Terms of Service

Effective October 18, 2026. ClearanceTrail is operated by Michael Alexander, doing business as ClearanceTrail, in South Carolina ("ClearanceTrail," "we," "us"). Contact: [email protected].

Please read these Terms carefully. Section 15 requires most disputes to be resolved by individual arbitration and waives class actions. You can opt out within 30 days (Section 15.6). Small-claims court is always available.

At a Glance

• ClearanceTrail is an independent tool for organizing your own history before you fill out the SF-86. It is not legal advice and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for DCSA, OPM, DoD, or any part of the U.S. Government.
• We do not and cannot guarantee any clearance, investigation, employment, or timing outcome. Only the government makes those decisions.
• Never enter classified information, CUI, Social Security numbers, or ID numbers.
• Pro subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel. You can cancel online at any time.
• Lifetime Pro lasts for as long as ClearanceTrail operates, not for your lifetime. Section 9.3 explains what happens if we shut down.

1. Acceptance

By creating an account, making a purchase, or using the ClearanceTrail website or app (the "Service"), you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract. The Service is intended for people in the United States.

3. Informational Tool Only. No Legal Advice.

3.1 The Service gives general educational information and personal organization tools. It explains what public forms ask and links to official public sources.

3.2 ClearanceTrail is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Using the Service does not create an attorney-client or fiduciary relationship. Nothing in the Service, including any guide, score, flag, report, or email, tells you what to disclose, how to answer a question, or how a decision will turn out.

3.3 The Readiness Score measures how complete your own entries are. It is not a prediction of any outcome. Gap, overlap, and consistency checks are automated and may be incomplete or wrong.

3.4 For advice about your situation, talk to a qualified attorney or your facility security officer.

4. No Government Affiliation

ClearanceTrail is privately owned. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or acting on behalf of the U.S. Government, DCSA, OPM, DoD, any military branch, any agency, or any employer. We do not use any government seal or insignia. You complete the official SF-86 only in the official government system (NBIS eApp), through your sponsoring agency or employer. ClearanceTrail never submits anything to any government system.

5. Your Responsibility

5.1 You alone are responsible for the accuracy, completeness, and truthfulness of everything you submit to any agency or employer, and for meeting your deadlines and reporting obligations.

5.2 Knowingly and willfully making a false statement or concealing a material fact on a federal form can be a crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1001. You personally certify your own answers in the official system.

5.3 The Service does not verify your information. Mark any estimated dates as estimates in the official form.

6. Prohibited Content

Do not enter, upload, paste, store, or send through the Service any classified information at any level, Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), details of classified programs, locations, missions, or duties, Social Security numbers, passport or ID numbers, or account numbers. The Service is not approved for that information. If you do enter it, delete it right away and tell your security officer.

7. Your Data, Encryption, and Recovery

7.1 Your entries are encrypted on your device with a key derived from your password. When you use sync, we store only encrypted data that we cannot read. Some fields, such as discharge type and the financial log, stay encrypted on your device only and are never sent to us.

7.2 If you lose both your password and your recovery code, we cannot recover your data. Device failure or clearing your browser data can also erase anything stored only on that device. Export backups regularly.

7.3 You own your content. You give us only the limited right to store and transmit encrypted copies at your direction.

8. Accounts

8.1 Use a personal email address you control. Government and military addresses (such as .gov and .mil) are not accepted, and you agree not to use an employer-monitored work email.

8.2 You are responsible for your password, recovery code, devices, and all activity under your account. Tell us at [email protected] about any unauthorized use.

9. Plans, Purchases, and Automatic Renewal

9.1 Free. The free plan costs nothing and has no billing.

9.2 Pro subscription (automatic renewal). Pro is billed monthly or yearly, at the price shown at checkout (currently $7 per month or $49 per year, plus any applicable tax), and renews automatically at the end of each term at the then-current price until you cancel. Before you buy, checkout shows the price, billing frequency, that the plan renews automatically, and how to cancel, and asks for your affirmative consent to the renewal terms. After you buy, you receive an email confirming these terms and how to cancel. For yearly plans, we send a reminder 15 to 30 days before each renewal with the price, the renewal date, and how to cancel.

9.3 Lifetime Pro. Lifetime Pro is a one-time payment (regular price $199) that does not renew. The launch "Founding Lifetime" price is $149 and is limited to the first 100 Lifetime members, counted by actual completed purchases. After 100 purchases, the regular price applies. Lifetime Pro gives the purchasing individual every Pro feature, including Pro features added later, for as long as ClearanceTrail operates and supports the Service. "Lifetime" means the life of the Service, not the life of the buyer. It is personal and cannot be transferred. If we permanently discontinue Pro: - we will give notice by email and in the app when reasonably practicable; - you can keep exporting your data from the app until the Service shuts down, and data stored on your device stays on your device; and - if the shutdown happens within 24 months after your Lifetime purchase, we will refund a pro-rated amount equal to your purchase price multiplied by the number of whole months remaining in that 24-month period, divided by 24.

9.4 Cancellation. You can cancel a subscription online at any time in the app under Settings, or through the link in any Paddle receipt, without calling or emailing us. Cancellation stops future renewals and takes effect at the end of the paid term, unless the law requires otherwise. If we ever show an offer when you cancel, a clear option to finish cancelling will always be on the same screen.

9.5 Price changes. We will email you before any price change applies to your renewal, so you can cancel first.

9.6 Payments through Paddle. Our order process is run by our online reseller, Paddle.com Market Limited and its affiliates ("Paddle"). Paddle is the merchant of record for all orders, processes payments, handles sales tax, and handles returns. Paddle's Buyer Terms apply to your purchase. You authorize Paddle to charge your payment method for the price and applicable taxes, including each renewal until you cancel.

9.7 No sales during beta. Until checkout opens, nothing is sold and no payment details are collected.

10. Refunds

• 14-day refund. You may request a full refund within 14 days of your first purchase of Lifetime Pro or a new subscription. No reason is required.
• Yearly renewals. If you request it within 14 days after a yearly renewal charge, we will refund it.
• Monthly renewals. Cancel any time to stop future charges. Past monthly renewals are not refunded unless the law requires it.
• Lifetime discontinuation. See Section 9.3.
• Request a refund at [email protected] or through Paddle. Refunds are issued through Paddle to your original payment method. These terms do not limit any refund right you have under Paddle's Buyer Terms or the law.

11. Acceptable Use

You agree not to: (a) break any law or these Terms; (b) enter prohibited content (Section 6); (c) enter other people's sensitive information beyond what you need for your own form; (d) reverse engineer, scrape, probe, or overload the Service, or bypass its security or rate limits; (e) impersonate any person, agency, or ClearanceTrail, or create false records; (f) resell or sublicense the Service without written permission; (g) use the Service to make decisions about anyone else's employment, eligibility, or status; or (h) upload malware or send spam through the Service.

12. Third-Party Links

Guides link to government and other third-party websites for convenience. We do not control them and are not responsible for them.

13. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, AND UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OPERATION. We do not warrant that any guide, link, score, flag, report, or other content is accurate, complete, or current, or that using the Service will lead to any outcome, including any clearance, investigation, employment, or timing result. Some states do not allow these disclaimers, so some may not apply to you.

14. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS: (A) WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, EMPLOYMENT, OPPORTUNITY, CLEARANCE ELIGIBILITY, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE WERE TOLD THEY WERE POSSIBLE; AND (B) OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATED TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR $50. These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law, such as for fraud or intentional misconduct. Some states do not allow these limits, so they may not fully apply to you.

Indemnity. You will defend and indemnify ClearanceTrail and its owner from third-party claims and related costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your submissions to any agency or employer, your breach of Sections 5, 6, or 11, or your violation of law or someone else's rights.

15. Disputes: Individual Arbitration and Class Action Waiver

15.1 Talk to us first. Before filing a claim, email [email protected] with a description of the dispute and what you want. We both agree to try in good faith to resolve it within 30 days.

15.2 Arbitration. If we can't resolve it, any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitration may be held by video or phone, or in the county where you live. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this Section.

15.3 Small claims and other exceptions. Either of us may bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies. Either of us may ask a court for an injunction to stop misuse of intellectual property.

15.4 Class action waiver. YOU AND WE MAY BRING CLAIMS ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims or award class-wide relief.

15.5 Fees. We will pay all arbitration filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees that the AAA Consumer Rules assign to the business, and any of your fees that exceed what you would pay to file in court.

15.6 30-day opt-out. You can opt out of this Section 15 by emailing [email protected] within 30 days after you first accept these Terms, with your name, your account email, and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect the rest of these Terms.

15.7 If the class action waiver is found unenforceable for a claim, that claim (and only that claim) will go to court, not arbitration.

16. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of South Carolina and applicable federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. This does not take away any protection given to you by the consumer laws of the state where you live. Subject to Section 15, claims will be heard in the state or federal courts located in South Carolina.

17. Ending Your Account

You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time in Settings. Deleting your account permanently deletes the encrypted data and account records we store, except records we must keep by law (see the Privacy Policy). Because we cannot read your content, we do not monitor it. We may suspend or end access for breach of these Terms, fraud or chargebacks, abusive automated access, use of a prohibited email address, a valid legal order, or if we discontinue the Service (see Section 9.3 for Lifetime Pro). Sections 3 to 7 and 10 to 18 survive.

18. Changes

We may update the Service or these Terms. For material changes, we will notify you by email or in the app at least 15 days before they take effect. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept them. Changes do not apply to disputes already pending, and we will not change the price or coverage of a Lifetime purchase you already made.

19. Copyright Notices

To report copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 512, email [email protected] with the notice elements required by that law. We may end the accounts of repeat infringers.

20. General

If any part of these Terms is unenforceable, it will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the rest stays in effect. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us. Not enforcing a term is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in a merger or sale of the Service. We are not liable for delays beyond our reasonable control. Notices to us go to [email protected]; notices to you go to your account email.

Contact

ClearanceTrail, [email protected].

Terms of Service · Privacy Policy · [email protected]

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