Privacy

1. Information We Collect

We collect personal information you provide directly and information automatically generated when you use Guruu.

1.1 Information you provide

  • Account details (name, email, phone, city/country).

  • Profile information (skills, experience, bio).

  • Payment details provided to Stripe (not stored by Guruu).

  • Messages, reviews, ratings, session notes.

  • Information submitted through forms (support, safety reports, influencer or affiliate applications).

  • Video and audio content shared in sessions (via automatic recording).

1.2 Information collected automatically

  • Device information, IP address, browser type, OS details.

  • Cookies and tracking technologies.

  • Usage analytics (pages viewed, features used, session durations).

  • Connection diagnostics (network events, connection failures).

1.3 Information from third parties

  • Payment data from Stripe (transaction status, dispute status).

  • Analytics data (usage trends).

  • Identity or account checks (where applicable).

  • Security tools that detect potential fraud or abuse.

2. How We Use Your Information

  • Provide, personalise, and improve the Platform.
  • Deliver tutoring, teaching, and consulting sessions.
  • Process bookings, payments, and refunds.
  • Resolve disputes and chargebacks.
  • Protect minors and enforce safety standards.
  • Verify identity and prevent fraud or harmful behaviour.
  • Communicate with you (transactional messages, alerts, support).
  • Send marketing communications (only where permitted).
  • Comply with legal, regulatory, and audit requirements.

Guruu processes message content for the limited purpose of enforcing safety rules, preventing prohibited content, and ensuring the integrity of on-platform communication. This processing may include automated detection of email addresses, phone numbers, URLs, or other contact information.

Processing is based on:

  • the performance of a contract,
  • our legitimate interest in operating a safe marketplace,
  • consent (where required),
  • and legal obligations.

3. Cookies & Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to:

  • operate the site,

  • analyse performance,

  • remember your preferences,

  • and, where permitted, support marketing campaigns.

You may disable cookies in your browser settings, but some features may not function properly.

Our site does not currently respond to “Do Not Track” signals.

4. Session Recordings

All sessions conducted on Guruu are automatically recorded.
Recording is a mandatory safety, quality, and dispute-resolution requirement for anyone using the Platform.

By using Guruu, you consent to:

  • video and audio recording of your sessions, and

  • the storage and limited review of those recordings.

4.1 Who can access recordings

Recordings are accessible only to:

  • the learner or, for minors, their registered parent or guardian;

  • the Service Provider who delivered the session;

  • authorised Guruu staff when required for:

    • dispute resolution (Tier 0–Tier 2),

    • chargeback defence,

    • safety review,

    • fraud and abuse prevention, or

    • compliance with legal obligations;

  • Stripe and issuing banks when necessary to handle a card dispute or chargeback;

  • law enforcement, where legally required.

Guruu does not use recordings for marketing or public release.

4.2 Downloading recordings

Recordings may be downloaded from your dashboard shortly after the session.
We recommend saving a copy locally, as Guruu may delete recordings after the retention period.

4.3 Retention and storage schedule

Recordings are retained for up to 180 days:

  • Days 0–30:
    Stored in full quality and available for easy playback or download.

  • Days 30–180:
    Recordings may be compressed or moved to secure archive storage at lower resolution.
    They remain fully viewable for disputes, chargebacks, guardian oversight, and safety review.

  • After 180 days:
    Recordings are permanently deleted unless required for:

    • a safety or misconduct investigation,

    • legal or law-enforcement purposes, or

    • compliance with regulatory obligations.

In serious cases—such as suspected abuse, grooming, violence, harassment, or criminal behaviour—recordings and related logs may be retained securely for 5–7 years.

4.4 Restrictions on sharing

Recordings may not be shared publicly, reposted, or distributed outside Guruu without the written consent of all participants, except where a parent or guardian reviews a child’s session.

Unauthorised sharing may result in suspension or legal action.

5. Safety Reports & Concerns

Users may report behaviour that violates our Terms or Community Standards.
Minors may submit a “Something felt wrong” concern, which is sent privately to their guardian.

Guruu uses automated tools and limited human review (where necessary) to assess safety alerts.
To protect user privacy, outcomes of internal investigations may not be shared.

6. Data Retention

We retain personal data only as long as necessary to:

  • operate the Platform,

  • meet legal, tax, and regulatory requirements,

  • resolve disputes and chargebacks, and

  • prevent fraud or abuse.

Retention examples:

  • Session recordings: up to 180 days, longer for safety cases.

  • Booking and payment records: typically 6–7 years (financial requirements).

  • Messages and dispute logs: retained as required for fraud prevention and legal compliance.

  • Account information: retained until deletion or anonymisation, except where retention is legally required.

After expiration of a retention period, data is securely deleted or anonymised.

6.1 Account Deletion

If you delete your Guruu account, we will:

  • deactivate your profile,

  • remove or anonymise personal data where possible, and

  • retain data we are legally required to keep.

Deleting your account does not delete:

  • session recordings still within the 180-day retention period,

  • booking and transaction records,

  • dispute logs,

  • safety reports,

  • chargeback-related evidence.

Recordings remain accessible to the Service Provider for the remainder of the retention window.

7. Users Under 18

  • Accounts for minors must be created and managed by a parent or legal guardian.

  • Guardians have access to the minor’s session recordings and communications.

  • Minors may report concerns but cannot initiate payment actions or disputes.

  • Guruu does not knowingly collect information directly from a minor without guardian consent.

  • For accounts involving minors, all messages, file uploads, and other shared content are visible to the registered parent or guardian as part of Guruu’s child safety and transparency measures.

8. Sharing Information with Third Parties

We share personal information only as needed to operate the Platform:

8.1 Service providers

Includes hosting providers, Twilio video services, storage providers, analytics tools, cloud vendors, and payment processors (such as Stripe).

8.2 Legal & compliance
We may share information with law enforcement or regulatory bodies where required by law.

Guruu complies with all applicable laws and lawful requests from government or regulatory authorities.
We may disclose any information we hold about you if required to do so, including:

  • personal information and account details;

  • booking and transaction records;

  • messages, logs, and metadata;

  • payment-related identifiers (such as Stripe customer IDs, payment intent IDs, charge IDs, and dispute IDs);

  • session recordings;

  • safety reports, dispute evidence, and fraud indicators.

We may disclose this information in response to:

  • a valid court order, warrant, or subpoena;

  • a lawful request from a government or regulatory authority;

  • investigations into fraud, financial crime, child safety risks, or threats to public safety;

  • situations where Guruu reasonably believes that disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, safety, or property of Guruu, its users, or the public.

Where legally permitted, Guruu will notify affected users before disclosing their information.

Guruu is not responsible for decisions made by Stripe or other third-party processors in relation to their own legal obligations or responses to government requests.

8.3 Marketing & analytics

We may work with analytics providers to understand platform usage.
Guruu does not sell, rent, or trade personal information for third-party marketing.

9. International Data Transfers

Your data may be stored or processed in the United States, Australia, or other countries.
We use contractual protections and secure transfer mechanisms to ensure your information is handled safely and lawfully.

10. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your information.
However, no system is completely secure.
Please maintain strong passwords and do not share account access.

11. Automated Processing & AI Tools

11. Automated Processing & AI Tools

Guruu uses automated tools and artificial intelligence to improve your experience 
and maintain platform safety.

11.1 AI Features Available to Users

AI may assist with:
- Profile bio generation (optional, for Service Providers)
- Customer support responses (for routine account questions)
- Dispute summarization (for moderators only)
- Safety signal detection and fraud prevention
- Chargeback evidence preparation

You can opt out of user-facing AI features at any time through your account settings.

11.2 Third-Party AI Providers

To provide AI features, we use third-party AI service providers (such as OpenAI 
or Anthropic). When you use AI features, your input is sent to these providers 
for processing.

We implement privacy protections before sending data to AI providers:
- Personal identifiers are redacted (email addresses, phone numbers, URLs)
- For minors: names and addresses are replaced with placeholders
- Payment details and sensitive IDs are never sent to AI providers
- We send only the minimum information needed for the AI feature to function

Third-party AI providers process your data in accordance with their own privacy 
policies and data processing agreements. We do not control how these providers 
handle data once received, but we contractually require them to maintain 
appropriate security standards.

11.3 AI-Generated Content Storage and Deletion

Content generated by AI is stored as follows:

- Bio drafts (unpublished): Stored for 90 days, then automatically deleted
  - For minors: Guardians can request immediate deletion of unpublished drafts 
    through the guardian dashboard
  
- Bio content (published): Retained as part of your profile (same retention as 
  Section 6)
  - Cannot be deleted separately; subject to standard account deletion policies

- Support ticket responses: Retained as part of your support ticket history 
  (same retention as Section 6)
  - Cannot be deleted separately; part of audit trail

- Dispute summaries: Retained for 180 days, then deleted (unless part of an 
  ongoing safety investigation)
  - Admin tool only; not user-facing

- AI activity logs: Retained for 90 days for quality assurance and safety, 
  then automatically deleted

Guardians may request deletion of their minor's unpublished AI bio drafts by 
contacting help@guruu.co or using the "Delete draft bios" function in the 
guardian dashboard.

11.4 How AI Works on Guruu

AI provides suggestions, drafts, and summaries only. AI does not:
- Make final decisions about refunds, payouts, or account actions
- Handle sensitive safety reports (these are escalated to human review)
- Provide legal, medical, or financial advice
- Publish content without your approval

All meaningful decisions involve human oversight. You are always responsible 
for reviewing and approving AI-generated content before it is published or used.

11.5 Guardian Controls for Minors

For accounts involving minors:
- AI features may be disabled by default (depending on age)
- Guardians can enable or disable AI features through the guardian dashboard
- Guardians can view all AI activity (bio drafts generated, support interactions)
- All AI-generated content for minors is subject to guardian review before 
  publishing
- Enhanced privacy protections apply (name and contact redaction)

11.6 Opting Out

You may opt out of AI features at any time:
- Service Providers: Profile Settings → AI Preferences → Disable bio generation
- Guardians: Guardian Dashboard → [Minor Name] → Privacy Settings → Disable AI features
- Support: Request human-only support by clicking "Escalate to human" on any 
  AI response

Opting out does not affect core platform functionality. All features work 
without AI—it's simply a helpful tool.

11.7 AI Errors and Limitations

AI may produce errors, inaccuracies, or inappropriate suggestions. We implement 
safety scanning and human review to minimize these issues, but AI is not perfect.

If AI features are unavailable due to technical issues, all manual alternatives 
remain available. Your use of Guruu does not depend on AI functionality.

12. Your Rights (EU, UK, and California Residents)

Depending on your location, you may have rights to:

  • access your data,

  • request correction,

  • request deletion (subject to legal retention),

  • request data portability,

  • opt out of marketing communications.

California residents may have additional rights under the CCPA.

You may exercise your rights by contacting help@guruu.co.
We will verify your identity and respond within a reasonable timeframe.

13. Updating Your Information

You may update your account details in your profile settings.
Contact us if any information is inaccurate and we will correct it.

14. External Links

Guruu may contain links to third-party sites.
We are not responsible for their privacy practices.
Please review their policies before sharing information.

15. Contact Us

For any privacy-related questions or requests, contact:

📧 help@guruu.co

We aim to respond promptly and in accordance with applicable laws.

Last Updated: November 28, 2025