Last updated 26 September 2026

Privacy policy

Distinction (hdistinction.live) is a peer Q&A site where university students ask short questions about their courses and students who got a Distinction or High Distinction answer them. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have. We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles.

What we collect

Account details: your email address and password (stored securely by our authentication provider), or your name and email from Google if you sign in with Google.
Profile: your name, display name, university, degree, year of study, preferred language and, for tutors, a short intro.
Questions and answers: the questions you post, any file you attach, and the answers, messages and markup tutors write.
Tutor applications: the academic transcript you upload, the courses and marks read from it, and your My eQuals share link if you choose to provide one.
Credits: your credit balance and a history of top-ups, question charges and refunds. We don't currently take payments or store card details.
Ratings and reports you give on answers.

How we use it

To run your account and show your questions to tutors who are approved for that course or a similar one.
To check tutor applications. Transcripts are read automatically to list courses and marks, and an admin reviews them before approval.
To translate the site, and questions or answers written in another language, into your preferred language.
To keep the site safe, handle reports and prevent misuse such as sharing assignment answers.

We don't sell your information and we don't use it for advertising.

Who can see what

Tutors who can answer a question see the question, its attachment and the asker's display name.
Students see the answers to their own questions and each answering tutor's display name, rating and approved courses.
Transcripts and My eQuals links are visible only to you and to Distinction admins.

Services we use

Supabase stores our database and files and handles sign-in.
Render hosts the website.
Anthropic (Claude) reads uploaded transcripts and translates text. It receives only the transcript or text being processed.
Google provides the optional "Continue with Google" sign-in. We receive only your name, email and profile picture.

These providers may store data outside Australia. We only share what each one needs to do its job.

Google sign-in

If you sign in with Google, we request only basic profile information (name, email address and profile picture) to create and identify your account. We don't access your Gmail, Drive, contacts or any other Google data, and we don't share Google user data with anyone except as needed to run your account.

Keeping it and deleting it

We keep your information while your account is active. You can edit your profile at any time. To delete your account and the information linked to it, email us and we'll remove it within 30 days, except records we must keep by law.

Security

Data is sent over HTTPS, and database access is restricted with row-level security, so each person can only reach the information they're allowed to see. Uploaded transcripts and attachments are kept in private storage.

Contact

Questions, access or correction requests, or complaints: support@hdistinction.live.