Tutree Privacy Policy
Tutree, Inc. (“Tutree”) offers various services to help its users find, locate and coordinate quality tutoring services. Tutree’s Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) is designed to provide a clear understanding of the information we collect and how we use it to provide our services and give users a better experience. It applies to any users of www.tutree.com and any US affiliated websites, web pages,mobile applications and mobile websites operated by Tutree (the “Site”), including those who are seeking to find a service
provider
through Tutree (“Students”) as well as those who are looking tooffer their services through Tutree (“Tutors”), and any users of any of the various services that Tutree provides through the Site or any other channels, including over the telephone or via electronic communication (“Services”). For purposes of this Agreement, the terms “Tutree,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Tutree, Inc. “You” refers to you, as a visitor or user or the Site or the Services. In addition, this Privacy Policy does not apply to third party entities that may use the Tutree Site or Services. Such entities’ use of the Tutree Site and Services are subject to separate terms that they agreed when they registered with Tutree.
By using the Site and/or the Services, you consent to our collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information and other information as described in this Privacy Policy.
Here are some common indications of poor connectivity:
We collect both “Personal Information” and “Non Personal Information” about our users. In this policy, Personal Information is information that can be used to contact or identify you, such asyour full name and email address, and information that is linked to such information. “Non PersonalInformation” is information that cannot be used to contact or identify you and is not linked toinformation that can be used to contact or identify you and includes passively collected information about your activities on our Site, such as usage data, to the extent that information is not linked toyour Personal Information.
Site Visitors can access and browse certain portions of the Site without disclosing Personal Information, although, like most websites, we passively collect certain information from your computer, such as your IP address and web browser user agent, when you browse the Site. Visitors who access and browse the Site without registering are “Site Visitors”. In order to utilize some of the Services offered by Tutree, you must register with Tutree. All users who register with Tutree are “Registered Users”.
Information we collect
Information you provide
Regardless of whether you are a Site Visitor or a Registered User, all Personal Information that you provide to us when registering, posting a profile, communicating through the Site, discussing tutoring options over the phone or online, utilizing our mobile applications or that you otherwise provide on the Site or by phone, email or postal mail, will be stored by us. You represent and warrant to us that you have the right and authority to provide us all Personal Information you provide about yourself or others. You may provide us this Personal Information in various ways, including:
When registering
Some users may have the opportunity to register with Tutree by connecting through Facebook’s application programming interface (API). Please see Section |.B.4 below to learn about the information we access, collect and store if you register for Tutree through Facebook. If you register for a Service that requires you to pay a fee, Tutree will also collect your credit card type, number, expiration date, and security code as well as your billing address for payment purposes and your birthday, if not previously provided.
If you register for a Service that requires you to pay a fee, Tutree will also collect your credit card type, number, expiration date, and security code as well as your billing address for payment purposes and your birthday, if not previously provided.
When posting a profile
If you are a Tutor, we collect and store all of the additional information that you provide to us in your profile. This may include, among other information:
details on the tutoring services you offer, including for example the subjects you are well-versed in, the type of tutoring you provide, your availability, your location, your level of education, languages you speak, your ability to drive, related services you provide, pictures you choose to post, your phone numbers, references, if you choose to provide them and any other information you choose to include in your profile
By telephone
Both Site Visitors and Registered Users may provide Personal Information to Tutree when they contact us or utilize certain Services Tutree may offer. For example, if you call a Tutree representative to discuss tutoring options over the phone, we will collect and store all of the Personal Information you choose to provide to us, including but not limited to financial information, information about the tutoring you or your child needs, your contact information, etc. If you provide information about someone other than yourself, you represent that you have authority to do so.
Otherwise through the site or by telephone, email, postal mail or chat
Certain Registered Users may provide Personal Information on the Site through other Site features and offerings such as our online communications and payment platforms. In some cases, Site Visitors may have the ability to provide us Personal Information through the Site, such as contact
information
. In addition, both Registered Users and Site Visitors may choose to provide us additional Personal Information by phone, email, postal mail, mobile application or chat. We collect and store all of the Personal Information you provide us through these channels. Moreover, if you provide information about someone other than yourself through any of these channels, you represent that you have authority to do so.
Information provided by others
By Site Visitors, Registered Users and others
Tutree also captures and collects information that Site Visitors, Registered Users and others provide about each other. For example, Tutors may invite Site Visitors, Registered Users or others to rate and indicate their relationship to the Tutor on the Site. Additionally, certain Tutree Registered Users may post reviews about individual Tutors. In addition, certain Registered Users may communicate directly with each other through Tutree platforms. Site Visitors, Registered Users and others also may provide us information about Registered Users by phone, email or postal mail. Tutree captures and stores all information it receives from Site Visitors, Registered Users and others about other Registered Users and Site Visitors.
By third parties to verify your information and representations
In order to promote the safety and integrity of the Site and Service, you authorize Tutree in its Terms of Use to utilize third party service providers to use your Personal Information to scan on an ongoing basis a variety of sources, which may include, but are not limited to, national criminal databases, sex offender registries, certain media streams, terrorist watch lists, criminal and fugitive watch lists, fraud watch lists, law enforcement reports, and other data to assist us in verifying the information you provide us (such as your name, address, email address, etc.) and the representations and warranties you make in the Terms of Use and on the Site (such as representations regarding your criminal background) (“Verification Checks”). The results of any Verification Checks will be made available to Tutree.
By third parties that perform background checks
For the legitimate business purpose of protecting the safety and integrity of the Site and Tutree users, you authorize Tutree in its Terms of Use to utilize a third party consumer reporting agency to use your Personal Information to run periodic background checks on you when you register with Tutree and thereafter in connection with your continued use of our Services and/or interaction with our Site.
By Facebook if you connect to Tutree through Facebook
You may have the opportunity to connect to Tutree through Facebook’s API when you register for Tutree or after you have registered for Tutree. If you connect to Tutree through Facebook, either when you register or after you have registered, we will collect, store, and use in accordance with this Privacy Policy any and all information you agreed that Facebook could provide to Tutree through its API. Your agreement (and our access to your information) takes place when you instruct, accept or allow Facebook to register you for a Tutree account or otherwise connect to Tutree through Facebook. The information Tutree may access, collect and store may include the following, among other information, as allowed by you, Facebook’s API, and your Facebook privacy settings:
Otherwise through the Site or by telephone, email, postal mail or chat
In addition, we may obtain from other sources publicly available Personal Information, such as demographic data, and other information to enable us to comply with regulatory requirements, ensure the accuracy of data, better understand your likely interests, prevent fraud, etc.
Information you expressly authorize us to collect
We may from time to time request permission for collect Personal Information from or about you. For example, if you use a Tutree mobile application, we may request permission to access information about the contacts listed in your mobile device phone book when you initiate an address book search for friends who have downloaded the application. We may also request permission to access and store your location. If you grant your permission, we will access and or store such information unless you subsequently opt out by adjusting the settings in your mobile device.
Technical usage and information
Log files, IP addresses and information about your computer and mobile device
When you visit the Site, Tutree receives the internet protocol (“IP”) address of your computer (or the
proxy
server you use to access the internet), your computer operating system and type of web browser you are using. If you are using a mobile device, Tutree may also receive your mobile device id (UDID), or another unique identifier, and mobile operating system. We may correlate this information with other Personal Information we have about you. Additionally, when you visit the Tutree website we and any third parties we may use to place ads on our Site automatically receive the URL of the webpage from which you came. If you click on an ad, we and any such third party may also receive the URL of the page you were on when you clicked the ad and the URL of the site associated with the ad that you clicked.
Cookies and other technologies
Like most websites, we and our service providers use cookies and tracking pixels to track Site usage and trends, evaluate the effectiveness of our ads both on and off our Site, customize your experience on the Site and improve the quality of our Services. For example, using these technologies we can determine, among other things, which pages of our Site you visit and which ads you click on. A cookie is a tiny data
file
that resides on your computer, mobile phone, or other device, and allows us to recognize you when you return to the Site using the same computer (or mobile device) and web browser. You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases doing so may impact your ability to use Tutree. Tracking pixels do not identify individual users and the analysis of data obtained by tracking pixels is performed on an aggregate basis.
When you visit our Site or open one of our emails, we may allow authorized third parties, such as ad servers, ad agencies, ad exchanges, ad technology vendors and research firms, to place or recognize a unique cookie, pixel, and/or similar technologies on your browser in order to provide you relevant Tutree advertisements as you surf the Internet. These advertisements may be targeted to you based on information these authorized third parties know or infer about you and include in the cookies placed on your browser and/or information about your Internet browsing activities gathered through your browser. If you prefer not to receive these online behavioral advertisements, you may opt-out here . In order for the opt-out to work, your browser must be set to accept third party cookies. Furthermore, if you buy a new computer or mobile device, change web browsers or delete the opt-out cookie, you will need to perform the opt-out task again. Please note that if you opt-out you may continue to receive Tutree advertisements as you surf the Internet, including contextual ads based on the content ona webpage you are visiting. However, these advertisements will not be displayed based on information contained in, or collected by, cookies or other technologies placed on your browser when you visit our Site or open our emails.
Social media features and widgets
Our Site includes social media features and widgets, such as the Facebook “Like” button and the Facebook “Share” button. These features may collect your IP address, the URL of the page you are visiting on our Site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Site. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
How we use information
Personal Information
In general, the Personal Information we collect is used (1) to improve our Services and enhance your experience with Tutree, (2) to enable us to provide a safer community for all of our Registered Users, and (3) to help us communicate with you. For example, we may use your Personal Information to:
Non Personal Information
In general, we use the Non Personal Information we collect to help us improve our Services and customize the user experience, such as by providing targeted useful features and promotions based on the type of Service you seek. We also aggregate the information collected via cookies and similar technologies to use in statistical analysis to help us track trends, evaluate the effectiveness of our ads and analyze patterns in the use of Tutree.
How we share information
In addition to using the information collected by Tutree for the purposes described above, we may also share your information with various third parties, as described below. Please review our sharing policy closely, especially with respect to your Personal Information. By using our Site or our Services, you agree to allow us to share the Personal Information you provide to us in the ways described below. Your ability to make changes to what information is shared is described below in Section IV.
Personal Information
With all site visitors and registered users
If you are a Student or Tutor, in order to increase your chances of finding potential clients or tutoring services you need, we share with Site Visitors and Registered Users the information that is included in your profile, aside from your contact information, as well as the following registration information, which we may include in your profile: your first name, first initial of your last name, city, state, profile picture, and if you are a Tutor, your gender and, unless you opt-out, your age. With certain exceptions, you choose how much detail you want to include in your profile; the more information you share, however, the better chance you have of finding the right service. We may also share on your profile any company reviews you have posted on our Site and whether you have connected to Tutree through Facebook.
If you post information in a Tutree online group forum, that information may be viewed by any Site Visitor or Registered User who accesses the forum.
We may display personal testimonials of Registered Users and other endorsements on our Site or in other marking materials. These testimonials or endorsements may include Non Personal Information such as the Registered User’s first name, first initial of last name, town and state. With a Registered User’s consent, we may include Personal Information such as their full name.
With other Registered Users and corporate providers
In addition to the information that is provided to all visitors to Tutree, Tutor reviews and references are made available to certain Registered Users. If you are a Tutor, your phone number may be visible to certain Registered Users if you elect to share it in your profile. In addition, your approximate residential location (through Google map plotting) is made available to certain Registered Users unless you elect to keep that information confidential.
If you are a Tutor, you will appear in search result listings if you match the search criteria used by a Student, as applicable. Similarly, you may appear in emails sent to Tutors or Students in your area. In addition, if you are a Student and you view the profile of certain Tutors, those Tutors will be able to see that you have viewed their profiles unless you opt-out of that information sharing.
If you connect to Tutree through Facebook, we may allow any of your Facebook friends who have connected to Tutree through Facebook to see that you are a Registered User. In addition, other Registered Users who have connected to Tutree through Facebook will be able to see if you are friends with any of their Facebook friends or if you share certain affinities or interests with them.
If you register for our Tutree mobile application, other Registered Users of that application may be able to search for Tutors by name, email address or other information. If they do, a Tutor’s name and profile photo will appear in the search results list and the searcher may contact you through the application. No other Personal Information on the application will be shared with the Registered User unless you
expressly
consent to such sharing. However, all information you post to the Tutree application will be available to all members of Tutree, including your location when you post to the application if you have given us permission to access and collect your location information.
If we terminate your registration for any reason, we reserve the right to send a notice of your termination to other Registered Users with whom we believe you have corresponded.
With vendors/service providers
We also share Personal Information with vendors who perform services on behalf of Tutree, including without limitation vendors who provide email services, demographic information, or geo-location information, vendors who perform background checks or verification checks, vendors who process credit card payments, vendors who run classified advertising businesses, and vendors who send SMS
messages
to Registered Users’ mobile phone numbers, in each case to the extent applicable. Tutree has selected vendors who maintain high standards with respect to privacy and agree to use the Personal Information only to perform specific services on behalf of Tutree.
With listings in Google and other public search engines
In an effort to further connect Students and Tutors, selected information contained in Tutor proflles, which may include photo, first name, first initial of last name, city, state, and job/provider description, may also be shared with third party search engines and other vendors who run classified advertising businesses, and thus may be listed in third party web site search results (e.g., Google), which would make that information available to the public and allow them to link to your Tutree posting. Registered Users can opt-out of this sharing by adjusting their account settings. If you post information in a Tutree online group forum, your content, including your name as the contributor, may be displayed in third party search engine results and available to the public.
With Facebook if you connect to Tutree through Facebook
If you connect to Tutree through Facebook’s API, you may elect to post certain of your activities on Tutree back to your Facebook account. You will be prompted to decide whether or not to share those Tutree activities back to your Facebook account.
As required by law or for reasons of safety
You acknowledge and agree that we may disclose information we’ve collected about you if required to do so by law or if we, in our sole discretion, believe that disclosure is reasonable to comply with the law, requests or orders from law enforcement, or any legal process (whether or not such disclosure is required by applicable law), or to protect or defend Tutree’s, or a third party’s, rights or property. We may also reserve the right to disclose information we've collected about you for purposes of protecting the health and safety of our community and Registered Users, such as in the case of risk of harm or violence against any person (including you).
With our affiliates
You acknowledge and agree that to the maximum extent permitted by law we may disclose any of the information we’ve collected about you to any of our affiliates or subsidiaries, for the purposes of providing you with the Services, operating the Site, and our other commercial purposes.
With Your Consent
We also may share your Personal Information with a third party if you consent to the sharing.
Background checks
Tutree, through a third party service provider, performs background checks on all of its prospective Tutors. Please refer to “Background Checks” in the Terms of Use.
Non Personal Information
This Privacy Policy does not limit our use or disclosure of any Non Personal Information, such as information passively collected from your computer via cookies, web beacons, or standard logging of website activity. If you do not wish to share this information with Tutree, then you should take steps to
limit
the passive collection of data about your activities on our site, for example, by changing your browser settings to disable cookies. We reserve the right to use and disclose such Non Personal Information, as well as any other Non Personal Information we collect, with our advertisers and other third parties at our discretion.
Business Transactions
In the event we go through a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your Personal Information may be among the assets transferred. You acknowledge and consent that such transfers may occur and are permitted by this Privacy Policy, and that any acquirer of ours or that acquirer’s affiliates may continue to process your Personal Information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.
Your Choices Regarding the Sharing of your Personal Information
Registered Users have control over what optional Personal Information they choose to share with us when utilizing our Services (such as pictures, certain details in a job description or profile, etc.).
Your Communication Choices
By becoming a Tutree Registered User, you are consenting to receive certain email communications from us, such as special offers, tips and advice, notifications of new Students or Tutors in your area, customer surveys and administrative notices.
You have a choice at any time to stop us from sending you emails for marketing purposes by adjusting your settings in your account settings. You also have the option to opt out of receiving certain other emails
from
Tutree, such as certain educational emails, by adjusting your settings in your account settings. Go to your account settings for a complete list of the email types you may opt out of receiving. If you receive promotional or other email communications from us that you have the option to opt out of, you also will be able to opt out of receiving further communications of that type by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the e-mail. Please note that despite any indicated email marketing preferences, we may send you administrative emails regarding Tutree, including, for example, notices of updates to our Privacy Policy, notifications of new Students or Tutors in your area, if we choose to provide such notices to you in this manner.
If you have opted in to receive text messages from us but would now like to opt out, you may do so by adjusting your settings in your account settings. You also have a choice to stop us from contacting you by phone for marketing purposes by adjusting your settings in your account settings.
Changing or Removing your Personal Information and Closing your Account
If the Personal Information you provided when you registered changes, you may update this information by logging into your account and accessing your account settings. If you would like to remove some of the Personal Information you have posted on the Site, such as information you posted in profiles, you may do so by editing or deleting that item. To request removal of other Personal Information you have voluntarily posted on our Site, such as information you may have posted in online group forums, contact Tutree. In some cases, we may not be able to reasonably accommodate your request to remove your Personal Information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.
If you no longer wish to participate in our Services you may close your account directly in the account settings portion of your account.
If you close your Tutree account, we have no obligation to retain your information, and may delete any or all of your account information without liability. However, we may retain information related to you if we believe it may be necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, Non Personal Information, account recovery, auditing our records, enforcing our rights and obligations under our agreements or if required by law. Tutree may also retain and use your information if necessary to provide the Services to other Registered Users. For example, just as an email you may send to another person through an email service provider resides in that person’s inbox even
after
you delete it from your sent files or close your account, emails you send to others through Tutree to other Users, as well as your contributions to Tutree groups, may remain visible to others after you have closed your account. Similarly, other information you have shared with others, or that others have copied, may also remain visible. Tutree disclaims any liability in relation to the deletion or retention (subject to the terms herein) of information or any obligation not to delete the information. Tutree does not control when search engines update their search index or cache, which may contain certain job post, profile or other information that has since been removed from Tutree’s Site.
How We Protect Information
Tutree uses SSL (Secure Socket Layer), the industry standard method for computers to communicate securely without risk of manipulation or recipient impersonation. We utilize SSL in the online registration process, in the login process, and in the account management section of the Site.
Tutree uses strong encryption technology to protect sensitive information. Tutree employs firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and system monitoring to protect against unauthorized access of our systems.
Your user accounts are also protected by the password you use to access your online account with Tutree, and we urge you to take steps to keep your password safe. If you feel your password has been compromised, you should change it immediately by logging into your account. After you have finished using our Site, you should log out of your Tutree account and exit your browser.
WE TAKE THESE PRECAUTIONS IN AN EFFORT TO PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION AGAINST SECURITY BREACHES. HOWEVER, THIS IS NOT A GUARANTEE THAT SUCH INFORMATION MAY NOT BE ACCESSED, DISCLOSED, ALTERED, OR DESTROYED BY BREACH OF SUCH FIREWALLS AND SECURE SERVER SOFTWARE. BY USING OUR SITE, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE TO ASSUME THESE RISKS.
Links to Other Websites
Tutree may provide links to other web sites that we believe may be of interest to our users. However, we are not responsible for the privacy practices employed by those web sites, nor are we responsible for the information or content they contain. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by us through Tutree; thus when you use a link to go from our web site to another third party web site, this policy is no longer in effect. We encourage our users to read the privacy policies of these other web sites before proceeding to use them.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
Tutree reserves the right to change this policy and our Terms of Service at any time. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat Personal Information by sending a notice to the email
address
registered in your account, or by placing a prominent notice on our Site, so that you can choose whether to continue using our Services. Significant changes will go into effect 30 days after we notify. Non-material changes or clarifications will take effect immediately upon posting of the updated policy on our Site. You should periodically check our privacy policy for updates. Your use of the Site or the Services after such effective date will constitute acceptance by you of such changes.
Contact Us
If you have any questions on our Privacy Policy, you can contact us via email at info@tutree.com