Plan A Tutoring Privacy Policy

1 Information we collect

Depending on how you work with us, we may collect:

• Contact and booking details: the parent or guardian’s name, email address, phone number, home address or preferred meeting place for in-person sessions, and how you heard about us (including the name of the person who referred you or a promo code).
• Student information: the student’s name, grade, school, subjects, learning goals, and anything you choose to share that helps us support them, such as learning needs, accommodations, or scheduling limits.
• Academic progress: session notes, completed worksheets, assessments, pre- and post-program check-ins, and progress updates written by tutors.
• Billing information: rates, invoices, and payment history. We do not store full credit card or bank account numbers ourselves. If you pay by card, the payment is handled by our billing or payment provider.
• Messages: emails, texts, voicemails, and anything you send through the forms on our website.
• Online sessions: the video platform we use may process names, email addresses, audio, and video. We do not record sessions without the consent of the parent or guardian.
• Photos and testimonials: only with consent (see section 6).
• Website information: basic technical information such as browser type, device, pages visited, and general location, collected through cookies or similar tools (see section 9).
• Job applicants and tutors: name, contact details, resume, academic background, availability, references, and the results of background checks such as a police information check with a vulnerable sector search.
• Partner program participants: when we run tutoring with a church, charity, or other organization, we may receive participants’ names, grades, and contact details from that organization, or collect them directly at registration.

We only collect what we reasonably need for the purposes below.

2 How we use your information

• To match each student with a suitable tutor and schedule sessions.
• To plan and deliver tutoring based on the student’s goals and the Alberta curriculum.
• To track progress and share updates with parents and guardians.
• To send invoices, process payments, and keep financial records.
• To contact you about sessions, schedule changes, and your account.
• To keep students and tutors safe, including screening tutors before they work with students.
• To run our Student Ambassador referral program and apply referral discounts.
• To report on community and partner programs (see section 4).
• To improve our tutoring, learning materials, and website.
• To meet our legal, tax, insurance, and regulatory obligations.
• To send occasional news or offers, but only if you agree. You can unsubscribe at any time.

If we want to use your information for a new purpose, we will ask for your consent first unless the law allows otherwise.

3 Consent and children’s information

Most of our students are under 18. We collect a student’s information from, and with the consent of, their parent or legal guardian. By booking with us or giving us a student’s information, the parent or guardian consents to the collection, use, and sharing described in this policy. During sessions, students may also share information directly with their tutor.

A parent or guardian can withdraw consent at any time by contacting us, subject to legal or contractual limits. If consent is withdrawn, we may not be able to keep providing some or all of our services.

4 When we share information

We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information. We share it only in these situations:

• Our tutors and staff: on a need-to-know basis, so they can deliver sessions.
• Service providers: who help us run the business, such as scheduling and billing software (for example, TutorBird), email and file storage (for example, Google), workflow tools (for example, Zapier), video calling platforms, payment processors, and our accountant, lawyer, and insurer. They may only use the information to provide services to us.
• Partner organizations: If a student takes part in a program we run with a church, charity, or other organization, we may share attendance, participation, and progress information with that organization so it can see how the program is going. Where we can, we share summaries that do not identify individual students. We share an individual student’s results only as explained at registration or with consent.
• Referrals: If someone referred you, we may confirm to them that the referral was completed. We do not share details about the student.
• Legal compliance: When the law requires or allows it, for example to respond to a court order, to protect someone’s health or safety, or to report a concern about a child’s safety to the authorities as Alberta law requires.
• Business changes: If the business is sold or restructured, with the new owner, who must protect the information in line with this policy.

5 Storage outside Canada

Some of our service providers store or process information on servers outside Canada, mainly in the United States. We use them for scheduling, billing, email, file storage, forms, and video calls. Information stored outside Canada is subject to the laws of that country and may be accessed by its courts, law enforcement, and national security authorities. We choose reputable providers with strong security practices.

If you have questions about how our service providers outside Canada handle personal information, contact our Privacy Officer (section 12).

6 Photos, videos, and testimonials

We sometimes take photos during sessions or programs to use on our website, social media, and marketing materials.

• We only use a photo or video where a student can be identified with written consent from their parent or guardian (or from the student, if they are 18 or older).
• We never publish a student’s full name or school alongside their photo.
• We publish testimonials only with permission, using first names or initials.

You can withdraw this consent at any time. We will remove the content from our website and the social media accounts we control within a reasonable time. We cannot recall printed materials or copies that others have already shared.

7 How we protect your information

We use reasonable safeguards to protect personal information from loss, theft, and unauthorized access, including password-protected accounts, two-step verification where available, access limited to people who need it, and reputable cloud providers. Tutors are required to keep student information confidential and to use it only for tutoring.

No system is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information. If a privacy breach creates a real risk of significant harm to anyone, we will notify the affected people and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta as the law requires.

8 How long we keep information

We keep personal information only as long as we reasonably need it for the purposes in this policy, or as long as the law requires. As a general guide:

• Student and family records: up to 2 years after the last session, so we can pick up where we left off if you come back.
• Financial records: 6 years, as required by the Canada Revenue Agency.
• Job applications that do not lead to hiring: up to 1 year.
• Employee records: as long as employment and tax laws require.

After that, we securely delete or destroy the information. You can also ask us to delete your information sooner, unless we are legally required to keep it.

9 Cookies and our website

Our website may use cookies and similar tools to make the site work and to understand how visitors use it, including through Google services. You can set your browser to refuse cookies. The site will still work, although some features may not.

Our website links to other sites, such as Google Maps and Google reviews. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for how they handle information.

10 Your rights

Under PIPA, you have the right to:

• Ask for access to the personal information we hold about you or your child, and how it has been used and shared.
• Ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete.
• Withdraw your consent (see section 3).
• Ask questions or make a complaint about how we handle your information.

Send your request to our Privacy Officer (section 12). We will respond within 45 days, as PIPA requires. We may need to confirm your identity first. In rare cases, the law allows or requires us to refuse a request, and if so we will explain why.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta at oipc.ab.ca.

11 Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on our website with its effective date. If we make significant changes, we will let current families know by email.

12 Contact us

For privacy questions, requests to access or correct your information, or complaints, contact: