Privacy policy

1Who we are

PrepBanz is provided by Softbanz Technology Solutions LLC, a company registered in the United States ("PrepBanz", "we", "us"). This policy explains how we handle personal information when you use our website at prepbanz.com and the PrepBanz app, on the web or on a phone. If you have a question about it, write to hello@prepbanz.com.

2Who this policy covers

PrepBanz has three kinds of account. Tutors run their own courses and teach their own students. Students join their tutor's classes with a class code. Parents follow their own children with a login linked to their child's account. This policy covers all three, and anyone who visits our website, books a demo or writes to us.

3Who is responsible for your information

PrepBanz is responsible for the personal information handled on the platform. Tutors see information about the students in their own courses so they can teach them, and they must use it only for their teaching.

4What we collect

Tutors.

Your name, email address, phone number, the name of your tutoring business and your password. The courses, lessons, questions and materials you add, and your messages. If you withdraw earnings, our payment provider collects your payout details and checks your identity.

Students.

Your name, email address and password, your date of birth where you give it, and the class codes you use to join classes. A parent's or guardian's email address or phone number, if you add one. Your work, answers and results, your attendance at live classes, and your messages, photos and files in class chat.

Parents.

Your name, your email address or phone number, the child or children linked to you, your messages with tutors and the choices you make in your privacy settings.

Recordings and exam monitoring.

Lecture recordings, and the information collected during monitored exams, as section 8 explains.

Payments.

What was paid, when and for which course, and an invoice for each payment. Card details are typed into our payment provider's own payment fields (section 11).

Signing in with Google.

If you choose to sign in with Google, Google shares your name and email address with us.

Using the app.

What the app needs to keep you signed in and working properly, and, if you allow notifications on your phone, a notification token for your device. Our Cookie policy explains this.

Our website.

If you use our contact form or book a demo, the details you give us, and, if you accept analytics cookies, how you use the website (section 21).

5How we use it

We use personal information to:

1. create your account and sign you in, including sending one-time codes;
2. run courses, live classes, lecture recordings, work, marking and results;
3. show parents their child's attendance and released results, and keep families and tutors in touch;
4. take payments, send invoices and pay tutors their earnings;
5. send the service messages described in section 12;
6. provide the AI features described in section 9;
7. answer your messages and requests, and understand how our website is used if you accept analytics cookies;
8. keep PrepBanz secure, prevent misuse and fix problems;
9. meet our legal duties, such as keeping payment records.

6Children

Many PrepBanz students are children, so we take extra care with their information.

Students can create their own account. To finish signing up, a student joins their first class with a class code from their tutor, and they can join more classes with a class code later. Adding a parent's or guardian's email address or phone number is optional. If one is added, the parent can follow their child's attendance and released results with a login of their own.

Where the law requires a parent's or guardian's consent before we collect or use a child's information, we ask for it before the child uses PrepBanz.

A child's information is seen only by the child, their tutor, their linked parent, and PrepBanz staff who need it to run the service or keep PrepBanz safe, as section 7 explains.

If you're a parent and think your child has given us information without the consent the law requires, write to hello@prepbanz.com and we'll look into it.

7Who can see your information

• Students see their own courses, work and the results their tutor has released.
• Parents see their own linked children: attendance, released results and their private conversations with the tutor. Parents can't read class chat.
• Tutors see what's relevant to their own courses: the students in them, their work, results and exam monitoring information, and the parents linked to those students.
• Class chat is seen by the class and its tutor.
• Other students' individual marks stay private.
• PrepBanz staff see personal information only when they need to run the service, answer a request or keep PrepBanz safe.
• Service providers handle it on our behalf (section 10).
• Authorities receive it only when the law requires us to share it, or when it's needed to protect someone from serious harm.

8Lecture recordings and exam monitoring

Before either begins.

Students are told before a recording or a monitored exam begins, and their device asks for permission before the camera, microphone or screen is used. Where the law requires a parent's consent for a child, we ask for it first.

How long we keep them.

Lecture recordings and exam monitoring records are kept for up to 12 months and then deleted. During that time, older recordings may be moved to lower-cost archive storage.

9AI features

Some PrepBanz features use AI:

• helping tutors draft questions;
• helping check answers and suggest marks and feedback;
• giving students hints and learning help while they practise.

To do this, the content a feature needs, such as a question or a student's answer, is sent to an AI service provider to be processed. AI can make mistakes. Tutors review marks and feedback, and decide when results are released to students and parents. Hints are suggestions to help a student think a problem through. They can reach the student without the tutor checking them first, and they are never a mark.

10Service providers

We use other companies to run parts of PrepBanz. They handle personal information only to provide their service to us, under our instructions. They provide:

• cloud hosting and storage;
• payment processing and tutor payouts;
• live video classes;
• AI processing for the features in section 9;
• sign-in and authentication, including signing in with Google;
• email, text messages and other messaging;
• notifications on your phone;
• our website's contact form and demo booking, and website analytics if you accept analytics cookies.

Some providers, such as payment providers, also use information under their own privacy policies, for example to prevent fraud or to meet their own legal duties. If you'd like to know which company provides a particular service, write to hello@prepbanz.com.

11Payments

Card payments on PrepBanz are handled by our payment provider. When you pay, you type your card details into the provider's own payment fields, and the provider processes the payment. We receive what we need to run your account, such as what was paid, when, for which course, and whether the payment went through.

When tutors set up withdrawals, the payment provider collects their payout details and checks their identity, as the law requires for payment services. The payment provider also uses this information under its own privacy policy.

12How we contact you

We send messages that are part of running PrepBanz:

• one-time codes and account verification;
• notices about classes, assignments and deadlines;
• released results and important account updates;
• payment confirmations and invoices;
• essential safety and privacy notices, including safety-related updates to parents by email.

We send these in the app, by email or by text message, depending on the message.

We don't send marketing emails. If we start, we'll update this policy first, ask for your permission where the law requires it, and give you an easy way to unsubscribe.

13Messages, photos and files

Messages, photos and files shared in class chat or in a private conversation are kept so the people in that conversation can see them. Class chat is seen by the class and its tutor. A private conversation between a parent and a tutor is seen by that parent and that tutor. Please don't share more personal information in messages than you need to.

14Where your information is handled

PrepBanz serves tutors and families in several countries, and we and our service providers use infrastructure in more than one country. So your information may be stored or processed outside the country where you live. Where the law sets rules for these transfers, we follow them, for example by using contract terms approved for international transfers.

15How long we keep it

We keep personal information while your account is open and for as long as we need it for the reasons in this policy. Lecture recordings and exam monitoring records are kept for up to 12 months (section 8). Some records, such as payment records, must be kept for longer by law. When we no longer need information, we delete it or make it anonymous. Deleted information may stay in backups for a limited time before it is overwritten.

16Keeping it safe

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from loss, misuse and access by people who shouldn't have it. Sign-in uses passwords and one-time codes, and there's a way to recover your account if you lose access. Inside PrepBanz, what each person can see depends on their account, as section 7 explains. No online service can be completely secure, so please keep your password and codes private. If you think someone else has used your account, tell us at hello@prepbanz.com.

17Reporting a safety concern

If something on PrepBanz doesn't feel right, write to hello@prepbanz.com. Reports are handled by the PrepBanz support team, and serious child-safety reports are treated as a priority. To look into a concern, we may review the messages, files or activity involved. Where the law requires it, or someone may be at risk, we may share information with the relevant authorities.

If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first.

18Your rights and how to ask

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct it;
• ask us to delete it;
• ask for it in a format you can take to another service;
• object to some uses, or ask us to limit them;
• withdraw a consent you've given, at any time.

To make a request, write to hello@prepbanz.com from the email address on your account and tell us what you'd like. Our support team handles requests. We'll check it's really you before we act, using your account email and, where needed, other checks. A parent or guardian can make a request about their child's information, and we may ask them to show they have the authority to do so.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the data protection regulator where you live, such as the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. We'd be grateful for the chance to put things right first.

19Closing your account or deleting your information

There isn't a way to close your account yourself in the app at the moment. To close your account, or to ask us to delete your personal information, write to hello@prepbanz.com from the email address on your account. Parents can also ask from the privacy settings in the app.

We aim to complete eligible requests within 30 days. Some information may need to be kept for longer, such as payment records we must keep by law, or information needed to deal with a safety concern or a dispute. If we can't delete something, we'll tell you why.

20We don't sell your personal information

We don't sell your personal information. We share it only as this policy describes.

21Our website

Our website at prepbanz.com uses Google Analytics only if you accept analytics cookies. If you do, it tells us which pages are visited, how people found us, the type of device and the country or region they're in, and which buttons such as sign-up or contact are used. We don't send names, email addresses, phone numbers, the contents of forms or anything from inside the PrepBanz app to Google Analytics, and we don't use advertising tools on the website. Our Cookie policy explains the cookies it uses and how to change your choice.

Contact form.

When you send a message with our contact form, we receive your name, email address, whether you're a tutor, parent, student or something else, the enquiry type, your subject and your message. A form-processing service passes it to our inbox, and we use it only to reply to you.

Booking a demo.

Demo bookings are made on our scheduling provider's own website, which opens in a new tab. The details you give there, such as your name, email address and chosen time, are collected by that provider under its own privacy policy and cookies, and shared with us so we can hold the demo.

Emailing us.

If you email us, we use your email address and message to reply to you.

Visits.

Like most websites, our hosting provider may keep technical logs, such as IP addresses and browser types, to deliver the site and keep it secure.

22Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as PrepBanz changes. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. If we make an important change, we'll email registered users before it takes effect, with a short summary of what's changed and a link to the new policy. Where the law requires it, we'll ask for your consent again.