Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

StudyGuru ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

We take special care with data belonging to users under 18 and implement appropriate safeguards to protect young users on our platform.

2. What Data We Collect

For Students (via Parent account):

• Name and date of birth
• Academic level and subjects of interest
• Learning needs and preferences
• Session history and progress
• Chat messages and whiteboard content from lessons

For Parents:

• Name, email address, and phone number
• Location (for tutor matching purposes)
• Payment information (processed securely via Stripe - we do not store full card numbers)
• Booking history and communications

For Tutors:

• Name, email address, phone number, and date of birth
• Profile information (bio, photo, subjects, qualifications, experience)
• Identity documents (passport)
• Enhanced DBS certificate number and copy
• Bank account details for payouts (processed via Stripe)
• Session history and lesson reports

Automatically Collected:

• IP address and device information
• Browser type and operating system
• Pages visited and time spent on our platform
• Session attendance and participation data

3. How We Use Your Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

4. Session Recording and Monitoring

For safeguarding purposes and quality assurance, we record and store:

• Audio and video recordings: Full recordings of all tutoring sessions
• Whiteboard content: Drawings, notes, and uploaded materials
• Chat messages: Text communications during lessons
• Session metadata: Start/end times, attendance records

Access to Session Data:

• Session notes: Written by the Tutor after each lesson - accessible to Parents and Students
• Audio/video recordings: Not accessible to Parents or Tutors. May only be reviewed by StudyGuru staff if there is a complaint or safeguarding concern
• Whiteboard and chat: Archived for internal reference only

Retention:

Session recordings are retained securely for a limited period to support safeguarding investigations and quality assurance, after which they are automatically deleted.

5. Who We Share Your Data With

Between Users:

When a booking is made, basic information is shared between Tutors and Parents/Students:

• First name and last initial
• Profile information (for Tutors: bio, subjects, qualifications)
• Session history and lesson reports

Service Providers (Data Processors):

We work with trusted third-party service providers to operate our platform:

• Payment processors: For secure payment processing, tutor payouts, and identity verification
• Cloud infrastructure: For data storage, authentication, and platform hosting (UK/EU servers)
• Video conferencing: For online tutoring sessions
• AI services (OpenAI): For generating session summaries (if enabled in your account settings)

All service providers are bound by data processing agreements and are only permitted to process your data for the specific purposes we instruct.

AI Service Data Sharing:

Legal and Safety Disclosures:

We may share personal data when required by law, to respond to legal process, or to protect the safety of our users. This includes reporting safeguarding concerns to appropriate authorities.

6. International Data Transfers

Your data is primarily stored on servers in the UK/EU. Some processing may occur outside the UK when using certain service providers.

Where data is transferred outside the UK, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place:

• Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the ICO
• Adequacy decisions where applicable
• Binding corporate rules of our service providers

7. Data Retention

We retain personal data only as long as necessary for the purposes described. Our retention periods are:

After these periods, data is securely deleted or anonymised.

8. Children's Privacy

We implement the following protections for users under 18:

• Data minimisation - we only collect what's necessary for tutoring
• High privacy settings by default
• No profiling for marketing purposes
• No targeted advertising
• Parental access to their child's data and account
• All student accounts must be linked to a verified parent account
• Parents can opt out of AI-generated session summaries at any time

Parents can exercise data rights on behalf of their children at any time by contacting us at privacy@studyguru.co.uk.

9. Your Rights (UK GDPR)

Under UK data protection law, you have the following rights:

To exercise these rights, contact us at privacy@studyguru.co.uk. We will respond within one month. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

Note: Some data cannot be deleted where we have a legal obligation to retain it (e.g., financial records) or where it's necessary for safeguarding purposes.

10. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including:

• Encryption of data in transit (HTTPS/TLS)
• Secure data storage with access controls
• Password hashing and secure authentication
• Regular security reviews and updates
• Staff training on data protection
• Incident response procedures

While we take security seriously, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. Please keep your account credentials safe and contact us immediately if you suspect unauthorised access.

11. Cookies and Analytics

We use cookies and similar technologies to improve your experience on our Platform.

Essential Cookies (Always Active)

These cookies are strictly necessary for the Platform to function. They keep you logged in, remember your preferences (such as theme settings), and enable core functionality. These do not require your consent.

Analytics Cookies (Optional)

With your consent, we use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to understand how visitors use our Platform. This helps us improve our services and user experience. GA4 collects:

• Pages visited and time spent on each page
• How you arrived at our site (e.g., search engine, direct link)
• General location (country/region level, not precise location)
• Device type, browser, and operating system

What We Don't Do

• We do not use advertising or marketing cookies
• We do not track you across other websites
• We do not sell or share analytics data with advertisers
• We do not use cookies to profile children for any purpose

Managing Your Preferences

You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clearing your browser's local storage and refreshing the page - the cookie banner will appear again. You can also disable cookies entirely in your browser settings, though this may affect Platform functionality.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Significant changes will be communicated via email or a notice on our platform. The "last updated" date at the top will reflect when changes were made.

We encourage you to review this policy periodically.