Legal
Privacy Policy.
How Spike handles the information of students, parents, and visitors.
Effective 2 October 2026.
Summary
Spike is an AI college counselor used mainly by high school students. The information a student gives Spike is personal, and it is used for one purpose: to help that student with college admissions.
- We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for targeted advertising.
- We do not give student profiles to colleges, recruiters, or lead-generation services.
- We do not use student conversations, essays, or profiles to train AI models.
- Students can see, correct, and delete what Spike holds, and can delete their account from Settings.
The rest of this policy explains each point in detail.
Who we are and what this policy covers
Spike is operated by MKG Software, a brand of Madamlili Design LLC (“we”, “us”, “our”). We are the controller of the personal information described in this policy.
This policy covers the Spike app for iOS and Android, the website at get-spike.com, the free tools on that website, the waitlist, and the emails we send. It covers students, the parents and other adults a student invites, and visitors to the website.
Information we collect
Information you give us
Account information. Your email address, and your name. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive the name and email address that service shares with us. If you use a password, it is handled by our authentication provider and we never see it.
Profile information. Your grade and graduation year, birth year, high school, home city, state, and country, intended major, interests, grades, test scores, coursework, activities, honors, and the colleges on your list.
Optional sensitive information. Spike can ask about details that admissions and financial aid depend on, such as your gender, family income, the amount your family can contribute to college, whether you are the first in your family to attend college, legacy status, and whether you are a recruited athlete. Answering is always optional. Spike uses these answers only to give you advice, such as your likely financial aid or how a college reads your application.
Conversations with Spike. The messages you send, the replies Spike gives, and the notes Spike keeps about your story so that it can remember what you have told it.
Voice calls. If you talk to Spike by voice or practice a college interview, your voice is streamed to our AI provider so Spike can hear and answer you. We keep a written transcript of the call and any feedback Spike gives. We do not keep the audio recording.
Essays and plans. Essay drafts you write or paste in, their earlier versions, Spike’s feedback on them, and your tasks, deadlines, calendar events, and test plan.
Admission results. If you choose to tell Spike where you applied and what each college decided, including any aid offered, we store that with your account.
Attachments. When you attach a photo or file in a chat, Spike receives its name, type, and size. The file itself is not uploaded to us.
Parents and other adults you invite. If a student invites a parent or another adult, we receive that person’s email address, and the name and relationship the student or the adult provides.
Waitlist and referrals. If you join the waitlist, your email address, your grade if you give it, and the referral code you used or shared.
Feedback and support. Anything you send us in feedback or by email.
Information collected automatically
Usage information. Which screens are opened and which features are used, and when. We use this to understand what works and what does not.
Device and diagnostic information. Device type, operating system, app version, crash reports, and performance data.
Notification tokens. If you allow notifications, a token that lets us send them to your device, and your time zone so they arrive at a reasonable hour.
Security logs. IP addresses and records of sign-in and account events, which we use to detect abuse and protect accounts.
Information from other sources
Apple, Google, and Stripe tell us whether a subscription is active. They do not give us your card details. We also use public data about colleges and high schools, such as federal statistics and schools’ own websites. That data is about institutions, not about you.
The free tools on this website
The chances calculator, GPA calculator, SAI calculator, international GPA converter, and AI essay checker run entirely in your browser. What you type into them is not sent to us.
How we use information
- To provide Spike: answer your questions, remember your story, recommend colleges and opportunities, review essays, and keep your plan and deadlines current.
- To act for you in the background, such as preparing reminders and suggestions between conversations. You choose how often Spike reaches out first in Settings.
- To send the notifications and emails you have chosen to receive, and messages about your account or subscription.
- To send the weekly progress summary to a parent or other adult the student has invited.
- To process subscriptions and referral rewards.
- To keep the service secure, prevent abuse, and fix problems.
- To understand how Spike is used and improve it, using usage information and, where possible, information that no longer identifies you.
- To comply with the law and enforce our terms.
We do not use personal information to show advertising, and Spike does not show ads.
How Spike’s AI uses your information
Spike’s answers are generated by Google’s Gemini models, which we access through Google Cloud Vertex AI. To answer you, the relevant parts of your profile, your college list, your plan, and your conversation are sent to Google with each request. Under our agreement, Google processes this information only to provide the service to us and does not use it to train its models.
When you ask Spike to research something, it may search the web. Searches are written to find information about colleges, programs, and opportunities, not about you.
Spike is an AI and can be wrong. Admissions and financial aid decisions are made by colleges, and you should check important facts, such as deadlines and requirements, with the college itself.
Students under 18
Spike is built for students in grades 9 through 12, and many of them are minors. We collect only what the service needs, never use a minor’s information for advertising, and never sell it.
Students aged 13 and older may create an account on their own. A parent or guardian may contact us at any time to ask what we hold about their student, or to have it corrected or deleted, and we will verify their relationship before acting.
Spike is not for children under 13. The app does not allow an account to be created by anyone who says they are under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If we learn that we have, we delete it. A parent who believes we hold such information should write to help@get-spike.com.
How Spike responds when a conversation turns to self-harm or a student’s safety is described on our safety page.
Cookies and similar technologies
The website uses only the cookies and browser storage it needs to work, such as keeping you signed in and remembering your waitlist access. It does not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking cookies.
The app uses device storage for the same purposes, and the analytics and crash-reporting tools listed above to understand usage and fix errors.
How long we keep information
We keep your information while your account is open, because Spike’s usefulness depends on remembering what you have told it. You can delete individual items, such as an essay or a fact Spike recorded, at any time.
When you delete your account, we delete your profile, conversations, essays, college list, and plan within 30 days, and any copies in our backups are removed within 90 days. We keep only what the law requires, such as records of payments.
Waitlist entries are deleted when you ask us to, or when the waitlist is closed. Security logs are kept only as long as needed to protect the service.
How we protect information
Information is encrypted in transit and at rest. Every student record is protected by database access rules, so one account cannot read another’s. Access by our own team is limited to what is needed to run and support the service.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we will tell you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.
Where information is stored
Spike’s database is hosted in the European Union (Ireland). Some of our service providers, including those for AI processing, analytics, email, and payments, process information in the United States and other countries.
When personal information from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland is transferred to a country without an adequacy decision, we rely on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK Addendum, or the provider’s certification under the Data Privacy Framework.
Your rights and choices
For everyone
- Edit or delete what Spike has recorded about you from inside the app.
- Revoke a parent’s or other adult’s access at any time.
- Choose how often Spike reaches out first, and turn the weekly email off, in Settings. Notifications can be turned off in your device settings.
- Delete your account and everything in it from Settings.
- Ask us for a copy of your information, or to correct or delete it, by writing to help@get-spike.com.
We answer requests within 45 days, and we may need to verify your identity first. We will not treat you differently for exercising your rights.
United States residents
Depending on your state, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and others with privacy laws, you have the right to know what personal information we collect, use, and disclose; to access and receive a copy of it; to correct it; to delete it; and to opt out of its sale, of sharing for targeted advertising, and of profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. We do not sell or share personal information for advertising, and we do not use it for such profiling. We use sensitive information only to provide the service you asked for. You may use an authorized agent to make a request, and if we deny a request, you may appeal by replying to our answer.
European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland
You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, and receive a portable copy of your personal information; to object to processing based on legitimate interests; and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting processing that already took place. You may also complain to the data protection authority where you live.
We rely on these legal bases:
- Contract: to provide Spike and manage your account and subscription.
- Consent: for the optional sensitive information described above, notifications, and marketing emails.
- Legitimate interests: to keep the service secure, fix errors, and understand how it is used, in ways that do not override your rights.
- Legal obligation: to keep payment records and respond to lawful requests.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date below. If a change materially affects how we use your information, we will tell account holders by email or in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Spike is operated by MKG Software, a brand of Madamlili Design LLC.
For questions about this policy, or a request about your information, write to help@get-spike.com.
Last updated 2 October 2026. This policy has not yet been reviewed by counsel, and will be finalized before launch.