Privacy Policy
Last updated: 12 October 2026 · Version 3.2
This page explains, in plain English, what personal data MyOwnTeach holds, why, who helps us process it, and what you can do about it. It applies wherever you live.
1. Who we are
MyOwnTeach is practice-management software for independent language teachers who teach adults online. Teachers use it to keep their student list, schedule lessons, take or record payments and keep notes. Our customer is the teacher.
It's operated by Faresay Ltd, trading as MyOwnTeach, a company registered in England & Wales (company number 17302034), with its registered office at 167–169 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5PF. We're registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under registration number ZC182929, which you can check on the ICO's public register.
Contact: privacy@myownteach.com
2. Our two roles
We apply the EU GDPR and the UK GDPR as the baseline for everyone, wherever they live. Under them, which of two roles we hold depends on the data:
- Faresay Ltd as controller. For a teacher's own account, billing, subscription, usage and support data, for a student's login, and for visitors to our website, we're the controller. This policy covers that data.
- Faresay Ltd as processor. For the data a teacher keeps about their students (contact details, lesson times, payments, messages, notes), the teacher is the controller and we're their processor. We act only on the teacher's instructions under the Data Processing Agreement in section 9 of our terms.
If you're a student: your teacher decides what they record about you and why. Ask your teacher for their privacy information, and contact them first to exercise your rights over that data. We'll help them answer. For your login and account, contact us.
3. What we collect (as controller)
- Account and identity: name, email, phone, login details (passwords are stored hashed by Clerk)
- Age confirmation: that you confirmed you're 18 or over, and when
- Teaching business details: business name, country, currency, languages taught, profile
- Billing and subscription: plan, region, transaction history and Stripe account references
- Usage and security: features used, timestamps, IP address, device and log data
- Support and communications: messages you send us and our replies
- Marketing: contact details and preferences, only where you've opted in
We don't collect identity documents, qualifications or criminal-record checks. We don't vet teachers.
4. How we use it (as controller)
- To create and run your account and provide the service (contract)
- To bill subscriptions and keep financial records (contract, legal obligation)
- To answer support requests and complaints (contract, legitimate interests)
- To keep the service secure and prevent fraud and abuse (legitimate interests)
- To understand how the service is used and improve it, in aggregate where we can (legitimate interests)
- To send product news, if you've opted in (consent, which you can withdraw at any time)
5. Sub-processors
We use these providers under written data-protection terms. They process our controller data and, under the Data Processing Agreement, act as sub-processors for teachers' student data:
- Vercel: application hosting (US/EU edge)
- Neon: application database (UK/EU region)
- Clerk: sign-in and identity (US)
- Stripe: subscription billing, card payments and teachers' connected accounts (US/EU)
- Anthropic PBC (Claude): optional AI features, and an AI assistant that reads support email and drafts replies, see section 10 (US)
- Cloudinary: image and document hosting, including files teachers upload (US/EU)
- Resend: account and transactional email (US)
- Twilio: SMS lesson reminders, where a teacher turns them on (US)
- LiveKit: the built-in video room, for lessons where a teacher on Pro uses it; audio and video are relayed in real time and not recorded, and LiveKit sees each participant's IP address and name in the room (US, with servers worldwide)
- Upstash: rate-limiting (short-lived IP and account identifiers)
- Sentry: error monitoring (US/EU; set not to capture personal data by default)
- Support mailbox provider (IMAP): inbound support email
- Plausible: cookieless website analytics with no personal data (EU)
We keep this list current and update it before adding a provider that processes personal data. Lessons take place in our video room (above) or on the teacher's own video service (Zoom, Google Meet or similar). For the video room we record only who joined and when, which the teacher sees on the lesson page; never the call itself. A teacher's own service isn't our sub-processor; its own privacy policy applies to the call.
MyOwnPurse, if you ask for it. MyOwnPurse is our money app (Faresay Ltd, trading as Robin of Loxley), not an outside provider. If you choose Open MyOwnPurse on Finances, we pass it your name, your email address and your account id, so you arrive signed in without a second account. After that, unless you turn it off in MyOwnPurse's Settings, it asks us for the amount, date and reference of each payment in pounds sterling you've taken, for its tax set-aside. It never receives who paid, a note or anything else about your students, and nothing from MyOwnPurse comes back to MyOwnTeach.
We don't sell personal data.
6. Where data is kept, and transfers
Our database is hosted in a UK/EU region. Some providers above are based in the US or work globally, and our users are all over the world, so some data does leave the UK and EEA. When it does, we use a lawful safeguard: an adequacy decision where one exists, or otherwise the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the UK Addendum (or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement), backed by a transfer risk assessment where required.
7. How long we keep it
We keep controller data only as long as we need it, and to meet legal, accounting and dispute requirements (billing records are usually kept for about 6 years for tax). After that we delete or anonymise it.
A teacher's student data is kept for as long as the teacher keeps it. We delete or return it on the teacher's instruction or when they close their account, as the Data Processing Agreement sets out.
8. Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us to give you a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, or send it to you or someone else in a portable format. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it. Email privacy@myownteach.com and we'll reply within one month. You can also complain to the UK ICO at ico.org.uk, or to the data-protection authority where you live.
If you're a student and the request is about what your teacher records, ask your teacher (the controller). We'll support them in answering.
10. AI features
MyOwnTeach has optional AI features, such as drafting lesson notes or practice exercises from material the teacher provides. When a teacher uses one, that material is sent to our AI sub-processor, Anthropic, to produce a draft.
- AI drafts are made on the teacher's instruction and the teacher reviews them before a student sees anything.
- The content is not used to train third-party AI models.
- AI output is a draft for the teacher. It isn't an automated decision about anyone, and there's no profiling.
- Teachers can use MyOwnTeach without the AI features.
When you email us at support@myownteach.com, your message, your name and email address, and the details we hold about your account are sent to Anthropic, who provide our AI assistant (Claude), so it can sort the message and draft a reply. A person reads the draft before anything is sent. Anthropic process this on our behalf and do not use it to train their models.
11. Adults only
MyOwnTeach is for adults. Everyone confirms they're 18 or over when they sign up or accept an invite, and teachers agree not to add anyone younger. If we learn that we hold data about someone under 18, we'll close the account and delete it.
12. Data breaches
We keep security measures in place and have an incident-response process. Where we're the controller and a breach is likely to put people at risk, we'll notify the relevant data-protection authority without undue delay (within 72 hours where required), and tell the people affected where the risk is high.
Where we're a processor (for a teacher's student data), we'll tell the teacher without undue delay, so they can meet their own duties.