Privacy of Your Recordings and Answers

Two Different Data Types

ClearMyPTE stores two distinct kinds of practice content for you, and they are governed by different privacy rules:

Speaking recordings (audio files from Read Aloud, Repeat Sentence, Re-tell Lecture, Describe Image, Answer Short Question, Summarise Group Discussion).
Writing answers (text submissions from Summarise Written Text, Essay, Summarise Spoken Text, Write Email, Write from Dictation).

Speaking Recordings — How They Are Handled

Encrypted at rest in object storage (server-side encryption with managed keys).
Encrypted in transit over HTTPS between your browser and our servers, and between our servers and the AI scoring engine.
Used for AI scoring — the recording is sent to our scoring pipeline to produce pronunciation, fluency, and content scores.
Used for your own playback — you can listen to your recordings on the practice review screen to self-correct.
Never shared with third parties for advertising, training external models, or any other purpose. Aggregated, fully de-identified statistics may be used to improve the scoring engine.
Auto-purged after 90 days from the date of the attempt, after which only the score (not the audio) is retained.

Why a 90-Day Window?

90 days is enough time for you to review and re-score if a question feels mis-evaluated, while keeping storage costs and your privacy footprint minimal. If you want to save a specific recording permanently, you can download it from the practice review screen (look for the download icon next to the audio player).

Writing Answers — How They Are Handled

Encrypted at rest in the same way as recordings.
Retained indefinitely as your personal reference. Many students like to look back on their essays from six months ago to track improvement.
Used for AI scoring and shown to you on the review screen.
Never shared with third parties, never used in any public dataset.

Account Deletion Removes Everything

If you delete your ClearMyPTE account, both recordings (any still within their 90-day window) and writing answers are permanently removed within 30 days, along with all other personal data. See deleting your account.

What We Do Not Record

Microphone audio outside an active question — recording is gated to the question window only.
Webcam video — ClearMyPTE practice never uses your camera.
Screen contents outside the practice frame.

See related guidance at managing notifications and review session activity from your profile.