Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible for your information

TutorOnn is operated by Faraz Hassan, a sole proprietor based in Karachi, Pakistan. We decide what information is collected and why, which makes us the controller of it.

You can reach us at support@tutoronn.com.

2. What this policy covers

This policy covers the TutorOnn website and everything you do on it. It does not cover what happens after a student and a tutor leave the platform. Once contact details are exchanged, whatever each of you does with them is between you, and we cannot see it or control it.

3. What we collect

This is the complete list, grouped by kind. Nothing is collected that is not here.

3.1 When you create an account

• Your name, email address and telephone number, and a WhatsApp number if you add one.
• The country you select, and a time zone derived from it.
• Whether you are registering as a student or as a tutor.

3.2 If you are a student or parent

• Your account type, which includes a "parent or guardian" option.
• A short biography, if you write one.
• Your location: city, area, province and postcode, and the geographic coordinates of the place you select.
• The subjects you are interested in, and any tutors you save.
• The text of any request you publish, including the description and any additional requirements.

3.3 If you are a tutor

• Your headline, biography, gender, date of birth, education history, years of experience, teaching modes, rates and availability.
• Your location, as above, including coordinates.
• A profile photograph, if you upload one.
• An identity document, if you choose to upload one. This is optional.
• The text of every application you send.
• The gender on your profile at the moment you apply, recorded on each application (Terms 8.4).
• Your response rate and how quickly you usually reply, worked out from your activity on TutorOnn: when students contact you, and when you message them or accept or decline (Terms 8.3).

3.4 Everything you write

Messages, application cover notes, request descriptions, profile text, reviews and replies to reviews are stored as you wrote them. We do not filter what you write in a message. See 6.2.

3.5 Money

• Your credit balance, and every transaction that changed it.
• Each payment you submit, including the transfer reference you give us. We never see or hold card or bank account details.
• A record of which tutor each student has obtained contact details for.

3.6 Technical records

Sign-in attempts. Every attempt to sign in is recorded: the email address typed, whether it succeeded, the IP address, and the browser details. This happens even when the email address does not belong to any account, because it is how we stop repeated guessing at one address.

Sessions. Our authentication provider records an IP address and browser details against every signed-in session.

Requests to the website. Every request to the website, whether or not you are signed in, carries your IP address, the page you ask for and your browser's details. Our hosting provider keeps logs of these requests, and of what our code records while answering them, for up to 30 days (5.2).

Administrative actions. When we approve a tutor, approve a payment or change a setting, we record who did it and what changed.

3.7 What we do not collect

We say this plainly because it is unusual, and because it is true today:

• No analytics. No product analytics, no web analytics, no session recording.
• No advertising or tracking pixels of any kind.
• No error-tracking or crash-reporting service.
• No behavioural profiling or prediction. The one score we work out is a tutor's response rate (3.3), from activity on TutorOnn.
• No location tracking. The only location we hold is the one you typed and selected yourself.
• We do not derive your location from your IP address.
• We do not ask students for a date of birth. We ask every account holder only to confirm that they are 18 or over. See section 9.

3.8 Checks against fraud

We check details against a list of details linked to fraud or scams. That list includes details published by another tutoring platform about people it found to have scammed its users, and the details of accounts we have closed for fraud or a scam. The check runs:

• when an account is created, and when it is confirmed (the email address always; the name and telephone number again if they were corrected on the confirmation page);
• when a telephone number, WhatsApp number, name or email address is added or changed;
• on existing accounts, when one of our administrators runs the check, and automatically when we close an account for fraud, against the details of the account we closed.

What a match does. At signup, confirmation or a change, a match on an email address, or on a telephone number (including a WhatsApp number) whose country code the list states, stops the account from being created or the change from being saved. On an existing account, the same kind of match suspends the account while a person reviews it; an administrator's account, or one that is already suspended, is not suspended by the check, and the match is flagged for review instead.

A match on a name alone, or on a telephone number whose country code we had to work out, is reviewed by a person and never decides anything by itself, because many people share a name and a number without its country code is not exact. From an account we closed for fraud, only the email address it had confirmed and the telephone number it had verified can lead to the suspension of an existing account; a match on its other details flags that account for review instead. At signup, confirmation or a change, the closed account's details count like any other entry on the list.

When a person reviews a match and finds that the account is not the person on the list, we record that clearance, and the check does not raise that match against that account again.

What we keep. A record of each refusal (when it happened, at which step, which kinds of detail matched and which list entries, and the IP address the attempt came from), each match flagged for review and how it was settled, and each clearance. How long each is kept is in 8.2.

The list is stored in a form that can only be used to make this check. It cannot be read back as names, numbers or addresses.

4. Why we use it, and on what basis

Each thing we do with your information is listed separately below, because the reason differs and so does the legal ground.

What these mean. Contract means we need the information to provide what you asked for, and without it we cannot. Legal obligation means the law requires us to keep it. Legitimate interests means we use it for a reason that matters to running TutorOnn safely, and only where that reason is not outweighed by your rights; you can object, and we will stop unless we have a compelling reason to continue. Consent means you chose to give it and can withdraw it at any time; for an identity document, you do that by removing it.

Accepting our Terms when you register is agreeing to a contract. It is not consent to this policy, and we do not rely on it as consent for anything.

5. Who else sees your information

We do not sell your information, and we do not share it for anyone else's marketing. It reaches the following, and no one else.

5.1 Other users of TutorOnn

When a student obtains a tutor's contact details, both sides receive the other's. The student receives the tutor's telephone number, WhatsApp number and email address, as far as the tutor has provided them. At the same moment, and at no cost to the tutor, the tutor receives the student's name and country, and whichever of the student's telephone number, WhatsApp number and email address the student chose to share, at least one. The student makes that choice, and sees exactly what will be shared, before confirming.

A tutor who has your contact details is responsible for them. Our Terms require them to use those details only to discuss the tuition in question, never for marketing, resale or passing to anyone else. We enforce that by suspending accounts. We cannot delete information a tutor has already copied elsewhere, and you should know that.

If the other person takes a break from TutorOnn, the details already exchanged stay available to both of you. If either of you deletes your account, the deleted person's contact details are erased from TutorOnn and are no longer shown. If we close an account for fraud or a scam, its contact details are no longer shown to anyone.

A tutor browsing requests sees the request itself (its subject, level, city and country) but not the student's name or any contact detail. A tutor who applies to a request opens a message thread with the student, and sees the student's name there.

What other users can see on a public profile. A tutor's profile, biography, subjects, rates, gender, city and area are public, and so is the tutor's response rate and how quickly they usually reply, once 3 students have contacted them in 90 days. A tutor's date of birth and identity document are never shown to anyone but us.

Reviews. A review of a tutor is public on the tutor's profile. It shows the reviewer's first name and the initial of their last name (for example "Sara M."), whether they are a student or a parent, their country, the date, the subject where there is one, the star rating, the text and the amount paid, and the tutor's reply. If the reviewer has deleted their account, the review shows "Former member" and no country.

A tutor's private review of a student is not public. Only the student, the tutor who wrote it, tutors who are connected with that student, and our administrators can see it.

5.2 The services that run TutorOnn

If you click a tutor's WhatsApp link, you leave TutorOnn and WhatsApp's own terms apply.

5.3 Anyone else

• A regulator, a court, or a law-enforcement authority, where we are required to disclose or where it is necessary to protect someone.
• A buyer of the business, if TutorOnn is ever sold, under the same protections as this policy.

6. Messages, and what we can see

6.1 We can read messages

Our administrators can read messages and conversations on the platform. We do so where it is necessary to investigate a complaint, a dispute, a suspected breach of our Terms, or a safety concern, and where the law requires it. Messages are private between users. They are not private from us, and we would rather say so here than imply otherwise.

6.2 We do not filter messages

We do not scan or block the content of messages or applications. Sharing contact details inside a message is permitted, because connecting is what the platform is for. Public text (profiles, biographies, published requests) is checked when saved and may have contact details hidden when displayed. Reviews, replies to reviews and private reviews are checked when written, and one containing contact details, such as a telephone number, an email address or a link, is refused.

7. International transfers

Our database is hosted in London, in the United Kingdom. We ourselves are established in Pakistan.

Tutors on TutorOnn are all over the world, and most are outside the United Kingdom. That is the point of the platform. So when a student in the UK publishes a request, or obtains a tutor's contact details, their information may reach a tutor in Pakistan, India or anywhere else a tutor happens to be.

8. How long we keep it

We would rather be accurate here than reassuring, so this section states what happens today and what we are changing.

8.1 What is kept for as long as your account exists

• Your profile, your account details and your location.
• Your messages, applications and published requests.
• Your credit balance and every transaction in your ledger.
• Payments you have submitted, including their references.
• Reviews you have written or received, replies, and the gender recorded on your applications.

8.2 What is currently kept indefinitely

Two things are deleted on a schedule. An account that is not confirmed within 24 hours of being created is removed, with what was entered into it. Records of fraud-check refusals and of matches flagged for review (3.8) are deleted 12 months after they were made; a match still waiting for a person's review is kept until it is settled.

Kept without a time limit today. Sign-in records, a record of each email we send you (your address, the kind of email and your first name, but not the content of the email, which we do not store) and identity documents are kept until you remove them or delete your account (8.4). Administrative records are kept without a time limit, including after an account is deleted. Notifications stop being shown after ninety days but are not deleted.

The fraud-check list and clearances. The list in 3.8 is kept for as long as it is needed to prevent fraud, and reviewed at least once a year. A clearance (3.8) is kept for as long as the account it is about exists, and is deleted when that account is deleted or closed for fraud. We keep it because without it the same person, already found not to be the person on the list, would be suspended again at the next check.

8.3 What you can remove yourself

• Your profile photograph, at any time.
• Your identity document, at any time, from account settings.
• Your whole account. See 10.3.

8.4 After you delete your account

We keep a limited record where the law requires it, or where it is needed for security, fraud prevention, accounting, or an unresolved dispute. Everything else is removed.

Deleting your account anonymises it. What remains is an internal identifier with no name, contact details, location, photograph, biography or other content attached, and it can never be signed into again. Your photograph and identity document are deleted, the text of your messages and applications is erased, the gender recorded on your applications is removed, reviews tutors wrote about you privately are deleted, and your sign-in records and any emails waiting to be sent to you are removed.

What we keep, and why:

• The record of credits bought and spent, with amounts and dates but without your bank reference, for accounting.
• Conversations you had with other people, for their sake. They keep their own messages; yours are replaced with a note that they were removed.
• Reviews you wrote about other people, shown as written by a former member (a former tutor, for a tutor's private review of a student), so that someone else's rating is not changed.
• If an administrator changed your recorded gender, the record of that change (the old and new value and the administrator's note), as part of our administrative records.
• Our administrative records.

Our authentication provider keeps its own log of sign-in events, which includes the email address used. We do not control that log.

9. Children

TutorOnn is used to arrange tuition for children, but children do not use it themselves.

• Only adults may hold an account. Tuition for anyone under 18 is arranged by a parent or legal guardian through their own account (Terms 3.2). Tutors must also be 18 or over.
• When an account is created, we ask the account holder to confirm that they are 18 or over. We keep the outcome and the date, not any document.
• We do not ask for a child's surname, full name, date of birth, telephone number, WhatsApp number or email address, and none of these reaches a tutor from us. A tutor receives only the account holder's details, and only when the account holder chooses to contact that tutor.
• A request describes the tuition needed, such as the subject and level. Please do not include your child's full name or contact details in it.
• We do not use information about children for advertising or profiling.
• If we learn that an account is held by someone under 18, we close it and delete what they provided.

10. Your rights

If the law of your country gives you rights over your information, you have them. In the United Kingdom and the European Union those include the right to know what we hold, to get a copy, to correct it, to have it deleted, to object to what we do with it, and to complain.

10.1 Seeing and correcting

Most of what we hold is on your own screens: your profile, your messages, your wallet and your payment history. You can change your profile, your location and your notification settings yourself at any time.

10.2 Getting a copy

Ask us at support@tutoronn.com and we will send you a copy of what we hold about you. There is no button for this yet; we do it by hand.

10.3 Deleting

You can delete your account from account settings, confirming with your current password and by typing the word DELETE. Deleting is permanent, and our Terms explain what goes with it, including your reviews and any credits in your account.

If you only want to stop for a while, you can deactivate instead. Your profile comes off the platform and nothing is lost.

10.4 Complaining

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us. Email support@tutoronn.com with “Data protection complaint” in the subject line. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it without undue delay, keep you informed while we do, and tell you the outcome.

If you are in the United Kingdom, you can also complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commission, which continues to be known as the ICO, at ico.org.uk. If you live elsewhere, you can complain to the data protection authority where you live.

11. Cookies and similar storage

We set five cookies. None of them is for advertising, and none tracks you across other websites.

Your browser also stores your choice of light or dark theme, and a flag recording that you have seen a one-time message.

The anti-bot check is loaded from Cloudflare on the signup, sign-in and password-reset pages. Whether it sets anything inside its own frame is decided by Cloudflare, not by us.

12. Keeping it safe

• Passwords are never stored by us. Our authentication provider stores them hashed with bcrypt, and we never see them.
• Every table in our database has row-level security, so a request can only reach the rows it is entitled to.
• Telephone numbers, WhatsApp numbers and email addresses are withheld at the database level and released only through a controlled path, never by a general query.
• Identity documents are in private storage that only administrators can open, through a link that expires.
• Signing in is protected by an anti-bot check and by a lock that pauses an address after repeated failures.
• Connections to the site are encrypted.

No system is perfect, and we do not claim otherwise. If information is lost or exposed in a way that puts you at risk, we will tell you and the relevant authority as the law requires.

13. Changes to this policy

We will change this policy as the platform changes. Where a change matters to you we will give notice before it takes effect, and we will date the version at the top.

14. Contact

Any question about this policy, or any request about your information, goes to support@tutoronn.com. We will give a postal address on request, and to any authority entitled to it.