1. Scope and responsibility
This policy explains how the OpenTutor operating team (“we”) handles personal information for tutor listings, accounts, messaging, bookings, credential review and support. It applies to students, parents, tutors and visitors.
To contact the person responsible for privacy, request operator information or exercise your privacy rights, email opentutor.ca@gmail.com or use Help / Contact admin on the website and identify your message as a privacy request. Our operating team receives, verifies and handles these requests.
2. Information we handle
Account information includes your email address (verified with a four-digit code at sign-up), the username of older accounts, account role and a salted password hash. Student details are the name tutors should use, required before booking, and an optional grade and gender. The name is shown to tutors you contact; grade and gender are visible only to tutors of your paid lessons and to administrators. You can add a second notification email, confirmed with a code, and notices will go there too; with two addresses you can turn notices off for one. We keep login sessions and necessary security records, not readable passwords. For Google sign-in, we verify an identity token and use its stable account identifier to find or create a link. Matching Google-verified Gmail or hosted-domain addresses are linked automatically. For other addresses, sign in with your original method first, then link Google from your account menu. Accounts are never merged by name.
Tutor information includes name, age, school, program, region, subjects, teaching languages and format, price, biography, photo, timezone, availability and optional credential documents. Booking and communication data includes the booking contact’s name, contact details supplied, subject, time, notes, status, messages, support tickets and handling records. Do not submit unnecessary identity-document numbers, full payment-card details or sensitive information about others.
Technical information may include IP addresses, browser and device information, request times, errors and security logs processed by the website and hosting providers. We also use hashed identifiers for rate limiting and abuse prevention. We count visits ourselves (which kinds of pages and which tutor pages are opened, and how often the payment page is reached) and keep only daily totals, without cookies, IP addresses or accounts; your browser only remembers locally whether it has already visited today. When a page fails, the browser sends us the error message and the page address so we can fix it, without your account or anything you typed. When payments are enabled, necessary records may include transaction IDs, amounts, currencies, payment and refund status, and settlement records.
3. Why we use information
We use information to create and protect accounts, display and filter tutors, review submitted credentials, arrange lessons, deliver messages, handle support, and process settlements, refunds and disputes when payments are available. We also use it to fix problems, prevent fraud and abuse, enforce platform rules and meet applicable legal obligations.
We handle information needed for reasonable and identified purposes. Optional information is your choice; withholding necessary information may prevent the related feature from working. This policy is not consent to every future use. We explain material new purposes or sharing arrangements and obtain consent where required by law.
4. Public and restricted information
Published tutor profiles show the display name, school and program, region, subjects, languages and teaching format, price, biography, photo and availability. Public content may be indexed or copied by search engines, visitors or external services. Do not put information you want to keep private in those fields.
Tutor age and credential documents are not public profile fields. Current credential files are accessible only to their uploader and authorized administrators. Access to messages and bookings is assigned by participation and responsibility; administrators may access them as needed for support, review, safety or disputes. Contact details are provided for agreed purposes to parties who need them, not displayed as a public directory.
5. Service providers and sharing
We run the website on Cloudflare Workers in our own Cloudflare account. We store website data in Cloudflare D1 and uploaded files in Cloudflare R2. We use Resend to send website notification emails, which requires sharing the recipient address and email content with it. Online lessons take place in Google Meet rooms created by the platform’s own Google account. The name you enter when joining and the audio and video of the lesson are handled by Google under its privacy policy. The platform can read when participants joined and left a room, to confirm lessons and handle disputes; lessons are not recorded. If you choose Google sign-in, Google handles its sign-in process under its privacy policy. We do not request your Google password or use sign-in to request access to Gmail or Google Drive.
When a tutor saves a public profile, our server sends the biography and program text once to Cloudflare Workers AI (our hosting provider) for translation and stores the result. Visitors' browsers never send profiles to a translation service. This feature does not send private credential files, the separate age field or messages. Original text remains available and translations may be inaccurate. Do not include sensitive information in public text intended for translation.
When Stripe payments are enabled, Stripe collects and handles payment methods, payout verification, bank-account information and fraud-prevention data through its own flows. OpenTutor receives records or status needed for transactions, reconciliation, support and disputes. We do not ask for full card numbers or bank-login passwords in messages. Stripe may also process information independently for its compliance obligations.
We do not sell personal information. Where necessary, we share limited information with service providers under appropriate obligations, transaction participants you direct, or professional advisers. Necessary disclosures may also be made for legal requirements, lawful investigations, safety incidents or protection of legal rights. A business transfer must include appropriate confidentiality and privacy safeguards and any legally required notice.
6. Storage location and cross-border processing
Providers may process or store information outside Canada, where it may be subject to local law and lawful access requests. We do not promise that all data stays in Canada. You may ask about providers and cross-border processing through Help.
Profile activity and lesson ratings
When a tutor profile is opened, we record its ID, the visit time and the signed-in account for usage insights, security and support. Guest visits are not linked to registered accounts. This feature does not store raw IP addresses or device fingerprints. Visit records are retained for up to 180 days; public pages show aggregate counts only.
After a paid scheduled lesson ends, the student must submit a rating from 0 to 5 to continue in the site interface. Written feedback is optional and visible only to the relevant tutor and administrators. Public pages show aggregate ratings and counts. Administrators can exclude inappropriate ratings from the public average while preserving the original record. A scheduled end time alone does not prove attendance; contact support for an undelivered or disputed lesson.
Google sign-in uses the verified account identifier, name and verified email to create or find your account. We do not receive Google passwords. Contact our official email to request access to or correction of your account and activity records.
8. Children and young people
Users below the age of majority where they live should have a parent or guardian involved in accounts, payments and lesson arrangements. Children under 13 should not register independently; a parent or guardian should contact and use the service on their behalf and provide consent required by law. A statement in these terms alone is not treated as verified parental consent.
Do not upload unnecessary information about other children or third parties. If you believe children’s information was collected without appropriate consent, contact an administrator. We will investigate and take appropriate steps to restrict, delete or obtain the required consent.
9. Security and retention
We use reasonable safeguards such as password hashing, access restrictions and secure sessions, but no internet service can promise absolute security. Protect your account, do not share login credentials and report suspected compromise. We handle and notify reportable security incidents as required by applicable law.
Information is retained for the period needed to provide services, meet legal obligations or reasonably handle security, disputes and financial records. Deactivating an account may not immediately erase every record. Records that must be retained are restricted in use and access. Deletion requests require verification; backups and provider copies may clear through their normal replacement cycles. We explain how verification, legal retention and backup cycles affect deletion.
10. Your choices and privacy requests
You can update editable profile information and choose password or Google sign-in. When signed in, choose Download my data in the account menu at any time to export your account details, bookings, payments, messages and other records (a JSON file); payment receipts are under Payments & credit in your account. When you have no unfinished lessons, refunds or credit, you can delete your account yourself with Delete account in the account menu. It takes effect at once and cannot be undone: sign-in details, student details, saved tutors and a tutor’s public profile, photos and credential files are deleted; bookings, payments, refunds and credit records (needed for accounting), and messages and lesson reviews are kept under “deleted user”, still visible to the other person and administrators. Any site credit must first be refunded to the original payment method. You can also request access or correction, or withdraw consent where available, through Help. We may require proportionate identity verification and respond within applicable legal time limits. If law prevents full access or deletion, we explain the reason and available complaint options.
Withdrawing consent may prevent features that depend on the information from continuing; it does not automatically invalidate earlier lawful processing. You can manage OpenTutor’s authorization in your Google account. Revoking Google authorization and deleting an OpenTutor account are different actions.
11. Updates and contact
This page shows its latest update date. We give appropriate notice of material changes and seek new consent where required. You may raise questions or complaints with the OpenTutor operating team or the privacy regulator with jurisdiction over the matter.