1Who we are and what this covers
EduLink (“EduLink”, “we”, “us”) is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This policy covers three services:
- WebsiteThe EduLink website at edulinket.com, including the demo-request form.
- AppEduLink Tutors & Parents — the Android app that connects families with verified university tutors.
- SchoolsEduLink School Management — the school management system used by schools.
For the website and the tutor app, EduLink decides how personal information is used (we are the “controller”). For School Management, each school is responsible for its own records and EduLink processes them on the school’s behalf — see section 4.
2 · WebsiteThe EduLink website
Visitor statistics
We run our own simple, privacy-friendly statistics — not Google Analytics or any advertising tracker. When you open a page we record:
- the page you opened and how long it was actually on your screen (time in a background tab isn’t counted);
- the website you came from, if any (just its name, such as google.com);
- your type of device — phone, tablet or computer;
- your approximate country and city, worked out from your IP address.
We never store your IP address. To count unique visitors we keep a scrambled code that changes every day, so we can’t follow you from one day to the next. To find your country and city we send your IP address to an IP-location service (ipwho.is) once a day, and keep only the result. If your browser sends “Do Not Track”, we don’t record your visit at all. Search engines and other bots are not counted.
A small random session number is kept in your browser’s session storage so that pages you open in one visit are grouped together; it is erased when you close the tab. The website uses no advertising cookies.
The “Book a free demo” form
If you request a demo we store the school name, your name, phone number, the school’s size and any message you write, together with the date. We use it only to contact you about EduLink School Management. We also keep the network address that sent the form for 30 days, to stop spam and abuse, and then erase it.
The admin area
EduLink staff who sign in to manage the website use a secure session cookie that is deleted when they sign out or after two hours of inactivity.
3 · AppEduLink Tutors & Parents app
These are the kinds of information the app collects, and why.
| Information | What it includes and why |
|---|---|
| Account | Full name, email, phone number, password (stored scrambled), whether you are a parent or a tutor, and an optional promo code. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name and verified email from Google. |
| Your children parents | Each child’s name, grade and the subjects they need help with — so tutors can understand what’s needed. |
| Job posts parents | Grades, curriculum, online or in-person, the address for in-person lessons and, if you choose, a pin on the map, days and hours, your hourly budget, your preferred tutor gender, and your description. |
| Tutor profile tutors | University, department, gender, subjects with grade ranges and hourly rates, weekly availability, a short biography and whether you are taking work. |
| Verification documents tutors | Photos of the documents our team asks for, so we can confirm a tutor is who they say they are. Seen only by EduLink staff. |
| Tutor ID card tutors | Each verified tutor gets a card with a QR code. Anyone who scans it sees whether the card is genuine and active. |
| Applications, hiring and lessons | Which tutors applied to which jobs, who was hired, lesson schedules and reschedule requests. |
| Messages | Chats between a family and the tutor they hired, and whether a message has been read. |
| Reviews | Star ratings and comments — only from families who actually hired the tutor. |
| Payments | Payments are made by bank or Telebirr transfer, outside the app. You upload a screenshot of the receipt so our team can confirm it. For tutors paid monthly through EduLink, we keep the bank account you register for payouts. We never receive card or mobile-money passwords. |
| SOS alerts | Only when you hold the SOS button: your name, phone number and live location, updated every couple of minutes until our team closes the alert. |
| Notifications | A device token from Google Firebase so we can send you notifications about your jobs, applications and messages. |
| App lock | If you turn on the app lock, your PIN is checked on your device and your fingerprint is handled by your phone — it is never sent to us. |
| Security records | Failed sign-in attempts and the network address they came from, so we can lock out password guessing; and a log of important actions for accountability. |
Jobs on Telegram. New jobs are also posted to EduLink’s public Telegram channel so more tutors see them. A post shows the grade, curriculum, online or in-person with the general area, the schedule, the budget and the tutor gender wanted — never the parent’s name, phone number or email. Please describe your area in general terms (for example a sub-city) rather than a full street address.
The app does not collect your contacts, SMS messages, call logs, or your location in the background. Location is used only when you choose to drop a map pin on a job, or while an SOS alert is active.
4 · SchoolsEduLink School Management
Schools use EduLink School Management to keep records about their students, parents and staff — for example admissions details, class and section, attendance, marks, report cards and transcripts, fees and payments, homework, library, transport and hostel records, messages and notices, and staff and payroll records.
The school is responsible for these records. The school decides what to record and who in the school can see it; parents and students see their own information through the portal. When EduLink hosts, installs or supports the system, we process the records only on the school’s instructions and only to provide the service. Where a school installs the system on its own server, the data stays with the school.
If you are a parent, student or staff member with a question about your school records, please contact your school first. We will help the school answer you.
5How we use information
| Purpose | What this means |
|---|---|
| Running the services | Creating accounts, posting jobs, showing tutors and applications, scheduling lessons, messaging, and running school records. |
| Verification and safety | Checking tutor documents, issuing ID cards, handling SOS alerts, preventing fraud and misuse, and enforcing our rules. |
| Payments | Confirming receipts and paying tutors on the monthly plan. |
| Staying in touch | Notifications about your jobs and lessons, and replies to demo requests and support messages. Our team may also call a parent after a new job is posted to help find the right tutor. |
| Improving the services | Understanding which pages and features are used — using the anonymous statistics described above. |
| Legal duties | Keeping records we are required to keep and responding to lawful requests. |
We use information because it is needed to provide the service you asked for, because of our legitimate interest in running a safe platform, because the law requires it, or — where we ask — with your consent.
6Who can see what
- Before a tutor is hired, tutors see the job details but not the parent’s name, phone number or email. Parents see tutors’ public profiles — name, university, department, subjects, rates, rating and reviews.
- After a tutor is hired, the family and the tutor can chat and see each other’s contact details.
- EduLink staff see what they need to run the service — for example verification documents, payment receipts and SOS alerts. Access is limited by staff role and recorded.
- The public can see job summaries on our Telegram channel (without names or contact details) and can check whether a tutor ID card is genuine.
7Children
Accounts in the tutor app are created and managed by parents or guardians, and by tutors who are adults. Children do not have their own accounts in the tutor app. Information a parent enters about a child is used only to arrange tutoring for that child, is never used for advertising and is never sold.
In EduLink School Management, students may have a portal login provided by their school. Their records are handled on the school’s behalf, as described in section 4.
8Service providers we use
We share information with these providers only as far as needed for them to do their job for us:
| Provider | What for |
|---|---|
| Our web hosting company | Stores the website, the app’s server and their databases. |
| “Continue with Google” sign-in, and Firebase Cloud Messaging for notifications. Google Play distributes the app. | |
| Telegram | Publishing job summaries to our channel, and our support chat if you message us there. |
| ipwho.is | Working out a website visitor’s approximate country and city from their IP address. |
| Email services | Sending sign-up codes and messages from our team. |
We may also share information when the law requires it, or when it is necessary to protect someone’s safety — especially a child’s. If EduLink is ever merged or sold, we will tell you before your information becomes subject to a different policy.
We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers.
9How long we keep information
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Website statistics | 13 months, then deleted automatically. The IP-location results are kept for a day or two. |
| Demo requests | While we are in contact with your school, then deleted when no longer needed. |
| App accounts, profiles, jobs and messages | While your account is open. When an account is deleted, its documents and messages are deleted with it. |
| Payment records | As long as we need them for accounting and legal requirements. |
| SOS alerts | Kept as a safety record, because they may be needed to investigate an incident. |
| School Management records | As long as the school decides, or as our agreement with the school requires. |
10Deleting your account
You can ask us to delete your EduLink Tutors & Parents account at any time. Contact us from the email or phone number on your account:
- Email [email protected] with the subject “Delete my account”;
- or message us on Telegram at @Edulink_et.
We confirm it’s really you, then delete your account together with your uploaded documents and your messages, within 30 days. Records we are legally required to keep, such as payment records, and SOS safety records, may be kept for longer.
For School Management, please ask your school — it controls those records.
11Your rights and choices
- See the personal information we hold about you and get a copy.
- Correct anything that is wrong — most of it you can edit yourself in the app.
- Delete your account and information, as described above.
- Object to, or ask us to limit, some uses of your information.
- Turn off notifications and permissions such as location in your phone’s settings.
- Opt out of website statistics by turning on “Do Not Track” in your browser.
Write to [email protected] and we will reply within 30 days. If you are not happy with our answer, you can contact the authority responsible for data protection in your country.
12How we protect information
- Connections to our services are encrypted (HTTPS).
- Passwords are stored scrambled (hashed), never as plain text.
- Repeated wrong passwords temporarily lock sign-in, to stop guessing.
- Staff access is limited by role and important actions are logged.
- Uploaded files are checked, and the website only accepts real images for logos.
- The app can be locked with a PIN or your fingerprint.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we will tell you and the relevant authority as the law requires.
13Where information is processed
EduLink operates in Ethiopia. Some of our providers — such as Google, Telegram, ipwho.is and our hosting company — may store or process information on servers outside Ethiopia. Where that happens, we take steps to keep it protected to the standard described in this policy.
14Changes to this policy
When our services change, this policy may change too. We will publish the new version on this page and update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
15Contact us
Questions about this policy or your information? We usually reply the same day.
psst…
EduLink · Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. If anything in this policy is unclear, just ask — we’d rather explain than have you guess.