Privacy Policy

AstarIQ is an online tutoring platform that connects students preparing for IGCSE, O Level, AS, A Level and similar examinations with independent teachers. The Platform is operated by Technology Foundry (trading as The Foundry) in Egypt, which is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. You can reach us about privacy matters at Hello@thefoundry.run or by phone on +20 1125500511.

We collect the following kinds of information, depending on how you use the Platform:

• Account information: your name, email address, role (student, teacher, or parent/guardian), profile photo, and time zone. Sign-in is handled through our authentication provider.
• Teacher profile information: biography, subjects and levels taught, availability, rates, intro video, and credential or qualification documents you upload.
• Booking and learning activity: the sessions, courses, and revision classes you book or enrol in, quiz attempts and scores, progress and analytics.
• Content you share: messages and file attachments in session chat, notes, worksheets and past papers (for teachers), homework submissions and the grades and feedback on them (for students), and reviews and ratings.
• Live session media: video and audio during live sessions, handled as described in the “Live video and audio sessions” section below.
• Payment information: when paid features are available, payment is handled by a third-party payment provider. We receive confirmation of payments but do not store your full card details.
• Technical and usage information: limited technical data such as your IP address (for example, recorded when accessing certain learning materials), device and log information, and information needed to keep the Platform secure.
• Safety information: reports you make or that are made about you, and related notes, used to keep the community safe.

Many of our students are under 18, and protecting their data matters to us. Anyone can browse the public parts of the Platform without giving personal information. However, before a student under 18 books a session, joins a live class, or makes a payment, we require a parent or guardian to give consent on the student’s behalf.

This consent is collected at the point of booking or payment, so younger students can explore the Platform freely first. For students under 15, this parental or guardian consent is mandatory under Egyptian law. We do not knowingly carry out behavioural profiling or tracking of children beyond what is needed to provide the service.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has used paid features without your consent, contact us at Hello@thefoundry.run and we will help.

We use your personal data to:

• Create and manage your account and let you sign in securely.
• Connect students and teachers, and enable bookings, live sessions, chat, file sharing, and grading.
• Process payments and, for teachers, calculate and pay out earnings.
• Show progress, analytics, reviews, and recommendations.
• Keep the Platform safe, prevent abuse, and handle reports and disputes.
• Communicate with you about your account, bookings, and important updates.
• Comply with our legal obligations.

Our main legal basis for handling your data is your consent, which you give when you use the Platform and, for students under 18, which a parent or guardian gives on their behalf. We also rely on the need to provide the service you have asked for and to meet our legal obligations. You can withdraw consent at any time, as described under “Your rights”.

Live sessions take place over real-time video and audio provided through a trusted third-party video service. By default, we do not record live sessions. We may record sessions for purposes such as safety, quality, training, or resolving disputes, and where we do, we will make this clear before or at the time of recording.

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only as needed to run the Platform, with the following kinds of recipients:

• Other users, where the Platform is designed to share it — for example, a teacher sees a student’s name and bookings, and a student sees a teacher’s profile.
• Service providers who help us operate the Platform, including our authentication provider (for secure sign-in), our database and file-storage provider, our live video provider, and, when paid features launch, our payment provider.
• Service providers that help process uploaded educational materials, including AI services used, for example, to extract questions from uploaded papers.
• Authorities or advisers where we are legally required to do so, or to protect the rights and safety of our users.

These providers may only use your data to provide their services to us, under appropriate confidentiality and security obligations.

Some of the service providers we rely on store and process data on servers located outside Egypt, including in the United States and the European Union. This means your personal data may be transferred to and processed in those locations.

When this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure your data continues to be protected to a standard consistent with Egyptian law, including relying on your consent and on providers that apply appropriate security measures. By using the Platform, you consent to these transfers.

We keep your personal data for as long as your account is active and for as long as we need it to provide the Platform. After that, we keep it only where necessary — for example, to meet legal or financial record-keeping obligations, or to resolve disputes. When we no longer need your data, we delete it or make it anonymous.

Under Egyptian data protection law, you have the right to:

• Be informed about how your personal data is used.
• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected.
• Ask us to delete your personal data.
• Object to or restrict certain uses of your data.
• Withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting processing that already took place.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at Hello@thefoundry.run. For students under 18, a parent or guardian can exercise these rights on their behalf. We will respond within the time required by law.

We use technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, including secure authentication and reputable infrastructure providers. No system is completely secure, but we work to keep your data safe and to limit access to those who need it.

We use a small number of cookies and similar technologies that are necessary to keep you signed in, keep the Platform secure, and remember basic preferences. We do not use them to build advertising profiles of you.

We will only send you marketing messages if you have agreed to receive them. You can opt out at any time, for example by using the unsubscribe link in an email or by contacting us. We will always send you essential service messages about your account and bookings.

If a personal data breach occurs that affects your data, we will notify the Egyptian Personal Data Protection Centre within the timeframe required by law (within 72 hours of becoming aware of it), and we will inform affected users where the law requires us to.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will take reasonable steps to let you know, for example by posting the updated policy on the Platform and updating the date below.

If you have any questions, requests, or concerns about your privacy, contact us at Hello@thefoundry.run or on +20 1125500511. You can also write to us at 22B Taha Hussein, Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to complain to the Egyptian Personal Data Protection Centre.