Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how NOOT doing business as NOOT (“NOOT,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), handles personal information when you use the NOOT mobile application, websites, communications, and related tutoring marketplace services (collectively, the “Services”). It applies to Students, Tutors, referral participants, campus ambassadors, website visitors, and other people who interact with us.

NOOT operates a technology marketplace that connects Students with independent Tutors. NOOT is not a school, university, educational institution, or provider of the tutoring services offered by Tutors. This Policy does not govern a Tutor’s independent handling of information outside the Services or a third party’s services governed by its own privacy notice.

1. Key Terms

“Student” means a User seeking or purchasing a tutoring Session. “Tutor” means an independent User offering tutoring through the Services. “User” means any person with a NOOT account. “Session” means a tutoring appointment requested or booked through the Services. “Payment Processor” means Stripe or another provider NOOT uses to process payments, connected accounts, refunds, disputes, and payouts. Other capitalized terms have the meanings given in the NOOT Terms & Conditions.

2. Information We Collect

We collect only information reasonably related to operating, protecting, and improving the Services. Depending on your role and the features you use, this may include:

Account and contact information: name, email address, telephone number, login or authentication identifiers, age confirmation, university affiliation, and referral code.
Student profile and Session information: school, courses, subjects, learning goals, preferred times, availability, Session format, campus or general meeting area, accessibility preferences, profile photo, Booking history, and attendance records.
Tutor profile and verification information: biography, courses and subjects offered, rates, availability, education, academic credentials, experience, certifications, profile photo, identity or eligibility verification status, connected-account status, and tax or payout onboarding information.
Payment and transaction information: requested and confirmed Sessions, prices, Platform Fees, Rush Session charges, promotions, authorization and capture status, payment-method type and last four digits, refunds, credits, payouts, disputes, chargebacks, taxes, and referral attribution. Complete card and bank-account details are generally collected directly by the Payment Processor and are not stored by NOOT.
Communications and User Content: in-app messages, support correspondence, profiles, photos, reviews, ratings, reports, appeals, and other content submitted through the Services.
Device, usage, and diagnostics: IP address, device type, operating system, app version, language, time zone, identifiers used for authentication or security, feature interactions, log data, crash data, and approximate location inferred from IP address.
Permission-based information: information accessed through notifications, camera, photo library, calendar, microphone, or location permissions, but only if the feature is offered and you grant permission through your device.
Information from others: reports or Session records supplied by another User, information from the Payment Processor and verification providers, referral or ambassador records, and information from authentication, security, analytics, support, or app-distribution providers.

Please do not submit government identification, health information, disability documentation, grades, transcripts, financial account details, or other sensitive information through messages or profiles unless NOOT specifically requests it through a designated secure process.

3. How We Collect Information

We collect information directly from you; automatically when you use the Services; from Students, Tutors, referral participants, ambassadors, or other people involved in a Booking or report; and from vendors supporting payments, identity and eligibility verification, authentication, hosting, communications, security, analytics, customer support, and app distribution. If you use a third-party sign-in service, we receive only the information authorized through that service and your selected permissions.

4. How We Use Information

Create and administer accounts; verify university affiliation or Tutor eligibility; and provide search, matching, Booking, messaging, calendar, review, referral, and support features.
Display Tutor and Student profile information to the extent reasonably necessary for marketplace participation and Session coordination.
Authorize and capture payments; onboard connected accounts; calculate Platform Fees, refunds, credits, and Tutor Earnings; issue payouts; manage disputes and chargebacks; and maintain transaction and tax records.
Send Booking confirmations, reminders, receipts, payout notices, policy notices, security alerts, and other transactional communications.
Protect Users and the Services; filter or moderate content; investigate reports; block abusive accounts; prevent fraud, fake accounts, payment abuse, and referral manipulation; and enforce the Terms & Conditions and marketplace rules.
Measure reliability, marketplace performance, and feature usage; troubleshoot errors; secure systems; and test, maintain, and improve the Services.
Administer referral and ambassador programs, verify qualifying milestones, calculate rewards, prevent manipulation, and satisfy accounting or tax obligations.
Send marketing communications where permitted. You may opt out of promotional communications, but not operational messages needed for an account, Booking, safety issue, or legal notice.
Comply with law, respond to lawful process, protect rights and safety, establish or defend legal claims, and support a merger, financing, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets.

5. Legal Bases Where Applicable

Where a law requires a legal basis, we process information as needed to perform our contract with you; pursue legitimate interests such as operating, securing, and improving the Services; comply with legal obligations; protect vital interests; or act with your consent. You may withdraw consent at any time through the relevant device or in-app control or by contacting us, without affecting processing already completed. If withdrawal prevents a feature from functioning, we will explain that consequence.

6. How We Disclose Information

We disclose personal information only for the purposes described below:

Other Users. We provide Students and Tutors the profile, Booking, contact, Session, and reliability information reasonably necessary to evaluate, coordinate, conduct, review, or resolve a Session. Public-profile information may be visible to other logged-in Users.
Service providers. Vendors may process information for hosting, data storage, authentication, notifications, communications, analytics, customer support, verification, fraud prevention, content moderation, professional advice, and security. We require providers by contract to protect information consistently with this Policy and applicable law.
Payment and financial partners. The Payment Processor and its financial partners receive information needed to authorize and capture payments, create connected accounts, verify identity, issue refunds and payouts, prevent fraud, manage disputes and negative balances, and satisfy financial, tax, and reporting requirements.
Universities and organizations. NOOT does not routinely disclose a User’s activity to a university. We may do so when the User directs us, a clearly disclosed sponsored program requires it, law requires it, or disclosure is reasonably necessary to address an immediate safety threat or serious misconduct.
Legal, safety, and enforcement recipients. We may disclose information to authorities, advisers, insurers, affected parties, or others when reasonably necessary to comply with law or process, protect rights or safety, investigate fraud or misconduct, enforce agreements, or respond to an emergency.
Corporate transactions. Information may be transferred in a financing, merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or part of the business, subject to appropriate confidentiality and any notice required by law.
At your direction. We disclose information when you request or consent to the disclosure.

7. No Sale, Targeted Advertising, or Cross-App Tracking

For the MVP, NOOT does not sell personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, use it for targeted advertising based on activity across unrelated apps or websites, or permit third-party advertising SDKs to track Users across apps. If these practices change, we will update this Policy, provide any required notice and choice, and update the App Store privacy disclosures before the change takes effect.

8. Payments and Connected Accounts

The Payment Processor collects and processes payment credentials, bank-account information, identity-verification information, and tax information under its own privacy notice and legal obligations. NOOT generally receives status, limited account details, transaction identifiers, fraud signals, payment-method type and last four digits, billing country or postal code, refund and dispute records, and connected-account status. A payment authorization is a temporary hold or permission to charge; it is not a deposit into a bank escrow, trust, or stored-value account.

9. Messages, Reviews, Moderation, and Safety Reports

NOOT may use automated tools and human review to filter, review, retain, or disclose User Content when reasonably necessary to provide the Services, investigate a report, enforce marketplace rules, prevent fraud or academic misconduct, protect safety, or comply with law. Reporting and blocking controls are available at by selecting a users profile, then scrolling and selecting ‘Block User’. Reports involving an immediate threat should also be directed to emergency services. NOOT may preserve relevant records while a report, appeal, dispute, or legal hold remains open.

10. Device Permissions and Data Minimization

NOOT requests a device permission only when it supports a feature you choose to use. You can deny or revoke permissions in iOS settings. Where reasonably feasible, NOOT will provide a manual alternative, such as entering a meeting location instead of granting location access or uploading a selected photo instead of granting full-library access. Denying a permission may disable only the feature that needs it, not unrelated paid functionality.

11. Analytics, Cookies, and Similar Technologies

NOOT may use cookies, local storage, and first-party or service-provider software development kits to authenticate Users, remember preferences, measure feature performance, diagnose crashes, prevent fraud, and understand aggregate use. These tools may collect device, usage, and diagnostic information described above. NOOT does not use them for the sale, targeted advertising, or cross-app tracking described in Section 7. App Store privacy disclosures will include the data collected by NOOT and by code supplied by third-party partners.

12. Referral and Ambassador Data

NOOT may associate referral codes with referring and referred accounts and track qualifying events such as verified registration, Tutor approval, completed paid Sessions, refunds, disputes, Platform Fees, and reward status. We use this information to administer programs, prevent self-referrals or manipulation, communicate with participants, and maintain accounting and tax records. NOOT will not publicly identify an ambassador, display a leaderboard entry, or publish performance results without the participant’s permission or clear notice in the applicable program terms.

13. Retention

NOOT retains information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose collected, including the following MVP retention targets:

Active account, profile, Booking, and preference data: while the account remains active and for up to 30 days after a verified deletion request, except for information retained below.
Payment, payout, refund, chargeback, tax, and accounting records: generally seven years after the transaction or longer if required by law or an unresolved dispute.
Routine messages, reviews, and other User Content: while the account is active and deleted or de-identified within 30 days after account deletion, except for content tied to an unresolved report, dispute, legal hold, or legally retained record.
Support records, moderation decisions, and routine reports: generally three years after the account closes or the matter is resolved.
Serious safety, fraud, abuse, or academic-integrity records: up to five years after resolution, or longer when reasonably necessary for safety, repeat-offender prevention, legal claims, insurance, or a legal hold.
Security, diagnostic, and access logs: generally up to 24 months, unless needed longer to investigate an incident.
Backup copies: deleted or overwritten through normal backup cycles, generally within 90 additional days, unless subject to a legal hold.

We may retain de-identified or aggregated information that cannot reasonably identify you. If operational or legal requirements require a materially different retention period, NOOT will update this Policy and its internal retention schedule.

14. Your Choices and Privacy Rights

Access and correction. Review or update available account and profile information in the app or request access or correction.
Deletion. Initiate account deletion as described in Section 15.
Permissions. Change device permissions through iOS settings and notification preferences through the app or device.
Marketing. Unsubscribe from promotional email or text messages using the provided control. Operational messages may continue.
Additional legal rights. Depending on where you live, you may request portability, restriction, objection, withdrawal of consent, or information about categories collected, purposes, sources, and recipients.
Appeal and non-discrimination. Where applicable, you may appeal a denied request, and NOOT will not unlawfully discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right.

Submit requests through privacy@trynoot.com. We may verify identity using information already associated with the account. An authorized agent may act where permitted by law, subject to proof of authority. NOOT does not charge for ordinary requests unless law permits a fee for excessive or repeated requests.

15. Account Deletion

Every User may initiate deletion of the entire account from within the app under the profile tab and by scrolling to the bottom of the screen. NOOT may require reasonable reauthentication and confirmation but will not require a telephone call, support email, or mere deactivation instead of deletion. The account will be disabled promptly and deletion ordinarily completed within 30 days. NOOT will confirm completion.

Account deletion removes or de-identifies profile information and User Content associated with the account, including reviews and messages visible to other Users, unless retention is legally permitted or required for completed transactions, tax and accounting records, safety, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, chargebacks, legal claims, or legal holds. Any retained record will be restricted to the applicable purpose and deleted when that purpose ends. Pending Bookings will be canceled under the Terms & Conditions, and pending refunds, Tutor Earnings, disputes, or chargebacks will still be processed. If Sign in with Apple is used, NOOT will revoke the applicable token as part of deletion.

16. Security and Incident Response

NOOT uses administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed for the nature of the information and the risks involved, including access controls, secure transmission, credential protection, vendor review, logging, and incident response. No system is completely secure. Users must protect credentials and promptly report suspected unauthorized access to security@trynoot.com. If a breach requires notice, NOOT will notify affected people and authorities as required by law.

17. Age Restriction

The Services are for adults age 18 or older. NOOT does not knowingly permit accounts for or collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that a person under 18 created an account, we will suspend the account and delete the information, subject only to legally permitted safety, fraud, or transaction records. A parent or guardian who believes a minor provided information should contact privacy@trynoot.com. The Services are not directed to children and are not offered in the App Store Kids Category.

18. International Processing

The Services are initially intended for Users in the United States. Information may be processed in the United States and other countries where NOOT or its providers operate. Those countries may have different privacy laws. If NOOT expands to a jurisdiction requiring a transfer mechanism or additional notice, it will implement the required safeguards before launch there.

19. Third-Party Services

The Services may link to or integrate with the Payment Processor, Apple, authentication providers, mapping or calendar services, video or communications providers, and university websites. Their independent practices are governed by their own terms and privacy notices. NOOT is not responsible for information you provide directly to a third party outside the Services.

20. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Policy prospectively. We will post the revised version, change the effective date, and provide prominent in-app or email notice when a change is material. We will obtain consent when required. If a change materially expands how previously collected information is used, we will provide the legally required notice or choice before applying it.