Privacy Policy

Wayfind is an AI-powered academic planning and study platform for high-school students, and a marketplace connecting students with tutors. This Policy covers personal information we handle as the controller of that information across the Service. Where a school, district, or other institution uses Wayfind on behalf of students, we may process certain information on the institution’s behalf, as described in Section 11.

This Policy does not cover third-party services we integrate with, which have their own privacy policies (see Sections 5, 6, and 15).

Wayfind is intended for students 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, and the Service is not directed to them. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, contact us at privacy@wayfind.app and we will delete it.

If you are between 13 and 17, we encourage you to review this Policy with a parent or guardian, and we require a parent or guardian to agree to our Terms on your behalf. Where required by law, we apply additional protections to minors’ accounts, limit certain features, and do not use minors’ personal information for targeted advertising (we do not run advertising at all). We collect date of birth only to verify eligibility and apply age-appropriate protections.

a) Information you provide

• Account & profile: email, password (stored hashed by our auth provider), date of birth, display name, and grade or graduation year.
• Academic profile: your AP courses, SAT/ACT participation and target scores, target university and intended major, and academic goals you enter during onboarding.
• Content & uploads: documents, notes, slides, and files you upload for study help; your tutor-session messages, chat conversations, quiz and practice answers, and any feedback you send us.
• Tutor application data: if you apply to tutor, your identity, contact details, education, experience, and credentials, plus materials used for identity, age, and background verification — which may include a government-issued ID and proof of qualifications.
• Social & reviews: friend connections, peer-matching preferences, and reviews or ratings you post.
• Parent/guardian information: where a parent or guardian provides consent or manages a minor’s account, their name, email, and consent records.

b) Information generated as you use Wayfind

• Learning data: tutor sessions, mastery scores, quiz and test results, daily missions, exam/diagnostic results, and progress over time.
• Gamification & activity: streaks, gems and rewards, leaderboard standing, and usage events (used to support features such as streaks and usage limits).
• Subscription & billing status: your plan, tier, and subscription status.

c) Information collected automatically

• Technical & log data: device and browser type, IP address, and basic log information needed to operate and secure the Service.
• Cookies & local storage: essential identifiers used to keep you signed in and remember preferences (see Section 7).

d) Payment information

Payments are processed by a third-party payment processor. We do not collect or store full payment-card numbers; the processor handles that directly. We receive limited billing details such as your subscription plan and status, and confirmation of payment.

We use personal information to:

• provide, personalize, and improve the Service, including AI coaching and tutoring;
• generate your mastery scores, daily missions, progress, score estimates, and college guidance;
• verify eligibility and age, and apply age-appropriate protections;
• verify tutors’ identity, age, and background, and help keep students safe;
• process payments, manage subscriptions, and prevent fraud;
• operate social and marketplace features (friends, peer matching, reviews, student↔tutor messaging);
• communicate with you about your account, updates, security, and support;
• maintain security, debug, and enforce our Terms; and
• comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests.

We may create de-identified or aggregated data (which cannot reasonably be used to identify you) and use it to understand and improve the Service. We do not use it to re-identify you.

To provide tutoring, practice, feedback, and study tools, the content you submit — such as your questions, prompts, and any files you upload, along with relevant profile context — is sent to third-party AI providers that process it on our behalf to generate responses. Please avoid entering information you would not want processed this way.

We do not use your personal content to build advertising profiles, and we do not sell it. Our AI providers process your content to return results to us and under their own terms; we work to use providers that do not use submitted content to train their public models, though provider practices can vary and evolve.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

We share personal information only as described here:

• Service providers & processors who help us run Wayfind under contract — including cloud database, authentication, and storage providers; a payment processor; AI processing providers (Section 5); a hosting and content-delivery provider; and identity-verification and background-check providers for tutors. A current list of our key service providers is available on request.
• Between students and tutors: when you use tutoring or messaging, the information needed to connect and communicate (such as your display name, relevant academic context, session content, and reviews) is shared with the other party.
• Social features: certain information — such as your display name, leaderboard standing, and reviews — may be visible to other users. Choose your display name accordingly.
• Parents, guardians & schools: as described in Section 11.
• Legal & safety: to comply with law or lawful requests, enforce our Terms, protect the rights, safety, and security of users (especially minors), and detect or prevent fraud, abuse, or harm.
• Business transfers: in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, subject to this Policy.
• With your direction or consent, or in de-identified or aggregated form.

We use a small number of essential cookies and browser local-storage entries to keep you signed in, secure your session, and remember interface preferences. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party ad/analytics tracking to follow you across other websites.

You can control cookies through your browser settings, but disabling essential cookies may break sign-in and core features. Because we do not track users across third-party sites for advertising, we do not respond differently to browser “Do Not Track” signals; where required by law, we treat recognized opt-out preference signals as valid requests.

We keep personal information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide the Service. When you delete your account (see Section 10), we delete or de-identify your personal information within a reasonable period, except where we need to retain certain records to comply with legal, tax, accounting, security, or dispute obligations, or where information exists in routine backups that expire on a schedule.

Tutor identity, age, and background-verification records may be retained for as long as required to meet our safety, legal, and record-keeping obligations. De-identified and aggregated data may be retained indefinitely.

We use technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information, including encryption in transit, authentication, access controls, and restricted internal access. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Help protect your account by using a strong, unique password and keeping your credentials confidential. If you believe your account or our security has been compromised, contact security@wayfind.app.

Regardless of where you live, you can:

• Access & correct: view and update your profile and academic information in the app, or contact us for help.
• Delete: delete your account and associated data at any time from your Account page, subject to the retention exceptions in Section 8.
• Communications: opt out of non-essential/marketing messages using the unsubscribe link or your settings; we may still send essential service messages.

To make a request, email privacy@wayfind.app. We may need to verify your identity before acting, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights described in Sections 12 and 13.

Parents and guardians of a student under 18 may request to review, correct, or delete their child’s personal information, and may withdraw consent for continued use, by contacting privacy@wayfind.app. We may need to verify the relationship before acting.

If a school, district, or educator uses Wayfind or creates accounts on behalf of students, we may act as a service provider / “school official” under laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and applicable state student-privacy laws, processing student information only to provide the Service and under the institution’s direction. Parents and eligible students may exercise their rights through the institution.

If you are a California resident, you have the right to know what personal information we collect, use, and disclose; to request access to and a copy of it; to request correction; to request deletion; and to be free from discrimination for exercising these rights.

In the past 12 months we have collected the categories of personal information described in Section 3 — including identifiers, education and account information, commercial information (subscriptions), internet/network activity, and inferences — and, for tutors, sensitive personal information such as a government identifier used for verification. We collect it from the sources and for the business purposes described in Sections 3 and 4, and disclose it to the categories of recipients in Section 6.

We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, including for consumers we know are under 16. We use sensitive personal information only for permitted purposes such as verification, safety, and providing the Service. You may submit requests at privacy@wayfind.app, and you may use an authorized agent. Residents of other U.S. states with comprehensive privacy laws may have similar rights, which we honor where they apply.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, Wayfind acts as the controller of your personal information. Our legal bases for processing are: performance of a contract (to provide the Service you request); legitimate interests (to secure, maintain, and improve the Service, and to keep students safe), balanced against your rights; consent (where we ask for it, such as certain optional features — you may withdraw it at any time); and legal obligation (to comply with law).

Subject to conditions, you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, and object to processing of your personal information, the right to data portability, and the right to withdraw consent. To exercise these rights, contact privacy@wayfind.app. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority, though we hope you will contact us first so we can help.

Wayfind is operated from, and processes data in, the United States, and we use service providers that may process data in the United States and elsewhere. If you access the Service from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in countries whose data-protection laws may differ from your own. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses) for these transfers.

The Service may link to or surface third-party websites and resources referenced within the Service. We do not control and are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those third parties. Review their privacy policies before providing them personal information.

We may update this Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. Your continued use of the Service after an update takes effect means you accept the revised Policy.

Questions, requests, or concerns about your privacy? Contact us at privacy@wayfind.app. For general support, email support@wayfind.app. For urgent safety concerns involving a minor, contact your local authorities first.