Data Handling & Privacy

Last updated: 25 October 2026. The full Privacy Policy gives every detail.

What we collect

Your name and email address, your password (stored only as a one-way hash), your plan, subscription dates and status, and the Stripe customer and subscription identifiers for your account. If you subscribe through AWS Marketplace, we also receive the AWS customer identifier and entitlement details that link your subscription. For your dedicated server we record its hostname, AWS instance identifier, region, IP addresses and running status. Our web server logs the IP address, time, requested address, response, referring page and browser identification of every request.

Your instance data

Each subscription runs on its own virtual machine. Data and models you create inside your instance stay on that instance. Automated systems access it for health monitoring, security patching, backups and refreshes, and we access it to give support you request. We do not use the data or models inside your instance for any other purpose, and we do not sell or share them.

Backups

While a subscription runs, our backup schedule takes an automated backup of the instance every 2 days and keeps it for 7 days. We use backups only to restore or maintain your environment. We are fixing a fault that can leave an instance out of that schedule. Backups of our own database and site files follow a 14-day schedule. A small number of older copies are under review and will be deleted. Backup files are stored in Amazon S3, which encrypts every stored object. Server images and disk snapshots are stored in Amazon EC2.

Storage & retention

Everything is stored in Amazon Web Services, region us-east-2 (Ohio, United States). Account records are kept while your account exists, and for 3 years after it closes. When a subscription ends, we take a final backup and then remove the instance. Final backups aren't yet deleted automatically. Older ones are under review, and this page will be updated when automatic deletion is in place. No automatic deletion of web server logs is configured today.

Sharing

We do not sell your data and we do not share it for advertising. These providers receive it, and only for these purposes:

Amazon Web Services: hosting, storage and backups of everything above; AWS Marketplace purchases and billing.
Stripe: card payments. It receives your email address, name, the plan or lab you chose and our reference numbers for your account and order. We never receive your card number.
Brevo: email delivery. It receives your email address, name and the content of each message we send you.
Google: website analytics, only if you press Accept (see below), and a home-page video player, only when you press play.

Every page, style, script, font and preview image is served from our own server.

Where your data is processed

In the United States: AWS region us-east-2 (Ohio) for everything we store, and Stripe and Google for what they receive. Brevo processes email data in the European Union (France, Germany and Belgium). We do not send your data to any AI or large language model service, and no outside company handles it apart from the providers above. AWS, Google and Stripe each state that they are certified to the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Frameworks (Google and Stripe also to the UK Extension); Google and Stripe also use Standard Contractual Clauses. If you would like your server in a different AWS region, we can accommodate that: please contact hostmaster@yourcloudgroup.com. Section 5 of the Privacy Policy gives the details.

Legal basis

Your account, subscription, server, labs and account email: our contract with you. Billing and refund records: our legal obligation to keep tax and accounting records, which we keep for 3 years. Security records, server logs and page counts: our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure and working. Website analytics: your consent. Section 3 of the Privacy Policy gives the details.

Cookies & analytics

ycg_session (first party, our server): sign-in and form protection; expires 4 hours after your last request.
ycg_analytics_consent (first party): your Accept or Decline choice; 180 days.
_ga and _ga_0VC0X7G24X (set on our domain by Google's script, only after you press Accept): a random browser identifier and visit state sent to Google; 400 days each.

Google Analytics 4 is off unless you press Accept in the cookie banner. Until then no Google script loads and nothing is sent to Google, and declining changes nothing about how you can use this site. If you accept, Google receives the pages you view, the referring page, your browser, device, screen and language, the random identifier and the time of your visit, and works out your approximate location from your IP address. Google signals and ad personalisation are off. Google keeps this data for the Google default of 2 months. Analytics never runs on the free course or on AI School pages.

To withdraw consent, choose Cookie settings at the bottom of any page and press Decline. Analytics stops, the Google script is not loaded again and the _ga cookies are deleted. Data already sent to Google stays with Google until that retention period ends.

Age

This site and its services are for people aged 18 or over.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of your data, its correction or deletion, or that we stop or limit its use. Email hostmaster@yourcloudgroup.com from the address on your account. We reply within 7 days.

Security

Each instance runs in its own isolated cloud environment with credentials unique to its customer. We apply security patches and monitor instance health. Access details are sent only to the account email on record. Every page is served over HTTPS.

Contact

Questions about data handling: hostmaster@yourcloudgroup.com.

This page summarises our data handling for all subscriptions, including AWS Marketplace subscriptions.

Prorated refunds are available any time your subscription period is still active. Click Cancel + Refund on the relevant payment in the Billing page, or click Cancel Subscription on the server in your Dashboard and choose Cancel + Refund (immediate). You'll receive a refund for the days remaining in your current period, and the associated server will be terminated (after a final backup). To stop a recurring subscription from auto-renewing without an immediate refund, use Stop Auto-Renewal instead.

We take a final backup of your server and then remove the server. You can recover it from that backup by purchasing a new subscription. We don't yet delete final backups automatically; our Privacy Policy explains how long backups are kept.