Privacy Statement

Our Study Tribe is run by Sobena Private Limited (UEN 202650285G), 60 Paya Lebar Road, #06-28, Paya Lebar Square, Singapore 409051 ("we", "us"). This statement explains what personal data we collect when you use Our Study Tribe, why, who can see it, and the choices you have. We follow Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA).

Questions or requests about your data go to our Data Protection Officer at hello@ourstudytribe.com.

We don't ask for your real name, school, phone number, home address, date of birth or photos. We collect:

Your account

• Your username and the avatar you pick (please don't use a full name as a username).
• Your password, stored only in scrambled (hashed) form, so we can't read it.
• The access code you signed up with, and whether you chose to study in a tribe or solo.

Your studying

• Which videos have been watched and where they were paused, quiz and review-card results, study days and streaks, saved items, study plans and HI planner notes. This is saved on the device and copied to the account so it follows the student to other devices.
• Feedback a student chooses to give, such as a thumbs up on a video or a rating for a practice paper.
• Answers typed into practice papers are kept on the device. If a student presses "Check my answer", see "Automated marking" below.

Tribes and chat

• Which tribe a student is in, cheers they send, and their tribe chat messages and reactions.
• Messages reported, people muted, and safety decisions about a tribe.

Feedback you send

• When you use the Send feedback button, we keep your message, the type of feedback, the page you were on and, if you leave it attached, a picture of that page. A visitor who isn't signed in can add an email address so we can reply.
• The picture shows whatever was on the screen at the time, which could include a username or a chat. You can remove it before sending. Only our team can see pictures; they're never emailed or shown to anyone else.

Parent sharing

• If a student turns on a private progress link or weekly email for a parent, we store the parent's email address, the private link, and the parent's chat setting.

Family accounts (pilot)

• A parent who sets up a family account gives us their email address and a password (stored only in scrambled, hashed form). We keep which children are linked to it (up to 2), and the one-time invite and setup codes used to link them.
• If a student types in a parent's email address to link a parent, we use it to send that parent one invitation to set up a family account, and as the email for the weekly summary.
• There's no payment during the pilot, so we hold no payment details.
• When a student sends feedback from the site, we email a copy of their message (not any picture) to their parent, and reply to the parent.

Pilot requests

• If you ask to join the pilot on our website, the email address you give and whether you're a parent or a student are sent to our inbox (hello@ourstudytribe.com) and kept on our sign-up list. We email the parent an invitation to set up a family account straight away. A student who signs up also gives a parent's email address; we send the invitation to that parent and tell the student we've done so.
• To give the founding-member discount fairly, we keep a record for each pilot family of when the invitation was sent, when the start and end surveys were completed, and how many pieces of feedback the family's children sent. The survey links carry a private code so we can match a survey to the family; the answers themselves stay in Tally (see "Who we share data with").
• If the family account isn't set up 3 days after the invitation, we send the parent one reminder. If no child has been added 3 days after the family account was set up, we send one more. We don't send further reminders.
• If the pilot is full, we tell you you're on the waiting list and email the parent an invitation when a place opens. Near the end of the pilot we email each family the end-of-pilot survey, with one reminder, and every two weeks we may send pilot families a short note on what we changed because of their feedback.
• To stop the sign-up form being misused, we keep a scrambled (hashed) version of the internet (IP) address it was sent from, not the address itself, for 7 days.

Preview visitors (no account)

• To preview the site, you give us your email address. We first email you a 6-digit code to check the address is real (we keep a scrambled copy of the code for 15 minutes' use). It's then sent to our inbox (hello@ourstudytribe.com) and kept on our sign-up list. We send you one welcome email, and after that use it only to tell you about the pilot and our launch. Ask us at any time and we'll delete it.
• Nothing you do in preview is saved. To limit the free answer checks, we store a random preview number and a scrambled (hashed) version of your internet (IP) address, not the address itself.

Technical information

• A cookie that keeps you signed in, and a record of sign-in attempts to protect accounts.
• Settings saved on your device, such as text size and your chosen year.
• Standard logs kept by our hosting provider (such as IP address, browser type and pages visited), and basic page-view statistics.

We use personal data only to:

• run Our Study Tribe: progress, study plans, review cards, practice papers and tribes;
• mark answers a student asks us to check;
• keep students safe: review reported messages, enforce our Terms of Use and stop misuse;
• send progress updates to a parent, when a student has set this up;
• reply to you, and tell pilot sign-ups about access and launch;
• fix problems and improve our lessons, mostly using totals and trends rather than individual records;
• meet our legal obligations, including keeping payment records.

We don't sell personal data, we don't show ads, and we don't build marketing profiles of students.

We only send emails you've asked for or need to take part, such as preview codes, family invitations and the reminders described above, password resets, copies of a child's feedback to their parent, progress updates and important notices about the pilot and our launch. To stop any email that isn't needed to run your account, reply to it or write to hello@ourstudytribe.com and we'll stop. We don't send marketing calls or text messages.

We won't use a student's name, photo, work or words in our marketing without written consent from their parent or guardian.

When a student presses "Check my answer" or "Mark my whole paper", the question and the answer they typed are sent to an automated checker. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) models provided by Anthropic and OpenAI, through our platform provider Floot, to suggest a level, a mark and feedback. The username and other account details are not sent with the answer.

• We keep the level and mark it gave, but not the text of the answer.
• If a student presses "Is this mark right?" and ticks "Share my answer", we keep that answer so we can check and improve the marking.
• Please don't write personal details (such as a name or school) in answers.

The marks are estimates to help students improve. Their teacher may mark differently.

• A student's tribe sees their username, avatar, how far they've got on the expedition map, cheers and their chat messages. There are no public profiles and no school-wide rankings.
• A parent with the student's private link sees their study progress, upcoming tests and the usernames of their tribe members, but never chat messages or other students' progress.
• A parent with a family account sees each linked child's study progress, goals, upcoming tests, username and tribe name, and can reset the child's password and switch tribe chat off. They never see chat messages, typed answers or other students' progress. The child is told in Settings that their parent can see their progress.
• Our team can see account details, progress and tribe chats, to run the service, help with problems and keep students safe. Access is limited to people who need it.
• Service providers handle data for us, as listed in the next section.
• We may share information if the law requires it, or if we believe someone is at serious risk of harm.
• Schools: we don't share students' information, or findings from our pilots, with schools.
• If Sobena Private Limited is ever merged with or sold to another company, personal data may pass to the new owner, who must protect it as this statement describes. We'll tell you before that happens.

We use these companies to run Our Study Tribe. They may only use the data to provide their service to us:

• Floot: hosts the website and database, sends our emails, provides access to the AI models used for marking, and counts page views.
• Anthropic and OpenAI: the AI models that mark answers (see "Automated marking").
• Google Fonts (the website's typefaces). Your browser connects to it directly, so it can see your IP address.
• Tally: hosts our surveys (the preview survey and the start- and end-of-pilot surveys), only if you choose to fill them in. Survey answers, including any email address or username you type in, are stored by Tally.
• IONOS: hosts our email inbox.

Some of these providers store or process data outside Singapore, for example in the United States. Where we transfer personal data overseas, we take steps so that it gets a standard of protection comparable to the PDPA.

Our Study Tribe is made for secondary school students, most of whom are under 18. We collect as little as possible and have built in safeguards: tribes are invite-only, chats can be reported and muted, and a parent with the private link can switch tribe chat off.

If you're under 13, a parent or guardian must agree to you using Our Study Tribe before you create an account. If you're 13 to 17, please make sure a parent or guardian is OK with it too.

Parents and guardians can contact us at hello@ourstudytribe.com to ask what we hold about their child, correct it, or have it deleted.

We use one essential cookie to keep you signed in. Progress and settings are also saved in your browser's storage, so the site works quickly and offline. We don't use advertising cookies.

Clearing your browser data removes what's saved on that device. If you're signed in, progress is still saved in the account.

• We keep account and progress data while the account is open.
• If you ask us to delete an account, we delete or anonymise the personal data within 30 days. We may keep a record of safety reports longer, where we need it to protect others.
• Preview-visitor records (the random number and hashed IP address) are kept only to apply the free limits.
• Pilot requests and pilot family records (invitation, survey and feedback dates) are kept until the founding-member discount has been given, and for no more than 12 months after the pilot ends, unless you ask us to remove them sooner.
• Feedback messages and pictures are kept while we need them to improve the site, and deleted if you ask.

Passwords are stored in hashed form, all connections use HTTPS, private parent links are long random codes, and only our team can see account data. No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach is likely to cause significant harm, we will tell the people affected and the Personal Data Protection Commission, as the PDPA requires.

You (or your parent or guardian) can ask us to:

• tell you what personal data we hold about you, and how it has been used;
• correct anything that's wrong;
• delete an account and its data, or withdraw consent to us using it.

Email hello@ourstudytribe.com from the email address linked to the account, or tell us the username. We may need to confirm it's really you, and we aim to reply within 30 days. You can also change your avatar, leave a tribe, switch off a parent link or weekly email, and mute people yourself in the app.

We don't charge for these requests. If you withdraw consent or ask us to delete an account, we may no longer be able to provide Our Study Tribe to you, and we'll tell you what that means before we act.

If you're not happy with how we've handled your request, you can contact Singapore's Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) at pdpc.gov.sg.

If we change how we use personal data, we'll update this page and change the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll also tell you in the app.