- Nothing is collected until you type your consent, and only from the sources you choose.
- We never sell your data, and we never use it for advertising.
- Your file leaves Preclear only when you send it: you download it, or you accept an employer's introduction.
- Employers in the marketplace see an anonymous profile, never your name, until you say yes.
- Delete your account and everything goes with it: your file, sessions, tokens and history.
- Preclear gets you ready. It does not grant or deny a security clearance. Only the government decides.
Who we are
Signet Preclear (“Preclear”) is operated by Signet Systems (“Signet”, “we”, “us”). Preclear helps you gather your own records, prepare your Standard Form 86 (SF-86) and understand where you stand before a background investigation. It also runs an opt-in marketplace where verified employers can find ready candidates.
This policy covers the Preclear website, the Preclear app, the employer marketplace and any email we send you. It does not cover the government agencies or employers you choose to share your file with. Once they receive it, their own policies apply.
What we collect
What we collect depends on what you ask Preclear to do. You control it through the consent screen and the sources you connect.
| Category | Examples | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Name, email, password (stored only as a salted hash), two-factor settings, signed-in devices | You |
| Your keys | Legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, current address, phone, schools attended | You, typed once |
| Authorizations | Your typed consent and signature, the scopes you chose, timestamps, and the signed authorization packet | You |
| Records gathered for you | Credit history, tax transcripts, education, court and property records, travel and citizenship records, prior investigations | The issuing sources, at your written direction |
| Identity proof | A match of your keys against authoritative databases and your phone carrier; if needed, a photo of your ID and a selfie | You and our verification provider |
| Mailbox (optional) | Only messages that match specific searches, such as travel confirmations and official documents. Every search is logged and shown to you. | Your email provider, if you connect it |
| Financial accounts (optional) | Balances, and whether any account is held abroad | Your bank, if you link it (higher clearance levels only) |
| Interview answers | Answers to SF-86 questions, which can include foreign contacts, finances, drug use, criminal history and mental-health treatment | You |
| Marketplace profile | Readiness level, skills and preferences you publish, under an anonymous handle | Derived from your file, with your listing consent |
| Employer accounts | Organization, contact details, verification status, searches and introductions | Employers |
| Security and audit | Sign-in events, device and browser family, IP address for rate limiting and fraud prevention, and a log of every action on your file | Our systems |
| Site telemetry | Page views without query strings, errors and page-speed measurements, with no identifiers attached | Your browser (see Cookies and telemetry) |
Much of this is sensitive personal information under U.S. state privacy laws, including government identifiers, financial information, precise history, health information and criminal history. We collect and use it only to provide the service you asked for.
Consent comes first
Preclear's collection is gated in code, not only by policy. Nothing is gathered until you type a consent statement. You choose which kinds of sources we may use, and each source runs only within those choices and the accounts you connect.
You can revoke consent at any time from the app. Revoking stops all further collection immediately and takes down any marketplace listing. We keep a record that you revoked, so there is proof that we stopped. We don't erase that record.
How we use it
- To gather your records, fill in your SF-86 and show where each value came from.
- To estimate your readiness against the adjudicative guidelines and flag what an investigator is likely to ask about.
- To build the package you hand to an agency or employer, when you ask for it.
- To run the marketplace if you opt in: matching, anonymous profiles and introductions.
- To secure your account, prevent fraud and abuse, and keep an audit trail.
- To send you service email: sign-in alerts, credential changes and responses to your requests. We don't send marketing email without your permission.
- To keep the service working, using aggregate, non-identifying measurements.
- To meet legal obligations.
We do not sell personal information. We do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not use it to build profiles for anyone but you. There are no ads on Preclear.
Automated narration
Preclear may use a large language model to explain your results in plain language. The model only narrates. It doesn't decide anything. Readiness scores come from fixed rules you can inspect, so the same file always gets the same result. We send the model only what it needs to write the explanation.
Credit reports and records
When you authorize a credit pull, we get your consumer report on your written instructions, for your own use in preparing your application. We don't furnish your consumer report to employers or anyone else. Preclear's readiness estimate is a self-assessment tool. It is not a consumer report, and employers may not use it as a basis for employment decisions. See the Terms.
Records we request on your behalf as your representative are used only to prepare your file.
Email access
Connecting Gmail or Outlook is optional. If you connect one, Preclear gets read-only access and runs a fixed set of searches that help complete your form: travel itineraries and boarding passes, delivery confirmations that show past addresses, messages that show contact details and names you have used, and correspondents who may be foreign contacts. It also looks for letters from the agencies we asked for your records. We keep only what those searches find, sealed in your file, along with a log of every search, which you can see. Nothing else in your mailbox is copied.
We use what we find only to show it to you and to fill in your own form. We don't use it for advertising, we don't sell it, and we don't use it to decide credit, lending or employment. We don't transfer it to anyone except as you direct, as the law requires, or as part of a merger or acquisition after notice to you. No one at Signet reads your email. If you ask us for help with a specific message, we look at that message only.
You can disconnect at any time from the Connections page. Disconnecting revokes our access and stops all further searches, and you can also remove access from your Google or Microsoft account settings. Deleting your account deletes everything the searches found.
Preclear's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Identity verification
Before we pull any record keyed to your SSN, we confirm that you are the person whose SSN you entered. Most of the time this is a silent database check. If it can't confirm you, we ask for a photo of your government ID and a selfie, or a tap of a mobile driver's license. Our verification provider compares your face to the ID photo.
We ask for your written consent before this step. Face-comparison data is used only to verify your identity. It is never sold. It is deleted once verification is complete, and in any case within three years of your last interaction with Preclear. Signet does not keep face geometry. We keep only the result: verified or not, and how.
Security
Sensitive material is encrypted in transit and at rest. OAuth tokens and extracted personal information are sealed with per-file AES-256-GCM keys. Passwords are hashed with Argon2id. Sessions use HttpOnly cookies and are stored only as digests. Two-factor authentication is available. The full list of controls, and what is still on our roadmap, is on the Trust page.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information, we'll notify you and the authorities as the law requires, without undue delay.
Retention and deletion
- Your file stays while your account is open, so you can keep it current. A marketplace listing goes stale and is hidden when the data behind it gets old.
- Deleting your account is a hard delete. Your file, sessions, tokens, audit history and account are removed right away. We don't keep an archive.
- Database backups age out within 7 days. Operational logs and telemetry age out within 30 days. Telemetry keeps no identifiers once your account is gone.
- Consent and revocation records stay with your file while it exists, as proof of what you authorized.
- We keep information longer only if the law requires it, and we tell you when that happens.
Your rights
Most of these rights are built into the app, so you can use them without asking us:
- Access: see your full file, where each value came from, and every mailbox search we ran.
- Portability: download your file and handoff package.
- Correction: fix any value, or mark a record as “not me”.
- Deletion: delete your account and everything in it.
- Withdraw consent: revoke collection, disconnect a source, or pause or withdraw your listing.
- Limit use of sensitive information: we already use it only to provide the service you asked for.
Depending on where you live, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and other states with privacy laws, you may have these rights by law. For anything the app doesn't handle, email [email protected]. We'll verify your identity, answer within 45 days, and won't treat you differently for asking. You can use an authorized agent. If we deny a request, you can appeal by replying to our decision, and we'll respond within 60 days.
Cookies and telemetry
Preclear uses only the cookies it needs to work: a session cookie that keeps you signed in, and during our pre-launch period an access cookie. We don't use advertising cookies, tracking pixels or third-party analytics.
Our own first-party script records page views, errors and page-speed measurements. It sends no identifiers and no query strings, and the data never leaves our servers. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track, we record errors only.
Children
Preclear is for adults who are applying for positions that require a clearance. It isn't directed at anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect children's information. If you think we have, contact us and we'll delete it.
Where data lives
Preclear is hosted in the United States, on Amazon Web Services in the us-east-1 region. We don't transfer your file outside the United States. The service is intended for U.S. persons.
Changes
If we make a material change, we'll email you and show a notice in the app before it takes effect. If a change would widen how we use data we already hold, we'll ask for your consent first. The date at the top shows the latest revision.
Contact
For privacy questions and requests, email [email protected]. To report a security issue, see the Trust page.