Bow Tie Maths
Privacy policy
Last updated: 11 November 2026
1. Who I am
Bow Tie Maths is run by me, Rob Wakeling. I am the data controller for the personal data described here, which means I decide how it is used and I am responsible for looking after it. I am registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
This policy covers the website and app at bowtieteacher.co.uk, my tutoring, group sessions and courses, and the ways you can contact me, including email, WhatsApp, Messenger, forms on Facebook and Instagram, and calls.
For anything about your data, email me at rob@bowtieteacher.co.uk.
2. What I collect
Accounts
- Your name and email address, and a password or your Google sign in.
- A unique account id created by Google Firebase. Visitors who try the app without an account get an anonymous id, so their answers can be saved if they sign up later.
- Whether you are a student, parent or teacher, and the links between a parent and their child's account, or a teacher and their classes.
- Whether you have agreed to marketing emails.
Your child's learning data
- The questions they answer, whether each answer was right, and their progress on each topic.
- A predicted GCSE grade, worked out by my own model from their recent answers. It is a guide to help them revise and is never used to make decisions about them.
- For courses and group sessions: their exam board, tier, attendance and weekly practice against the target.
- Mock grades and marks you tell me, and the notes I make while teaching them.
Parent contact details
- Your name, email address and phone number, given when you enrol your child, book a place, or pay.
- Your child's name, and their email address if you give it, so I can link the place to their account.
Free mock reviews
- Photos of your child's marked mock paper that you send me, and what we discuss on the review call. Papers often show your child's name and school, so feel free to cover them before you take the photo.
Forms on Facebook and Instagram
- If you fill in one of my forms in a Facebook or Instagram advert, Meta passes me the answers you gave, such as your name, email address, phone number, your child's year group and their latest mock grade.
- If you message my Facebook Page from an advert, Messenger may ask you a few quick questions, such as your child's latest mock grade and your mobile number. I receive your answers, your Facebook name and the messages you send.
WhatsApp, email and calls
- Your phone number, WhatsApp name and the messages, photos and voice notes you send me.
- If you book a call: your name, contact details, the time you chose and anything you tell me when booking.
Payments
- Payments are taken by Stripe (and by Klarna, if you choose to pay in instalments). I see your name, email, phone number, what you bought and whether the payment succeeded. I never see or store your full card details.
Lead magnets
- If you download a free guide or take the grade predictor, your name, email address, whether you are a parent or a student, and your marketing choice.
How the site is used
- Pages visited, where your first visit came from (for example an advert, a search engine or another website) and the actions you take, such as starting a practice run or reaching checkout. See section 10 for how this is collected and how to opt out.
3. How I use it, and the lawful basis
UK data protection law requires a lawful basis for each use. These are mine.
- Running your account, the app, lessons and courses
- Contract: I need this data to provide what you signed up or paid for, including weekly progress emails to parents and the reminders that go with a course.
- Free practice before an account exists, and free mock reviews
- Legitimate interests: providing the free service you asked for, and steps you have asked me to take before you decide whether to book.
- Replying to enquiries on WhatsApp, email, forms and calls
- Legitimate interests, or steps before a contract when you are asking about booking.
- Marketing emails
- Consent. I only send them if you have ticked the box or clicked the opt in link, and every one has an unsubscribe link. Emails you asked for, such as a guide you requested, your results, or receipts, are sent whatever your marketing choice.
- Advertising cookies (Meta pixel, Google Ads, Google Analytics)
- Consent, through the cookie banner. You can change your mind at any time.
- Telling Meta and Google about purchases and trials made through my adverts
- Legitimate interests: knowing which adverts work, so I do not waste money on the ones that do not. Details in section 4, including how to object.
- Counting visits and improving the site
- Legitimate interests, under the exemption for statistics in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. These statistics stay with me and the analytics provider, never go to advertisers, and you can opt out.
- Payment and accounting records
- Legal obligation: I must keep records of sales for tax.
I never sell personal data.
4. Advertising: Meta and Google
I advertise on Facebook and Instagram (Meta) and on Google. To know whether the adverts work, some information goes to them, as follows.
In your browser, only if you accept cookies
The Meta pixel and Google's advertising and analytics tags only set cookies after you click Accept on the cookie banner. They then record visits and actions such as viewing a course page, starting a checkout or tapping a WhatsApp button. If you click Decline, or do nothing, the Meta pixel is not loaded at all, and Google's tags run in a restricted mode that sets no cookies.
From my server, when you buy or start a trial
When someone pays for a course or a subscription, or starts a free trial, my server sends Meta a record of that event using Meta's Conversions API. It includes the email address and phone number of the person who paid, both scrambled (hashed) before they leave my system, a scrambled Stripe customer reference where there is one, the value of the purchase, and the browser type it was made from. If you arrived from a Meta advert, it also includes the click reference that was in the advert's link, and Meta's browser reference if you accepted cookies, so the purchase can be matched to the advert. If you arrived from a Google advert, the purchase is reported to Google with the Google click reference only. Without your cookie consent, a click reference is only held for the visit you arrived on, never stored in your browser.
Meta matches the scrambled details against its own accounts. It does not get your child's name, account or learning data, and nothing about which questions anyone answered. If you would rather your purchase was not reported, email me and I will exclude it.
Forms and Messenger chats in Meta adverts
If you fill in a form inside a Facebook or Instagram advert, or answer the questions in a Messenger chat that starts from one, Meta collects your answers and passes them to me. Meta's own privacy policy covers what Meta does with them.
5. WhatsApp and Messenger
My business WhatsApp number is 07366 948457. Buttons on this site open WhatsApp with a short message already typed, which tells me which page you came from. When you message me, WhatsApp (part of Meta) carries the messages. Messages are end to end encrypted, but Meta can see that we have been in contact.
I use what you send me to reply, to prepare any mock review you ask for and to keep track of enquiries. Session summaries for parents are sent by WhatsApp too. If you would rather I used email, just say.
You can also message my Facebook Page on Messenger, which Meta runs. Messenger chats with a business Page are carried and stored by Meta. I use them in the same way as WhatsApp messages, and if you give me your number there I may carry on the conversation on WhatsApp or by phone.
6. Children
Most people using the app are students aged 11 to 18, so I take particular care with their data:
- I collect only what is needed to teach them and show their progress.
- Children's data is never used for advertising and never sent to Meta or Google. The advertising measurement in section 4 is about the adult who paid.
- Advertising cookies are off unless someone clicks Accept, and my own statistics hold no names.
- Where I rely on consent and the student is under 13, I need the consent of a parent or guardian.
- Parents can ask to see, correct or delete their child's data at any time.
7. Who else handles your data
I use these companies to run Bow Tie Maths. They act on my instructions and under contracts that protect your data, except where noted, when they also act for their own purposes under their own privacy policies.
- Google (Firebase and Google Cloud)
- Accounts and sign in, the database, the website, server functions and the grade prediction model.
- Google Workspace
- My email, calendar (including call bookings), and the files and spreadsheets where I keep student and parent records.
- Google Ads and Google Analytics
- Advert measurement, as described in section 4.
- Stripe, and Klarna
- Payments. Stripe and Klarna also act as controllers for fraud prevention and their own legal obligations.
- Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp)
- Advertising, forms and Messenger chats in adverts, advert measurement, and Messenger and WhatsApp messages. Meta acts as a controller for some of this, including what it does with data collected in its own apps.
- Resend
- Sends the app's emails, such as account emails, results, weekly parent reports and course reminders.
- Mailchimp
- Marketing emails to people who have agreed to receive them.
- PostHog (EU)
- Site statistics, without cookies and without storing IP addresses, on servers in the EU.
- Zoom
- Live lessons, group sessions and calls.
- Anthropic (Claude)
- An AI assistant I use to help me read marked papers, prepare mock reviews and write up lesson notes. Under its business terms, what I send is not used to train its models.
- xAI (Grok)
- An AI assistant I use to read my client records and help me keep on top of bookings and payments.
I may also share data if the law requires it, or to protect a child's safety.
8. Transfers outside the UK
Some of these companies store or access data outside the UK, mainly in the EU and the United States. Where that happens the transfer is protected by UK adequacy regulations (for the EU, and for US companies certified under the UK Extension to the EU to US Data Privacy Framework), or by the ICO's International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.
9. How long I keep it
- Accounts and learning data
- While the account is in use, then deleted 2 years after the last sign in, unless you ask me to delete it sooner.
- Enquiries that do not lead to a booking
- Deleted 12 months after we were last in contact, including WhatsApp and Messenger messages, form answers and call bookings.
- Photos of mock papers
- Deleted 12 months after you send them.
- Lesson recordings
- Some lessons are recorded on Zoom so students can catch up and so I can review them. Recordings are shared only with the families in that lesson and are deleted after 12 months. I never use a clip of a child publicly without the parent's written consent.
- Payment and accounting records
- 6 years after the end of the tax year they relate to, as the law requires.
- Site statistics
- Up to 2 years.
- Marketing email list
- Until you unsubscribe. After that I keep just your email address on a do not contact list, so you are not emailed again.
Anonymous, combined figures that cannot identify anyone may be kept longer to improve the grade model.
11. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- get a copy of the data I hold about you or your child;
- have it corrected if it is wrong;
- have it deleted;
- restrict how I use it;
- object to how I use it, including the advert measurement in section 4, and to marketing at any time;
- receive it in a format you can take elsewhere;
- withdraw consent you have given, at any time.
Email rob@bowtieteacher.co.uk and I will reply within one month. If you are unhappy with how I have handled your data, please tell me first so I can put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
12. Changes to this policy
I will update this page when what I do with data changes, and change the date at the top. If a change matters to you, for example a new use of your child's data, I will tell you by email before it happens.