GOOD TALK

Privacy policy

Last updated November 2, 2026

This policy explains what Good Talk (“we”, “us”) collects when you use goodtalk.online, why we need it, who else handles it, and what you can ask us to do with it. It applies to learners, parents, language partners, teachers and people applying to teach. How the service itself works is in our terms of service.

1. What we collect

Your account

• Your email address, the name you give us, and your password (stored only in hashed form; we can’t read it).
• If you sign in with Google or Apple, the name and email address they share with us. We don’t get your password for those services.
• Your site language and time zone, and your notification settings.

Lessons and learning

• What you tell us when you book: your level, how much English or other support you’d like, what you want to talk about, and, for Chinese, whether you grew up in a Chinese-speaking family.
• Your lessons: times, teacher, whether each one took place, cancellations and their reasons, and any problem you report about a lesson.
• Feedback you give after a lesson (stars, whether you’d book again, and your comment).
• What your teacher writes for you: lesson prep and notes, speaking check results, and review cards, plus your progress when you review them.
• Books you buy and when you first download or play a file from them.

Children in group classes

A parent or guardian can sign a child up for a group class from their own account. For that we ask only the child’s name and level. The child doesn’t have an account of their own.

Payments

Payments go through PayPal. From PayPal we receive the payer’s name and PayPal email address, the transaction ID, amount, currency and status, and refund notices. We never see card or bank details.

Language partners

• Your partner profile: name, native language, level, introduction, interests and when you’re usually free, and whether it’s listed.
• Greetings you send and receive, who your partners are, practice times you arrange, and people you block or report (with the reason you give).

Teachers and applicants

• Your application: name, email, location, languages, availability, introduction and video.
• Your teacher profile (photo, introduction, prices, availability, backup meeting link), the courses and materials you write, and your students’ lesson records.
• Earnings and payouts: amounts, platform fees, exchange rates and transfer references.

Technical information

• Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes your IP address and basic request details to deliver the site and protect it from abuse.
• On public pages we count page views with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and doesn’t build a profile of you.
• On teacher notes we count downloads and clicks on “book” links. These counts are anonymous: no account, IP address or cookie is attached.
• When you buy a book, we keep with the order how you first reached Good Talk: the tag on the link you followed (such as ?ref=ig), or else the site that sent you, and the first page you saw. We use it only to see which of our links lead to sales.
• Call diagnostics (connection quality and similar) stay in your browser unless you copy them and send them to us.

2. Calls, chat and review cards

• Video calls. Lessons in the Good Talk classroom and partner practice sessions connect the two browsers directly. Audio and video are encrypted. When a direct connection isn’t possible the call passes through a relay server, still encrypted, so the relay can’t see or hear it. We don’t record calls.
• Chat. Room chat and classroom signals (such as turning a slide) pass through our real-time service to reach the other person but aren’t saved on our servers. Each browser keeps the chat for 7 days so it survives a reload.
• Other meeting tools. If your lesson or group class takes place on Zoom, Google Meet, Tencent Meeting or another tool, that service’s own privacy policy applies there.
• Review cards. When a teacher makes review cards from a lesson’s chat or a list they paste, that text is sent to an AI model (Anthropic’s Claude, reached through kie.ai) to pick out words and write the cards. Only the text the teacher chooses is sent, and only to make the cards.

3. How we use it

• To run your account, book and hold lessons, take payments and make refunds.
• To send what you need: booking confirmations, reminders, changes and notices from your teacher or partners, on the site and by email.
• To let teachers prepare and teach, and partners find each other.
• To pay teachers and keep accounting records.
• To keep Good Talk safe: handle reports, prevent abuse, and sort out questions about lessons and payments.
• To improve Good Talk using totals and rates, such as how many lessons are held and how often learners book again.

We don’t sell personal data, share it for advertising, or use your lessons, chats or materials to train AI models.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the UK, we rely on these legal bases: providing the service you signed up for (most of the above); our legitimate interests in keeping the service safe and improving it; legal obligations such as keeping accounting records; and your consent where we ask for it, which you can withdraw at any time.

4. Who can see what

• Your teacher sees your name, what you told us when booking, your local time, your lessons with them and the stars and comment you leave. They don’t see whether you said you’d book again, or what you write when reporting a problem.
• Language partners see what’s on your partner card. Visitors who aren’t signed in see a shorter version: the first word of your name, native language, level, introduction and interests. Your email address is never shown.
• Everyone can see published teacher profiles, public courses, teacher notes and listed group classes.
• Good Talk staff see what they need to run the service and resolve problems.
• Service providers listed below handle data for us, only to provide their service.
• Authorities, if the law requires it, or to protect someone’s safety.

5. Service providers

These providers may handle data outside your country, including in the United States. Where the law requires it, we rely on the safeguards they offer, such as standard contractual clauses.

6. Cookies and browser storage

• Cookies we need: the cookies that keep you signed in, and one that remembers your site language for a year.
• Browser storage: room chat for 7 days, review cards you’ve marked but that haven’t reached us yet, and slides a teacher has pasted to present, and for 30 days how you first reached the site (sent to us only if you buy a book).
• We don’t use advertising or tracking cookies. YouTube may set its own cookies when you play a video.

7. How long we keep it

• Account, lesson and partner data: while your account is open. When you ask us to delete your account, we delete or anonymise your data within 30 days, apart from the records below.
• Payment, refund and payout records: as long as tax and accounting rules require.
• Records needed to settle an open question about a lesson or payment: until it is settled.
• Teacher applications and their videos: until you ask us to delete them.
• Room chat: 7 days, in your browser only.

8. Your choices and rights

You can change your name and learning details, notification emails and partner profile yourself, and hide your partner card at any time. For anything else, write to hello@goodtalk.online from your account’s email address. You can ask us to:

• show you the data we hold about you, or send you a copy;
• correct it;
• delete it and close your account;
• stop or limit a use of it you object to.

We reply within 30 days. If you are in the EEA or the UK, you can also complain to your data protection authority. If you are in California: we don’t sell your personal information or share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

9. Children

Accounts are for people aged 18 or over. Children take part only through a parent or guardian, who signs them up for a group class from their own account and is responsible for that sign-up. Children shouldn’t create accounts or use language partners. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we close it and delete their data. Parents can ask us at any time to remove a child’s name from a class.

10. Security

The site runs over HTTPS. Our database checks every request so each person can read only their own data, and only a few staff have wider access. No system is perfectly secure; if you find a problem, please tell us at hello@goodtalk.online.

11. Changes

When we change this policy we update the date at the top. If a change matters, we’ll tell you by email or on the site before it takes effect.

12. Contact

Questions or requests about your data: hello@goodtalk.online.