Terms & Conditions

1. Introduction

Gotcha is an independent platform for the BRACU student community. It helps students connect, share knowledge, and request peer-to-peer consultation sessions. Gotcha is not affiliated with BRAC University. These Terms & Conditions govern your use of the Gotcha website and related services.

By accessing or using Gotcha, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the platform.

2. Eligibility and Account Responsibility

You must be at least 16 years old and use the platform only in a lawful and appropriate manner. Gotcha is intended for the BRACU student community, and a verified @g.bracu.ac.bd email is required to book.

You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide, including your name, BRACU email address, profile details, and contact information. You must keep your account secure and notify us immediately if you believe your account has been compromised.

3. Service Overview

Gotcha helps users find consultants, request consultations, communicate around bookings, and manage scheduling. Sessions happen outside the app; Gotcha does not provide or guarantee the consultation itself.

Gotcha does not guarantee that a request will be accepted, a session will occur, or that any advice or result will be successful. Outcomes depend on the participants and the circumstances of the session.

4. User Conduct

You agree not to misuse the platform, impersonate another person, post false information, or engage in abusive, discriminatory, harassing, fraudulent, or unlawful behaviour. This includes any action intended to damage the reputation, trust, or experience of others on the platform.

Do not request, offer, pay for, or complete graded coursework or exam answers on another person’s behalf. Asking for more than a listed price, pressuring someone to pay, or taking payment and failing to attend an agreed session are reportable violations and may lead to warnings, restrictions, or account removal.

5. Bookings and Consultation Sessions

Consultants choose a listed price, which may be zero. The listed price is shown before a student sends a request and cannot be increased unless the student agrees. Any agreed payment is made directly between the student and consultant outside Gotcha and at their own risk.

Gotcha does not process, hold, guarantee, refund, or mediate payments and cannot recover money sent between users. Agree on the price first, be cautious about advance payments, and never share passwords, PINs, or one-time codes.

Booking requests, availability, timing, course details, and session arrangements are the responsibility of both the student and the consultant. The consultant must accept a request before it is confirmed. Chat opens 15 minutes before a session and closes 2 minutes after it ends; sessions happen outside Gotcha.

If a session is cancelled, rescheduled, or not completed as agreed, users must communicate through the platform and act in good faith. Gotcha may review reports or disputes when required, but the final outcome depends on the context and evidence available.

6. Reviews, Ratings, and Disputes

Users may submit reviews or ratings to provide feedback. Reviews must reflect genuine experiences, be respectful, and not contain abusive, misleading, or defamatory statements.

Gotcha may investigate reports and disputes involving booking issues, session behaviour, or misuse of the platform. We may take moderate actions such as warnings, restrictions, or account actions where necessary, as permitted by the platform policies and applicable laws.

7. Privacy and Data Use

We collect and process personal information necessary to operate the platform, manage bookings, support communication, and maintain security. This may include account data, student information, consultation records, and usage logs.

Users separately consent during registration to share their BRACU email address with the other participant for bookings. This is separate from the optional consultant booking-email notification choice described below.

Consultant email notification preferences are optional and are managed in the consultancy profile. See the Booking email notifications (consultants) section for details.

We handle personal information according to these Terms and our platform policies, and use it to operate the service, protect accounts, support booking communication, and respond to reports.

When you delete your account, we remove your Gotcha profile, consultant profile, notifications, and private data, and cancel pending and future accepted bookings. This flow does not remove reviews and aggregate counters, reports, or sanction records; records with separate expiry dates may later be deleted under our retention rules. Profile photos already uploaded to Cloudinary are not removed by account deletion.

8. Booking email notifications (consultants)

Consultants can choose to receive email updates about their bookings. If you opt in, your BRACU email is stored in a separate record that Gotcha uses to send these emails. It is not shown on your profile or in search results. Because of how Gotcha is built, this record may be accessible to other verified BRACU users of the platform. Collecting, copying, sharing or using another user's email for anything other than the booking it was provided for is a serious violation of these Terms. The user who does so is solely responsible, and Gotcha may suspend or ban them and cooperate with the university where appropriate. You can opt out at any time in your consultancy profile, which deletes the stored address. If you do not opt in, no email is stored and you receive in-app notifications only.

9. Intellectual Property

All branding, design, software, content, and materials related to Gotcha remain the property of the platform owners or their authorised partners. You may not copy, reproduce, modify, distribute, or use the platform content without prior written permission.

You retain ownership of your own content, submissions, and profile information, but by posting or submitting data to the platform, you grant us a limited right to display, store, and process it for the purpose of operating the service.

10. Limitation of Liability

Gotcha is provided on an “as is” basis. We do not guarantee uninterrupted service, error-free performance, or the outcomes of any consultation. We are not liable for losses arising from poor communication, missed sessions, false information shared by users, or other issues beyond our reasonable control.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Gotcha shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from the use of the platform or any interactions between users.

11. Suspension, Termination, and Changes

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate access to the platform if a user violates these Terms, engages in harmful conduct, or compromises the safety or integrity of the community.

We may update these Terms from time to time. Continued use of the platform after any update constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms. We will make reasonable efforts to communicate material changes where appropriate.

12. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of Bangladesh, without reference to conflict of law principles. Any dispute arising under or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Bangladesh.

13. Contact

For questions, support requests, or concerns about these Terms, please contact the Gotcha team through the official communication channels available on the platform.