Privacy Policy

GuruShishya is a Carnatic music practice platform for music schools, operated by KA Academy of Indian Music & Dance, Inc. (“GuruShishya”, “we”, “us”). Gurus publish reference tracks; students record practice takes in the browser; the guru listens, scores and remarks on them.

Many of our students are children. This policy is written so that a parent can read it in one sitting. If anything here is unclear, write to hello@gurushishyas.com.

• We collect only what we need to run lessons and practice.
• We do not show ads, and we never sell anyone's data.
• A student's recordings and practice record are seen by the student, their guru and their school — and by us only to run and fix the service.
• You can ask us to show you, correct or delete what we keep. Email hello@gurushishyas.com.

• Account. Your name, email address and username. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address and profile photo from Google. If you use an email and password, the password is stored only as a one-way hash, never as the password itself; accounts brought over from the school's earlier portal keep their existing password in the same hashed form.
• School. Which school you belong to, your role there (student, guru or school admin), and the class groups your school puts you in.
• Recordings. The practice takes a student records in the browser, and the reference tracks a guru publishes. We only record when you press record.
• Practice record. What you practiced and when, the scores our audio scorer gives a take, your guru's scores and remarks, quiz answers, badges, streaks and leaderboard points.
• Payments. If you buy a plan, payment is handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card number. Stripe tells us your plan, its renewal date, the amount, and whether a payment succeeded.
• Analytics. Which pages are visited and which buttons are used, with the browser and device type, through Google Analytics and PostHog. These are recorded against an internal account number, not your name or email address; we do not send names or email addresses to either.
• Session recordings. PostHog may record how pages are used (where the pointer moves, what is clicked, how the screen changes) so we can see where students get stuck. Everything typed into a field is hidden before it leaves the browser, and recordings are seen only by the GuruShishya team.
• Page feedback. When you press a thumbs up or down under a page title, we keep the vote, the page, any comment you choose to write, your role and your school, so we can see what works and fix what does not.
• Messages. What you write to us by email.

• To run your account and sign you in.
• To store your takes, score them, and put them in front of your guru for review.
• To show progress — streaks, badges, quizzes and your school's leaderboards.
• To run your plan and its billing.
• To understand which parts of the app are used or confusing, so we can improve them.
• To send occasional announcements about GuruShishya (see “Email” below) and to answer your messages.

We do not use anyone's data for advertising, and we do not build profiles of students for anyone outside their school.

Within your school. Your guru sees your takes, scores, remarks and practice record so they can teach you. Your school's admins see the school's roster and its students' progress. Other students in your school can see your name and points on the school's leaderboards. Nobody outside your school sees your recordings or practice record.

Our service providers, who process data on our behalf and only to provide their service to us:

• Google Cloud and Firebase — sign-in, our database, and the private storage that holds recordings, in the United States.
• Stripe — payments and the billing portal.
• Google Analytics — usage analytics, as described above.
• PostHog — usage analytics and session recordings, as described above, stored in the United States.

We do not sell, rent or trade personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers. We would disclose data only if the law required it, and would tell the affected family where the law allows.

GuruShishya is used by music schools, and many students are children. We rely on the school and on parents: a child under 13 uses an account set up through their school or by a parent, not on their own. We collect from children only what the lessons need, as listed above.

A parent or guardian can ask to see what we keep about their child, to correct it, or to delete it, by writing to hello@gurushishyas.com from the email address on the account or naming the student's username. Our practices are designed around the children's privacy (COPPA) and student-record (FERPA) frameworks: the school and the family decide, and the data serves teaching only.

We keep your account, recordings and practice record while your account is in use, so your progress and your guru's remarks stay with you. Ask us to delete your account, or your child's, and we will delete the account, its recordings and its practice record. Payment records are kept by Stripe and by us as long as tax and accounting law requires.

To ask, email hello@gurushishyas.com. We answer within two working days.

• Recordings are kept in private storage. They are never public; each one is played through a short-lived signed link issued only to someone allowed to hear it.
• Every request to our servers is checked against your verified sign-in, and what you can see is limited by your role and your school.
• Passwords are stored only as one-way hashes. Card details never reach us.

No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach that affects your data, we will tell you.

We use the storage in your browser to keep you signed in, and Google Analytics uses cookies to count visits and usage. We use no advertising or retargeting cookies.

We send occasional announcements about GuruShishya from hello@gurushishyas.com. To stop them, reply “no emails” and we will take you off the list. Messages about your account itself, such as billing receipts from Stripe, may still be sent.

You, or a parent for a child, can ask us to show you the data we keep, correct it, delete it, or send you a copy of your recordings. Email hello@gurushishyas.com. Depending on where you live, the law may give you further rights; we will honor them on the same request.

If we change this policy, we will post the new version here with a new effective date, and for a change that matters we will tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect.

hello@gurushishyas.com · GuruShishya · San Francisco, CA. See also the Student Data Principles and the Terms of Service.