Privacy Policy

Status: draft for legal review. Not yet in force.

Effective date: [[EFFECTIVE_DATE]] Last updated: [[LAST_UPDATED_DATE]]

1. Who operates SkillSplore

SkillSplore is operated by SkillSplore Limited (trading as SkillSplore), a New Zealand registered company, company number 9449842, New Zealand Business Number [[BUSINESS_IDENTIFIER]]. In this policy "SkillSplore", "we" and "us" mean that entity.

Our registered office address is recorded on the New Zealand Companies Register and can be looked up by company number.

SkillSplore is a moderated online noticeboard. It helps people find someone who may be able to teach them a subject or skill. We provide the platform: profiles, search, learning requests, responses, messaging, reporting, reviews, moderation and the platform rules.

Unless we expressly introduce a separate service and tell you so, SkillSplore does not: employ the people listed, or act as their agent; guarantee anyone's identity, qualifications, safety, suitability or conduct; guarantee that you will receive responses, or achieve any learning outcome; guarantee income to anyone offering to teach; process the payment for the underlying lesson, or hold anyone's money; become a party to the agreement you make with another user; provide education, legal, medical or financial advice itself.

You arrange lesson details and payment directly with the other person.

2. Scope

This policy covers the SkillSplore website and any SkillSplore application, the emails and notifications we send, our support and moderation correspondence, and the internal administrative tools we use to operate the service.

It does not cover a third-party website you reach by following a link, or what another user does with information you choose to give them directly.

3. Plain-language summary

This summary is here to be readable. It does not replace the rest of the policy. You need an account to post a request, respond, or message anyone. Browsing does not require an account. Some of what you write is public by design — your display name, your profile, the skills you teach, your general location, your rates, and reviews. We show you a preview of your public profile before you publish it. Your email address, phone number, exact address and private messages are not public. Private messages are private. Authorised staff can read them only for specific reasons listed in section 7, and every such access is logged. We do not sell personal information or user-level behavioural profiles. See section 8. You can ask us for a copy of your information, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete your account. See section 14. Marketing email is opt-in and separate from creating an account. Anyone can hold an account, including under-18s. If you are under 18, the lessons you arrange yourself are online only. See section 16.

4. Information we collect

4.1 Account information

Name, display name, email address, telephone number (if you give one), a hash of your password, your account role, your confirmation that you are 18 or over, your country and general location, your communication preferences, login and session records, and your account status.

We do not store your password. We store a one-way hash of it, which cannot be read back as the original password.

4.2 Profile information

If you offer to teach: profile photograph, biography, the subjects and skills you offer, your experience, your teaching approach, qualifications and registrations you choose to state, languages, lesson format (online or in person), the general area you serve, your rates, your availability, any portfolio content you upload, and professional links you add.

4.3 Learning requests

The subject or skill, ability level, your goal, any deadline, preferred format, broad location, availability, budget preference, your description, and any attachments you add.

4.4 Responses

The response text, the experience and approach described, any proposed price, availability, and attachments.

4.5 Communications

Messages between users, your correspondence with our support team, moderation communications, complaint records, and records of whether a notification was delivered.

4.6 Reviews

The rating, the written review, any response to a review, whether the interaction qualified the reviewer to leave it, and moderation decisions about it.

4.7 Verification information

Where a verification check is offered: the verification status, the evidence supplied, professional or business registration details, the date of the check, reviewer notes, and a reference number.

Every verification badge states exactly what was checked. A badge is not a criminal background check, a police vet, a working-with-children check, or a guarantee of safety or competence, and must never be read as one.

4.8 Safety and moderation information

Reports made by users, the evidence attached to them, blocking, restrictions and suspensions, administrator notes, indicators of fraud or abuse, and the audit history of moderation actions.

4.9 Billing information

SkillSplore does not process payment for lessons — that is arranged directly between you and the other person.

We intend to charge a one-off fee to publish a tutor profile (see the Terms of Use, section 9). Where we do, we collect: the amount, the currency, the payment status, an opaque reference issued by the payment processor, a receipt number, and any refund record. We never receive or store your card number, expiry date or card security code. Payment is taken on the processor's own checkout page, so those details go from your browser directly to them and never reach us.

At the date of this draft, no fee is switched on and no payment has been taken.

4.10 Technical and behavioural information

IP address, browser, operating system, device, approximate location derived from IP address, pages viewed, searches and filters used, links clicked, referral source, session information, error logs, login attempts, cookie identifiers, feature usage, and campaign attribution where you arrive from a campaign link.

Technical and behavioural information is personal information where it identifies you, or can reasonably be linked back to you. We treat it that way rather than assuming it is anonymous.

4.11 Information we receive indirectly

We may receive information about you from someone other than you: from a parent or guardian arranging learning; from a social login provider if we introduce one; from a payment processor; from a verification provider; from a public professional register; from another user who reports you; from an analytics or security provider; or from a regulator, court or law enforcement agency.

Where we collect your information from someone else, we will take reasonable steps to make sure you are aware of the matters in this policy, unless an exception applies.

5. Why we use information

We use information to: operate accounts; publish the content you have asked us to publish; provide search; match requests and profiles; enable responses and messages; send notifications; provide support; process SkillSplore's own fees if we introduce them; prevent spam and fraud; investigate reports; enforce the platform rules; improve usability and search; conduct internal analytics; maintain security; meet accounting requirements; comply with legal obligations; and establish or defend legal claims.

We do not reserve a right to use your information for any other purpose we happen to choose later. If we want to use it for something materially different from the above, we will tell you and, where required, ask you first.

6. Public and private information

Potentially public (visible to anyone, including people who are not logged in, and to search engines): display name, profile photograph, biography, subjects and skills, general location, rates, experience, qualifications you choose to publish, reviews, and portfolio content.

Never public by default: your private email address, your private telephone number, your exact residential address, your full date of birth, identity documents, payment details, private messages, reports you make or that are made about you, moderation notes, and — where a child is involved — the child's school, timetable or exact location.

Before you publish a profile, we show you a preview of exactly what other people will see.

7. Message privacy

Private messages are not public and are not published anywhere.

Authorised personnel may access message content only where reasonably necessary to: respond to a support request; investigate a report; prevent fraud; enforce the platform rules; respond to a security incident; meet a legal obligation; or protect someone from serious harm.

To make that real rather than a promise, the system enforces: strict conversation membership, so only participants can read a conversation through the normal interface; role-based access, so ordinary staff accounts cannot open message content; a mandatory recorded reason — a moderator cannot open message content without selecting one of the grounds above and writing why; an audit log capturing the time, the administrator's identity, the conversation, and the stated reason; restricted production access.

We do not use private message content for advertising or profiling, and we do not send message content to analytics systems.

8. Behavioural data and monetisation SkillSplore does not sell personal information or user-level behavioural profiles to data brokers, advertisers, insurers, employers, lenders, landlords, political organisations or similar third parties. SkillSplore may create and license aggregated or de-identified statistical reports about broad platform activity where individuals are not reasonably identifiable.

Examples of the kind of aggregate reporting that may be licensed: popular categories; broad geographic demand; search trends; online versus in-person demand; average response times; broad pricing ranges; seasonal trends.

Where we license such a report: the report is aggregated so that a recipient cannot reasonably identify an individual from it; recipients are contractually prohibited from attempting to re-identify anyone, and from combining the report with other datasets to do so; children's information is never included; private message content is never included; sensitive information is never included.

We do not treat a hashed email address as anonymous. Hashing is not de-identification.

At the date of this draft, no aggregate insights programme is running and no report has been licensed to anyone.

9. The optional Data Insights Programme

We may in future offer an optional programme allowing users who specifically choose to take part to contribute to more detailed insight reporting.

If we do: participation is entirely optional and is not required to use SkillSplore; consent will be separate, specific, active and unticked by default — it will never be bundled into accepting the Terms or this Privacy Policy; the consent screen will state exactly what is included, exactly what is excluded, the purpose, the recipients or categories of recipient, the destination countries where practicable, how long information is kept, and how to withdraw; it will state honestly whether a disclosure already made can be reversed (usually it cannot) and whether recipients must delete information after withdrawal; you can withdraw at any time, and withdrawal takes effect going forward; we keep a record of the exact wording you agreed to.

The following are always excluded from any such programme: children's information; names; exact addresses; private messages; identity documents; payment credentials; reports and complaints; moderation records; health information; disability information; sensitive educational-support information; precise location; and government identifiers.

This programme is not currently running.

10. Who we disclose information to Other users —…