Legal
Privacy Policy.
Last updated: July 2026
Vulcan Robotics ("we," "us," "our") operates the myvulcanrobotics.com website, its invite-only parent portal, and the MyVulcanRobotics Android companion app used by coaches, parents, guardians, and students of our STEM robotics programs. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.
Information we collect
Account & profile information. Name, email address, phone number, birthdate, gender, grade, school, and an optional profile photo. Portal accounts are created by a coach or administrator (or by a parent/guardian on a student's behalf) — there is no public self-registration.
Family & guardian relationships. Links between guardians and students used to route communications and payment information to the right family.
Team & program participation. Team membership, role (coach, captain, member, parent), attendance, and task/assignment records.
Payment records. We track program fees and payment status (paid, unpaid, waived) recorded manually by team administrators. We do not process online payments and do not collect or store credit card, debit card, or bank account numbers — payments themselves happen outside the portal (cash, check, Zelle, Venmo, etc.), and only the amount and status are recorded.
Photos. Team-uploaded event and competition photos. Android uploads are limited to administrators, coaches, and parents. Location and camera metadata (EXIF/GPS) is automatically stripped from photos before they're stored.
Login & security information. Sign-in timestamps and an approximate location derived from IP address, used solely to detect potentially unauthorized account access.
Contact & application submissions. If you use our Contact or Apply forms, we collect the information you provide (name, email, phone, and your message) to respond to your inquiry.
How we use information
We use the information above to operate the parent portal (announcements, calendar events, tasks, payment tracking, photo sharing), respond to contact and application inquiries, and protect accounts from unauthorized access.
Android app and local notifications
The Android app securely caches team information for offline access, can export events to the device calendar only after permission is granted, and can send device-local alerts by periodically checking our own portal API. We do not use advertising identifiers, advertising SDKs, analytics SDKs, or third-party push-notification device registration. Local alerts can be disabled by category in the app or through Android system settings.
SMS & text message communications
Portal users can choose, per category (announcements, events, payments, tasks, and more), whether to receive text messages in addition to email and in-app notifications. Text messages are only sent to users who have opted in through their account notification settings — phone numbers collected through our public Contact or Apply forms are not used to send marketing text messages.
Message frequency varies based on team and program activity. Message and data rates may apply. You can change your text message preferences at any time from your account's notification settings, or contact us at the information below and we will update your preferences for you.
We will not share or sell your mobile information with third parties for promotional or marketing purposes. This does not include our SMS delivery provider, who receives phone numbers solely to transmit the messages you've opted into.
Third-party service providers
We use a small number of service providers to operate the portal, each of whom only receives the information needed to perform their service on our behalf: an email delivery provider, an SMS/text messaging provider, an IP geolocation service used only for login security alerts, cloud storage for photos, and our website hosting provider. We do not sell personal information to third parties.
Children's privacy
Our programs serve students of many ages, including children under 13. The portal is invite-only — there is no public self-registration, and every student account is created and managed by a coach, team administrator, or the student's own parent or guardian, who controls what information is provided. Parents and guardians can review, correct, or request removal of their student's information at any time by contacting us below.
Data retention & security
We retain account and team information for as long as it's needed to support an active team or family's participation in our programs, and take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect it, including restricting photo and document access to signed-in team members.
Your rights & choices
You can review and update most of your information directly from your account profile, including your email/SMS notification preferences. To request deletion of your account or a student record you are authorized to manage, use our data deletion request form. Requests are reviewed to verify identity, guardian authority, and any records we are legally required to retain.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.