Privacy Policy

Note: This Privacy Policy uses "we" and "us", which refers to Pen & Podium Tutoring. Please also note that "you" and "your" refers to our users - students and educators as applicable or collectively.

Privacy is an important issue — to you and to us.

Pen & Podium Tutoring is committed to respecting the confidentiality of all of users' personal information and to making Pen & Podium a safe online destination.

What information we collect

When students register online:

When a user registers online with Pen & Podium Tutoring, we ask students (age 18 years or older) and/or parents/guardians of students who are younger than 18 years of age to provide the following pieces of personal information:

email address;

grade; and

course level (Applied, Academic etc.).

the school board or other corresponding educational authority that the student is affiliated with.

This information is collected for contact purposes and to determine appropriate tutoring support. During the user registration process, students and/or their parent/guardian will be asked to create a username. We strongly advise that you do not use any personally identifiable information in your username. Although usernames are not visible to other students during private tutoring sessions, usernames are visible to Pen & Podium tutors and Pen & Podium personnel and contractors in the course of providing and maintaining the Pen & Podium Tutoring service. Participating in an online course or group tutoring session may reveal your username to the other registered users. As the content may reach a larger audience than intended we caution all users to use non-identifying usernames, to be mindful of the information in the content they share, and to only share content with trusted parties. Digital content can also have a longer lifespan than expected so users should be aware that sharing sensitive content can lead to humiliation, damage to reputation, and criminal consequences, among other harms.

Pen & Podium Tutoring sessions may be recorded primarily for student reference purposes, and/or are also used by Pen & Podium Tutoring in limited circumstances for quality control, dispute resolution, and training purposes. Pen & Podium will continue to retain a copy of the recording for up to 1 year. All copies of recordings are permanently deleted periodically unless further retention is required for legal reasons.

The Pen & Podium Tutoring website, hosted by Squarespace, may use tools, extensions, and software (such as Acuity Scheduling software) in order to offer more convenient and secure online services for booking and payment. Pen & Podium Tutoring website and/or Squarespace, and/or additional online tools, extensions, or software may use cookies. No personal information is ever stored in a cookie, even if your name, or e-mail address was entered on other parts of the website. Pen & Podium does not sell information collected by cookies on its websites or use the information for commerce-related purposes.

How we use your information

We only collect and use personal information necessary to carrying out the Pen & Podium Tutoring services. We will not disclose, sell, release or rent your personal information to any other third parties, companies or people, unless we explicitly state otherwise or unless required by law.

We will use your email address to contact you to present you with information relevant to your use of the Pen & Podium Tutoring website (e.g. site updates, account maintenance).

If at any time you no longer wish to receive these emails, please log into your account and deselect "Subscribe to our newsletters" from your profile.

You can choose to stop receiving emails at any time by using the unsubscribe option on any communication we send you.

Where a client abuses the Terms of Use, we reserve the right to discontinue providing the Pen & Podium Tutoring service to the client and may close, terminate, or disable the client’s account. We will contact the client via the email address provided to notify that client of the closure, termination, or disablement of the account.

When tutoring clients communicate with tutors and/or other tutoring clients during virtual workshops, we encourage students to be mindful of the information they disclose when communicating online. Only disclose information you would be comfortable sharing in a public forum.

When you register and sign in to your account, your information is protected by industry standard encryption technology.

We reserve the right to disclose any collected information to the appropriate law enforcement agency, local children’s aid society, or other appropriate entity in urgent situations affecting health or safety of a client or where such disclosure may be legally required.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us.

Pen & Podium Tutoring reserves the right to amend the Privacy Policy from time to time at our sole discretion. Pen & Podium Tutoring users will be informed of any such amendments through the Website or by email. The effective date of any change will be clearly marked.

This Privacy Policy was last revised on November 7, 2023.