Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 9, 2026

California Water Exam Ready is a free study site for California water and wastewater operator certification exams, the specialist, laboratory and maintenance certifications alongside them, California contractor license exams, a national public infrastructure inspector certification, and civil engineering licensure exams. It is built so you can study without an account, a subscription, or handing over personal information. This policy explains what the site does and does not collect.

The short version

No accounts. No sign-up. No email address collected.
Your study progress is stored only in your own browser, on your own device.
We use a privacy-first analytics service that sets no cookies and is not used to identify you.
No advertising cookies, no ad networks, no tracking pixels.
We do not sell or share personal information.
Your study data leaves your device only when you choose to send it: an email to us, or a question you choose to open in an outside AI assistant.
As with any website, our host and analytics provider receive standard request data, such as your IP address, when pages load. That is described below.

What we collect

Information you choose to send us

We do not ask you to create an account, and we do not collect your name, email address, phone number, mailing address, or payment information. We receive information from you only if you email us, which can happen in two ways:

Contact links. The contact address stays hidden until you click to show it, and then your own email app opens. We receive your email address and whatever you write.
"Report this question." This opens your own email app with a message already filled in: the question's identifier, track and topic, the question and its answer options, the correct answer, and, if you had already answered, the option you chose. You can edit or delete any of it before sending, and nothing is sent unless you send it.

We use what you send only to reply to you and to review and correct the study content. We keep correspondence only as long as it is needed for that purpose, and we will delete it on request.

Information stored on your device

The app saves your study data in your browser's localStorage. This includes:

the track you selected, your target grade, the exam edition you chose where a track offers more than one, and a target exam date if you set one;
practice quiz and mock exam history, scores, and results by topic;
your flashcard review schedule, and any flashcards you write yourself;
your study streak, daily question, math lesson progress, dismissed reminders, and any session you left part-way through;
which tracks you have chosen to keep available offline. This is kept separately, as a setting for that device, and is not included in exports.

This data stays on your device. It is not sent to us, and it does not move between devices unless you use the app's Export and Import options to move it yourself. An export is a file saved to your own device; where you keep or send it is up to you. The reminders in the app's notification bell are worked out on your device from this same data. The site sends no push notifications and never asks for notification permission.

Clearing your browser's site data, or using the "Reset" option in the app's data menu, erases this stored data. We have no copy and cannot recover it.

Offline cache

To make the app installable and usable offline, the site registers a service worker that stores the app's own files in your browser: its pages, code, font and icons, plus the question and flashcard banks for the track you selected and any track you choose to keep offline. This is a copy of public site content and contains no personal information. In the installed app, the "Check for update" button asks our server whether a newer version exists; that request carries none of your study data. Links to official formula sheets open the publisher's own website and are never cached.

Analytics

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page visits and measure how the site performs. It is designed to be privacy-first: it does not set cookies, does not fingerprint visitors, and does not collect data that could be used to identify or track an individual across sites. IP addresses are processed transiently to derive coarse geography (typically country or region) and are not retained in identifiable form. See Cloudflare's documentation at cloudflare.com/web-analytics for details.

Hosting and server logs

The site is hosted by Netlify. As with any website, your browser sends standard request information each time it loads a page or file, such as your IP address, browser and device type, the address requested, and the page you came from. Netlify's servers record this in logs used to deliver the site, protect it from abuse, and report aggregate traffic. We do not use these logs to identify individual visitors. See Netlify's privacy policy.

Links that take you to other services

Some links leave this site. Once you follow one, that site's own terms and privacy policy apply.

Official formula sheets and agency pages. Each track links to the formula sheet or reference material its certifying body publishes, on that body's own website. In the installed app these links open in your device's browser.
Explaining a question with ChatGPT or Claude. On practice questions, flashcards, and mock exam review, you can choose to open the item in ChatGPT (operated by OpenAI) or Claude (operated by Anthropic). The link opens a new tab with a prompt already filled in: the track, grade and topic, the question or flashcard text, its answer options and correct answer, and the explanation. It contains nothing about your progress, scores, or identity. What happens after that, including anything you type there, is governed by that service's own terms and privacy policy.

What we do not do

We do not use advertising cookies or third-party ad networks.
We do not run cross-site tracking pixels or session recording.
We do not sell, rent, or share personal information for advertising or marketing.
We do not take payments or collect payment information on this site.
We do not load fonts or scripts from third parties other than the analytics service described above. The display font is served from this site.

The site does not currently show sponsored content. If sponsored placements are ever added, they will be clearly labeled links that carry no tracking code, and this policy will be updated before they appear.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

The site does not track visitors across other websites or over time, and it does not allow third parties to do so. It therefore handles every visit the same way whether or not your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal.

Third-party services

Netlify: hosting, content delivery, and server logs, as described above.
Cloudflare: privacy-first web analytics, as described above.

Your privacy rights

Apart from the standard request data our host and analytics provider process, described above, the site collects no personal information about you, so most data subject requests do not apply in a meaningful sense: there is no account or server-side profile to access, correct, or delete. Your study data lives in your own browser, and you can export it, import it, or delete it directly from the app's data menu. If you have emailed us, you can ask us to delete that correspondence.

California residents (CCPA / CPRA)

California residents have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), including the right to know what personal information is collected, the right to delete personal information, the right to correct inaccurate personal information, and the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information.

We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under the CCPA and CPRA, and we do not collect "sensitive personal information" through this site. If you would still like to exercise a right (for example, to confirm in writing that we hold no information about you), email us using the address below and we will respond within the timeframes the law requires.

Visitors outside the United States

The site is operated from the United States and is intended for people preparing for the exams it covers. If you visit from outside the United States, including the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the limited information described above (analytics telemetry and standard server logs) may be processed in the United States. The lawful basis for that processing is our legitimate interest in operating and securing a free study tool.

Children

The site is intended for adult learners pursuing professional certifications and licenses. It is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children.

Security

The site is served only over HTTPS. Because it keeps no user accounts and no server-side database of personal data or study records, there is no central store of credentials or progress to compromise.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the site changes. The "Last updated" date at the top of the page reflects the most recent change, and any new service that would receive information about visitors will be described here before it is added. Continued use of the site after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about this policy or privacy generally? Email us at .

Not affiliated with or endorsed by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), its Division of Drinking Water (DDW) or Wastewater Operator Certification Program (WWOCP), the California-Nevada American Water Works Association (CA-NV AWWA), the California Water Environment Association (CWEA), the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), the California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists (BPELSG), the Contractors State License Board (CSLB), or the American Public Works Association (APWA). All questions, flashcards, and references are independent study aids; verify against the official exam materials.