Terms of Service

Algo Tutoring is a studio of independent tutors in Los Angeles. When you create an account or book a session you agree to these terms. If something is unclear, ask us. Please read “AI tools in sessions”, “AI is new technology” and “Liability” closely: they limit what we are responsible for and ask you to accept some risks.

Who you deal with

Each tutor works as an independent freelancer. Your agreement for any session is with that tutor. The website is a shared front door for both.

Because tutors are independent, what happens during a session is between you and your tutor. Algo Tutoring, the website and studio, is not responsible for a tutor’s conduct, and a tutor is not responsible for the website.

What we can and cannot promise

Your tutor does their best to help the student improve, whether that is grades, exam scores, admissions or confidence. We cannot promise a particular grade, score or outcome; that depends on the student too. If you are not happy with the service, you are under no obligation to continue, and you can stop at any time.

Opinions, not professional advice

Tutors share their views as teachers, including on AI, learning and growing up with technology, at the consultation and in sessions. These are opinions and general information, not medical, psychological, legal or other professional advice, and not a promise of any result. Descriptions of tutors, their experience and their approach, on this site or elsewhere, are not promises and are not part of these terms.

Booking

A booking request is confirmed only when the tutor accepts it. Until then the time is held for you and nothing is owed. If the tutor cannot take the request, the time is released and we suggest alternatives.

Your booking lives on this site. If you add a session to your own calendar or subscribe to your calendar feed, changing or deleting the event there does not change or cancel the booking. Use the links in your emails or your account page instead.

Paying

You pay your tutor directly, by the method you agree between you. We do not store card details and do not take payments through the site. Rates are shown on each tutor’s page or told to you before you confirm. Any travel charge for a home visit is quoted before you confirm.

Cancelling and rescheduling

You can cancel or move a session up to 24 hours before it starts at no cost. With less notice, or if the student does not show up, your tutor may charge a late-cancellation fee. Each tutor sets their own fee, may reduce it depending on how much notice you gave, and may waive it. If a tutor has to cancel, nothing is charged and we find you another time.

Students and guardians

For a student under 18, the account holder must be a parent or legal guardian. The parent or guardian is the person agreeing to these terms, for themselves and on the student’s behalf, and is responsible for the student’s participation and for the information given about them. We keep only the student’s first name and grade. If you sign up for lessons for yourself, you confirm that you are 18 or over.

You are responsible for keeping your account information accurate, including phone numbers, and for keeping your sign-in links and codes to yourself.

In-person sessions

First sessions take place online or at a public place. Sessions at a family’s home are offered at the tutor’s discretion. Students bring what the tutor’s page asks for.

For a student under 18, a parent or guardian stays nearby or reachable by phone during in-person sessions, especially the first one, and the account holds a number we can call. The tutor is there to teach, not to supervise the student outside the session.

Recordings and signatures

Sessions and conversations are not recorded, on either side, unless everyone taking part agrees. A tutor may ask at the start of a session, or of a conversation with a parent or guardian, whether they may record it. Saying no is fine and changes nothing about your tutoring. If anyone asks to stop, the recording stops. How recordings are kept and deleted is on the privacy policy.

When we ask you to type your full name to agree to something, your typed name is your signature. An electronic record of what you agreed to, with its version and date, counts the same as a signed paper copy. You can ask for a paper copy to sign instead.

AI tools in sessions

Here, AI tools means chatbots and AI assistants the student uses directly. Some tutors use AI tools in sessions and some do not. Before tutoring starts, a tutor who uses them asks the parent or guardian whether the student should use AI tools, and may give their opinion. The parent decides: no AI tools, AI tools, or starting without them and adding them later. You can change your decision at any time by telling the tutor.

The tutor chooses tools that fit the student’s age, under each provider’s own age rules. For a student under 13, AI tools are used only if the parent asks for them, only in the way the parent agrees to, and within each provider’s own rules. In sessions, AI is used for schoolwork, coding and projects, not for personal advice, companionship or role-play.

Where a tool needs an account, the student uses their own account on their own computer. That account is between your family and the provider: it is opened under the provider’s terms and age rules, for a student under 18 only with a parent’s or guardian’s permission, and your family pays any cost. Tutors never open or create accounts for students and never let a student use a tutor’s own account.

The provider, not Algo Tutoring or the tutor, is responsible for its service: what the AI says or produces, how it stores and uses your data, outages and changes, and anything it does to an account. Read the provider’s terms and privacy policy, and use its parental controls and privacy settings where it offers them.

AI output can be wrong, biased or inappropriate, even when it sounds sure of itself. Checking it is part of the student’s and the parent’s work.

The coding features of AI tools can change or delete files and run commands on the computer they are used on. Keep backups of anything important on that computer.

AI is new technology

AI tools are new, and nobody yet fully understands their long-term effects, including their effects on young people’s habits, attention, wellbeing and learning. Known risks include relying on AI instead of learning to think things through; using it too much or becoming dependent on it, including emotionally; seeing content that is wrong, harmful or not suitable for the student’s age; and sharing private information with the provider. There have been widely reported cases, mostly on general chatbots and companion apps, of young people forming emotional or romantic attachments to a chatbot and of chatbots responding harmfully to talk of self-harm or suicide. We cannot control what an AI tool produces or predict how it will affect any person.

By agreeing to these terms, and again if asked when you book a session that uses AI tools, you, the parent or guardian, confirm that you decide whether your child uses AI tools; that you supervise your child’s use of AI tools, devices and accounts outside sessions and set the limits you think right; and that you understand these risks and accept them for your child and for yourself. An adult student confirms the same for their own use.

Tutors do not monitor students and are not responsible for noticing warning signs, but a tutor who sees something worrying may tell the parent. Tutors follow the law on reporting suspected child abuse.

Tutors are teachers, not counselors or medical professionals. If you are worried about how a student uses AI or about their wellbeing, speak to their doctor or school counselor, and tell us if you would like sessions without AI tools.

Outside sessions

A tutor teaches during the session only and does not supervise the student at any other time. What a student does outside a session with any AI tool, app, device or account (how much they use it, what they use it for and what they share with it), and how they use what they learned, is the responsibility of the student and their family, not of Algo Tutoring or the tutor.

Schoolwork and honesty

Tutors do not complete graded work, tests or applications for a student, with or without AI. The student follows their school’s and teachers’ rules on AI, including rules on homework, tests and saying when AI was used. Where those rules are stricter than what a session covered, the school’s rules win. Algo Tutoring and its tutors are not responsible for the consequences of a student breaking them.

Other apps, accounts and devices

The same applies to any other app, game or site used in a session, such as Minecraft, Roblox or coding sites: the family uses its own account, under that service’s terms and age rules. Students bring and look after their own computer. Algo Tutoring and its tutors are not responsible for the device or what is on it.

Declining, ending and holds

A tutor may decline a request or end a booking, for example if a session does not feel safe or workable. Algo Tutoring may put an account on hold or close it if it is misused, unsafe for tutors or other clients, or has an unpaid fee. You would be told by email.

Liability

In this section and the AI sections above, “we” and “us” mean Algo Tutoring and each of its tutors. To the fullest extent the law allows:

Limit. Our total responsibility for any claim connected with the site or a session is limited to the greater of what you paid for the session in question and 100 dollars.

Indirect losses. We are not responsible for indirect or consequential losses, such as lost files or data, damage to a device or software, lost grades, credit or admission chances, or lost time or income.

Other companies’ services. We are not responsible for services we do not run, including AI tools, Google Meet, calendar apps, games, coding sites and phone carriers: what they produce, how they handle data, when they fail, or what they do to an account.

AI risks you accept. You accept the risks described in “AI is new technology” above. You release us from claims arising from those risks, from an AI provider’s service, and from anything a student does with any AI tool, app, device or account outside a session, including claims that we were negligent.

Claims about use outside sessions. If anyone, including the student, brings a claim against us arising from the student’s own use of AI tools or other apps outside sessions, or from the student’s conduct outside sessions, you agree to cover our reasonable costs of that claim, including reasonable lawyers’ fees and any amount we have to pay.

What these limits do not cover. Nothing here limits what cannot be limited by law. These limits do not cover harm we cause on purpose, through gross negligence or fraud, or by breaking the law, and they do not take away any right that the law says you cannot give up.

Law and disputes

These terms are governed by California law. If something goes wrong, talk to us first; we would rather fix it. Any dispute that cannot be settled that way is handled in Los Angeles County.

SMS terms

Algo Tutoring asks for a mobile number when you sign up and texts it a one-time code to check it. After that, we text you a sign-in code whenever you ask for one. These codes are sent only because you request them. Session reminders by text are separate and optional: we send them only if you tick the texting box at sign-up or turn texting on from your account page, and you can turn them off there at any time. We never send marketing texts. Message frequency varies with how often you sign in and how many sessions you have. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any message to opt out and HELP for help, or write to us. If you stop sign-in codes, you can still sign in with an email link. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. We do not sell or share your SMS opt-in data or personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Your information

What we keep and why is set out on the privacy policy. You can ask us to close your account or delete any of your information at any time. After that we keep only the short record of what you agreed to that the privacy policy describes, and anything related to a dispute already raised until it is resolved.

Changes

If these terms change, we ask you to read and agree to the new version the next time you sign in. The version date is at the top of this page.

Other terms

If a court decides any part of these terms cannot be enforced, that part is limited only as far as needed and the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a term right away, we can still enforce it later.

Contact

Write to hello@algotutoring.com.