Community standards

Overview

We’re cultivating a space for a community that wants to play a part in changing how the world works together. We’re building a global network of Guruus - tutors, instructors, consultants, mentors, coaches and service professionals - who use Guruu to share their knowledge. We’re inspired and excited by all of our community members. We value their perspectives, beliefs, and views—they are what makes Guruu so dynamic.

In order to maintain a respectful, inclusive, and safe environment for everyone, we’ve created a set of community standards to serve as a moral compass for behaviour on our platform. These standards help define what is acceptable in the Guruu community and marketplace, both in face-to-face interactions and online communications. They aren’t tied to any law, but are used to govern our platform policies. They reflect our attitudes, expectations, and social norms. Our community standards are rooted in our core values — respect, safety, acceptance, support and open-mindedness.

Just like our community, these standards will continue to grow, evolve, and change. We have included examples in our community standards for unacceptable activities on Guruu. Please note that these are intended to be examples only and not a complete list.  

 We encourage our community to use our reporting tools when encountering anything that is unacceptable. We want to create the best experience for all community members, and ask that you respect and follow these guidelines.

Integrity and Authenticity 

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Policies 
At these sensitive times, we are cautious regarding Coronavirus (COVID-19) related services that we allow on Guruu.

For example, we do not allow users to offer or ask for services that are related to healing Coronavirus or doing anything that may be used for spreading Coronavirus misleading information. 

Should you see something that violates our policies, please don’t hesitate to report it.

Please do not offer or ask for:

  •  Services that are intended to heal, prevent or treat Coronavirus (COVID-19), including emotional therapy. 
  • The creation of medical, scientific or informative content exclusively on Coronavirus (COVID-19). Guruu is committed to fighting the spread of fake news regarding Coronavirus. Therefore, if a service is reported or flagged as being used to create or promote the spread of fake news; we will investigate and take action accordingly.
  • Donations or investments. 


Misrepresentation

Misrepresentation is defined as fraudulent, negligent, or innocent misstatements, or an incomplete statement of a material fact.
 

Misleading profile information

Do not:

  • Post a fake name, location, gender, or photo in your user profile. 
  • Present a fake document(s) if asked to verify your identity. 
  • Write misleading content in your profile description, skills, or education. 
  • Provide Licensed services without holding the right license.·

Do not:

  • Copy profile descriptions, and other elements from other users.  
  • Raise the price of your sessions in personal messages before or after purchase. Bait-and-switch marketing is not acceptable.
  • Have someone else present you in your session, without prior written consent from your learner. 
  • Post non-original images or images you do not have the right to use in your profile.
  • Do not post non-original videos or videos that you do not have the right to use in your profile. 

Spam

We define spam on Guruu as a messaging activity that is unwanted, repeatedly occurring, and disruptive to the experience of recipients. Spam can take many forms ranging from unwanted offers to commercially-motivated solicitations that aim to drive traffic or attention to websites, products, and services outside of Guruu.

Please respect our users’ privacy by not contacting them with offers, questions, suggestions, or anything which is not directly related to their profiles, knowledge or booking sessions.
Do not:

  • Contact our users with offers, questions, suggestions, or anything unrelated to their profiles or sessions.
  • Send multiple unsolicited or deceptive messages. 
  • Abuse our communication tools to distribute mass messages. 

Prohibited Services 

Guruu is an open marketplace where users can offer or request a great variety of services. However, for a number of reasons, we prohibit certain types of services on Guruu. Some services can pose unwanted risks for our users like legal or financial risks; others are simply not in line with our values and policies. 

Here are example of the type of services prohibited on Guruu: 

Services that can pose legal risks for our users

Do not offer or ask for:

  • Illegal services.
  • Services that are meant to support any illegal activity.
  • Fake documents — the creation, changing, or editing of official documents such as IDs, passports, drivers license, bank statements, or death and birth certificates.

Services that can pose financial risks for our users        

 Do not offer or ask for:

  • Services that require getting access to the other party’s sensitive financial information
  • Opening, managing, or implementing changes in a financial account. 
  • Providing loans, donations or investment.
  • Trading signals or indicators.

Services that have a high risk of piracy or hacking

 Do not offer or ask for:

  • Verification services.
  • Hacking or cracking services. 
  • Services involving hacked or cracked software products (themes, templates, etc).  
  • Setup pirate accounts.

Services that infringe third parties’ terms of service

We do not allow the infringement of third parties’ terms of service on Guruu. As a valued member of the Guruu community, we ask you to respect the broader Internet community and refrain from such violations in your offers. Materials that are flagged for violations of third parties terms of service will be removed from Guruu. 
Do not post, offer, or ask for services that infringe third parties’ terms of service.

Misleading Services

Do not post, offer, or ask for:

  • Paid reviews

  • Positive or negative feedback on any product, service, or performance.
  • Testimonials
  • A written or spoken statement of a person extolling the virtues of a person or a service.  

  • Fake engagement and traffic

  • Followers, traffic, visitors, fans, views on social media platforms, or any other fake engagement on any platform.
  • Deepfakes
  • Deepfakes are created using artificial intelligence technology that superimposes the movements and words of one person onto another.
     

Services that promise outcomes that are not in your control 

In certain instances, sellers may be tempted to promise outcomes of their service which is not in their control. For example, guaranteeing an outcome after a learner books the session. Please refrain from promising outcomes that are not in your direct control because it misleads learners. 
 

Homework and academic services

Guruu’s marketplace is open for sellers to offer any service they wish to offer. With that being said we ask to refrain from offering or asking for any academic work. Taking part in doing someone else’s academic work (which will likely be submitted as the student’s own work) or requesting academic work to be done for you, is unethical since it violates most schools’ Honour Codes and may constitute copyright infringement. Guruu does not allow these types of fraudulent activities and it will not be permitted on our platform.

Do not post, offer, or ask for:

  • Writing of: Homework, academic papers, bibliography, letters of recommendation, college applications, etc.

Services that involve sharing personal information of third parties 

We do not allow services that breach 3rd-party rights and lead to spamming individuals. In order to ensure this policy, we ask that the data provided in these services will be unique to each order and will only contain business data. 
 

Do not post, offer, or ask for:  

  • Lists with data (such as email addresses or phone numbers) of individuals, only business data.
  •  Pre-made lists containing personal data.
  • Scraping social media platforms to obtain information about others.  

 

Medical-related services

We do not allow services that are meant to provide any medical treatment, advice, or supply.  

This is because special rules may apply to the storage of medical records.
 

Do not post, offer, or ask for:

  • Medical treatment, advice on any medical condition, or pharmaceutical advice. 
  • Any kind of medical drugs or pharmaceuticals.  
  • Medical equipment or pharmaceutical supply.

Objectionable Content 
Hate Speech

Guruu defines hate speech as words or ideas that are designed to incite violence or hatred against a person, or group of people, because of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, marital status, religion, age, disability, political affiliations, or other similar grounds.

We are committed to moving swiftly and aggressively to investigate conduct that has been flagged as hate speech, and will respond in a manner that is consistent with existing laws and the values of the company. We take hate speech violations very seriously, and anyone using hate speech towards another user or towards our customer support representatives will be removed from Guruu. We will also take action against any user asking or delivering hate speech-related content on Guruu.
 

Do not:

  • Use profanity, violent or dehumanizing speech against a person or group of people because of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, marital status, religion, age, disability, political affiliations, or other similar grounds. 

  • We do allow people to offer or ask for content regarding the research of hate speech or content that is related to the prevention of hate speech.

Discrimination

Under Guruu’s community standards, discrimination means unfair or unequal treatment of an individual or group because of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, marital status, religion, age, disability, political affiliations, or other similar grounds.

Guruu will investigate claims of discrimination on a case-by-case basis, and defend protected groups whenever possible.
Do not:

  • Express your unwillingness to work with a person or a group of people because of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, marital status, religion, age, disability, political affiliations, or other similar grounds.

  • Publish, offer, or ask for any content that expresses or supports discriminatory ideas. 

Adult, Nudity, and Sexual Activity

Explicit content meant to be sexually gratifying is not allowed on Guruu. If detected or reported, sexually explicit content will be blocked and participants could be banned from our platform. Content portraying violent, graphic, or humiliating fetishes are also not allowed. 

Sexually explicit content featuring minors and content that seeks to sexually exploit minors is prohibited on Guruu. We immediately report content that violates this policy to the relevant law enforcement agencies.

Do not share, offer or ask for:

  • Nude or adult related images, or videos.

  • Sex or sexual partners.

  • Sex chats or conversations.

  • The execution of fetish scenarios.

  • Sexually gratifying modelling.

  • Content that depicts explicit sexual activity.

Guruu will act quickly to block transactions that feature child nudity and will flag the offending account for review. We may, at our discretion, report incidences to the relevant law enforcement agencies.

 Political and Election policies

Guruu will not tolerate attempts to use the Guruu platform to undermine elections. Election Interference is defined as any attempt to interfere with the integrity of the voting process or to destabilize and undermine public faith in free and fair elections. 

Intellectual Property

Guruu content is based on User Generated Content (UGC). If you believe any of the uploaded content violates your copyright or a related exclusive right, you should follow the process described here. 

Upon receipt of a report from a rights holder or an authorized representative, we will remove or restrict content that engages in:

  • Copyright infringement
  • Trademark infringement

Violence and Criminal Behaviour 

Threats 

While we know that people sometimes express frustration or disagreement by threatening or calling for violence in non-serious ways, we can’t risk the safety of our community or the general public by ignoring threats of physical harm. We will attempt to consider language and context when distinguishing casual comments from credible threats to public or personal safety, but Guruu will also act quickly to block accounts and may notify law enforcement when threats appear to be credible.
Do not:

  • Threaten violence against another community member

  • Offer or ask for services that threaten violence against individuals, groups, or the general public.

Glorification of violence

Using Guruu to glorify, promote or express support for acts of violence, is not acceptable on Guruu.  Please do not offer or ask for services that promote, support or glorify violence.

Incitement

Incitement means encouraging or asking other people to engage in unlawful conduct.  Be aware that inciting others to commit a crime may be a crime in itself, regardless of the outcome of the request. 

Do not:

  •  Ask for or instruct people to break the law.
  • Engage in activities of questionable legality.


Self-Harm
At Guruu, we care deeply about the safety of our community. If someone you're communicating with expresses suicidal thoughts or is engaging in self-harm, please contact local authorities immediately and flag the content to our support team.  

If you’re going through an emotionally challenging time yourself or struggling with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, we urge you to seek immediate assistance. To find support in your location, try a Google search or see: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Users Aged Under 18 Years of Age 
Guruu’s Terms of Service require that all users be at least 18 years of age and of legal age to form a binding contract. 

Users under 18 can have accounts that have been created via a parent or legal guardian’s account. For information about how to set up a minor’s account, please visit our younger users information page.

Minimum age requirements do not apply to learners.

The minimum age to become a Guruu is 15 years of age, due to the requirements of some jurisdictions for special permits that allow users under 15 years to be able to work.

Services involving minors
Some services on Guruu involve minors’ participation in the service, for example, a tutor is hired to help a young child.

We encourage parents and legal guardians to choose tutors that specify they work with children and are willing to provide relevant government-issued ID to confirm their identity.

Guruu does not provide real-time monitoring of sessions, parents or legal guardians should supervise their sessions for young children.
We do however provide recordings of sessions, accessible via dashboards. Parent and legal guardians may view a video session after it is delivered without breaching Guruu’s privacy policy.

No adult or harmful content featuring minors

We do not allow erotic, sexual or harmful content featuring minors.

Guruu may use broad discretion with respect to content or users that depict minors in a manner that violates this principle.

Any violations of this policy can lead to actions taken on the user account and a report made to relevant law enforcement agencies.   

Video Sessions and Recordings

As part of service delivery, participants meet over Guruu’s video conference (“sessions”) technology.

Video sessions are recorded so that all participants can refer to them later. You can access any of your video recordings via your dashboard shortly after a session has ended. 

We recommend that you download your video once it's available since we may, without notice, delete recordings in order to free up our storage capacity.

Guruu staff do not access or watch your recorded videos, except in the event of a dispute or complaint, as outlined in our Privacy Policy.

Users of Guruu.co that wish to make a video recording publicly accessible must first get the written consent of other participants in the recording.

A failure to comply may leave you vulnerable to legal action by the other participant(s).

Video recordings that are broadcast outside of Guruu are not bound by our privacy policy.

Making and Disputing Payments

Once a session is completed, we recommend releasing payment to your Guruu so that they don't have to wait long for their payment.

At the end of a session, if you wish to dispute the payment, there are under very limited conditions that apply.

These are:

  • The Guruu behaved in a manner that breaches our community standards or terms.
  • The Guruu did not deliver on pre-agreed requirements.

Our community standards are detailed and strictly enforced. Your Guruu is required to accurately state their skills and knowledge, and behave in a way that is consistent with our standards. Being unhappy or not liking someone is not sufficient reason to withhold payment. Instead, we recommend incorporating your feedback in your review (please read below to ensure your review meets our community standards).

Reviews and Ratings

Guruu encourages all participants to leave reviews about their experiences. This helps us maintain the integrity and quality of our website, and helps other users make better decisions about who to work with.

Before a session is booked, both participants should know clearly what is expected. Once a session is completed, reviews should be honest and independent, in other words, free of pressure or coercion. If you feel you are being put under pressure, please get in touch with our team at complaints@guruu.co

If you are unhappy with the quality of your session, and you clearly set out your expectations beforehand, we recommend that you raise this directly with the other party during your session. If you do leave a negative review, please ensure it is constructive and focuses on areas of improvement.

A negative review can be challenged and/or removed if it constitutes a personal attack, is dishonest, or is a breach of our community standards. We define personal attacks as occurring when someone refutes another's ideas by attacking the person rather than the ideas. Examples include comments that question a person's intelligence, values, integrity, motivations or decisions, using profanity, calling them names or generally being abusive.

You may not publish or post other user's private and confidential information in reviews.  

Don't forget that reviews are published publicly for everyone to see. Make sure what ever you publish reflects positively on you.