Data Usage Policy – ZoroTutor

Why We Use Tracking Technologies

When you visit ZoroTutor, you interact with a website that uses a mix of tracking technologies behind the scenes. These include things like cookies, browser local storage, beacons, and sometimes small scripts (often called pixels). Basically, these are small pieces of code or tiny files that sit on your device or in your browser, remembering things for the website, or helping us see how people use ZoroTutor. None of these technologies are designed to invade your privacy or dig into your personal life—they mostly help us run the website, make things work smoothly, and learn how we can make ZoroTutor better for people learning online.

Some tracking is essential—without it, the website would break, or you’d constantly have to log in again, or quizzes wouldn’t remember where you left off. For example, when you’re working through a math module and leave half-finished, the essential trackers make sure your progress is saved. Or, if you’re taking a timed exam, these technologies keep time and prevent accidental resets. This kind of tracking doesn’t collect information about what you do elsewhere—it just keeps ZoroTutor running properly for you.

Then there are trackers that aren’t strictly necessary, but definitely make your experience smoother and more personal. These might remember your learning preferences, like whether you prefer dark mode, which subjects you revisit most, or the last tutor you chatted with. If you always start with science courses, for instance, our system can use these trackers to put science content front and center next time you log in. It’s a bit like having a bookmark and a highlighter that are always ready for you.

On top of that, we use analytical tools—think of them as the equivalent of a teacher quietly observing a class, taking notes on which lessons students find tough, or which quizzes are too easy. These analytical trackers, often run by third-party services, collect data like which parts of the site are most popular, how long users spend on certain lessons, or where people tend to get stuck. We don’t get names or personal stories from these, but we do get numbers and patterns, which help us fix confusing lessons or add more practice to tricky topics. For instance, if a lot of students spend extra time on algebra videos, we know to create more support materials there.

Sometimes, ZoroTutor uses targeting or customization features, which means you might see content or suggestions tailored just for you. Maybe you see reminders for upcoming live study sessions in your favorite subject, or practice quizzes that match your recent struggles. These work by connecting your activity on ZoroTutor with similar users, but only within our system—we don’t share this with advertisers or outsiders. The idea is to make your learning journey more relevant and less generic.

• By gathering data this way, we improve the way ZoroTutor works for everyone. For example, if we notice a high dropout rate in a particular module, we might investigate and redesign it to be more engaging. Or, if students are using a certain tool repeatedly, we can expand its features. The ultimate goal is to make learning more effective, reduce frustration, and help you reach your educational goals. At the same time, these insights help us keep ZoroTutor sustainable as a business, so we can keep creating new courses, updating materials, and supporting educators.

Control Options

Your rights as a ZoroTutor user include the ability to control how most tracking technologies affect your experience. Privacy laws and frameworks like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) set standards for this, giving you clear choices about your data. While ZoroTutor provides default settings designed to balance functionality and privacy, we also make it possible for you to customize these to fit your needs, whether you want more control or more convenience.

• Most major browsers—like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge—let you manage cookies and other trackers through their settings menus. Typically, you can access these controls by opening your browser’s settings, looking for “Privacy & Security,” and then finding the section on cookies or site data. From there, you can choose to block all cookies, clear them when you close your browser, or make exceptions for certain websites. For example, in Chrome, you’d go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Cookies and other site data, while in Firefox you’d find similar options under Options > Privacy & Security. Keep in mind that changing these settings affects all your browsing, not just ZoroTutor.
• ZoroTutor’s own consent mechanism appears as a banner or pop-up when you first visit—or after we update our policy. Here, you can review the types of tracking we use and accept, reject, or customize your choices. If you want to adjust your settings later, you’ll find a link in the website footer or in your account preferences. Just click it, and you can turn off analytics trackers, keep functional cookies, or reset your choices. The settings take effect immediately, but you may need to refresh your browser or log in again for changes to apply.
• Disabling some types of tracking might affect your ZoroTutor experience in ways you don’t expect. For example, turning off essential trackers could mean you can’t stay logged in between sessions, lose your quiz progress, or miss out on personalized dashboards. Disabling analytics won’t stop you from learning, but it does mean we lose insights that help us improve the most challenging parts of the platform. If you block all trackers, you might not be able to use certain interactive features, like live chat with tutors or saved lesson plans. We encourage you to review the impact of each category before deciding what’s right for you.
• There are also third-party privacy tools and browser extensions—like Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin, or Ghostery—that help you manage or block trackers across the web. These tools can be especially useful if you want more granular control, such as blocking only third-party analytics while keeping necessary site features active. Some even let you see which trackers are present on each website and make decisions in real time. Just remember, using these tools sometimes requires extra setup and may occasionally interfere with site features.
• Striking a balance between privacy and functionality is important, especially in an educational context. If you’re a student who needs to access learning materials reliably, you might choose to allow essential and functional trackers while blocking analytics. On the other hand, educators who want to contribute to platform improvements might leave analytics enabled. Our advice: review your needs, experiment with the settings, and find the combination that supports both your learning goals and your privacy comfort level.

Further Considerations

• We don’t keep your data forever. For most tracking technologies, data is stored only as long as it’s needed for its specific purpose—like saving your session or remembering your preferences. For essential cookies, this might mean a few days or weeks; for analytics, we typically retain aggregated data for up to two years, after which it’s deleted or anonymized. If you delete your account or request removal, we follow strict protocols to erase or de-identify your data from our systems, including backups. These retention schedules are reviewed regularly to make sure we’re not keeping anything longer than necessary.
• Protecting your data is a big deal for us. We use a mix of technical and organizational safeguards: encrypted storage for sensitive information, regular audits to catch security gaps, and access controls so only authorized staff can see user data. For example, any sensitive learning progress or account information is encrypted both in transit and at rest. We also conduct staff training and require strong authentication for anyone accessing our systems. These steps help us prevent data leaks, unauthorized changes, or accidental losses.
• Sometimes, we combine data from different sources to give you a richer learning experience. For instance, if you log in with a school account or connect ZoroTutor with a third-party educational service, we might merge your learning progress with assignments from your school’s platform. This helps create a single, unified learning path, so you don’t have to jump between different systems. We always do this within the boundaries of our privacy policy and only when it’s relevant to your learning goals.
• We comply with regulations that are specific to online education, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in the United States, as well as broader frameworks like GDPR for European users. This means we’re careful about how student data is handled, who can access it, and how it’s shared with educators, parents, or institutions. We regularly review our practices to meet legal standards and respond promptly to any data subject requests—such as access, correction, or deletion—within the timeframes these laws set out.
• International users may have different privacy rights or expectations, depending on their country or region. For example, users in the European Union benefit from data portability rights and stricter consent requirements, while users in other regions may have additional privacy protections under local laws. We’ve set up processes to address these differences, such as honoring regional opt-out requests and storing international user data in compliant data centers. Our goal is to treat everyone’s data with respect and care, wherever you’re learning from.

External Technologies

ZoroTutor works with several types of external services to provide a full-featured and reliable learning experience. These include analytics providers—for example, Google Analytics or Mixpanel—that help us understand how users navigate the site, as well as platforms that provide video streaming, interactive whiteboards, or payment processing. In the education world, it’s common to rely on trusted partners for specialized tools, since building everything from scratch would slow down innovation and limit what we can offer students and teachers.

• Each external provider collects different types of data, depending on its role. Analytics services might record information like page visits, time spent on specific courses, device type, and general location (city or region), but not your name or email. Video streaming platforms may log when you start or stop a lesson, your connection quality, and technical details needed to troubleshoot playback issues. Payment processors, on the other hand, deal with billing details but don’t share your payment information back with ZoroTutor. We only share the minimum data needed to let each partner do their job.
• External parties use this data to provide their services to us—such as generating reports on learning trends or helping us resolve technical problems. In the educational context, this might mean showing us that a spike in lesson dropouts happened after a platform update, or that students in certain regions have trouble accessing video content. They’re not allowed to use your data to market to you directly or build their own user profiles outside of ZoroTutor’s platform.
• You can control some of this data sharing by adjusting your cookie and privacy settings, both in your browser and within ZoroTutor. Many analytics providers offer their own opt-out tools, such as browser add-ons that block data collection. When you visit our platform, you’ll see options to disable third-party tracking, and we honor your choices by blocking the relevant scripts or cookies when you opt out. If you use privacy extensions, they may provide additional blocking at the browser level.
• We have strict contracts with every external provider we work with, covering how your data is processed, protected, and stored. These agreements include data protection clauses, requirements for encryption, and restrictions on sharing or selling your information. ZoroTutor also reviews the technical safeguards our partners use, including regular security assessments and compliance certifications. If a provider no longer meets our standards, we end the relationship and remove any associated data from their systems.