Privacy Policy – USA Convo

Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect the personal information of our users. It applies to everyone who uses our services – including both learners (students) and tutors. We refer to all of these individuals as “users” throughout this policy. We want to be clear and transparent, so we’ve written this policy in simple terms that are easy to understand.

By using our platform, you agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the service. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us using the information at the end of this document.

Information We Collect

We collect different types of information from and about our users. In all cases, we only collect what we need to provide and improve our services. Here’s what we collect:

Information You Provide Directly: When you create an account or use our platform, you may give us personal information such as:
Basic Contact Details: Your name, email address, and account login credentials (like username and password). We need these to create your account and communicate with you.
Profile Information: Details you choose to add to your profile. For learners, this might include your age or grade level (especially if parental consent is required), and for tutors it can include qualifications, biography, subjects of expertise, a profile photo, and any credentials or certifications.
Payment Information: If our services involve payments (for example, if a learner pays for a tutoring session or a tutor receives payment), you may provide payment details. Important: We use secure third-party payment processors to handle financial information (such as credit card numbers or bank account details). We do not store full payment card information on our own servers.
Identification and Verification (Tutors): If you are a tutor, we might ask for additional information to verify your identity and credentials. This could include proof of identity, educational background, work experience, or certifications. In some cases, we may facilitate a background check through a trusted third-party service. If a background check is required, the third-party service will collect necessary information (such as your Social Security Number or other ID for background screening) directly. We receive only the results or a confirmation (for example, that you passed the background check) and do not store sensitive background check details on our platform.
Communications and Content: The content of any communications you send through the platform. This includes messages you send to other users (such as messages between a learner and a tutor), emails or feedback you send to us, and any other information you share on the platform (like postings, reviews, or forum entries if those exist on our service). It also includes content from tutoring sessions — for example, if there is a chat log, whiteboard, audio/video recordings or transcripts of a tutoring session, we may collect and store those to enable the session and for quality and safety purposes (we discuss more about this below).
Parent/Guardian Information: If a parent or guardian creates an account for a minor learner or consents for a child to use the service, we might collect the parent/guardian’s name, contact details, and any consent forms or confirmations needed. We use this information only to verify and record that consent and to communicate with the parent/guardian about the child’s account when necessary.
Information We Collect Automatically: Like many online services, our platform collects some information automatically when you use it:
Usage Data: We collect information about how you use our service. This includes the dates and times you log in, the features or pages you use, what tutoring sessions you schedule or attend, and other actions on the platform. For example, we might track that a learner attended a math tutoring session at a certain time, or that a tutor updated their profile.
Device and Technical Information: We receive data about the device and software you use to access our service. This may include your device type (e.g. laptop, tablet, phone), operating system, browser type, IP address, and device identifiers. We also collect information like your language preference and region (which can often be inferred from your IP address) to customize your experience (for instance, setting the correct language or time zone).
Cookies and Similar Technologies: We use cookies (small text files stored on your browser) and similar technologies (like web beacons or local storage) to improve your experience. For example, cookies help you stay logged in by remembering your session, and they help us understand how you navigate through our site. They also store your preferences (such as keeping track of your chosen settings). We do not use cookies for third-party advertising purposes. You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings. However, be aware that if you disable certain cookies, some features of our service might not work correctly (for example, you might have to log in every time or certain preferences might not be saved).
Analytics Information: We use third-party analytics tools (like Google Analytics or similar) that use cookies and other identifiers to help us analyze how users use the platform. These tools collect information such as what pages you visit, how long you stay, how you got to our site, and what you click on. This analytics data helps us understand user activity and improve our service. The information collected is generally aggregated and does not directly identify you. You can opt-out of some analytics services by using tools provided by those services or by adjusting your browser settings (for example, using a browser extension to block Google Analytics).
Information from Third Parties: Sometimes we receive information about you from other sources:
Third-Party Login Services: If you choose to sign up or log in through a third-party account (for example, using Google, Facebook, or a school login), we receive information from that account (such as your name and email address, as authorized by you through that login process). We only use this information to create your account and verify your identity. It also makes it easier for you so that you don’t have to remember a new password for our platform.
Schools or Organizations: If your use of our platform is provided through a school, educational institution, or another organization (for instance, a school district provides our tutoring service to students, or a tutoring company uses our platform to connect tutors and learners), that institution might give us information about you. For example, a school might provide a list of student names and emails to set up accounts, or an organization might share which tutors are certified for certain subjects. We only use this information for the purposes of providing our service to you and the institution. We handle this data with the same care as any other personal information, in line with this Privacy Policy.
Background Check Providers (Tutors): As mentioned above, if you are a tutor and a background check is part of the onboarding, we receive information from the company that runs the background check. Typically, this is just a confirmation of whether you meet our criteria (e.g., whether you have a clear record to work with students) rather than detailed sensitive data. The details of your background check report are usually not shared with us, but if any information is provided, we treat it as highly confidential.
Payment Processors: If transactions occur (like paying for sessions or paying out earnings to tutors), we may receive limited information from our payment processing partners. For example, we might receive a confirmation that a payment was completed, or a notice of a failed transaction. We might also receive updated information like a billing address or card expiration date from the payment processor, which we use strictly for billing-related purposes.
Other Users: Sometimes other users may provide information about you as well. For example, a tutor might provide feedback or notes about a learner’s session (which could be considered personal data about the learner), or a learner (or their parent) might provide information about a tutor (like a review or a report if something went wrong). We treat this information according to this Privacy Policy, and primarily use it to improve the service or address any issues (like resolving disputes or improving tutor quality).

Sensitive Information: We do not intentionally collect any highly sensitive personal information about our users unless it is absolutely necessary. This means we typically will not ask for things like your race or ethnicity, political opinions, religious beliefs, health information, or biometric data. We only focus on information relevant to education and running our tutoring platform. We also ask that you do not share such sensitive information on the platform yourself. If ever there is a need for something like that (for instance, if a learner has a specific accommodation or special need they choose to share so that a tutor can better assist them), we will treat it with utmost confidentiality and use it only for the intended support purpose.

How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information to operate, maintain, and improve our services, as well as to keep our users safe. Below are the main ways we use your information:

To Provide and Personalize the Service: We use your information to create and manage your account, and to allow you to use our platform features. For learners, this means helping you find suitable tutors, schedule sessions, and track your learning progress. For tutors, this means enabling you to create a profile, connect with learners, and provide tutoring sessions. We may use information like your subject preferences or past activities to suggest relevant content or matches (for example, suggesting tutors who teach a subject a learner is looking for).
To Facilitate Tutoring Sessions and Communication: We process data that is required for sessions, such as connecting learners with tutors at the scheduled time via our platform’s video/chat system. If we record tutoring sessions (audio, video, chat transcripts) for safety or quality, we use those recordings only for purposes like allowing the learner to review the session later, for tutor training, or to investigate any issues that are reported. We also use your information to enable messaging between learners and tutors or between users and our support team. For example, if a learner sends a message to a tutor about scheduling, our system uses the learner’s name and message content to deliver that to the tutor.
To Communicate with You: We use contact information (like your email address or phone number if provided) to send important updates and notifications. This includes confirmations of registration, reminders for upcoming sessions, receipts or invoices for payments, and announcements about new features or policy updates. We may also send newsletters or promotional materials, but only if you have opted in to receive them – and you can opt out at any time (see “Your Choices” below). We strive to keep communications relevant and not excessive.
To Process Payments: If you pay for services or if you’re a tutor who earns money through our platform, we use the necessary personal information to handle those transactions. For learners, this might involve using your provided payment method to charge for a tutoring session or subscription. For tutors, this means using your preferred payout details to send you earnings. All payment processing is done securely through our third-party payment partners, but we will use data like transaction amounts and timestamps to keep records and provide you with receipts or account statements.
To Ensure Safety and Trust: Maintaining a safe learning environment is a top priority. We may use personal information to monitor for and prevent fraudulent, inappropriate, or illegal activities on the platform. For example, we may review messages or session recordings if we receive a report of misconduct (like a tutor behaving inappropriately or a learner violating the community guidelines). We also use identity and background information (particularly for tutors) to ensure that tutors are qualified and do not pose a risk to learners. Any verification or background information is used strictly to vet users for safety.
To Improve and Develop Our Services: The information about how users interact with our platform (such as which features are used the most or where users have difficulties) helps us make the service better. We analyze this data to fix bugs, design a better user experience, and develop new features. For instance, if we notice many users are asking for a certain feature or getting stuck on a particular step, we use that information to improve the platform. We might also use feedback you provide (through surveys or support communications) to make enhancements.
To Enforce Our Terms and Policies: We use data to ensure users are following our Terms of Service, community guidelines, and this Privacy Policy. This can include using information to moderate content (making sure that communication between users stays respectful and on-topic) and to take action against accounts that violate our rules (for example, using logs to confirm a violation and then suspending an account if needed).
To Comply with Legal Requirements: Sometimes we need to use personal information to comply with laws or regulations. For example, if we suspect fraud or if we are required by law enforcement to provide information (under proper legal process), we will use and share only the data necessary to comply. Another example is complying with children’s privacy laws – using a child’s birthdate to verify age and require parental consent if under 13, or keeping records of parental consent as required by law.
With Your Consent: If we ever want to use your information for a purpose that isn’t covered by this Privacy Policy, we will ask for your consent first. You have the choice to agree or not. For instance, if we ever wanted to feature a success story of a learner or tutor on our blog and it involves personal information, we would only do so if you agree.
No Selling of Personal Data & No Third-Party Ads: We want to emphasize that we do NOT sell your personal information to anyone. We also do not share it with third-party advertisers or use it to target ads to you outside of our own service context. Our platform is focused on education, not advertising. You will not suddenly see third-party ads because of information you gave us, and we don’t rent or trade your information for marketing purposes. Any use of your data is solely to serve you in the context of our tutoring service and as described above.

How We Share Your Information

We understand that sharing of personal information is a sensitive matter. We only share your information in a few specific scenarios, and always with safeguards in place. Here’s how and when we might share data:

With Other Users (Learners and Tutors): Our service is designed to connect learners and tutors, so some information will be shared between users by necessity.
Learners and Tutors: When a learner signs up for a tutoring session or is matched with a tutor, the tutor will typically be able to see certain information about the learner. This generally includes the learner’s first name (to personalize interaction), possibly the learner’s age or grade level and what subject help they need (so the tutor can prepare appropriately), and any other details the learner or their parent chose to share that are relevant to learning (for example, “needs help with algebra homework on quadratic equations”). Similarly, a learner (and their parent/guardian, if applicable) will see information about the tutor. This includes the tutor’s name, profile photo (if provided), biography, subjects they teach, qualifications, and perhaps reviews or ratings from other learners. We do not disclose highly sensitive personal info like contact details (personal email, phone number, address) directly between a learner and tutor through the platform. Communication is intended to happen through our platform’s messaging and session tools to protect privacy. Only share personal contact information with others on the platform if it’s absolutely necessary and done in a safe, consented way (and be aware it may violate our terms if done without good reason, especially for minors).
Group Sessions or Public Profiles: If our platform offers group classes or public forums, other participants in the group will see your name and whatever profile information you have made available. For instance, if a tutor hosts a group study session, all learners in that session will see each other’s names in the session and any chat messages that are sent to the group. In any public areas of the service (such as a community Q&A board or a profile directory where tutors are listed), any information you choose to post or include in your public profile will be visible to others. We encourage you to be mindful of what you share in these public or group contexts.
With Service Providers (Trusted Third-Party Partners): We work with various third-party companies that help us run and improve our service. We only share the information necessary for them to perform their specific services, and they are contractually obligated to keep your information secure and use it only for the purposes we specify. For example:
Hosting and Infrastructure: We may use cloud storage or hosting services (such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, or others) to store data and host our application. These providers have access to the data we store on their servers, but they cannot use it except to maintain and secure our service.
Payment Processors: As mentioned, we rely on reputable payment companies to handle credit card transactions or bank transfers. These processors get the necessary billing information to process payments and refunds. They are responsible for safeguarding your financial data and complying with relevant security standards (like PCI-DSS for credit card security). We do not receive or store your full credit card numbers from these processors.
Communication Tools: We may use email services (for example, SendGrid, MailChimp, or similar) to send out notification emails or newsletters. Those services will have access to your email address and the content of the emails we send you, but only to execute the sending on our behalf. We may also use SMS services if we send text reminders, in which case your phone number would be shared with that provider solely to send you texts you opted to receive.
Analytics and Performance Tools: Third-party analytics services (like Google Analytics or others mentioned earlier) will receive certain usage and technical data as described in the “Information We Collect Automatically” section. This helps us understand site traffic and usage patterns.
Background Check Services: If you are a tutor undergoing a background check, we share the necessary personal information with the background check provider to complete this process (as described under Information You Provide). This might include identification details. The provider returns the results to us. These providers are required to handle your data securely and lawfully. We do not allow them to use your info for anything other than the background check.
Customer Support Tools: We may use third-party platforms to help with customer support or user communications (for example, a system that manages support tickets or in-app chat with our support team). If you contact us for help, your message and contact info might go through those systems in order for our support team to respond to you efficiently.

In all cases, our service providers are chosen carefully. We make sure they have privacy and security standards that meet our requirements. They are not allowed to use your data for their own marketing or purposes unrelated to providing services to us.

With Affiliates or Related Organizations: If our company has affiliates, subsidiaries, or is part of a larger family of companies, we may share your information with them, but only for purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy. For example, if we have a parent company or another product under the same umbrella, we might share data to streamline operations or support services. Any affiliated entity would also be required to protect your information to the same extent we do and use it only as allowed by this policy.
For Legal Reasons: We may need to disclose your information if required to do so by law or if such action is reasonably necessary to (a) comply with legal process (for example, a court order, subpoena, or other government demand), (b) enforce our Terms of Service or other agreements, (c) address claims that any content violates the rights of third parties, (d) detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues, or (e) protect the rights, property, or safety of our users, our employees, or the public. We will only provide the information that is necessary in such circumstances and will object to overly broad or unlawful requests for information about our users. If permitted, we may notify you if we are compelled to share your data with third parties as part of a legal process.
Business Transfers: If our company is involved in a merger, acquisition, investment, restructuring, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or some of our assets, your personal information may be transferred to the successor or affiliated company as part of that transaction. If this happens, we will ensure that your information remains protected by this Privacy Policy (unless, of course, you are notified of changes and given a chance to opt out of the new policy). Any new owner or combined entity will still have to honor the commitments we’ve made in this policy until it is updated and you are informed of changes.
With Your Consent: Aside from the cases above, if we ever need to share your personal information in a way that is not covered by this Privacy Policy, we will ask for your consent. You are in control – we will not share or disclose your information in new ways without letting you know and giving you a choice.
Aggregate or De-Identified Data: We may also share information that has been aggregated or anonymized, so it no longer identifies you personally. For instance, we might publish reports or statistics like “X number of learners used the platform this year” or “Average tutoring session length is 30 minutes”. Such information will not contain anything that could be linked back to you. We use this kind of data to understand trends, improve our service, or perhaps to share insights about educational outcomes. Sharing aggregated data is not considered sharing personal information because it cannot be traced to an individual.

Reminder: We do not sell personal information to third parties, and we do not share your information with advertisers for targeted advertising. Any sharing that happens is solely to run our tutoring service or as required by law, as outlined above.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

As noted earlier, we use cookies and similar tracking technologies to provide and enhance our services. Here’s a bit more detail on how that works and your choices:

What Cookies Are: Cookies are small text files placed on your device (computer, tablet, or phone) when you visit a website. They allow the website to remember your actions or preferences over time. Other related technologies include web beacons (tiny graphic images that track your viewing), pixels, and local storage. For simplicity, we’ll refer to all of these as “cookies.”
How We Use Cookies: We use cookies for several important functions:
Authentication: To keep you logged in as you navigate our site. Without cookies, you would have to log in again every time you load a new page.
Preferences: To remember settings and preferences, such as your preferred language, so you don’t have to set them each time.
Analytics: To understand how users arrive at and use our site. This helps us find out which pages are popular, what times of day have heavy usage, and whether users encounter errors on certain pages. Analytics cookies help us make decisions about improving content and navigation.
Performance and Functionality: Some cookies help with the display of content or speed up how our site functions on your device. For example, we might cache (store) certain parts of the site on your browser to load pages faster.
Safety and Security: We might use cookies to help detect suspicious activity or abuse of our platform. For instance, cookies can help us prevent someone from quickly trying to log into your account guessing passwords repeatedly, by identifying and slowing down such patterns.
No Third-Party Advertising Cookies: We do not allow third-party advertising networks to set cookies on our site to track you for advertising purposes. You won’t have marketing companies tracking you on our platform to show you ads elsewhere. Our cookies are primarily first-party (set by our site) and only used for our own service’s functioning and analytics.
Your Choices Regarding Cookies: You have the right to control cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies or alert you when a cookie is being placed on your device. Please be aware that if you disable or reject cookies from our site, some features and services may not work properly. For example, disabling authentication cookies means you might not be able to log in or stay logged in.
Many browsers offer a “Do Not Track” setting or similar settings. At this time, our site does not respond to “Do Not Track” signals in any special way (because there is not a common standard yet for what websites should do when they receive such signals). However, remember that we already limit our tracking to just what’s needed for service functionality and analytics, as described.
If we ever include additional tracking (for example, to integrate a new service), we will update this Privacy Policy and give you any necessary options to opt in or out.
Third-Party Links: Our platform may occasionally include links to external websites or services (for example, a link to a resource a tutor shares, or a link to our page on a social media site). If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed away from our platform and to that third party’s site or service. We do not control third-party sites, and they may use their own cookies or tracking technologies. This Privacy Policy does not apply to those external sites. We recommend you read the privacy policies of any website or service you visit outside of ours.

In summary, cookies help us give you a smoother experience. We respect your choices around cookies and do not use them for any sneaky advertising purposes.

Data Security

We take the security of your personal information very seriously. We implement a variety of technical and organizational measures to protect your data from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction. Here are key points about our security practices:

Encryption: We use encryption to protect data. For instance, our website is served over HTTPS, which means that information transmitted between your device and our servers is encrypted in transit (so others can’t eavesdrop on it). For particularly sensitive data (like passwords and any sensitive personal details), we also encrypt that data at rest in our databases. Passwords are typically stored in a hashed form (which is a one-way encryption), meaning even our team cannot read your actual password.
Access Controls: We limit access to personal information strictly to those employees, contractors, and service providers who need it to perform their work. For example, a customer support agent who is helping you with an issue may have access to your account information, but a developer working on improving the code wouldn’t necessarily need to see user personal data. All personnel with access to personal data are bound by confidentiality obligations and trained on privacy and security best practices.
Monitoring and Testing: We maintain safeguards to regularly monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks. We use up-to-date security tools and practices, and we periodically test our infrastructure (sometimes via third-party security audits or penetration testing) to identify and fix weaknesses.
Secure Hosting: We use reputable data centers/cloud providers that have strong physical security and cybersecurity measures. They often have certifications (like ISO 27001 or SOC 2) indicating they follow high standards for security.
Backup and Recovery: We routinely back up data to prevent loss. These backups are securely stored. If something unexpected happens (like a hardware failure or other issue), we have processes in place to recover data and resume operations, minimizing disruption.
User Responsibilities: While we work hard to protect your information, no system can be guaranteed 100% secure. Users also play an important role in keeping data safe. We urge you to keep your account credentials confidential and use a strong, unique password. Do not share your password with others. If you think anyone has obtained your password or accessed your account, please change your password immediately and contact us. Also be cautious of phishing attempts – we will never ask you for your password via email, and you should only enter your login information on our official app or website.
Payment Information Security: As noted, financial information like credit card numbers are handled by third-party processors, which are required to maintain high security standards. We do not store these details ourselves, so even in the unlikely event our database is compromised, your sensitive financial info should not be present there.
Incident Response: In the event of a data breach or security incident that affects your personal information, we will act promptly to contain and investigate it. We will notify affected users and relevant authorities as required by law, and we will take steps to prevent future incidents.

In short, we use industry-standard practices to protect your data. However, it’s important to remember that no online platform can be 100% secure. By using our service, you understand and accept the inherent risks, but know that we are doing our best to minimize them.

Data Retention

We will retain your personal information for as long as it is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, as described in this Privacy Policy. In practice, this means:

Active Accounts: If you have an active account with us, we retain the information associated with your account for the duration of your use of the service. This allows us to provide the service to you – for example, keeping your profile information so tutors and learners can connect, maintaining your lesson history, etc.
Inactive Accounts: If you stop using your account or if it remains inactive for a long period, we may contact you to ask if you want to keep it. If not, we might deactivate or delete the account. We’ll give notice via the email on file before deleting an inactive account so you have a chance to log back in or save any information you need.
Account Deletion: If you choose to delete your account (or request that we delete it), we will remove or anonymize your personal information within a reasonable period of time. This generally means that your data will be deleted from our active systems. However, please note:
We might retain some information for a bit longer in backups or archives, but we have processes to eventually delete or overwrite such backups as well. Backup retention times can vary, but we ensure that your data isn’t kept indefinitely in backups. During the period it remains in backup form, your data is still protected and not used for any active purpose.
In certain cases, we may need to keep specific information to comply with legal obligations. For example, we might retain payment transaction records for accounting/tax purposes, or information about consents and agreements for legal record-keeping. If a user was banned for misconduct, we might keep a record of that to prevent them from re-registering and to protect others.
Any content you posted publicly (if such features exist, like forum posts or reviews) might remain visible to others even after your account is deleted, unless you remove it before deleting your account or contact us to remove it. We can anonymize it (for example, posts could be displayed without your name) upon request.
Children’s Data: If we receive a deletion request from a parent/guardian for a child’s account (or if a child’s account is terminated due to inactivity or other reasons), we will promptly delete the personal information in line with applicable laws like COPPA. We do not keep children’s personal data longer than necessary for the purpose it was collected.
Aggregate Data: We may retain non-personal information that has been aggregated or de-identified indefinitely for analysis, research, and improvement purposes. For example, even after you delete your account, we might still keep statistics that X number of users were from a certain region or average session lengths, but not tied to your name or identity.

In summary, we try not to keep personal data longer than needed. When personal information is no longer necessary, we ensure it is securely deleted or anonymized.

Your Rights and Choices

We believe you should have control over your personal information. Depending on who you are and where you live, you may have certain rights regarding your data. We strive to honor these rights for all users, even if local laws do not require it, because we think it’s the right thing to do. Here are the choices and rights you have:

Access and Update Your Information: You can access and update much of your basic account information directly by logging into your account and going to your profile or account settings. For example, you can edit your name, contact info, password, and other preferences. It’s important that the personal information we have is accurate and up-to-date, so please update your details if they change.
Account Deletion: If you wish to close your account and have your personal information deleted, you can do so by [providing instructions on how, e.g., “going to the account settings and choosing ‘Delete Account'” or contacting support]. We may ask for confirmation that you are the account owner (for security) before deleting. Once deleted, your account will no longer be accessible. As noted in the Data Retention section, we will remove your personal data, except for any information we are required to keep for legal reasons. If you simply stop using our service, your data will remain until you proactively delete or until we decide to remove inactive accounts (with notice to you).
Download/Access Your Data: You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. In many regions, this is known as a Data Subject Access Request. We can provide you with a summary of the information (like profile data, session history, etc.) that we have associated with your account. To make such a request, contact us at the email provided in the Contact section. We will verify your identity before releasing data to you, to protect privacy.
Correction: If you find that any of the information we have is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to correct it. Many corrections you can do yourself by editing your profile, but if you need assistance (for example, if a certain field is not editable by you or if there’s information you think we have that you can’t see), reach out to us and we’ll correct it if possible.
Opt-Out of Marketing Communications: If you have subscribed to any optional communications (like newsletters or promotional updates), you can always opt out. There will typically be an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of such emails. You can also manage your email preferences in your account settings if we provide that option. Note that even if you opt out of marketing messages, we will still send you essential service communications (like session reminders, password reset emails, or important notices about your account or policy updates).
Opt-Out of Analytics Tracking: While we don’t facilitate direct user-level opt-out for our first-party analytics that help us run the service, you can use browser-based tools to limit tracking (like browser add-ons to block Google Analytics, or setting your browser to reject cookies, as discussed in the Cookies section). Keep in mind, blocking some tracking might interfere with certain features (like we described with cookies).
Do Not Sell (California and similar laws): Some privacy laws (like the California Consumer Privacy Act – CCPA) give users the right to opt-out of the “sale” of their personal information. We do not sell personal information in the traditional sense (no exchanging of data for money or sharing with third-party advertisers). Because we don’t do this, there is no separate “Do Not Sell” mechanism needed on our site. If that ever changes, we will update this policy and provide a way for you to opt-out. We also treat any sharing for targeted advertising as a “sale” under some laws – but as stated, we do not engage in targeted third-party advertising using your data.
Additional Rights for Certain Regions: Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have additional rights:
European Union / UK (GDPR): If you are in the EU, UK, or a similar jurisdiction, you have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation and related laws. These include the right to object to or restrict certain processing of your data (for example, you can ask us not to use your data for profiling or marketing), the right to data portability (to receive your data in a common format to transfer to another service), and the right not to be subject to purely automated decisions that have significant effects on you. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe we have violated your privacy rights.
California (CPRA/CCPA): California residents have rights to know what categories of personal information we collect, for what purposes, and with whom we share it (all of which is explained in this policy). They can also request the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about them, request deletion of their data, and are protected against discrimination for exercising these rights. We have aimed to cover these points in our policy. If you’re a California resident and have a specific request, you can contact us and we will handle it according to the law.
Other Regions: Likewise, if you are in a place like Canada, Australia, or elsewhere with privacy laws, we will honor the rights afforded to you by those laws (for example, Canada’s PIPEDA gives you rights to access and correction; Australia’s Privacy Act has similar principles, etc.).
Parental Rights (for Children’s Data): If you are a parent or guardian who has given consent for your child to use our platform, you have the right to review the personal information we have collected from your child, have that information deleted, and refuse to allow further collection or use of the child’s information. We allow parents to exercise these rights by contacting us (see Contact Us section). We may need to verify your identity and relationship to the child for safety. Note that if you ask us to delete your child’s information, it may result in terminating the child’s account (since we need certain data to provide the service). That is perfectly fine – your child’s privacy and your rights come first.

We will do our best to fulfill any rights requests in a reasonable timeframe (typically within 30 days, though it could take a bit longer if the request is complex – we will inform you if we need more time). Some requests (like deletion or objection requests) can be subject to certain limitations – for instance, we might not delete data that we are required to keep by law, or we might decline a request if we cannot verify the requester’s identity. But our goal is to be as accommodating as possible and to ensure you feel in control of your information.

Children’s Privacy

Protecting children’s privacy is especially important to us. Our platform may be used by learners who are children, and we take special care in those cases:

Age Restrictions: Our services are not intended for children under the age of 13 to use without parental consent. If you are under 13 years old, you are not allowed to create an account on your own. A parent or legal guardian must create the account for you or give verifiable consent for you to use it. In some regions, the age limit may be higher (for example, under 16 in certain European countries) – we follow the relevant laws of those regions regarding minor consent.
Parental Consent: When we know a user is under 13 (or the applicable age in your region), we will require parental or guardian consent before collecting personal information from that child. This might involve the parent creating the account on behalf of the child or providing consent through a consent form or verification email. We make efforts to verify that the person providing consent is actually the parent or guardian.
What Information We Collect from Children: For children who use our service with permission, we try to collect the minimal information necessary. Usually, this is just what’s needed for the educational context: things like the child’s name (or maybe just first name and last initial), birthdate (to confirm age or assign them to the right group), and any information related to their learning (like what subjects they need help with, or their progress in tutoring sessions). We do not ask children to provide more personal info than is needed. Specifically, we do not require children to disclose things like phone numbers, physical addresses, or other contact info publicly. If a child is participating in an online session, their video/audio may be collected as part of the session, but this is used strictly for the session and related safety/quality purposes as described.
How We Use and Share Children’s Info: We use children’s information only to provide the tutoring service, ensure a safe environment, and as required for internal operations (like improving the service). We do not use children’s data for marketing or advertising. We do not sell children’s personal information or share it with third parties for purposes unrelated to the educational service. A child’s info might be shared with their tutor (as described in the “How We Share” section) and with service providers supporting the platform (like our database host or video streaming service), but always under strict confidentiality and security requirements.
Parental Access and Control: If you are a parent/guardian who has enabled your child to use our platform, you have the right to access your child’s personal information that we have. You can request that we update it or delete it at any time. For example, if you want to review what information is in your child’s profile or see their tutoring history, you can contact us and we will provide it (after verifying your identity). If you want us to delete your child’s account and data, we will do so (except for any data we must keep for legal reasons, as noted before). Keep in mind that deleting data may mean your child can no longer use the service.
Teachers and School Use: If a school or teacher is using our platform in the classroom and creating accounts for students, we treat that the same as parent-consented use. The school or teacher must ensure they have the authority (for example, under laws like COPPA or FERPA in the U.S.) to consent on behalf of parents, or the school must obtain parent permission. We aim to have agreements in place with schools to ensure all student data is handled lawfully and solely for educational purposes. If you’re a parent and your child is using our service through their school, you can still contact us to access or delete their data; however, we may need to coordinate with the school (since the school might be the one that initially provided the data).
No Child-Profiling or Targeted Ads: We do not profile children users for advertising or marketing. We don’t display third-party ads to children using our service. Any tracking we do (like usage data) is purely to improve the educational service, not to build marketing profiles.
If We Learn of No Consent: If we discover that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 13 (or applicable age) without consent from a parent or guardian, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. For example, if a 12-year-old signs up pretending to be older, and we later find out the truth, we will close that account and remove their data (and invite the parent/guardian to create a new account properly if they want to).
Teenagers: If you are between 13 and 18 (a minor but above the COPPA age), you should still have permission from a parent or guardian to use this platform, especially if you are purchasing services. We encourage families to be involved. That said, privacy rights for teens can vary. We generally extend similar privacy protections to teens – we don’t sell their data or show targeted ads – and we allow parents of teens to exercise rights over the account if the teen is under 18 and the parent is the account holder or payer. If you’re a teen reading this, know that we respect your privacy too; we won’t share your personal info except as needed for the service. But we also want you to be safe online, so we might inform your parent/guardian if there’s a serious issue concerning your use of the platform (for example, a safety concern).

Our commitment is to follow all applicable child privacy laws (like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act in the U.S., and similar laws elsewhere) and to do the right thing when it comes to young users’ data. If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s data on our platform, please contact us – we’re here to help.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update or change this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or for other reasons. When we make changes, we will do our best to let you know:

Notification of Changes: If changes are significant, we will provide a prominent notice. For example, we might display a notice on our website or app, or send an email to the address associated with your account, informing you of the update. Minor changes (such as clarifications or typographical corrections) may be simply posted with an updated effective date.
Effective Date: At the top of this Privacy Policy (or here in this section), we will note the “Last Updated” date. This date helps you know if the policy has changed since the last time you read it. All changes are effective once posted, unless otherwise stated.
Reviewing Updates: We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. If you continue to use our services after a Privacy Policy update, it generally means you accept the updated terms. However, if any change requires separate consent by law, we will make sure to obtain that from you.
Previous Versions: For transparency, we may keep prior versions of this Privacy Policy archived. If you ever want to see how our policy has evolved, you can contact us for a copy of earlier versions.
If You Disagree with Changes: If you do not agree with any changes to this Privacy Policy, you should stop using our services and you can request that your data be deleted (as described in the “Your Rights and Choices” section). We hope that won’t be the case, and we aim to make changes that benefit and protect our users.

Contact Us

Your privacy is important to us. If you have any questions, concerns, or requests related to this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please reach out to us. We are here to help and address any issues you might have.

How to Contact Us:

– Mail: If you prefer to send mail, our mailing address is:

Privacy Officer (or Customer Support)

Big Toga IT Solutions dba USA Convo
Attn: Customer Support
1309 Coffeen Avenue STE 15122
Sheridan, Wyoming 82801
USA

We will respond to your inquiries as soon as possible, typically within a few business days. If you’re contacting us to exercise a specific privacy right, please provide enough detail for us to process your request (for example, the email associated with your account and what action you want us to take). We may need to verify your identity for security purposes before fulfilling certain requests.

Thank you for reading our Privacy Policy. We hope this has helped clarify how your personal information is handled when you use our tutoring platform. We value your trust, and we are committed to protecting your privacy while providing you with a great learning experience.