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Legal

Privacy policy

Last updated September 14, 2026

Template — review with an attorney before launch.

This policy explains what PayMyTeacher ("we", "us") collects when you use the Service, how we use it, and the choices you have. We keep it short on purpose; if anything is unclear, ask us.

1. What we collect

Supporters

  • Account details: name, email address and a hashed password.
  • Plan details: the amount, frequency, paycheck amount you enter (used only to calculate your gift), and your allocations and notes to teachers.
  • Payment method reference: a token from Stripe plus the card brand or bank name and the last four digits. We never receive or store full card or bank account numbers.
  • Gift history: amounts, dates, fees and which teachers received each gift.

Teachers

  • Profile details: name, school, district, city and state, subjects, grade levels, years taught, retirement status, bio and optional photo. These are public.
  • Verification details: the school email address you confirm, or the document you upload. Documents are stored privately and seen only by our reviewers.
  • Stripe account reference and payout status. Identity, tax and bank details are collected and held by Stripe, not by us.

Everyone

  • Technical data: IP address, browser type and the pages you request, in standard server logs and in our security logs (for example, failed sign-in attempts).
  • Emails we send you and whether they were delivered.

2. How we use it

  • To run the Service: collect gifts, pay teachers, deliver notes, send receipts and show your dashboard.
  • To verify teachers and prevent fraud and impersonation.
  • To communicate with you about your account, gifts and payouts, and to answer support requests.
  • To keep the Service secure and to meet legal obligations, including those related to payments.

We do not sell your information and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

3. Stripe

Payments and payouts are processed by Stripe, Inc. When you add a payment method or set up payouts, you enter your details on Stripe's pages and Stripe handles them under its own privacy policy. We share with Stripe the information needed to process payments and transfers, such as your name, email address, gift amounts and, for teachers, profile details needed to open a connected account. Stripe may also collect identity and tax information from teachers as required by law.

4. What is public

Teacher profiles are public: name, school, district, location, subjects, grade levels, years, bio and photo. Public counts of supporters and gifts may be shown. Supporters are not public. A teacher sees a supporter's name with a gift unless the supporter chose to give anonymously, in which case only the gift and the note are shown. Dollar amounts a teacher has received are never shown publicly.

5. Cookies and sessions

We use a single session cookie to keep you signed in and to protect forms against cross-site request forgery. It contains a random identifier only. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. Stripe's pages set their own cookies for fraud prevention.

6. Emails

We send transactional emails: welcome messages, receipts, gift notifications, verification codes, invitations to claim a profile, payout and payment-failure notices, and password resets. These are part of the Service and cannot be switched off while your account is active, except invitation reminders, which stop when a profile is claimed. We do not send marketing email without asking first.

7. Data retention

We keep account and gift records while your account is open and for as long as needed afterwards to meet tax, accounting and payment-dispute obligations, typically seven years for financial records. Verification documents are deleted after a claim is decided and a reasonable review period has passed. Security logs are kept for a short period. If you close your account we remove or anonymize personal details that we are not required to keep.

8. Security

Passwords are stored hashed. Verification documents are stored outside the public web root. Connections use HTTPS. Access to personal data is limited to people who need it to operate the Service. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a unique password and tell us if you notice anything unusual.

9. Your rights

You can view and update most of your information from your dashboard. You can ask us to export, correct or delete your personal data, or to close your account, by emailing us. We will respond within a reasonable time and may need to verify your identity first. Depending on where you live you may have additional rights under local law, and you may complain to your data-protection authority.

10. Children

The Service is for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has created an account, tell us and we will remove it.

11. Changes

If we change this policy in a material way we will notify account holders by email or through the Service before the change takes effect.

12. Contact

Privacy questions and requests: hello@paymyteacher.com.