Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Welcome to StepWise Tutoring ("we," "our," or "us"). We are committed to protecting the privacy of our users, including parents, guardians, tutors, and students. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and manage your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

2. Information We Collect

We collect personal information necessary to provide and improve our tutoring services. The types of information we collect include:

From Parents and Guardians: Names, email addresses, and phone numbers required to create and manage accounts for your children.
From Tutors: Names, email addresses, and phone numbers required for profile creation and communication.
Children's Information: We do not explicitly require or record direct contact details or accounts for minors. However, we acknowledge that personal information regarding children may be incidentally shared within text chats or communications during tutoring sessions.
Session Recordings: With your explicit prior consent, we may record video and audio of individual tutoring sessions. These are used for the purposes of training and improving the service.
Financial Information: We do not collect or store credit card or bank details. All transactions are securely processed by our third-party payment processor.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information for the following purposes:

Service Delivery: To facilitate tutoring sessions and connect students with appropriate tutors.
Transactions: To process payments and issue refunds through our payment processor.
Communication: To send administrative notices, service updates, and marketing communications (you may opt out of marketing emails at any time).
Quality Assurance: To monitor the safety, quality, and effectiveness of the tutoring provided on our platform.
Service Improvement: To train our staff and improve our service algorithms (utilizing session recordings only when explicit consent has been granted).

4. How We Share Your Information

We respect your privacy and do not sell your personal data. We only share personal information in the following circumstances:

Payment Processors: We share necessary transaction details with our third-party payment provider, [Insert Payment Processor Name, e.g., Stripe], strictly for the purpose of securely processing payments.
Legal Obligations: We may disclose personal information if required by law, court order, or to cooperate with Australian law enforcement agencies.

5. Children's Privacy

Our platform facilitates tutoring for K-12 students, but we require all accounts to be created and managed by an adult (parent or legal guardian). We rely on parents and guardians to monitor their child's use of the platform. If you believe we have inadvertently collected unauthorized personal information about a minor outside of standard session facilitation, please contact us immediately.

6. Data Security and Storage

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorized access, modification, or disclosure. Data is stored securely, and access is restricted to authorised personnel.

7. Accessing and Correcting Your Information

Under the Privacy Act, you have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you and to ask for corrections if you believe the information is inaccurate, out of date, or incomplete. To make a request, please contact us using the details below.