Privacy policy
Last updated 12 November 2026. A draft for review before launch.
Who we are
SmartyMonkey is a Singapore subscription service where tutors post videos and answer students' questions for the SEC. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, and what you can do about it, as required by the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).
What we collect, and why
- Account: your email address (or phone number) to sign you in, a display name and a handle. Students also choose a level and subjects so we can show the right videos, and give their birth month and year (not the day) so we know whether a parent must agree first. We do not ask students for their school or photos.
- Tutors: a bio, subjects, years of teaching and the credentials and proof files you choose to upload for the verified badge. Payout details (PayNow or bank) are stored for paying you and are never shown publicly.
- What you do on SmartyMonkey: the questions you ask and the photos you attach, comments, likes and dislikes, saves, reposts, follows, revision progress, and how much of each video you watch. Watch time is used to pay tutors and to recommend videos.
- Payments: handled by Stripe. We keep your subscription status and a record of invoices and refunds. We never see your full card number; Stripe gives us a card "fingerprint" so that a free month cannot be claimed twice with the same card.
- Technical: error reports (Sentry) with no names, email addresses or IP addresses attached.
Automated transcription and scoring
Every video a tutor uploads is transcribed automatically so it can be searched and captioned. Every tutor's video answer is scored automatically against a marking rubric before it is published; a low score sends it to a human reviewer. The transcript, a few still frames from the answer video, the question text and any photos attached to the question are sent to an AI provider for this (Alibaba Cloud Model Studio, in its Singapore region), which also checks questions, comments and photos. We never send a student's name, email or any other account detail with them. Questions, comments and photos are also checked automatically for contact details and unsafe content before they appear.
Who can see what
Student profiles are private by default: only people you approve as followers see what you repost. Your questions are visible to tutors, and approved questions with answers can be found by other students in search, without your name. Tutor profiles are public. A parent you are linked to sees your progress, as set out under Parent accounts below. Admins can see everything needed to moderate the service and pay tutors.
Where your data is kept
Our database and files are hosted by Supabase in Singapore, videos are stored and streamed by Bunny.net from Singapore, and payments are processed by Stripe. Transcription and scoring run on our own equipment in Singapore or with an AI provider; nothing personal is kept on that equipment after each job.
Your choices
- Turn email notifications off in Settings. In-app notifications stay.
- Make your profile public or private in Settings.
- Download everything we hold about you from Settings, as a file you can keep.
- Delete your account from Settings. Your profile, questions, comments, watch history and videos are removed at once. Invoices are kept, without your name, because the law requires accounting records.
Children
Most of our students are under 18. A student under 18 can look around, but cannot subscribe, ask questions, comment or make their profile public until a parent agrees. The student gives us a parent's email address; we email the parent a link explaining what we collect, and record whether they agree, when, and to which version of this explanation. A parent can withdraw consent at any time from the same link, and the subscription then stops renewing. We collect the minimum we can, there is no chat, and everything students and tutors write to each other is checked before it appears. If you are a parent with a concern about your child's account, write to us and we will act on it.
Parent accounts
A parent can create a free parent account. We keep only the parent's email address and a name, and a parent's account is never public. A parent account does nothing until it is linked to a student, and a link is only made when both agree: a student invites a parent by email, a parent invites a child by email, or a parent who has given consent by link uses that same link.
- A linked parent can see how long the student watched each day and in each subject, the titles of the videos, the text of the student's approved questions and whether they were answered, how much of the question allowance is used, and revision cards cleared. Once a week we email the parent a summary, unless they turn it off.
- A linked parent cannot see the student's comments, likes, saves, reposts or who they follow, and cannot watch videos.
- A linked parent can pay for the student's subscription. Stripe holds the card.
- While the student is under 18, a linked parent can keep their profile private, turn commenting or asking off, and set a daily watch-time limit. The student is told which limits are set, and they end at 18.
- A parent can remove the link at any time. A student can remove it once they are 18. Removing it stops the parent seeing anything further.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your data: email our data protection officer at privacy@smartymonkey.com. See also our terms and community guidelines.