Privacy Policy

This explains what personal information Lighthouse Tutoring collects, why, who sees it, and what you can do about it. We handle personal information under the Privacy Act 2020.

The agency responsible for the information described here is Nicholas William Ian Poppelwell, trading as Lighthouse Tutoring, NZBN 9429053878878. That is who to contact about anything in this policy, and who the Privacy Commissioner would deal with.

What we collect

When you sign up: your name, email address, and which role you are starting with. Your password is handled by our authentication provider and we never see it.

If you are a student: the papers you say you are enrolled in. We do not verify this with the university.

If you are a tutor:

• Your university email address, which we verify by sending a code
• Your mobile number, only if you choose to be told about new requests by text message. We

verify it by sending you a code, and you can remove it at any time.

• Your academic transcript, which you upload to prove your grades
• Your IRD number, so our records show who we paid
• Bank and identity details, which you give directly to Stripe. We never see or store them.

When you use Lighthouse:

• Which papers you request help with, when, and for how long
• Who you were matched with
• For in-person sessions, your approximate location, used only to confirm you are on campus, plus

the meeting place you type in

• Ratings and any reports you make
• Your IP address, when you join an online session. It is passed to our video provider so the

session connects you to a server near you rather than one on the other side of the world. We do not keep it.

• Transcripts of online sessions, if session transcription is switched on

Payments: we record the amounts, and a reference to the Stripe transaction. We never see or store your card details.

Why we collect it

To match you with an eligible tutor, to run and time sessions, to tell tutors about new requests they have asked to hear about, to take payment and pay tutors, to verify that a tutor genuinely earned the grade they claim, to review reported sessions, to keep records of academic integrity agreements and reports, and to meet our tax and accounting obligations.

Your academic transcript

This is the most sensitive thing we hold, so it gets its own section.

Your transcript is stored in private storage. It is not public and it is never shared with other users. It is read by an administrator to confirm your grades, and by an automated system that extracts the paper codes and grades into a list. Its contents are never written to our logs.

Once approved, what remains visible in the product is only which papers you are eligible to tutor. Other users never see your grades, your other papers, or the document itself.

Session transcripts

Online sessions may be transcribed, so that a session somebody reports can actually be reviewed rather than coming down to one person's word against another's.

The transcript is stored privately and is readable only by our administrators. Your tutor cannot read it. Your student cannot read it. A linked parent cannot read it. Its contents are never written to our logs.

You can turn this off. In Settings, under Privacy, there is a switch that stops your sessions being transcribed. It applies to every session you are in, whether you are the student or the tutor, and one person turning it off is enough to stop the whole session being transcribed. We do not tell the other person either way.

Transcripts are deleted after 6 months. That is done by an automated sweep, not by somebody remembering.

Who else is involved

We use these providers, and your information passes through them:

Some of these store information outside New Zealand. By using Lighthouse you accept that your information may be held overseas, where the law may differ from New Zealand law. We only use providers who commit to protecting it.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not use it for advertising.

What parents can see

If you approve a link to a parent account, that parent can see your wallet balance, and your session history: the paper, the date, how long it ran, and what it cost.

They cannot see what happens in a session. Not the video, not the whiteboard, not any transcript, not your ratings, and not the meeting link. You approve the link, and you can end it.

How long we keep things

Your rights

Under the Privacy Act 2020 you can ask what we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if it is wrong. Email lighthousetut@gmail.com and we will respond within 20 working days.

You can request account deletion in Settings. Some information cannot be deleted immediately, in particular financial records we must keep and academic integrity records.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information you can complain to us, and then to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.

Security

Access is controlled at the database level, so a user can only reach their own information. Transcripts are in private storage. Payment and bank details are handled entirely by Stripe. Administrator access is limited to the people who need it.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach occurs that is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify you and the Privacy Commissioner as the Privacy Act requires.

Changes

We will notify you of material changes by email or in the app before they take effect.

Contact

lighthousetut@gmail.com

Lighthouse Tutoring is a trading name of Nicholas William Ian Poppelwell, a sole trader registered in New Zealand, NZBN 9429053878878. We do not operate a public counter, so email is the way to reach us and we answer from the same address.

You can also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz if you are not satisfied with how we have handled a privacy issue. You do not have to come to us first, though we would rather you did so we can fix it.