Terms of Service

1. The service

MyOwnTeach is practice-management software for independent language teachers who teach adults online. A teacher uses it to keep a student list, schedule lessons, send reminders, take or record payments and keep notes.

MyOwnTeach is software. We don't teach, we don't employ or vet teachers, and we aren't an agency or a marketplace standing between teacher and student. The teacher provides the lessons. The teaching relationship is between the teacher and the student, and MyOwnTeach isn't a party to it. A teacher's students are the teacher's students, not ours.

2. Who runs it

The service is 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. By creating an account or using the service, you agree to these terms.

3. Who can use it

• Everyone must be 18 or over. You can't hold a MyOwnTeach account of any kind if you're under 18.
• Teachers can be anyone, anywhere. We don't check credentials, licences, qualifications or criminal records, and a profile on MyOwnTeach isn't an endorsement by us. You subscribe in the course of your own business, as a sole trader, partnership or company.
• Students confirm they're 18 or over when they sign up or accept a teacher's invite.
• Teachers must not add, invite or teach anyone under 18 through MyOwnTeach. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we'll close it.

4. Subscription and fees

Teachers pay a flat subscription. There's a free plan, capped at a small number of active students, and a paid plan whose price depends on your region. Prices, the cap and what each plan includes are shown on the pricing page and in the app before you subscribe. Paid plans are billed in advance through our payment provider, Stripe.

MyOwnTeach takes 0% commission on lessons. We don't take a cut, a split or a referral fee from what your students pay you. Where the app charges a payment-processing fee on something, it covers card costs at cost, carries no margin, and is shown to you before you switch the feature on.

Students don't pay MyOwnTeach anything to use it.

5. Lesson payments

Teachers set their own prices, in the currency they choose. There are two ways to get paid:

• By card, through Stripe. Where Stripe Connect is available in the teacher's country, students can pay by card in the app. The full fee goes to the teacher's own Stripe account, less Stripe's card fee. The teacher is the merchant of record for the lesson, and Stripe's terms cover the payment and the teacher's connected account. We deduct Stripe's standard fee for cards issued in the teacher's country, at cost and with no margin, and show it on the teacher's Payments page before they connect Stripe. Cards that cost Stripe more (premium or foreign cards, or a currency conversion) cost the teacher no more: we pay the difference. Stripe keeps its fee when a payment is refunded, so the fee stays deducted then too. Students pay the teacher's price and nothing on top.
• Off-platform. Everywhere else, or if the teacher prefers, the student pays the teacher directly (PayPal, Wise, bank transfer, cash or anything else they agree) and the teacher records the payment in the app. MyOwnTeach isn't a party to those payments and can't recover, refund or guarantee them.

Disputes. If a student asks their bank to reverse a card payment (a dispute or chargeback), the bank decides, and we answer it with the evidence the teacher sends us. If the dispute is lost, the teacher repays the disputed amount and Stripe's dispute fee. We recover them by reversing the transfer to the teacher's Stripe account, or from later payouts, and tell the teacher first. We don't recover anything when the dispute was our fault, for example a charge the app made in error. If the dispute is won, nothing is owed and Stripe returns its fee where its pricing allows.

Cancellations and refunds of lessons follow the teacher's own policy, shown before you book. Our Refund Policy explains how that works.

6. Lessons and video calls

On Pro, a teacher can run lessons in the MyOwnTeach video room, provided by LiveKit. Audio and video pass through LiveKit's servers in real time. We don't record calls and can't see what is said or shown in them; we keep only who joined and when, which the teacher sees on the lesson page. Otherwise lessons happen on the teacher's own link, on Zoom, Google Meet or a similar service. That provider's terms and privacy policy apply to the call, and we can't see, record or control what happens on it.

7. Teachers' responsibilities

As the person running your own teaching business, you (and not MyOwnTeach) are responsible for:

• The lessons themselves: what you teach, how, and their quality and suitability
• Your prices, your cancellation policy and honouring it, and any refunds you owe
• Your tax, any business registration, and any licence or permission your country requires to teach or to take payments
• Your video provider account and the security of your meeting links
• Your duties as data controller of your students' data: a lawful basis, privacy information for your students, and answering their data-protection requests
• Only working with students who are 18 or over

8. Using it properly

Don't use MyOwnTeach for anything unlawful, to harass or deceive anyone, to send spam, or to get around its security. Don't upload content you don't have the right to use. We can suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, and we'll tell you why unless the law or someone's safety stops us. To report a problem with a teacher or a student, use our complaints page.

9. Data protection and the Data Processing Agreement

For your students' personal data, you, the teacher, are the controller and Faresay Ltd is your processor. For your own account, billing and usage data, Faresay Ltd is an independent controller, as our Privacy Policy describes. We apply the EU GDPR and the UK GDPR as the baseline for everyone, wherever they live.

This section is the Data Processing Agreement between you and Faresay Ltd under Article 28 of the GDPR and the UK GDPR. It applies for as long as we process your students' data. As your processor, we will:

• Process your students' data only to provide the service and on your documented instructions, which are these terms and the way you use the app
• Make sure anyone who handles it is bound by confidentiality
• Keep appropriate technical and organisational security measures in place
• Use only the sub-processors listed in our Privacy Policy, on written terms that protect the data as well as this agreement does, and tell you before adding a new one so you can object
• Transfer data outside the UK or EEA only with a lawful safeguard, such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the UK Addendum
• Help you answer your students' requests to exercise their rights
• Tell you without undue delay after we become aware of a personal data breach affecting your students
• Help you with data-protection impact assessments where you reasonably need it
• Delete or return your students' data when you close your account, unless the law requires us to keep it
• Give you the information you reasonably need to show we're meeting these obligations

The data involved is what you and your students put in the app: names, contact details, lesson times, payment records, messages and notes. You agree not to put in special-category data you don't need, and not to add anyone under 18.

10. Cancellation and your data

Paid plans renew automatically until you cancel. You can cancel at any time in your account, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you've paid for. Before you close your account you can export your data. After that, we delete it or return it as section 9 describes. Students can close their own accounts at any time.

Refunds of subscriptions and lesson payments are covered by our Refund Policy.

11. Warranties and disclaimers

We supply the service with reasonable care and skill. Beyond that, and as far as the law allows, it's provided "as is" and "as available". Because we don't teach or vet teachers, we make no promise about any teacher, any lesson, or what a student will learn. Nothing in these terms excludes a liability that can't lawfully be excluded.

12. Limitation of liability

Nothing limits liability that can't lawfully be limited, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. Subject to that, our total liability to a teacher in any 12-month period is limited to the fees you paid MyOwnTeach in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. We aren't liable for indirect or consequential losses, for the lessons a teacher gives, for payments made off-platform, or for what happens on a third-party video call.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England & Wales, and the courts of England & Wales have jurisdiction. If you use MyOwnTeach as a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of the country you live in, and you can bring a claim in your local courts where those laws allow it.

14. Changes to these terms

We'll update this page when the service or the law changes. If a change matters to you, we'll tell you by email before it takes effect. If you don't agree, you can cancel before then.

15. Contact

legal@myownteach.com