Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Family Account Information. When families create an account on BOWER, we collect: full name and email address; phone number and mailing address; information about children in your family, including names, ages, and grade levels; and location (city/state or full address for matching purposes).

1.2 Compass Quiz Data (Five-Dimensional Family Profile). BOWER administers an optional Compass quiz that helps match families with educators. This quiz collects information about: family learning style preferences and educational values; schedule preferences and availability; social and interaction preferences for your children; and educational goals and learning objectives.

1.3 Educator Account Information. When educators create an account on BOWER, we collect: full name, email address, and phone number; service location; subject areas, grade levels, and experience; rates and availability; professional qualifications and certifications; and background check results (processed through a third-party vendor).

1.4 Payment Information. BOWER does not directly store credit card numbers. All payment information is processed through Stripe Connect, our payment processor. We collect and store payment-related information such as transaction amounts, dates, and payment method type (not the card details themselves).

1.5 Messaging and Communication Data. All in-platform messages between families and educators are securely stored on our servers. We access these messages only as necessary to provide customer support, resolve disputes, ensure compliance with our terms, and prevent abuse.

1.6 Usage and Activity Data. We automatically collect information about your interactions with the Service, including: pages visited and browsing activity on the Site; booking and session history; session logs and timestamps; and device information (browser type, operating system, IP address).

1.7 Cookies and Similar Technologies. BOWER uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience, maintain your session, and collect analytics data.

2. How We Use Your Information

BOWER uses the information we collect for the following purposes: to provide and improve the Service, including matching families with educators; create and manage user accounts; process payments and manage educator payouts; send service-related communications (confirmations, reminders, updates); provide customer support and respond to inquiries; monitor, prevent, and address fraud, abuse, and security issues; analyze usage patterns and improve platform features; and comply with legal obligations, including COPPA and CCPA requirements.

Ask BOWER. When you type a question into Ask BOWER, we send your question, the recent messages in that chat, and whether you use BOWER as a parent, teacher or operator to Anthropic, an AI service, so it can write an answer. Please don't include private details about your children or your family in these questions. We do not save your Ask BOWER questions or answers in our database.

3. Children's Privacy (COPPA Compliance)

BOWER complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA/CPRA), and the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AADC). We take the privacy of children under 18 seriously. For our complete children's privacy practices, please see our Children's Privacy Policy.

3.1 Parental Consent. Parents and guardians must provide verifiable parental consent before BOWER collects, uses, or discloses personal information from children under 13. This consent is obtained when the parent creates a family account and provides information about their children.

3.2 Children's Information Collected. For children under 13, we collect only information that is reasonably necessary to provide the Service: child's first name and age/grade level; learning preferences and educational goals (from Compass quiz); and records of sessions with educators. We do not collect profile pictures or photographs of children, precise geolocation data, or persistent identifiers for tracking across different websites or services.

3.3 Parental Rights Under COPPA. Parents have the right to: review the personal information collected about their child; request deletion of their child's information (except as required for legal or safety purposes); revoke consent and prevent further collection of information; and request confirmation that personal information has been deleted. To exercise these rights, please contact us at frontdesk@educateprivately.com.

4. California Consumer Privacy Rights (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):

4.1 Right to Know. You have the right to request what personal information BOWER has collected about you, including the categories and specific pieces of information, the sources of that information, BOWER's business purpose for collecting it, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.

4.2 Right to Delete. You have the right to request deletion of personal information we have collected about you, except where we are required to retain it for legal, safety, or contractual purposes.

4.3 Right to Opt-Out. Currently, BOWER does not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising purposes.

4.4 Right to Non-Discrimination. BOWER will not discriminate against you for exercising your CCPA rights. We will not deny, charge different prices for, or provide different quality of service based on your exercise of these rights.

To exercise your California privacy rights, please submit a request to frontdesk@educateprivately.com. We will respond to verifiable consumer requests within 45 days. If your request is complex, we may extend our response deadline by an additional 45 days and will notify you of the extension and the reason it is necessary.

5. How We Share Your Information

5.1 Educators and Families. BOWER shares relevant personal information between families and educators to facilitate connections and bookings. For example, a family's name, location, learning preferences, and child's age are shared with potential educators for matching purposes.

5.2 Payment Processor. BOWER uses Stripe Connect (Standard accounts) to process payments. When you pay for an educational session, the educator is the merchant of record — your payment is created directly on the educator's Stripe account. Stripe collects payment information (card details, billing address) directly and issues 1099-K tax forms to educators. BOWER receives only the platform service fee; we do not store credit card numbers. Stripe maintains its own privacy policy and security standards.

5.3 Service Providers. We share information with service providers who assist us in operating the Service, including: Supabase (database and backend hosting); Resend (email services); Vercel (website hosting); Google Analytics and PostHog (usage analytics, see our Cookie Policy); and background check vendors. These service providers are contractually obligated to use your information only to provide services to BOWER.

5.4 Legal Requirements and Safety. We may disclose your information when required by law, or when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to: comply with legal obligations or court orders; protect the safety and security of users; enforce our Terms of Service and other agreements; or prevent fraud or other illegal activity.

5.5 Data Sales and Advertising. BOWER does NOT sell or share your personal information with third parties for their marketing or advertising purposes. We do not use your personal information to serve you targeted advertising.

6. Data Security

BOWER implements industry-standard security measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include: encryption of data in transit using TLS 1.2+ for all API endpoints and HTTPS for all web communications; AES-256 encryption of all stored data at rest, including full database backups and archive copies; password security using SCRAM-SHA-256 encryption; Row Level Security (RLS) policies on all database tables ensuring users can only access their own data; and SOC 2 Type 2 certified hosting infrastructure (Supabase).

However, no method of data transmission or storage is completely secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable security measures, we cannot guarantee absolute security of your information.

7. Data Retention

BOWER retains personal information for as long as necessary to provide the Service and comply with legal obligations. Specifically: active account information is retained while your account is open; transaction and payment information is retained for 7 years to comply with tax and financial regulations; messages and communication logs are retained for 2 years, or longer if required for dispute resolution; and usage and analytics data is kept for up to 7 years by our analytics provider, PostHog, unless deleted sooner.

You may request deletion of your account and associated data at any time, except where we are required to retain information for legal, safety, or legitimate business purposes.

8. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

BOWER uses cookies and similar technologies (such as pixels and web beacons) for the following purposes: essential cookies for maintaining login sessions and account security; analytics cookies for understanding how users interact with the Service; and preference cookies for remembering your settings and preferences.

Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies or alert you when cookies are being sent. However, blocking cookies may affect your ability to use certain features of the Service.

9. Third-Party Services and Links

The Service may contain links to third-party websites and services that are not operated by BOWER. This Privacy Policy does not apply to third-party websites or services, and BOWER is not responsible for their privacy practices. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services before providing your information.

Key third-party services: Stripe Connect (payments), Supabase (database), Google Analytics, PostHog (usage analytics), Google preferred-source button (news.google.com), Resend (email), and Vercel (hosting).

The Google preferred-source button lets you add BOWER as a preferred source in Google Search. We load Google's script from news.google.com only when analytics are on for you, under the same rules as our analytics (see our Cookie Policy): on by default in the United States and most other countries, off if you click Decline or your browser sends Global Privacy Control, and off in the European Union, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland unless you click Accept. When it loads, Google receives the address of the page you are on and may receive its own cookies from your browser. If analytics are off, we show only a plain link to Google's page, and nothing loads from Google unless you click it.

We use PostHog to understand how people use BOWER. In the United States and most other countries, it is on when you first visit. It is off if you click Decline or your browser sends Global Privacy Control. If you seem to be visiting from the European Union, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, or your browser's time zone does not tell us where you are (for example UTC or GMT), it stays off until you click Accept. PostHog receives the pages you visit, with private details such as invite codes and record numbers removed from addresses, plus the buttons you click (not their text), and where your visit came from. When you are signed in and analytics are on, we link that activity to your BOWER account number and role. We never send your name, email or anything about your children. When a payment goes through from a browser where analytics were on, our server also tells PostHog the booking type, class, amount and whether it was a trial. Screen recording is off. Analytics data is kept for up to 7 years by our analytics provider, PostHog, unless deleted sooner.

10. Your Rights and Choices

10.1 Account Access and Updates. You can access and update your personal information through your BOWER account at any time.

10.2 Email Communications. You may opt out of non-essential marketing emails by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email or by contacting us directly. However, we will continue to send service-related communications necessary to operate the Service.

10.3 Account Deletion. You may request deletion of your account and personal information at any time by contacting frontdesk@educateprivately.com. Please note that some information may be retained for legal, safety, or legitimate business purposes.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

BOWER may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. We will notify you of material changes by posting the updated Privacy Policy on the Site with an updated effective date. Your continued use of the Service after such changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us:

BOWER Education LLC
Email: frontdesk@educateprivately.com
Phone: 1-310-740-7871
Mail: 954 Old Topanga Canyon Rd, Topanga, CA 90290
Website: educateprivately.com

Last Updated: September 25, 2026