PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated: 2025

Introduction

Welcome to Educare Tutors. Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard the personal information you provide to us via our website and related services. By using our services, you agree to the terms of this policy.

Who We Are

Educare Tutors is an online tutoring service based in Cape Town, South Africa. We match learners with tutors for school, university, corporate, and language learning in curricula including CAPS, IEB, Cambridge, and others. Our contact email is info@educaretutors.co.za.

What Personal Information We Collect

We may collect, store, and use the following types of personal information:

Identity information, such as name, date of birth, gender.
Contact information, such as email address, phone number, postal address.
Educational information, such as school/university, subjects, curriculum (CAPS, IEB, Cambridge, etc.), academic level.
Tutor‐related information, such as qualifications, experience, background references, skills.
Payment information, when applicable (for example, if you pay for lessons) — this may include billing address, payment method, transaction history.
Usage and technical data, including your IP address, browser type, operating system, pages you visit, time spent on pages, and other similar technical or usage data.
Communications data, including emails, messages, or queries you send to us, and our responses.

How We Use Your Personal Information

Educare Tutors uses the information we collect in the following ways:

To provide our tutoring matching service — connecting students (learners) with tutors.
To process applications to become a tutor or to enrol as a learner.
To schedule, coordinate, and deliver tutoring sessions.
To manage payments, refunds, and billing.
To communicate with you: respond to your enquiries or requests; send you updates, reminders, notices about your account and services.
To improve our services, website, and user experience.
To maintain security, detect fraud or misuse, perform internal audits, and comply with legal obligations.
For marketing purposes (if you consent), such as sending newsletters or promotional offers.

Legal Basis for Processing (if applicable)

Where required (for example under POPIA or GDPR‐like obligations), we rely on one or more of the following legal bases to process your personal data:

To fulfill a contract with you (e.g. delivering tutoring you requested).
With your consent (e.g. to send marketing communications).
Because we have a legitimate interest (e.g. improving our service, preventing fraud), provided this does not override your fundamental rights and freedoms.
To comply with legal obligations.

Disclosure of Your Information

We may share your personal information with third parties under certain circumstances:

Tutors — information necessary to match you with a suitably qualified tutor.
Service providers / contractors who assist us in operating our platform (e.g. payment processors, hosting, scheduling tools).
Legal or regulatory authorities, to the extent required by law (such as to comply with search warrants, subpoenas, or other legal processes).
For protection of our rights, property, or safety, or that of our users (e.g. in case of suspected fraud or illegal activity).
With your consent, or as otherwise disclosed to you at the time of collection (for example, if we share with marketing partners).

Data Retention

We will retain your personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes set out in this policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. When your data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymize it.

Security

We are committed to ensuring the security of your personal information. We use technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction of your personal data. While we strive to protect your information, no transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your Rights

Depending on applicable laws (such as POPIA in South Africa), you may have the following rights:

To access your personal data and obtain a copy.
To correct or update your data if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
To request deletion of your data, subject to legal or contract obligations.
To object to or restrict certain processing activities (e.g. direct marketing).
To withdraw consent, where we rely on consent as the basis for processing.
To lodge a complaint with a relevant supervisory authority if you believe your rights have been violated.

Cookies and Tracking

Our website may use cookies or similar technologies (e.g. web beacons, pixels) to:

Remember your preferences.
Provide features, improve performance, and analyse usage.
Serve relevant advertisements or marketing content (if applicable).

You may configure your browser settings to block or alert you about cookies, but this may affect how the site functions.

Third-Party Links / External Services

Our site may contain links to external websites or services operated by others. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of such third parties. We encourage you to read their privacy policies before providing personal information on their sites.

International Transfers

If we transfer your personal information outside of South Africa (for example to service providers in other countries), we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data, consistent with applicable laws.

Children’s Data

Our services are not intended for children under the age of [insert appropriate age, e.g. 13 or 18 depending on legal requirement]. We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors without parental or guardian consent. If we become aware that we have collected such information without authorization, we will promptly delete it.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date and, where appropriate, notify you of significant changes (e.g. via email or a notice on the website).

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, or wish to exercise any of your rights, you can contact us:

Educare Tutors

Email: info@educaretutors.co.za
Location: Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa