Privacy Policy

1. Who we are and where this policy applies

OnCall Tutors is an online tutoring platform operated by Spark Horizon Inc., a company based in Ontario, Canada. We connect students and families with independent tutors and provide tools for requesting, scheduling, managing, and attending online tutoring sessions.

This policy applies to students, parents and guardians, tutors, applicants, and visitors who interact with OnCall Tutors. It does not govern third-party websites or services that publish their own privacy policies.

2. Information we collect

Information you provide

• Account and contact details, including name, email address, telephone number, role, password hash, and profile information.
• Student learning information, including grade level, subjects, learning goals, availability, tutoring requests, uploaded schoolwork, and session preferences.
• Tutor information, including qualifications, teaching permissions, languages, rates, availability, application materials, profile image, and reliability information.
• Parent and family information, including linked family members, learning plans, budgets, scheduling preferences, and family-management choices.
• Session communications, including private session chats, support requests, reviews, reports, and files intentionally submitted through the service.
• Payment and transaction details. Payments may be processed by Stripe. OnCall Tutors does not intend to store complete payment-card numbers or security codes on its own servers.

Information collected automatically

We may collect technical and security information such as IP address, browser and device type, access times, authentication events, logs, cookies, and actions taken within the platform. We use this information to operate, secure, diagnose, and improve the service.

3. How we use information

• Create, verify, secure, and administer accounts.
• Match students with tutors and display relevant tutoring opportunities.
• Create learning plans and schedule, operate, and document tutoring sessions.
• Provide dashboards, family oversight features, session chats, uploaded materials, notifications, and customer support.
• Process or facilitate payments, payouts, refunds, disputes, and financial records.
• Protect students, tutors, families, and the platform from misuse, fraud, security threats, and policy violations.
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our agreements.
• Improve platform reliability, usability, and service quality using operational information.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use private schoolwork or session chats for unrelated advertising.

4. Google Meet and Google OAuth

OnCall Tutors uses Google OAuth and the Google Meet REST API through a company-controlled Google account to create private Google Meet spaces for confirmed tutoring sessions.

OnCall Tutors’ use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

The company Google account administrator may revoke access through Google Account permissions. Users may also contact us to ask questions about the integration or request deletion of information associated with their OnCall Tutors account.

5. When information is shared

We disclose only the information reasonably necessary for the following purposes:

• Matched participants: students and tutors receive the identity, scheduling, learning, session, and contact-related information needed to provide tutoring.
• Connected families: authorized parents or guardians may view information made available through family-account features, generally from the date the family connection begins.
• Service providers: hosting, email, Google Meet, payment processing such as Stripe, security, storage, and support providers may process information on our behalf.
• Safety and legal requirements: information may be preserved or disclosed where reasonably necessary to protect a person, investigate misuse, respond to valid legal process, or comply with law.
• Corporate transactions: information may be transferred as part of a merger, financing, acquisition, restructuring, or sale, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections.

Some providers may process information outside Ontario or Canada, where it may be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction in which it is processed.

6. Students, minors, and family accounts

Users must be at least 13 years old to create an OnCall Tutors student account. We do not knowingly permit children under 13 to create accounts. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we will take steps to disable it and delete the associated personal information, subject to legal and safety requirements.

Students who have not reached the age of majority should use the service with the involvement and permission of a parent or guardian. Connected family accounts may allow parents or guardians to manage learning plans, budgets, availability, and selected tutoring activity. Private access is limited to the features the service makes available for that family relationship.

A parent or guardian who believes a minor’s information has been collected improperly may contact us to request review, correction, or deletion.

7. Retention, deactivation, and deletion

We retain personal information while an account is active and for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the service, maintain security, resolve disputes, meet financial and legal obligations, and enforce our agreements.

When an account-deletion request is confirmed, the account is deactivated and its personal information is scheduled for deletion within 30 days. During that period, the information is kept in restricted private server storage and is not used for ordinary product activity. It may be accessed only as reasonably necessary to complete deletion, maintain system security and backups, investigate abuse, or comply with legal obligations.

Limited records may be retained beyond 30 days where required for tax, accounting, payment, fraud-prevention, dispute, safety, or legal purposes. Residual copies may temporarily remain in protected backups until those backups cycle out under normal retention processes. Where possible, retained information will be minimized or de-identified.

8. How we protect information

We use administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards intended to protect personal information. These measures include access controls, password hashing, encrypted storage of Google OAuth refresh tokens, secure connections, role-based dashboard access, activity monitoring, and restricted access to private files and session information.

No internet service or storage system can guarantee absolute security. Users should protect their passwords, avoid sharing private session links, and notify us promptly if they suspect unauthorized access.

9. Your privacy choices and rights

Subject to applicable law, you may ask to access, correct, or delete your personal information; withdraw consent where processing relies on consent; or ask questions about how your information is handled. Certain information can be updated directly through account settings, while verified tutor-profile changes may require review for safety and accuracy.

We may need to verify your identity before completing a privacy request. Some requests may be limited where retention is required by law, necessary for security or dispute resolution, or needed to protect another person’s rights.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as OnCall Tutors changes or legal requirements evolve. We will update the “Last updated” date and provide additional notice where a change materially affects how personal information is used. The current version will remain available at this URL.

11. Contact us

Questions, concerns, and privacy requests can be sent to: