Privacy policy

Step to Pass Academy is a study-mentorship service for USMLE Step 1, run by Dr. Fanny Suarez and Dr. Othmar Gil.

• Responsible for the information: [PENDING: legal name of the responsible party]
• Location: [PENDING: city, state or province, and country]
• Contact: hola@steptopass.com

We collect only what you write in the initial assessment and a few technical details needed to receive it:

• Contact details: first and last name, email address, WhatsApp number, country of residence and time zone.
• Academic profile: your current academic status and the year you graduated or expect to graduate.
• Availability: your work or study situation, the hours and days you have available, and any commitments you choose to mention because they affect your schedule.
• Preparation and performance: the resources you use, your question-bank progress, practice assessment results (for example, NBME or Free 120), previous exam attempts and your tentative date.
• Method, difficulties and expectations: how you study, what you find hardest and what you expect from the mentorship.
• Submission record: date and time, form language, questionnaire version, a reference code and the record that you accepted this policy (with its version).
• Technical data: your IP address is used briefly to limit abusive submissions, and the anti-spam verification service (Cloudflare Turnstile) processes technical data from your browser to tell people apart from automated programs.

While you fill in the assessment, the draft is saved only on your own device (in the browser's local storage). We do not receive it until you press submit, and you can delete it at any time from the form itself.

We do not ask for identity documents or payment details, and this website does not process payments. We do not use analytics tools or advertising cookies.

• Understanding your starting point and preparing the initial consultation.
• Contacting you by email or WhatsApp about your assessment and the mentorship.
• Sending you a confirmation email with your reference code.
• Protecting the form against spam and abuse.

We do not sell your information, use it for advertising or publish it. Your answers are read by people: we do not use them to make automated decisions about you.

Only the two founders and mentors, Dr. Fanny Suarez and Dr. Othmar Gil, can read the assessments. They do so from a private dashboard that each of them enters with their own account, and the system keeps a record of when an assessment is viewed, exported or deleted.

To work, the website relies on infrastructure providers that process information while delivering their technical service. Each one has its own terms and privacy policies:

• Cloudflare: website hosting, the database where assessments are stored and anti-spam verification (Turnstile).
• Resend: delivery of confirmation emails and of notices to the mentors. These emails do not include your answers.
• Google (Gmail): the inbox where we receive any academic reports you decide to email us.
• WhatsApp: if we contact you that way, the messages go through that service.

Assessments are stored in a private database hosted on Cloudflare. They are not available at any public address on the website.

We keep your assessment for [PENDING: retention period defined by the founders]. After that period, or earlier if you ask, we delete it.

The database provider keeps recovery copies for a limited time; a deleted assessment may remain in those copies until they expire.

You can ask us for a copy of your assessment, to correct a detail or to delete it by writing to hola@steptopass.com from the email address you submitted it with. If you have your reference code, include it: it helps us find it.

When we delete an assessment, we remove it from the database permanently. If you also emailed us reports, tell us whether you want those deleted too. We will respond to your request within [PENDING: response time for requests].

If you have taken practice assessments (for example, NBME), you can send us your performance reports at steptopass@gmail.com. This is optional: you can complete the assessment without sending them.

• Reports arrive by email and are not uploaded to this website.
• We use them only to understand your performance by area and to guide the mentorship. We treat them as academic information.
• Before sending them, you may hide details that are not needed, such as identification numbers.
• Do not send us exam questions, recalls or protected third-party content.

We work with students in different countries, and our providers operate infrastructure in the United States and elsewhere. When you submit the assessment, your information may be stored and processed outside your country of residence, where data protection laws may be different.

[PENDING: legal review of the privacy obligations that apply based on the location of the academy and of its students]

The website uses encrypted connections, access to the dashboard is limited to the two mentors, and the system's technical logs do not include your answers. No system is infallible: if we learn of an incident that affects your information, we will let you know.

The mentorship is intended for adult medical students and graduates. We do not knowingly collect information from minors.

If we change this policy, we will update the date and version shown at the top. When you submit your assessment we store the version you accepted.

For any question about this policy or about your information, write to us at hola@steptopass.com.