Privacy Policy | Teachers Updates

1. Who we are

This policy applies to Teachers Updates and the website teachersupdates.co.ke (the site). It explains what personal information we collect, why, and the choices you have. We handle personal information in line with the Data Protection Act, 2019 of Kenya.

2. Information we collect

Account details: your name, email address and password. Passwords are stored only in a scrambled (hashed) form, never as plain text.
Content you add: teacher swap listings, including the counties, subjects and levels you enter and any contact details you choose to share, and the documents you save to your account.
Documents you generate with our planning tools, and records of those requests, such as the options you selected and the result.
Messages you send us by email, WhatsApp, phone or through the contact and advertising forms on this site. Through the forms we receive your name, email address, organisation and phone number (if you give them) and what you write in your message.
Alert details: your email address or the push notification subscription from your browser, and the alert choices you make, if you sign up for alerts.
Technical information: your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visit and when, collected through server logs and similar tools, including Google Analytics and Cloudflare Web Analytics (see section 6).

3. How we use your information

To create and secure your account and keep you signed in.
To publish your swap listings and let interested teachers contact you.
To generate, save and show you the documents you create.
To run, protect and improve the site, and to fix problems.
To reply to your questions, enquiries and requests, including contact and advertising enquiries.
To send you the email and push alerts you choose.
To meet our legal obligations.

We do not send marketing emails without your consent, and we do not sell your personal information.

4. Swap listings are public

Teacher swap listings can be seen by visitors to the site. Contact details attached to a listing are shared through that listing’s contact option, so only add a phone number or email you are happy for interested teachers to use. Public pages, including listings and approved tutor profiles, can also be found through search engines.

4A. Tutor profiles and connection requests

If you create a tutor profile, your name, headline, about text, subjects, levels, county or area, the kinds of lessons you offer, any rate you enter, and any TSC details you choose to give are shown publicly once the profile is approved. Your phone number and email are kept private and are shared only with a parent or learner whose request you accept. If you send a connection request, your name, phone, optional email, the learner’s level and subject, and your message are visible to that teacher, and your phone and email are shared with them if they accept. Please do not include a child’s name, photo, school or address. Learning requests you post are shown publicly without your name or contact details once approved, and your name, phone and email are shared only with a teacher whose response you accept. Reports you submit are seen by our moderators. We may keep records of requests, reports and moderation decisions for safety and legal reasons.

5. AI-assisted tools

When you use our scheme of work or lesson plan tools, the options you choose (such as level, subject and strand) and any text you enter are processed by AI services to produce your draft. Please do not enter sensitive personal information about yourself or about learners.

5A. Email and push alerts

If you choose to receive alerts, we store your email address (for email alerts) or the subscription details your browser gives us (for push notifications), together with the topics you choose. We send alerts only with your consent, and you can stop at any time using the unsubscribe link in each email, the alerts page, or your browser’s notification settings. Our emails are sent through an email delivery service, Resend.

6. Cookies and analytics

We use cookies that are necessary to keep you signed in and to keep your session secure.

We also use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used, such as which pages are visited and how visitors find us. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to collect information like the pages you view, your approximate location, and your device and browser type. We use it to produce statistics, not to identify you, and we do not collect analytics on the pages you use to sign in or manage your account. For visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, analytics cookies are switched off. We also use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which measures visits without using cookies.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, or install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. Parts of the site that need you to sign in may stop working if you block the cookies it needs. Advertising cookies are described in section 6A. We also remember your light or dark mode choice on your device.

6A. Advertising and third-party partners

We show advertising on the site to help cover its costs. This means:

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a visitor's prior visits to this website or other websites.
Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
Other third-party vendors and ad networks may also serve ads on this site and place their own cookies. At present these include Google, MGID and The Moneytizer. We will update this list if it changes.

You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising by visiting www.aboutads.info or the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page. To learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services. Each advertising partner has its own privacy policy, which you can find on its website.

7. Who we share information with

Service providers who help us run the site, such as hosting, file storage and content delivery (Cloudflare), email delivery (Resend), analytics (Google Analytics), enquiry forms (Google Forms) and AI services. They may only use the information to provide their service to us.
Google, which provides Google Analytics and Google Forms. Google Forms receives and stores the details you enter in our contact and advertising forms so that we can read and answer them. Google processes this information under its own privacy policy, and may process it outside Kenya.
Authorities, where the law requires it.
Other people, where you ask us to or give your consent.

Share buttons on our articles are ordinary links. They do not send any information to social networks until you choose to click one. Social networks and other sites we link to have their own privacy policies.

7A. Information processed outside Kenya

Some of the service providers we use, including Cloudflare, Resend, Google (Analytics and Forms) and our AI services, process information in other countries. We only send them what is needed to provide their service, and we take steps to keep your information protected when it is processed outside Kenya.

8. How long we keep information

We keep account information while your account is active. When an account is deleted, it is first deactivated and removed from view, and some information may be kept for a limited time for security, backup and legal reasons before it is permanently removed. Copies of uploaded files and of our database are also kept in backups, so deleted information can remain there for a limited time before it is overwritten or removed.

Messages sent through our contact and advertising forms are kept for as long as we need them to answer you and keep a record of our conversation, and are then deleted. You can ask us to delete your message sooner (see section 10).

9. Keeping your information safe

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including hashed passwords and encrypted (HTTPS) connections. No system is completely secure, so please choose a strong password and keep it private.

10. Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act, 2019 you have the right to:

be told how your personal data is used;
access the personal data we hold about you;
object to the processing of your data;
ask us to correct data that is wrong or incomplete;
ask us to delete data that we no longer need;
withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on it; and
receive your data in a usable format where this applies.

To use any of these rights, email [email protected]. We may need to confirm your identity first. If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner at odpc.go.ke.

11. Children

The site is meant for teachers and other adults. It is not directed at children under 18 and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed. If we make an important change, we will say so on the site.

13. Contact us

Email [email protected] or call +254 777 100 199. You can also read our Terms and Conditions.