1.About this policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Excellists collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal information when you visit excellists.com, contact us, submit an enquiry, arrange tutoring, communicate with our team, apply as a tutor or employee, or otherwise use our services.
In this policy, “Excellists”, “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to the business identified above. “Parent” includes a parent or legal guardian. “Student” includes any learner receiving or seeking academic support. “Tutor applicant” includes anyone applying to teach through Excellists.
This policy should be read with our Terms of Service, Cancellation and Refund Policy, Cookie Notice, and any consent or service information provided at the point of collection.
2.Who this policy applies to
This policy applies to:
- parents, guardians, students, and prospective students;
- tutors, tutor applicants, employees, contractors, and job applicants;
- website visitors and people who contact us by form, email, telephone, WhatsApp, social media, or another approved channel; and
- any person whose information is provided to us in connection with tutoring, safeguarding, payments, complaints, or service administration.
Our services are intended to be arranged by an adult. A student under 18 should not independently enter into a paid tutoring arrangement with Excellists.
3.Information we may collect
The information we collect depends on how you interact with us. It may include the following categories.
3.1 Parent, guardian, and student information
- names, telephone numbers, email addresses, city, and preferred contact method;
- the student’s age, class, school or college level, subject, Pakistani board or international curriculum, examination session, academic goals, availability, and preferred lesson format;
- information about current performance, learning gaps, study habits, attendance, progress, assessments, and tutor feedback;
- information voluntarily provided about a learning difficulty, disability, health, behaviour, or safeguarding concern where it is relevant to providing safe and appropriate support; and
- communications, complaints, feedback, and records of support provided by our team.
3.2 Tutor and employment information
- contact details, city, availability, subjects, boards or curricula, teaching preferences, and expected fees;
- CVs, education, qualifications, experience, references, interview notes, demonstration-lesson assessments, and other application information;
- identity or verification documents where reasonably required for onboarding, safety, payment, or legal purposes;
- device, internet, online-teaching, scheduling, performance, lesson-reporting, and professional-conduct information; and
- banking or payment information required to make authorised payments.
3.3 Payment and transaction information
Where tutoring fees or other payments are arranged, we may keep invoices, payment confirmations, transaction references, outstanding balances, credits, refunds, and related correspondence. If payment is made through a bank or third-party payment service, that provider processes the payment under its own terms and privacy practices. We do not intentionally collect full payment-card details through the website unless a clearly identified payment provider is used.
3.4 Website and technical information
- IP address, browser and device type, operating system, approximate location, referring page, pages visited, time spent, and website interactions;
- cookie identifiers, analytics data, advertising-attribution information, and consent preferences; and
- technical logs used to maintain security, prevent misuse, diagnose errors, and improve website performance.
3.5 Audio, video, photographs, and lesson recordings
We will not record a tutoring lesson, use a student’s photograph, publish a testimonial, or use a student’s results for marketing without appropriate prior permission. Where a lesson is recorded for an agreed academic, quality, safety, or training purpose, we will explain the purpose, who may access it, and how long it will be retained before recording begins.
4.How we collect information
We may collect information:
- directly from you through website forms, telephone calls, email, WhatsApp, meetings, applications, assessments, and lesson communications;
- from a parent, guardian, student, tutor, referee, school representative, or another person authorised to provide it;
- from tutors and staff through lesson reports, progress reviews, scheduling records, and operational systems;
- automatically through cookies, analytics, security tools, and server logs; and
- from publicly available professional sources where reasonably necessary to review a tutor or job applicant.
Please provide information that is accurate, relevant, and current. Do not provide another person’s personal information unless you are authorised to do so.
5.Why we use personal information
We use personal information only for clear and reasonable business, educational, safety, and legal purposes, including to:
- respond to enquiries and understand a student’s academic requirements;
- identify, assess, recommend, and confirm a suitable tutor;
- arrange trials, lessons, schedules, substitutions, cancellations, and progress reviews;
- provide parent care, student support, tutor support, and complaint handling;
- communicate about fees, invoices, payments, credits, and refunds;
- review tutor, contractor, and employment applications and complete onboarding checks;
- monitor service quality, professional conduct, attendance, and safeguarding concerns;
- operate, secure, maintain, analyse, and improve our website and internal systems;
- prevent fraud, misuse, unauthorised access, or other harmful activity;
- send service messages and, where permission has been given, relevant marketing communications;
- maintain accounting, tax, contractual, complaint, and legal records; and
- comply with lawful requests, court orders, regulatory requirements, or obligations under applicable Pakistani law.
We will not use personal information for a materially different purpose without providing appropriate notice and, where required or appropriate, obtaining consent.
6.Consent and communication preferences
Where we rely on consent, it should be informed, specific, and freely given. You may withdraw consent for future use by contacting us, although withdrawal does not affect processing already completed or information we must retain for legal, safety, contractual, or record-keeping reasons.
Service messages about an enquiry, lesson, schedule, payment, safeguarding issue, or active tutoring arrangement are not marketing messages. You may opt out of promotional email, SMS, or WhatsApp messages at any time by using the available unsubscribe option or contacting us. We may retain a minimal suppression record so that we can respect the opt-out.
7.Children and students under 18
Excellists provides services that may involve children and young people. We therefore aim to collect only the student information reasonably needed to arrange and support tutoring.
- A parent or guardian must provide or approve the information used to arrange tutoring for a student under 18.
- Tutors and staff should use approved communication channels and follow Excellists’ safeguarding and professional-conduct requirements.
- Where practical, communications concerning a minor’s lessons, schedule, payments, complaints, or welfare will include or remain accessible to the parent or guardian.
- We do not knowingly use a minor’s personal information for unrelated advertising or sell it to third parties.
- A parent or guardian may contact us to review, correct, or request deletion of a minor’s information, subject to safety, dispute, financial, and legal record requirements.
If you believe a child has provided information without appropriate parental or guardian involvement, please contact us promptly.
8.When we share information
We do not sell or rent personal information. We may share limited information only where reasonably necessary with:
- a proposed or confirmed tutor, so the tutor can assess suitability, prepare, and deliver lessons;
- authorised Excellists staff, contractors, and service teams who need it for admissions, scheduling, parent care, finance, HR, quality, safeguarding, or operations;
- technology providers supporting hosting, forms, email, cloud storage, customer communication, WhatsApp, video lessons, analytics, security, backups, or internal systems;
- banks, payment providers, accountants, auditors, insurers, lawyers, and other professional advisers;
- a successor or prospective buyer in connection with a genuine business restructuring, investment, merger, or transfer, subject to appropriate confidentiality; and
- courts, regulators, law-enforcement bodies, emergency services, or other authorities where disclosure is required by law or reasonably necessary to protect rights, safety, or security.
Tutors receive only the information reasonably needed for the proposed or active tutoring arrangement. They must not use student or family information for unrelated purposes.
9.Third-party services and international data handling
Some service providers used by Excellists may operate or store information outside Pakistan. This can include website hosting, cloud storage, email, analytics, video-conferencing, advertising, and messaging providers. Where personal information is handled outside Pakistan, we take reasonable steps to use reputable providers, limit the information shared, apply access controls, and use contractual or technical safeguards appropriate to the service and available legal framework.
Third-party services, including WhatsApp, Meta platforms, Google services, video-conferencing platforms, and payment providers, may also collect information directly under their own privacy policies. Excellists does not control every independent processing activity carried out by those providers.
10.Cookies, analytics, and advertising
Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to:
- keep the website secure and functioning;
- remember preferences and form choices;
- measure traffic and understand how pages are used;
- identify technical problems and improve performance; and
- measure or personalise advertising where those tools are enabled and appropriate consent has been obtained.
Essential cookies may be used because the website cannot operate properly without them. Non-essential analytics or advertising cookies should be activated only in accordance with the consent choices presented on the website. Further details should be provided in the Excellists Cookie Notice and consent banner.
11.How long we keep information
We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and for legitimate safety, contractual, accounting, complaint, dispute, and legal requirements. Retention periods may vary by record type.
- Unsuccessful or inactive enquiries may be retained for a limited period to manage follow-up, prevent duplicate records, and respond to later questions.
- Student, family, lesson, payment, complaint, and service records may be retained after an arrangement ends where needed for financial records, safeguarding, disputes, service history, or legal obligations.
- Tutor and job applications may be retained for the current recruitment process and a reasonable future-opportunity period, unless the applicant requests earlier deletion and no overriding need applies.
- Marketing contact information is retained until consent is withdrawn, the information is no longer useful, or a suppression record is needed to respect an opt-out.
- Security logs and backups may be retained for shorter operational cycles and then overwritten or deleted.
When information is no longer needed, we aim to delete, anonymise, or securely archive it, subject to technical backup cycles and lawful retention requirements.
12.Information security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organisational measures designed to protect personal information from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, loss, or misuse. Depending on the system, these measures may include role-based access, passwords and multi-factor authentication, secure transmission, backups, malware protection, staff confidentiality, access reviews, and provider security controls.
No website, messaging service, internet transmission, or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure. You should avoid sending unnecessary sensitive information through open or unapproved channels and should protect your own devices and account credentials.
If we become aware of a significant security incident affecting personal information, we will investigate, take reasonable containment and remediation steps, and notify affected persons or authorities where required by applicable law or where notification is reasonably necessary to reduce a serious risk of harm.
13.Your choices and requests
Subject to identity verification and applicable legal, safety, contractual, and operational limits, you may ask us to:
- confirm whether we hold personal information about you or your child;
- provide access to relevant personal information;
- correct incomplete, inaccurate, or outdated information;
- delete information that is no longer reasonably required;
- withdraw consent for future processing where consent was used;
- stop promotional communications;
- explain how information has been used or shared; or
- raise a privacy concern or complaint.
We may refuse or limit a request where disclosure would reveal another person’s information, interfere with safeguarding, prejudice a legal claim or investigation, conflict with a lawful retention requirement, or be technically disproportionate. Where appropriate, we will explain the reason.
Tutor matching and service decisions may use structured criteria, but Excellists does not intend to make significant decisions about students or tutors solely through automated processing without meaningful human review.
14.Links to other websites
Our website may link to external websites or services. Their privacy and security practices are controlled by their respective operators. You should review the applicable privacy policy before providing information to an external service.
15.Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as our services, technology, or legal obligations develop. The effective date at the top identifies the current version. Material changes may also be communicated through the website, email, WhatsApp, or another appropriate channel. Changes apply from the stated effective date and do not authorise us to use previously collected information for an unrelated purpose without appropriate notice or consent.
16.Applicable law and complaints
This policy is intended for an education service operating in Pakistan and should be interpreted in accordance with applicable laws of Pakistan and, where relevant, the Province of Punjab. Nothing in this policy removes rights or remedies that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Please first send any privacy concern to Excellists so that we can investigate and respond. This does not prevent you from approaching a court, regulator, law-enforcement body, consumer-protection authority, or other competent authority where you are legally entitled to do so.
