Privacy Policy

1Who we are

TeachME (“TeachME”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is a tutoring marketplace application operated by Amit Gilbert, an individual trading as a sole trader under ABN 74 521 348 276.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use and disclose it, how we keep it secure, and how you can access, correct or complain about our handling of it.

2Scope

This Policy applies to the TeachME mobile and web application and related services (the “Platform”), used by Parents, Students (children) and Tutors.

Where a Parent provides information about their child, or a child uses a linked Student Account, this Policy applies to that information, which the Parent provides and controls on the child's behalf.

3What personal information we collect

Depending on how you use the Platform, we may collect:

All users

• Name and email address.
• Account and login details (via Firebase Authentication, and if you choose, Google or Apple sign-in).
• Device information used to deliver push notifications (a messaging token).
• Messages, uploads and other content you send through the Platform.
• Records of your activity on the Platform (bookings, confirmations, reports, support requests).

Parents

• Your account details, and details of the Child Profiles you create.
• Payment information you enter to pay for lessons (processed and stored by Stripe — see section 10; we store limited transaction records such as amounts, dates and references).
• The child's home address, where you provide it for a home lesson.

Children (Students)

• First name and, where relevant, last name; year level; and (if the Parent links a Student Account) limited profile details.
• Homework, materials and messages associated with their tutoring.
• We deliberately limit the information collected about children to what is needed to provide tutoring.

Tutors

• Contact and profile details, subjects, availability, teaching locations, and a bio and profile picture.
• Qualification and screening information, including your Working With Children Check (WWCC) details/documents and your resume.
• Your Australian Business Number (ABN), which we verify against the Australian Business Register.
• Your bank/payout details, which are collected and held by Stripe for payments to you (we do not store your bank account number).

Sensitive information. A WWCC is sensitive, child-safety information and involves a government-related identifier. We collect it only to verify a Tutor's eligibility to work with children, with the Tutor's consent, and handle it accordingly. We do not use government-related identifiers (such as ABN or WWCC) as our own identifier of you.

4How we collect personal information

• Directly from you, when you create an account, complete a profile or application, make a booking, make a payment, upload content, or contact us.
• From a Parent, in the case of information about a child.
• Automatically, such as a push-notification token and activity records generated as you use the Platform.
• From third parties, such as Google or Apple (if you use their sign-in) and the Australian Business Register (to verify a Tutor's ABN).

5Why we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

We use personal information to:

• create and manage accounts and Child Profiles;
• match Parents/Students with Tutors and enable bookings, scheduling and messaging;
• process payments, hold funds in escrow, pay Tutors, and manage credits, refunds and disputes;
• verify Tutors (including ABN and WWCC checks) and administer approvals;
• moderate content and protect the safety of users, particularly children (including automated screening of profile images and review of reported messages);
• send you service notifications (such as booking, payment and confirmation notices);
• respond to your enquiries, reports and support requests;
• meet our legal and tax obligations (including contractor-payment reporting to the ATO); and
• maintain, secure and improve the Platform.

We only use personal information for the purposes for which it was collected, for a directly related purpose you would reasonably expect, or as otherwise permitted or required by law.

6Children's information

The Platform is designed so that a Parent creates and controls a child's participation. A child does not create their own account; a Student Account is set up and controlled by the Parent, who decides what the child can access (such as messaging and materials).

We collect the minimum information reasonably necessary to provide tutoring to a child, and a Parent may access, correct or request deletion of their child's information as described in section 13.

7Notifications and marketing

We send service and transactional notifications (for example, booking confirmations, payment and lesson-confirmation notices, and dispute updates) as part of providing the Platform. You can control push notifications through your device settings.

We do not currently send promotional marketing. If this changes, any marketing will comply with the Privacy Act and the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), and you will be able to opt out.

8Disclosure of personal information

We disclose personal information only as needed to operate the Platform, including to:

• Other users of a booking — a Parent/Student and their Tutor see the information reasonably necessary for the tutoring relationship (such as names, subjects, schedule, messages, and — for a home lesson — the address).
• Stripe (our payment provider) — to process payments, hold and release funds, and pay Tutors. Stripe collects and stores payment and (for Tutors) payout information under its own terms and privacy policy.
• Google (Firebase and Google Cloud) — our hosting, authentication, database, file storage, push-notification and content-moderation infrastructure (including Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Firebase Storage, Firebase Cloud Messaging, and Google Cloud Vision for automated image screening).
• Google (Gemini AI) — where AI-generated worksheets are requested, the relevant prompt information is processed by Google's generative-AI service.
• The Australian Business Register (ABR) — to verify a Tutor's ABN.
• Authorities and advisers — law-enforcement, regulators, child-safety authorities, or our professional advisers, where reasonably necessary to protect a person's safety, to comply with law, or to establish or defend legal claims.

We do not sell your personal information.

9Cross-border disclosure

Some of our service providers (including Google/Firebase and Stripe) store and process information on servers that may be located outside Australia, including in the United States and other countries. By using the Platform you acknowledge that your information may be handled overseas. We take reasonable steps to ensure our providers protect personal information consistently with the APPs.

10Payment information

Payment card details are collected and stored by Stripe, not by us. We do not store full card numbers. We store limited payment records (such as transaction amounts, dates, and references) to manage bookings, credits, refunds, disputes and our tax obligations. For Tutors, payout/bank details are held by Stripe.

11Data security

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure — including access controls, authentication, and use of reputable infrastructure providers (Google/Firebase and Stripe). No system is completely secure; we cannot guarantee absolute security, and you are responsible for keeping your login credentials safe.

If a data breach likely to cause serious harm occurs, we will respond in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act.

12How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as needed for the purposes described in this Policy, or as required by law. In particular:

• We retain transaction and contractor-payment records for as long as required for tax and legal purposes (generally at least 5–7 years).
• When you request deletion of your account, we delete or de-identify your personal information that we are not required to retain; certain records (such as transaction records kept for tax purposes, or information needed to address a safety or legal matter) may be retained.

13Accessing and correcting your information

You may access and correct much of your information directly in the Platform (for example, your profile and Child Profiles).

You may also ask us to give you access to, or correct, personal information we hold about you (or, as a Parent, about your child) by emailing teachmeappadmin@gmail.com. We will respond within a reasonable time. We may need to verify your identity, and in limited circumstances permitted by law we may decline a request (and will explain why).

There is normally no charge for making a request; we may charge a reasonable cost for giving access in some cases.

14Cookies and analytics

The Platform is primarily a mobile and web application and does not currently use advertising or third-party analytics tracking. Our infrastructure providers (such as Firebase) may process limited technical data to deliver core functionality (for example, authentication and push notifications).

15Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first at teachmeappadmin@gmail.com so we can try to resolve it. We will acknowledge and respond within a reasonable time.

16Changes to this Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version will be available in the Platform, and we will take reasonable steps to notify you of material changes. Changes apply from the date the updated Policy takes effect.

17Contact us