themself, from their own account.
- Their organisation’s admins, who can see their learners’ progress, role and group from the team admin console — not a learner’s password, and not another organisation’s data.
- PLC Simulation Software’s own team, to operate, support and troubleshoot the service.
Service providers we use
Only the billing contact or owner who purchases seats ever sees a payment form — individual learners on a team never enter payment details.
| Provider | Purpose | Data |
|---|---|---|
| Hetzner Online GmbH | Application and database hosting, on a dedicated server in Helsinki, Finland (EU). | All account, organisation, learning and billing-reference data. The database runs on the same host as the application — it is not a separate third-party database service. |
| Dodo Payments | Checkout, subscription billing and tax as merchant of record. | Billing identity and payment details supplied at checkout. We never receive or store a full card number. |
| MXroute | Outbound transactional email — invitations, verification, password reset and service notices. | Recipient name, email address and the message content needed for delivery. |
| Google (Sign in with Google) | Optional OAuth sign-in, only used when a learner chooses "Continue with Google" instead of a password. | The name, email and profile fields Google shares for OAuth sign-in. |
| Cloudflare Turnstile | Bot protection on public forms — registration, lead and contact forms. | Browser signals needed to score a submission as human; no advertising or cross-site tracking. |
| YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) | A small number of pages embed a product walkthrough video using youtube-nocookie.com. | The video iframe only loads after a visitor clicks play; standard YouTube playback data applies from that point. |
Not loaded on the site
- Google Analytics, Google Ads tags or other advertising pixels.
- PostHog or any third-party analytics or session-replay vendor.
- Social-media tracking pixels or cross-site advertising identifiers.
Product measurement (page views and feature events) is stored in our own database, not sent to a third-party analytics vendor. A first-party, same-origin diagnostic tool records a sampled, masked replay of some sessions to help us find and fix bugs — page text is replaced with asterisks except a short allowlist of generic button labels, so a learner’s name, answers or PLC program are never visible in a replay. It respects the same analytics opt-out as the rest of the site and is kept for a limited period (currently 14 days) before automatic deletion — see our cookie policy for the current detail and the opt-out control.
Keeping and deleting data
- Account and learning data are kept while the account remains open.
- When an org admin removes a learner from an organisation, that ends the learner’s access and frees the seat — it does not delete the learner’s account or their personal history, which stays with them on the Free tier.
- A learner can permanently delete their own account at any time from Profile → Delete account.
- If your institution needs us to remove a learner’s data on their behalf, email paul@plcsimulationsoftware.com and we will process it within 30 days.
- Billing records are kept for seven years to meet South African tax and accounting obligations, regardless of account deletion.
Security basics you can verify from code
- HTTPS is used across the public site and the authenticated application.
- Passwords are one-way hashed — we cannot read a learner's password, and it is never logged in plain text.
- Every database query for organisation and learner data is scoped to the owning organisation (tenant), so one institution cannot see another’s data.
- Card and payment details are handled entirely by Dodo Payments at checkout; plcsimulationsoftware.com never receives or stores a full card number.
- Public forms are protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, not an invisible tracking script.
Learners must be at least 13 years old, or the age of digital consent in their jurisdiction, to hold an account. An institution enrolling younger learners remains responsible for its own lawful basis, notices and any required consent.
Questionnaires and agreements
If your institution needs to complete a supplier or data-protection questionnaire, email paul@plcsimulationsoftware.com with your organisation’s name and we will work through it with you. We cannot promise a signed data processing agreement in every case, but we will tell you plainly, before you buy, what we can and cannot commit to.