Privacy Policy

Information Gotcha handles

Account information includes your nickname and BRACU email address. If you create a consultant profile, Gotcha also stores the profile details you provide, such as your department, courses, availability, listed price, and profile photo.

Bookings include the participants, course, topic, schedule, agreed price, and booking status. Gotcha also stores reviews, ratings, in-app notifications, and chat messages. Messages are normally eligible for lazy cleanup about two days after a session ends. A reported chat may be retained with a report for moderation.

Reports and moderation records can include descriptions, evidence, relevant booking details, and sanction history. Optional contact details shared by a participant are stored with the related booking. Contact form submissions include the name, BRACU email, subject, and message you send.

How information is used

Gotcha uses this information to verify accounts, show consultant profiles, manage session requests and schedules, provide notifications and chat, collect reviews, respond to support requests, and review safety reports or disputes.

Who can see information

Consultant profile information selected for publication can be visible on public consultant pages. Consultants who opt in receive booking emails at their BRACU address, stored in a separate record described in the Terms (Booking email notifications). Consultants who do not opt in receive in-app notifications only. This separate record may be accessible to other verified BRACU users of the platform, as described in the Terms. After a consultant accepts, their email is also shared with that booking’s student for coordination.

Only admins can review reports, reported chat evidence, contact form messages, and sanction records for moderation. Firebase service access is also used to operate authentication and the database.

Service providers

Gotcha uses Firebase Authentication and Firestore, Cloudinary for uploaded images, EmailJS for platform emails, and Vercel for hosting and its enabled site analytics.

Retention and deletion

Chat cleanup is lazy: messages generally become eligible for deletion about two days after the session and are removed when cleanup runs as someone uses the app. Evidence attached to reports may remain available to admins. Some account deletion records, including reviews, aggregate counters, reports, and sanction history, are not removed by the in-app account deletion flow and may follow separate retention rules. Uploaded Cloudinary photos are not removed by that flow.

Contact messages have no automatic expiry configured. Admins can mark a message new, read, or done and delete it. Avoid sending information you do not want stored in a support record.

Your choices and account deletion

You can update profile information in your account. You can request account deletion from your profile in Gotcha. Deletion removes the profile and private data described in the Terms, cancels pending and future accepted bookings, and does not erase all moderation or review records.

For a privacy question or a deletion request you cannot complete in the app, contact Gotcha using the address on the Contact page.

Security

Gotcha uses Firebase Authentication and Firestore security rules to control access to accounts and platform records. Keep your password private and contact Gotcha if you think someone has accessed your account.

University students

Gotcha is intended for university students, specifically BRAC University students using a verified @g.bracu.ac.bd email. The Terms require users to be at least 16 years old.

Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated when Gotcha’s features or data handling changes. The date at the top shows when this page was last updated.