Last updated November 5, 2026
Privacy policy
Teachnear helps people find a teacher for anything, from algebra to piano. This policy explains what we collect when you use Teachnear, why, and the choices you have. We don’t sell your personal information.
Who we are
Teachnear (“we”, “us”) runs teachnear.com and the Teachnear teacher panel. Teachers on Teachnear are independent: they set their own prices and run their own lessons. When you send a lesson request, the teacher you contact also handles your information, under their own responsibility.
What we collect
When you create an account
- Your email address and a password. We store only a secure hash of the password, never the password itself.
- Optional answers you give after signing up: your first name, who the lessons are for, how you’d like to learn, your city, your level and the subjects you’re interested in. Only you and Teachnear can see them; they help us show you the right teachers.
When you send a lesson request
- Your name, the contact details you enter (such as email or phone), the subject, and your message. If you used our quick questions on the search page, a short summary of your answers is added to the message; you can edit or delete it before sending.
If you’re a teacher
- Your public profile: name, photo and gallery, headline, subjects, levels, languages, lesson formats, prices, education, experience, articles you publish, and the area or address you choose to show.
- Private details you add in the panel, such as a phone number, and your lesson requests, students and calendar.
- Your notification settings.
When you browse
- Visit counts. To show teachers how many people viewed their profile, we count visits. We don’t store IP addresses or browser details for this: we keep only a one-way scrambled code made from them, which changes every day and is deleted after two days.
- Technical logs. Our hosting provider processes standard request data (such as IP address and browser type) to deliver and protect the site.
How we use it
- To run your account, keep you signed in, and send account emails (email verification and password reset).
- To deliver your lesson request to the teacher you chose, and to email that teacher that a new request is waiting. The email itself doesn’t include your details; the teacher reads them in their Teachnear inbox.
- To show search results that fit what you’re looking for.
- To show teachers simple statistics about their profile.
- To keep Teachnear safe: preventing spam and abuse, and keeping an audit record of important account changes.
- To meet legal obligations.
We don’t use your information for advertising, and we don’t sell or rent it to anyone.
Who sees your information
- Everyone can see a teacher’s public profile and published articles.
- The teacher you contact sees the details in your lesson request.
- Service providers who run parts of Teachnear for us (see below), only to provide that service.
- Authorities, when the law requires it, or to protect people’s safety.
- A new owner, if Teachnear is ever merged or sold; this policy would continue to apply to your information.
Service providers
| Provider | What for |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Hosting, database, file storage, security and sending our emails. |
| OpenStreetMap | Map images on search and profile pages are loaded from OpenStreetMap’s servers, which receive your IP address. When a teacher saves an address, we look up its map position through OpenStreetMap’s search service; only the address is sent. |
| Stripe (when online payments start) | Processing payments. Card details go to Stripe directly; we never see full card numbers. |
Our providers may process data in the United States and other countries, with safeguards required by law.
Cookies and similar storage
- Sign-in cookie (
__Host-teachnear_session): keeps you signed in for up to 30 days. It’s required for your account to work, and it isn’t used for tracking. - Browser storage: your browser remembers small things on your own device, such as whether you’ve answered our welcome questions, saved teachers, and your quick-question answers during a visit. It isn’t sent to us unless you submit a form.
We don’t use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
How long we keep it
- Account information: while your account is open. When you delete your account, we delete it, except for what we must keep by law or to resolve disputes.
- Lesson requests: while the teacher’s account is open, so both sides can refer back to them.
- Visit-count codes: two days. Daily totals don’t identify anyone and may be kept.
Children
Many lessons on Teachnear are for children, but accounts are for adults. A parent or guardian should create the account and send requests for a child. We don’t knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we’ll delete it.
Your choices and rights
- You can view and change your profile, answers and notification emails in your account.
- You can ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, or to delete it, by emailing support@teachnear.com. We’ll answer within 30 days.
- Depending on where you live (for example California, the EU or the UK), you may have further rights, such as objecting to certain uses or complaining to a data protection authority. We honor these rights and won’t treat you differently for using them.
Security
We use encrypted connections, store passwords only as secure hashes, keep sign-in cookies inaccessible to scripts, and limit who can access data. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password.
Changes and contact
If we change this policy in a meaningful way, we’ll update the date above and, where appropriate, tell you by email or on the site. Questions? Email support@teachnear.com.