Privacy Policy
Last Updated: 05/02/2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Distillery University LLC (“we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, maintains, and discloses information from users (each, a “User”) of DistilleryUniversity.com, the StillSmart AI assistant, the DistilleryPlanPro business plan wizard, and any related products, services, or interfaces (collectively, the “Services”).
1. Information We Collect
Personal Information
We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us, including:
- Name and contact information (email address, phone number, mailing address)
- Payment information (processed securely through our payment processors — we do not store full card numbers)
- Account credentials, including identity information returned from third-party sign-in providers (Google, GitHub, email/password) used through our authentication provider
- Course progress and completion data
- Communication preferences
Business Plan and AI Inputs (DistilleryPlanPro and StillSmart)
When you use DistilleryPlanPro or StillSmart, we collect and store the information you submit so we can generate, save, and export your content. This may include:
- Distillery and business details (name, location, legal structure, founding team, mission/vision, market positioning, products, marketing approach)
- Financial inputs and assumptions (startup-cost estimates, equipment and facility specs, revenue assumptions, pricing, payroll, and other figures you enter into the wizard)
- Prompts, questions, edits, and other text you submit to the AI assistant or the wizard
- AI-generated outputs, draft plan content, and exported PDF/DOCX documents associated with your account
You should not submit confidential information that you do not have the right to share, or sensitive personal information of third parties (e.g., government IDs, Social Security numbers, financial-account credentials).
Automatically Collected Information
We automatically collect certain information when you use the Services:
- IP address and device identifiers
- Browser type and settings
- Operating system
- Log data and usage patterns (including wizard step completions, generation requests, and rate-limit metadata)
- Referral source
Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use various technologies to collect and store information:
- Essential cookies / session storage: required for site functionality, login sessions, and DistilleryPlanPro plan editing
- Analytics cookies: help us understand site usage
- Functional cookies: remember your preferences
- Marketing cookies: support our advertising efforts
You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings. Blocking essential cookies or session storage will prevent you from logging in or saving DistilleryPlanPro content.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use collected information to:
- Provide, operate, maintain, and improve the Services, including DistilleryPlanPro and StillSmart
- Authenticate users and manage accounts (via our third-party authentication provider)
- Process payments and transactions (via our third-party payment processor)
- Generate, save, and export AI-assisted business plan content and documents you create
- Transmit your prompts and inputs to third-party AI providers in order to generate responses
- Communicate about your account, purchases, and Services
- Send newsletters and marketing communications (which you can opt out of at any time)
- Respond to your requests and provide customer support
- Analyze Services usage and trends to improve features and quality
- Enforce our Terms of Service, including fair-use limits and anti-abuse measures
- Maintain the security and integrity of the Services
- Comply with legal obligations
We do not use the contents of your DistilleryPlanPro plans or StillSmart prompts to train our own foundation AI models. Where AI processing is performed by a third-party provider, that provider’s processing is governed by its own data terms (see Section 4).
3. Data Retention
We retain personal information and DistilleryPlanPro/StillSmart content for as long as necessary to:
- Provide the Services and your continuing access to plans you have created
- Comply with legal, accounting, and tax obligations
- Resolve disputes
- Enforce our agreements
- Maintain backups and security logs for a reasonable period
You may request deletion of your account and associated business-plan data at any time by contacting us (see Section 9). Some information may be retained in archived backups or where required by law.
4. Information Sharing and Subprocessors
We do not sell your personal information.
We share information with carefully selected third-party service providers (“subprocessors”) only to the extent necessary to operate the Services. Current subprocessor categories include:
- Hosting and authentication providers — to host the Services, manage user accounts, and provide third-party sign-in (Google, GitHub, email/password)
- Payment processors — to process one-time DistilleryPlanPro purchases and recurring subscriptions; payment-card details are handled directly by the processor under PCI standards
- AI providers — your prompts and the inputs you submit to DistilleryPlanPro or StillSmart are transmitted to our third-party large-language-model provider in order to generate the requested outputs; that provider processes inputs subject to its own data and privacy terms
- Analytics providers — to understand aggregate Services usage
- Email and communications providers — to send transactional and marketing communications
- Legal authorities — when required by law, subpoena, court order, or to protect our rights, users, or the public
- Business partners — only with your consent or as part of a corporate transaction (e.g., merger, acquisition, asset transfer), in which case we will provide notice
A current list of named subprocessors is available on request at info@distilleryuniversity.com.
5. Your Rights
You have the right to:
- Access your personal information and the business-plan content stored in your account
- Correct inaccurate data
- Request deletion of your data and account
- Opt out of marketing communications
- Export your data, including any DistilleryPlanPro plans you have generated (PDF/DOCX export is available within the wizard)
To exercise these rights, contact us at info@distilleryuniversity.com. We’ll respond within 45 days.
California Residents
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), you have additional rights:
- Right to know what personal information is collected, used, shared, or sold
- Right to know whether personal information is sold or shared
- Right to opt out of data sales (we do not sell personal information)
- Right to request deletion
- Right to correct inaccurate personal information
- Right to limit use of sensitive personal information
- Right to non-discrimination for exercising your rights
Contact us to exercise these rights or learn more.
6. Security
We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your information, including:
- TLS/SSL encryption for data in transit
- Encrypted storage for sensitive fields and credentials
- Authentication via established third-party identity providers (no password storage on our servers for OAuth sign-ins)
- Server-side input validation and HTML escaping for AI-generated content rendered in PDFs/documents
- Rate limiting and abuse controls
- Regular security assessments
- PCI compliance for payment processing (handled by our payment processor)
- Access controls, audit logs, and monitoring
No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure; you use the Services at your own risk.
7. Children’s Privacy
The Services are intended for users 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe we have collected such information, please contact us immediately and we will delete it.
8. International Users
The Services are operated from the United States. If you access the Services from outside the United States, you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States and other countries where our subprocessors operate.
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy periodically. We’ll notify you of significant changes through:
- Site notifications
- Email communications
- Updated effective date at the top of this policy
10. Contact Us
For privacy questions or concerns:
- Email: info@distilleryuniversity.com
- Phone: (509) 999-1244
- Address: 108 E. Weile Ave. #3, Spokane, WA 99208
11. Your Acceptance
By using our Services, you accept this Privacy Policy. If you disagree, please discontinue use of the Services.
