Otute Privacy Policy

Effective Date: May 12, 2024

Otute respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy. This Privacy Policy describes how Otute collects, uses, and shares information about you, and outlines the choices you have regarding your information.

1. Information We Collect

Otute collects several types of information from users to provide and improve our services. The categories of information we collect include:

  • Personal Information:
    • Contact Information: Name, email address, phone number, and physical address, required for identification, communication, and billing.
    • User Account Information: Unique identifiers created upon registration, including user roles (Instructor, Learner, Parent).
  • Academic and Enrollment Data:
    • Course Information: Details about academies, courses created by instructors, and course descriptions.
    • Enrollment Information: Enrollment status, attendance records, and academic performance to facilitate course management and billing.
    • Instructor and Learner Data: Information regarding course sessions, attendance, and completion records.
  • Payment Information:
    • Online Payment Data: Billing information, transaction identifiers, and history of payments.
    • Offline Payment Data: Transaction details, such as transaction numbers, for non-digital payments.
  • Communication Preferences: Opt-in/opt-out preferences for email and SMS notifications, collected during registration.
  • Technical Information: Usage data on user interactions with the platform, including access times, browser types, IP addresses, and device information.

2. How We Use Your Information

  • Otute uses the information we collect in several ways to enhance your experience on our platform, fulfill our obligations, and maintain a safe and secure service environment. Our usage of information includes the following:

    • Service Development and Improvement:

      We use your information to develop, provide, and improve our services, complete transactions, process your registration, and verify the information you provide. This also helps with internal business purposes and maintaining compliance with regulatory standards.

    • Communication and Notifications:

      To communicate with you regarding administrative matters, important updates, and relevant information about Otute’s services, we may send you emails, SMS notifications, and platform messages. If you wish to stop receiving marketing or promotional communications, you can adjust your preferences in the "Your Choices and Rights" section below.

    • Personalized Content and Offers:

      We use information to tailor the content and offers we display to you, both on the platform and elsewhere online, based on your preferences and interactions.

    • Business Relationship Management:

      To effectively administer and develop our relationship with you and, if applicable, any organization you represent, we may use your information to enhance the services we offer and ensure a smooth and personalized experience on the platform.

    • Legal Compliance and Protection:

      Otute may use your information to enforce and comply with legal requirements. This includes conducting investigations, protecting the rights and property of Otute or third parties, ensuring the safety of the public or any person, and preventing or addressing potentially illegal, fraudulent, or unethical activities.

    • Contractual Obligations:

      Much of our data processing serves to meet our contractual obligations to users and academies, such as processing payments, managing course enrollments, and maintaining accurate attendance records.

    • Legitimate Interests:

      Otute may handle personal information to further our legitimate interests in ways that respect the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals. These purposes include:

      • Delivering our platform and services.
      • Detecting security incidents, preventing malicious or illegal activities, and prosecuting those responsible.
      • Measuring engagement and interest in our platform.
      • Customizing ads or content based on context.
      • Improving and enhancing our platform features.
      • Developing new services or platform offerings.
      • Ensuring quality control and safety.
      • Verifying user identities to prevent fraud.
      • Debugging and resolving platform issues.
      • Conducting audits for transactions and compliance.
      • Enforcing our agreements and platform policies.
      • Analyzing and improving Otute’s business operations.
      • Managing legal, security, and business continuity issues.
    • Compliance with Legal Obligations:

      Otute may need to use and disclose personal information to comply with applicable laws, regulations, or legal processes. This includes cooperating with regulatory authorities and complying with lawful requests to ensure compliance with data protection and other legal obligations.

    • Other Purposes:

      We may use your information for purposes disclosed at the time you provide it, with your consent, or as further outlined in this Privacy Policy.

3. Information Sharing and Disclosure

  • Otute does not sell your personal information for monetary gain, nor do we share your personal information with third parties for their marketing purposes unless you have first been given the opportunity to opt-in or opt-out of such sharing. However, Otute may use certain technologies on our platform to advertise to you and better understand your interactions with our platform. This may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information for targeted advertising under applicable data protection laws.

    We may also share the information we collect about you, including personal information, in specific circumstances as outlined below or when disclosed at the time of information collection and with your consent.

    Tutors, Academies, and Other Otute Users

    Tutors and Academies: For Tutors or Academies who enter into service agreements with learners or who participate in platform payment processing, we may share relevant information with the applicable learners to facilitate courses and financial transactions.

    Public Profiles: For Tutors and Academies who have made their profiles publicly visible, we may share their information with learners, other Academies, and platform partners. Users can adjust their privacy settings if they wish to limit the visibility of their profiles.

    Suspended Users: If a Tutor or Academy is suspended from Otute, we may inform the learners or Academies with whom they have previously interacted or submitted proposals.

    Learner Transactions: For learners entering into course agreements with Tutors or Academies, or using Otute’s payment services, we may share your information with the relevant Tutor or Academy to complete the transaction or resolve disputes. Tutors and Academies are not permitted to use this information for unrelated purposes, such as marketing, unless you have expressly consented to it.

    Service Providers

    Otute engages trusted third-party service providers to support our platform services. These providers assist with activities such as payment processing, security, web analytics, maintenance, and online advertising. Examples of service providers include payment processors, identity verification services, security firms, and data storage providers.

    These third parties may have access to your personal information strictly to perform these tasks on our behalf and are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality of your data and only use it for the specific purposes for which they are engaged.

    Legal and Investigative Purposes

    Otute may disclose your information to government or law enforcement agencies as required by law, including responding to lawful requests to meet national security or law enforcement needs. We cooperate with authorities to comply with legal processes, such as subpoenas or other regulatory requirements.

    In addition, we may disclose your information if we believe it is necessary to:

    • Protect the rights, property, or safety of Otute, our users, or the public;
    • Enforce our policies, contracts, and legal terms; or
    • Prevent or investigate potential illegal or unethical activities, such as fraud.
    Internal and Business Transfers

    For business and operational purposes, Otute may share information, including personal information, with subsidiaries or affiliates, should they be established, to provide services, manage internal operations, or support the services we offer.

    In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, we may transfer your information as part of the due diligence process or completion of the transaction. If Otute undergoes bankruptcy or similar proceedings, information about our users may be among the transferred assets.

    Non-Identifying and De-Identified Information

    We may share aggregated, non-identifying information, or de-identified data that does not directly identify you. This information may include general demographics, anonymized usage data, or statistical insights that are shared with third parties for purposes such as research, analysis, and improving our platform services.

4. Data Security and Retention

  • We take a number of steps to protect your data, but no security is guaranteed.

    Otute takes reasonable steps to help protect and secure the information it collects and stores about Otute Users. We maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information that we receive against accidental, unlawful, or unauthorized destruction, loss, alteration, access, disclosure or use.

5. User Rights and Controls

  • Otute values your privacy and provides you with various choices and rights regarding your personal information. These rights may include:

    • Opting Out of Data Sharing: You may opt out of specific types of data sharing, such as targeted communications or disclosures to third parties. You can adjust your preferences in your account settings or contact us as described in the "Contact Us" section below.
    • Non-Discrimination: Otute will not subject you to discriminatory treatment for exercising any of your privacy rights, including opting out of specific data processing activities.
    • Verifying Your Request:
      • For requests related to accessing, deleting, or modifying personal information, we may need to verify your identity before fulfilling your request. This verification helps us confirm that you are the correct person associated with the data.
      • Verification may require you to provide sufficient information to reasonably confirm your identity.
      • We will only use the information provided in a verifiable request to process your request and will not retain it beyond what is necessary for verification purposes.
    • Reasonable Requests: Please note that if a request is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded, we may charge a reasonable fee or decline to process the request.

    To exercise your rights, or if you have any questions, please contact us at support@otute.com or as described in the "Contact Us" section below.

6. Cross-Border Data Transfers

  • As a globally accessible platform, Otute processes and stores your information in our primary operating region. Our service providers, who assist in delivering our services, may also process and store your information in locations outside your home country.

    Otute may transfer personal information to third parties located in jurisdictions outside the one from which the information was collected, including to countries that may not have been deemed by certain regulatory authorities to have adequate protection for data subjects’ rights and freedoms. Whenever we transfer personal information to another jurisdiction, Otute conducts thorough due diligence to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place.

    For such transfers, Otute ensures that data recipients implement and maintain technical and organizational measures to prevent unauthorized or unlawful processing, as well as accidental loss, destruction, or damage of personal information, in compliance with applicable data protection laws.

    We utilize appropriate legal mechanisms for these transfers, such as Standard Contractual Clauses, where required by law. For residents of the European Union, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, Otute ensures that personal data is handled in accordance with recognized data protection principles.

    To learn more or request a copy of any applicable data transfer mechanism documentation used to transfer data to third parties, please contact us at support@otute.com.

7. Updates to This Privacy Policy

Otute may update this policy to reflect changes in practices, technology, or legal obligations. Significant changes will be communicated via email or through the platform.

8. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests, please contact us at:

Email: support@otute.com