Who Are Tutor Quest?

Tutor Quest operates web and mobile platforms designed to connect tutors and tutees effectively. We take privacy seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information. Below, we outline the types of information we collect, how we use it, and the options available to you for accessing, updating, or deleting your data.

Types of Information

“Personal Information” refers to data that identifies an individual. This includes details such as your name, phone number, or address. It does not include anonymized or publicly available information that has not been combined with private data.

Personal Information We Collect Through Our Services

Registration Information

When you register with Tutor Quest, your email address and username are stored in our database. Additional mandatory data required for registration includes:

• Your full name and title
• Your phone number
• Your physical address, including postcode and town of residence
• Your date of birth

Optional Information for Tutees:

• Subjects and levels you wish to be taught
• General details about your academic needs
• Your availability
• Current school, including exam board and predicted/target grades
• Payment details

Additional Information for Tutors:

• Subjects you teach, including your hourly rates
• Personal details such as gender, a personal statement, availability, qualifications, and experience
• Photo identification (passport or driver’s license)
• Proof of address
• A valid DBS document
• Contact details of at least two references and their responses to our questionnaire
• Profile photos
• Native spoken language
• Bank details

For Tutors in the School Tutors Programme:
We may collect the following additional details:

• A digital recording of your interview
• Your CV and employment status
• Your QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) number
• Records relating to teaching preferences and experience
• Details of your DBS document
• Notes on your training progress

Member Activities

While using the Tutor Quest platform, we may collect additional information based on your activities, such as:

• Feedback received from students
• All correspondence between tutors and students conducted through our internal messaging system
• Search history within the platform
• Recordings (audio and video) of online whiteboard lessons for safeguarding purposes, viewable by the tutee and Tutor Quest. These are stored securely with a third-party service provider (see “How Your Data Is Shared” for details).

Payment Data

For online tuition services conducted through our whiteboard, tutors are required to store payment details with us to receive earnings. Similarly, payment information is stored for tutors utilizing our premium services.

Our Purpose for Collecting and Processing Personal Data

At Tutor Quest, we collect and process the personal information described above to provide our services, fulfil our legitimate interests, and meet our legal obligations. Consent is obtained during the sign-up process. The reasons we collect, and process personal data include:

• Performing fraud prevention checks
• Ensuring network security
• Delivering administrative and IT services
• Forming and maintaining a contract with you
• Ensuring child protection

Additionally, we carry out identity verification to comply with legal requirements. If you have any concerns about our data practices, you have the right to file a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at any time.

Profiles

• Tutee Profiles: By default, tutee profiles display only the first name. Surnames, phone numbers, and email addresses are not visible. Profile visibility settings can be customized in the “Your Privacy” section.
• Tutor Profiles: Tutor profiles may include personal information such as a profile photo, a personal statement, and feedback from students.
• Search Engine Visibility: All user profiles may appear in external search engine results, such as Google.

Use of Cookies

Tutor Quest uses cookies to enhance the user experience, store session data, and track site activity. Key points about our cookie usage include:

• Functionality: Cookies track user movement, save preferences, and help us deliver a seamless experience (e.g., remembering passwords for quick login).
• No Personal Information Stored: Cookies do not store personal information but track general usage trends. Logged data includes:
  • IP addresses
  • Browser type
  • Internet Service Provider (ISP)
  • Referring/exit pages
  • Files viewed (e.g., HTML pages, graphics)
  • Operating system
  • Date/time stamps
  • Clickstream data

Users can disable cookies in their browsers, though this may limit the platform’s functionality. Currently, Tutor Quest does not respond to “do not track” browser requests as industry standards for such requests are still evolving.

Server Log Data

Tutor Quest maintains standard server log files to analyse user behaviour and site performance. Data logged includes:

• IP addresses and associated ISPs
• Date and time of page views
• User agents, showing browser and operating system details

Log data helps us understand site usage patterns but does not directly identify individuals. If a user registers for our services, we may associate their IP address with their account for tracking purposes. Log data may be shared with legal authorities or third parties in cases of abuse.

Your General Rights as a Data Subject

Under GDPR, you have several rights to protect your personal data. These rights can be exercised by contacting us through our contact form. A summary of these rights is as follows:

1. Right of Access: You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. Contact us to learn more.
2. Right of Rectification: You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
3. Right to Be Forgotten: You can request the erasure of your personal data when there is no legitimate reason for us to retain it.
4. Right to Restrict Processing: Under certain conditions, you can limit how your data is processed.
5. Right to Object: You can object to specific types of processing, such as direct marketing.
6. Right of Portability: You can request the transfer of your data to another organization.

We may retain data required for business purposes, legal obligations, or to fulfil a contract. For all other cases, personal data will be deleted or de-identified within 30 days of consent withdrawal.

External Sites

Some pages on Tutor Quest may contain links to external websites (third-party sites) that are not part of Tutor Quest. While we carefully choose the sites we link to, Tutor Quest is not responsible for the content or policies of these external websites. They may contain unsuitable material or have privacy policies that differ from ours. If you have concerns, we encourage you to review their policies directly.

Pages on Tutor Quest are easily identifiable by our familiar logo and menu system. If the page you’re viewing does not contain this layout, you have likely navigated to an external website.

How Your Data is Shared

• Tutors’ Data Sharing: If you are a tutor, your contact information (full name, address, phone number, and email address) will only be shared with a student if you have given consent or scheduled a booking with them. You can withdraw this consent by closing an enquiry with the student at any time.
• Minimal Use of Third Parties: Tutor Quest prioritizes keeping as much functionality as possible in-house to better protect customer data. However, we do collaborate with a select few third-party companies after thorough due diligence to support essential business operations.

Currently, we work with the following trusted companies:

• PayPal / PayPal Holdings Inc (USA): Online payment processing
• Stripe / Stripe Payments Europe: Online payment processing
• Zendesk / Zendesk Inc (USA): Infrastructure for customer service queries
• Google / Google LLC (USA): Website traffic analytics
• Zoom: Services to support our online whiteboard

Your data may be shared with these companies only as required to develop and maintain our services.

Stripe

Tutor Quest uses Stripe (https://stripe.com/gb) as a third-party payment processor for some transactions. By creating an account with Tutor Quest, you acknowledge and consent to us sharing your personal information with Stripe for payment and administrative purposes.

For tutors, a “Connected Account” is created with Stripe. This account requires personal information, including your name, date of birth, address, photo ID, proof of address, and other relevant data. Please review Stripe’s policies:

• Stripe Connect Account Agreement
• Stripe Privacy Policy

Email Addresses

At Tutor Quest, we take the privacy of your email address seriously. Email addresses provided during registration or through our contact forms are never sold to third parties for marketing purposes. This also applies to any personal information provided in email correspondence.

Payment Processors

We use third-party payment providers, such as PayPal, to process payments for our services. By default, we do not store users’ financial information unless explicitly opted-in for secure retention to facilitate future purchases. PayPal’s use of personal information is governed by their Privacy Policy.

Contacting Tutor Quest

If you have any concerns, questions, or comments regarding our privacy policy, please contact us, and we will be happy to assist you. Any updates to our privacy policy will be reflected on this page.

You also have the right to file a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at any time.

Our Postal Address

Tutor Quest

71-75 Shelton Street

Covent Garden,

London

WC2H 9JQ