Privacy Policy
Last updated: 28 September 2026
VOETutor, operated by WSMath (“we”, “us”, “the platform”), is a premium video-tutoring platform for IB students and educators, based in Hong Kong. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the rights you have over it. It applies to everyone who creates an account or browses the platform.
1. Information you give us
When you sign up and use VOETutor, you (or, in some cases, your educator) provide:
| Data | Why we hold it |
|---|---|
| Account details — first name, last name, display name, email address, password, and an optional profile photo (avatar) you choose to upload. | To create and secure your account, sign you in, and identify you by name and picture across the platform. Your email address is used to sign in and for account emails; it is visible to VOETutor administrators but never to educators or other students. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes by our authentication provider; nobody at VOETutor can see your password. |
| Your role — whether you sign up as a student or educator. | To determine what you can see and do on the platform. |
| Student enrolment details (students only, all optional) — WhatsApp number, school, school year, and target grade. | So the educators of the classes you join can support you: understand your level and goals, and contact you about their lessons (for example, to remind you about a lesson you have not watched yet). See “Who can see your information” below for exactly who sees these. |
| Accounts created by an educator — an educator (or administrator) can create a student account for you, entering your name and email address and, optionally, your enrolment details. | So an educator can enrol you directly after arranging a class with you. You receive a private, single-use setup link (valid for 7 days) to choose your own password; the educator never sees or sets it. You can review and change the details they entered in Settings at any time. |
| Educator application details (educators only) — gender, WhatsApp number, education and institution, degree, major, graduation year, teaching experience, teaching subjects, and a self-introduction. | So an administrator can review and approve your educator account. Your self-introduction and professional background may be displayed publicly on your educator profile; your WhatsApp number and gender are seen only by administrators and are not published. |
| Educator public profile and media (educators only) — a profile/masthead photo, gallery images, a headline and role label, subject tags, an hourly rate, exam results, and the structured content of your public profile. | To build and display your public educator profile so prospective students can find and evaluate you. This information is published to promote your classes. |
| Content you create — forum posts, replies, and upvotes; class announcements, videos, and PDF notes you upload (educators), together with their titles and descriptions; and reports you file against a class. | To operate the discussion, curriculum, moderation, and content features you use. |
| Testimonials you add (educators only) — student testimonials that may include the reviewer's name, school, and photo. | To display reviews on your public profile. If you add these, you confirm you have the person's permission to publish their details; you can remove them at any time. |
| Invite recipients (educators only) — a prospective student's email address you optionally attach to a single-use invite link. | To bind an invite to a specific person. Invite links expire within 7 days, and the platform does not send the invite for you. |
2. Information we collect automatically
| Data | Why we hold it |
|---|---|
| Learning activity — the classes you enrol in, your playback progress on each lesson (resume position, total time played, whether and when you completed it, and when you last watched it), and which class announcements you have read and when. | To resume videos where you left off and show your progress and unread updates, and so the educator of each class can see how each of their students is progressing through their lessons and follow up where needed. |
| Lesson statistics — per-lesson and per-class figures (how many students completed or started each lesson, completion rates, and total watch time) derived from the learning activity above. | To show educators how their lessons are performing. These figures come from our own playback tracking, not from our video provider's separate delivery analytics. |
| Technical and log data — IP address, browser and device information, and access timestamps, recorded by our hosting and authentication providers. | To keep the service secure, diagnose problems, and prevent abuse. |
| Cookies and browser storage — an authentication session cookie and a few functional preferences. | See the Cookies section below. |
4. How we use your data
- Provide, maintain, and secure the platform and your account.
- Authenticate you and keep you signed in.
- Review and approve educator applications.
- Track and resume your learning progress, and show it to the educators of your classes.
- Let the educators of your classes support you — including contacting you on WhatsApp about their lessons, if you have given a WhatsApp number.
- Let educators find you by name and invite you to their classes (you choose whether to join).
- Operate the marketplace, forums, announcements, and moderation tools.
- Communicate with you about your account, including email verification and password resets.
- Detect, prevent, and respond to fraud, abuse, and security issues.
We do not send marketing emails, we do not sell your data, and we do not use it for advertising or build advertising profiles.
5. Who can see your information
Access is enforced by the platform itself, not just hidden in the interface. Here is exactly who can see what:
| Who | What they can see |
|---|---|
| Anyone, including visitors who are not signed in | Only approved educators' public profiles (see below) and pages that are public by design. Student information is never public. |
| Other students in your classes | Your name and profile photo — and only next to the forum posts and replies you write that they can see. They cannot see a class list, how many students are enrolled, or any of your other details (email address, WhatsApp number, school, progress). |
| Approved educators on VOETutor | They can search for you by name to invite you to one of their classes. The search shows them only your name, profile photo, and a partly hidden email address (for example al•••@g•••.com) so they can pick the right person. Joining is always your choice: the invitation appears on your dashboard, where you can accept or decline, and they see nothing else about you unless you join. |
| Other signed-in VOETutor users | Nothing about students. Educators' names and profile photos are visible to signed-in users, because educators teach publicly on the platform. |
| The educator of each class you are enrolled in | While you are enrolled: your name and profile photo; your WhatsApp number, school, school year, and target grade (if you provided them); when you joined VOETutor and that class; which parts of the class you have access to; your progress on each of their lessons (completion and completion date, time played, resume position, last watched); your activity in their class forum; which of their announcements you have read; and how many classes you are enrolled in on VOETutor in total (the number only — not which ones). They can use your WhatsApp number to contact you about their lessons. They cannot see your email address or password (unless they created your account, in which case they entered your email themselves), and they cannot see anything about classes taught by other educators. |
| VOETutor administrators | All account information, including your email address and, for educators, application details — used only to run the platform: approving educators, account support, moderation (for example removing an inappropriate photo or post), and deleting accounts. Administrators can correct your name and enrolment details at your request. |
Educator public profiles. Approved educators have a public profile — visible to anyone, including visitors who are not signed in, through our educator directory and homepage — that may display their name, photo, professional background, subjects, hourly rate, exam results, and any testimonials they add (which can include a reviewer's name, school, and photo).
Photos and embedded images. Profile photos you upload, and images you embed in forum posts or announcements, are stored at public web addresses, so anyone with the direct link may be able to view them. Please keep this in mind when deciding what to share.
WhatsApp. When an educator contacts you on WhatsApp, the message is sent from their own WhatsApp account and is covered by WhatsApp's own privacy policy. VOETutor only prepares the message (for example, a reminder with a link to the lesson); it does not send anything to WhatsApp itself or read your WhatsApp conversations. Educators may use your contact details only to support your learning on VOETutor, as required by our Terms of Service. If you would rather not be contacted this way, remove your WhatsApp number in Settings.
7. Data retention
We keep your personal data for as long as your account is active. If you leave or are removed from a class, that class's educator can no longer see your profile or contact details; your progress records are kept with your account so they are restored if you re-join. Invite links and account setup links expire within 7 days.
When your account is deleted (you can ask us to do this at any time), we delete your profile, photo, enrolment details, learning activity, and uploaded files. Forum posts and replies you wrote stay in their discussions so the conversation still makes sense for others, but they are shown as from a “Deleted account” with no name or photo attached (images inside those posts stay with them). If you want those posts removed as well, delete them before your account is deleted or ask us to remove them. Some records may be retained where we are legally required to, or where needed to resolve disputes and enforce our agreements. Server and security logs are retained for a limited period by our hosting and authentication providers.
8. How we protect your data
Access to your data is restricted at the database level by row-level security, so each person can only read and write the records their role allows — the rules in “Who can see your information” are enforced by the database, not just the interface. Sensitive lookups, such as your contact details or email address, go through dedicated checks that confirm the requester is the educator of your class or an administrator. Passwords are stored as salted hashes, traffic is encrypted in transit, uploaded videos and note files are served only through short-lived, access-checked links, and invite and setup links are single-use secrets that expire. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information.
9. Your rights
You can view and update your name, profile photo, and enrolment details (including removing your WhatsApp number) directly in Settings. You also have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data — including under Hong Kong's Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance — and, depending on where you live, to export it, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to withdraw consent. For any request, contact us using the details below and we will respond within a reasonable time.
10. Children and younger students
VOETutor serves IB students, some of whom are under 18. We collect only the data needed to provide the service, and a student's contact and enrolment details are visible only to the educators of their classes and to administrators. If you are below the age of digital consent in your country, please use VOETutor with the involvement of a parent or guardian — including when an educator creates your account. A parent or guardian may contact us to review, correct, or delete a child's data. If you believe a child has provided us data without appropriate consent, contact us and we will remove it.
11. International data transfers
Our service providers may process and store data in countries other than your own. Where data is transferred internationally, we rely on those providers' safeguards to keep it protected to the standard described in this policy.
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the platform evolves — for example, when paid checkout launches. We will revise the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, take reasonable steps to notify you.
13. Contact us
Questions about this policy or your data? Email support@wsmath.com.