Privacy Notice
Privacy Notice
Academeum treats privacy as part of the trust on which serious teaching depends. This Privacy Notice explains how Academeum AG collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data.
In broad terms:
Academeum uses personal data to consider enquiries, assess whether it can responsibly offer teaching or academic guidance, provide Services, communicate with Clients and Students, arrange teaching, administer payment, meet legal and regulatory obligations, safeguard Students and Teachers, and protect the integrity of its work.
Academeum may process contact details, billing information, educational records, academic history, attendance information, communications, Student work, assessment information, safeguarding or welfare information, information about special educational needs, disabilities, health, or wellbeing where voluntarily disclosed or otherwise necessary, Teacher credentials, professional background information, payment and invoicing information, and technical or website-use information.
Academeum does not sell personal data. Academeum does not currently advertise and does not use personal data for targeted advertising. Academeum does not use advertising pixels, behavioural advertising tools, or similar technologies for marketing purposes.
Personal data may be shared where reasonably necessary and lawful, including with Teachers, staff, contractors, payment processors, banks, financial intermediaries, IT and communications platforms, professional advisers, safeguarding professionals, examination or admissions-related bodies, regulators, public authorities, and other persons or organizations connected with the Services or Academeum’s lawful obligations.
Academeum keeps personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary. Accounting, invoice, payment, tax, and related contractual records may be retained for up to ten years where required or justified under applicable Swiss law. Other personal data is deleted, anonymized, or securely archived as soon as reasonably possible once it is no longer needed, subject to safeguarding, legal, contractual, dispute, or legitimate record-keeping needs.
Questions or requests about personal data may be addressed to privacy@academeum.org.
Introduction
Academeum AG (“Academeum”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting personal data and handling it with discretion, accuracy, and respect.
This Privacy Notice explains how Academeum collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It also explains the rights individuals may have in relation to their personal data.
This Privacy Notice is provided for transparency. It does not replace Academeum’s General Terms and Conditions, Our Offer, or any Agreement between Academeum and the Client.
Academeum processes personal data in accordance with applicable data protection law. As a Swiss company, Academeum is subject to the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection. Where applicable, Academeum may also be subject to the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the UK General Data Protection Regulation, United States state privacy laws, or other mandatory data protection laws.
This Privacy Notice applies to personal data processed by Academeum in connection with enquiries, applications, Consultations, Assessments, Tutorials, Classes, Seminars, academic mentoring, admissions-related guidance, written feedback, asynchronous materials, full academic-year programmes, teacher engagement, website use, and other dealings with Academeum.
Who We Are
Academeum AG
Chamerstrasse 176
6300 Zug
Switzerland
CHE-249.396.160
Privacy contact: privacy@academeum.org
Academeum is generally the controller of personal data processed in connection with its educational, contractual, administrative, safeguarding, compliance, and institutional activities.
Some third parties used by Academeum, including payment processors, scheduling systems, communications platforms, hosting providers, professional advisers, or other organizations, may act as processors, independent controllers, separate controllers, or otherwise responsible persons depending on their role, their own terms, and the applicable law.
Scope of this Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice applies to personal data relating to:
Clients and prospective Clients;
Students and prospective Students;
parents, guardians, family members, and persons involved in a Student’s education;
Teachers, faculty members, contractors, consultants, applicants, and prospective Teachers;
website users;
referrers, educational consultants, schools, advisers, and other persons who communicate with Academeum;
persons whose data is processed for compliance, safeguarding, legal, banking, tax, accounting, or administrative purposes.
What Personal Data Means
Personal data means information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
This may include information that directly identifies a person, such as a name or email address, and information that may identify a person indirectly when combined with other information, such as location, academic history, communications, payment records, or technical identifiers.
Pseudonymized or encrypted data may still be personal data where the person can be re-identified.
Personal Data We Process
Academeum may process the categories of personal data set out below.
Clients and Prospective Clients
We may process:
name;
contact details;
billing address;
relationship to the Student;
family or guardianship information relevant to authority to contract;
enquiry information;
educational aims and requirements;
communication records;
billing, payment, and invoicing information;
contractual records, including Offers, acceptances, invoices, payment history, and correspondence;
identity, compliance, sanctions, Politically Exposed Person, banking, legal, or reputational-risk information where relevant;
complaint, dispute, or legal correspondence where relevant.
Academeum does not store full payment-card details where these are processed by third-party payment processors.
Students and Prospective Students
We may process:
name;
date of birth;
age;
contact details where relevant;
usual location during teaching;
school or educational setting;
academic history;
qualifications, grades, predicted grades, assessment results, entrance-test information, examination plans, and university or school ambitions;
Student work, essays, exercises, tests, assignments, feedback, notes, and academic records;
attendance, punctuality, preparation, participation, and engagement information;
communications between the Student, Client, Teachers, and Academeum;
information concerning special educational needs, disabilities, health, wellbeing, safeguarding, behaviour, or welfare where voluntarily disclosed or otherwise necessary for the Services, safeguarding, legal obligations, or protection of any person;
technical information connected with online teaching, such as platform access, attendance logs, meeting links, or device and connectivity issues;
information relating to unauthorized recording, AI transcription, automated note-taking, platform misuse, academic misconduct, or other conduct matters where relevant.
Academeum’s Services are not directed to children under thirteen, and Academeum does not knowingly accept Students under thirteen.
Teachers, Faculty Members, Contractors, and Applicants
We may process:
name;
contact details;
CV, professional history, qualifications, credentials, references, and academic background;
identity, right-to-work, tax, payment, and contracting information;
interview notes and selection records;
background-screening information, certificates of good conduct, safeguarding checks, or other suitability information where lawful and relevant;
availability, scheduling, teaching records, communications, feedback, performance information, and quality-assurance records;
payment, invoicing, tax, social-security, insurance, and administrative information;
confidentiality, intellectual-property, compliance, and contractual records.
Website Users and Digital Visitors
Depending on the configuration of Academeum’s website and systems, we may process:
IP address;
device information;
browser type and version;
operating system;
referral source;
pages viewed;
dates and times of visits;
navigation paths;
cookie or similar technology information where used;
information submitted through online forms.
Academeum does not use advertising pixels, behavioural advertising tools, or targeted advertising technologies. Academeum seeks to use only cookies and similar technologies that are necessary for the operation, security, functionality, or basic administration of its website.
Some website or analytics data may be aggregated or anonymized. Data is treated as personal data unless it has been irreversibly anonymized.
Further information is provided in Academeum’s Cookie Policy.
Other Persons
We may process personal data relating to other persons where relevant, including:
parents, guardians, family members, or emergency contacts;
educational consultants, advisers, schools, examination centres, universities, admissions bodies, or referees;
persons named in communications with Academeum;
persons relevant to safeguarding, welfare, sanctions, PEP, legal, banking, tax, accounting, or regulatory matters.
Special Categories and Higher-Protection Data
Academeum may process information that requires particular care, including information concerning:
health;
disability;
special educational needs;
wellbeing;
safeguarding;
behavioural concerns;
family circumstances;
identity documents;
criminal-record or background-screening information for Teachers where lawful and relevant;
sanctions, Politically Exposed Person, banking, regulatory, or legal-risk information.
Academeum does not seek to collect health, disability, special educational needs, or wellbeing information as a general matter. Such information is processed where it is voluntarily disclosed, where it is relevant to the Services, where it is necessary for safeguarding or the protection of any person, where it is required by law, or where it is otherwise lawful and necessary.
Academeum processes higher-protection information only where relevant and lawful, including where necessary for educational support, safeguarding, legal obligations, legitimate institutional interests, the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims, explicit consent where required, or other grounds permitted by applicable law.
How We Collect Personal Data
Academeum may collect personal data:
directly from the Client;
directly from the Student;
through enquiries, applications, Consultations, Assessments, Offers, onboarding, teaching, feedback, and communications;
through email, telephone, video call, forms, scheduling systems, payment systems, academic platforms, or other authorized channels;
from Teachers, staff, contractors, and academic leads;
from parents, guardians, educational consultants, schools, examination centres, universities, referees, or other third parties authorized by the Client or Student;
from public sources where relevant and lawful;
from compliance, sanctions, PEP, fraud-prevention, or banking-risk screening sources where relevant;
from website, platform, device, or analytics systems.
Purposes for Which We Process Personal Data
Academeum may process personal data for the following purposes:
to receive, assess, and respond to enquiries;
to determine whether Academeum can responsibly offer teaching, assessment, consultation, mentoring, guidance, or other educational work;
to prepare, issue, administer, and perform Offers and Agreements;
to deliver Tutorials, Classes, Seminars, Consultations, Assessments, academic mentoring, admissions-related guidance, written feedback, asynchronous materials, full academic-year programmes, and other Services;
to understand a Student’s academic position, needs, aims, prior knowledge, strengths, weaknesses, and progress;
to plan teaching, allocate Teachers, structure academic work, provide feedback, and maintain academic records;
to communicate with Clients, Students, Teachers, parents, guardians, schools, consultants, advisers, and others involved in the Student’s education;
to schedule, reschedule, administer, and record attendance;
to issue invoices, process payments, administer accounts, and recover overdue sums;
to comply with tax, accounting, banking, legal, regulatory, and audit obligations;
to carry out appropriate identity, sanctions, PEP, compliance, banking, reputational-risk, or legal checks;
to protect Students, Teachers, staff, and others through safeguarding, welfare, conduct, and risk-management processes;
to investigate complaints, misconduct, unauthorized recording, misuse of platforms, breach of confidentiality, non-solicitation issues, or other contractual or disciplinary matters;
to protect Academeum’s rights, property, confidential information, intellectual property, reputation, and institutional integrity;
to manage Teacher recruitment, selection, engagement, quality assurance, payment, and administration;
to maintain secure systems, prevent fraud, protect against unauthorized access, and monitor system integrity;
to improve Academeum’s teaching, administration, communications, systems, and institutional practice;
to send service-related communications, administrative updates, policy updates, and relevant information about Academeum’s work;
to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
Lawful Basis for Processing
Academeum processes personal data only where there is a lawful and legitimate reason to do so.
Where the EU GDPR or UK GDPR applies, Academeum relies on one or more of the following lawful bases:
performance of a contract or steps taken before entering into a contract;
compliance with legal obligations;
legitimate interests pursued by Academeum or another person, where those interests are not overridden by the rights and interests of the person concerned;
consent, where consent is required or appropriate;
vital interests, where necessary to protect someone’s life or safety;
establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.
For special-category data under GDPR or UK GDPR, Academeum relies on an additional condition where required, which may include explicit consent, safeguarding or welfare grounds where applicable, substantial public interest where applicable, vital interests, or the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.
Where Swiss law applies, Academeum processes personal data in accordance with applicable Swiss data protection requirements, including principles of lawfulness, good faith, proportionality, purpose limitation, transparency, accuracy, and appropriate security.
Legitimate Interests
Where Academeum relies on legitimate interests, those interests may include:
providing serious and well-administered educational work;
assessing whether Academeum can responsibly offer Services;
maintaining academic standards;
supporting Students’ progress;
communicating with Clients, Students, Teachers, and relevant third parties;
protecting Students, Teachers, staff, and others;
maintaining safeguarding, welfare, conduct, and risk-management processes;
protecting Academeum’s contractual rights, confidential information, intellectual property, reputation, and institutional integrity;
preventing fraud, misuse, unauthorized recording, non-solicitation breaches, or unlawful conduct;
administering payments, accounts, scheduling, and records;
maintaining secure systems and reliable operations;
improving Academeum’s Services and institutional practice.
Consent
Academeum uses consent where required by applicable law or where consent is the most appropriate basis for the processing.
Consent may be used, for example, for certain uses of special-category data, certain recordings, or other processing where consent is legally required.
Academeum does not currently advertise. If Academeum later sends newsletters, invitations, publications, or other non-essential communications, it will do so only where lawful and with any consent or opt-out mechanism required by applicable law.
Where processing is based on consent, consent may be withdrawn at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect processing carried out before withdrawal. It may also not affect processing that Academeum is entitled or required to continue on another lawful basis, such as legal obligations, safeguarding, contractual administration, record-keeping, or the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.
Students Under Eighteen
Academeum works with many Students under eighteen and treats their personal data with particular care.
Where a Client enters into an Agreement on behalf of a Student under eighteen, the Client confirms that they have authority to do so and to provide personal data relating to the Student.
Academeum may process personal data relating to Students under eighteen for educational, contractual, safeguarding, administrative, communication, payment, compliance, and legal purposes.
Consent from a parent or guardian is obtained where legally required. Not all processing of a minor’s data is based on consent. Some processing may be necessary for performance of the Agreement, safeguarding, legal obligations, legitimate institutional interests, or the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.
Academeum may communicate with a Student directly where appropriate for teaching, scheduling, academic, conduct, or communication purposes and where permitted by the Client, the Agreement, or applicable law.
Academeum may share relevant information about a Student with the Client, Teachers, safeguarding professionals, advisers, authorities, or other persons where lawful and necessary.
Safeguarding, Welfare, and Conduct
Academeum may process personal data where necessary for safeguarding, welfare, behaviour, conduct, or protection of persons.
This may include information about attendance, communication, behaviour, wellbeing, health, special educational needs, disabilities, family circumstances, concerns raised by Students, Clients, Teachers, staff, or others, and steps taken by Academeum in response.
Where necessary and lawful, Academeum may share safeguarding or welfare information with parents or guardians, Teachers, safeguarding professionals, legal advisers, public authorities, regulators, emergency services, or other appropriate persons or organizations.
Academeum will seek to handle safeguarding and welfare information with discretion, proportionality, and care, but confidentiality may be limited where disclosure is necessary to protect a person or comply with law.
Academeum’s Safeguarding Policy applies alongside this Privacy Notice.
Communications, Online Teaching, and Recording
Academeum may process communications between Clients, Students, Teachers, staff, and other relevant persons for educational, administrative, safeguarding, quality-assurance, contractual, or legal purposes.
Academeum does not routinely record teaching sessions. Academeum’s General Terms and Conditions prohibit audio recording, video recording, screen recording, screenshots, transcription, automated note-taking, AI capture, or other recording of any Service, meeting, or communication without Academeum’s prior written consent.
Where a recording is authorized, Academeum may process the recording for the purpose for which it was authorized and in accordance with any applicable conditions.
Where Academeum becomes aware of an unauthorized recording, automated transcription, AI note-taking, platform misuse, or similar issue, it may process related personal data to investigate, enforce its rights, protect confidentiality, safeguard persons, and comply with legal obligations.
Marketing and Communications
Academeum does not currently advertise and does not use personal data for targeted advertising.
Academeum may send administrative, contractual, scheduling, policy, payment, safeguarding, and service-related communications where necessary or appropriate.
Academeum does not sell personal data and does not share personal data for unrelated third-party marketing.
If Academeum later sends newsletters, invitations, publications, or other non-essential communications, it will do so only where lawful and with any consent or opt-out mechanism required by applicable law.
Sharing Personal Data
Academeum may share personal data where reasonably necessary and lawful with:
Teachers, faculty members, academic leads, mentors, assessors, consultants, contractors, and staff;
parents, guardians, Clients, and Students where appropriate;
payment processors, banks, card networks, financial intermediaries, PostFinance, Stripe, invoicing systems, and accounting systems;
Google Workspace, Google Meet, Swiss21, and other IT, cloud, hosting, scheduling, communications, document-management, security, and platform organizations used by Academeum;
professional advisers, including lawyers, accountants, auditors, insurers, tax advisers, and compliance advisers;
safeguarding professionals, welfare advisers, emergency services, public authorities, regulators, or law-enforcement bodies where necessary or legally required;
schools, examination centres, universities, admissions bodies, educational consultants, or referees where relevant and authorized or otherwise lawful;
sanctions, PEP, banking-risk, compliance, or fraud-prevention sources where relevant;
courts, tribunals, arbitrators, enforcement authorities, debt-recovery agents, or other persons involved in legal claims or enforcement;
successor entities, purchasers, or advisers in the context of a business reorganization, sale, merger, restructuring, or similar transaction, subject to appropriate safeguards;
other persons or organizations where reasonably necessary for lawful purposes connected with the Services, compliance, safeguarding, administration, or protection of Academeum’s rights.
Academeum shares only the personal data reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.
Payment Processing
Academeum may use PostFinance, Stripe, banks, card networks, financial intermediaries, invoicing systems, and accounting systems to process payments, issue invoices, reconcile accounts, manage payment disputes, and comply with tax, accounting, banking, and legal obligations.
Payment processors and financial institutions may process personal data according to their own terms, privacy notices, and legal obligations. Academeum does not store full payment-card details where these are processed by third-party payment processors.
International Transfers
Academeum is based in Switzerland but may work with Clients, Students, Teachers, contractors, platforms, systems, payment processors, professional advisers, and other persons or organizations in other countries.
Personal data may therefore be processed or accessed outside Switzerland, the United Kingdom, or the European Economic Area, including where Teachers, contractors, professional advisers, platforms, payment processors, or technical systems are located outside those territories.
Where personal data is transferred internationally, Academeum takes steps required by applicable law. These may include relying on adequacy decisions, appropriate safeguards, recognized or approved standard contractual clauses, contractual protections, technical and organizational measures, or other lawful transfer mechanisms.
Where standard contractual clauses are used for transfers from Switzerland to countries without an adequate level of protection, they may be adapted or supplemented as required for Swiss data protection law.
Security
Academeum applies appropriate technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized access, misuse, or other unlawful processing.
These measures may include, as appropriate:
restricted access on a need-to-know basis;
confidentiality obligations for Teachers, staff, contractors, and relevant third parties;
secure authentication and access controls;
multi-factor authentication where appropriate;
encryption in transit or at rest where appropriate;
secure storage and reputable cloud, platform, payment, and communications systems;
system, account, and permission management;
staff and Teacher guidance on confidentiality and data handling;
review of data-handling practices;
measures to detect, assess, and respond to data-security incidents.
No system, platform, or method of transmission is completely secure. Academeum cannot guarantee absolute security, but it takes appropriate steps to protect personal data and to respond to incidents in accordance with applicable law.
Personal Data Breaches
Where Academeum becomes aware of a personal data breach or suspected personal data breach, it will assess the incident and take appropriate steps.
Academeum will notify competent authorities and/or affected individuals where required by applicable law, taking account of the nature of the data, the risk to affected persons, the applicable notification threshold, and the legal obligations that apply.
Retention of Personal Data
Academeum does not keep personal data for longer than reasonably necessary.
Some records, especially accounting, invoice, payment, tax, and related contractual records, may be retained for up to ten years where required or justified under applicable Swiss law.
Other personal data is deleted, anonymized, or securely archived as soon as reasonably possible once it is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected, subject to safeguarding, legal, contractual, dispute, or legitimate record-keeping needs.
Retention periods depend on the nature of the data, the relationship with Academeum, legal and contractual obligations, safeguarding considerations, tax and accounting requirements, limitation periods, dispute risk, and Academeum’s legitimate institutional needs.
Academeum may retain:
enquiry records for as long as necessary to manage the enquiry, maintain appropriate records, and respond to follow-up communications;
Client, Student, academic, attendance, communication, and contractual records for as long as necessary to provide the Services, maintain academic continuity, administer the relationship, handle complaints or disputes, and protect legal rights;
billing, payment, tax, accounting, and related contractual records for up to ten years where required or justified under applicable Swiss law;
safeguarding, welfare, conduct, or incident records for as long as necessary having regard to the nature of the concern, legal obligations, safeguarding practice, limitation periods, and the protection of persons;
Teacher recruitment, suitability, contracting, payment, and teaching records for as long as necessary for recruitment, engagement, safeguarding, administration, legal, tax, accounting, and quality-assurance purposes;
marketing consent or opt-out records for as long as necessary to respect preferences and comply with law;
website and analytics data for the period necessary for the relevant technical, security, analytics, or legal purpose.
When personal data is no longer required, Academeum will delete, anonymize, or securely archive it in accordance with applicable law and internal practice.
Data Subject Rights
Subject to applicable law, individuals may have rights to:
request access to personal data held about them;
request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data;
request deletion of personal data;
request restriction of processing;
object to processing;
receive certain personal data in portable form;
withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
object to or opt out of certain non-essential communications;
complain to a competent data protection authority.
These rights may be subject to limits, including where Academeum must retain or process data for legal obligations, safeguarding, contractual administration, academic records, tax and accounting, dispute resolution, legal claims, confidentiality obligations, or the rights and interests of others.
Requests should be sent to privacy@academeum.org.
Academeum may require reasonable proof of identity before responding to a request. Where a request concerns a Student under eighteen, Academeum may need to consider the Student’s age, maturity, interests, rights, the Client’s authority, safeguarding considerations, and applicable law.
Academeum aims to respond to requests within thirty days where practicable and where required by applicable law. In some cases, more time may be needed, for example where a request is complex, requires identity verification, concerns safeguarding, or involves third-party rights.
United States Privacy Rights
Where a United States federal or state privacy law applies to Academeum’s processing of personal data, residents of that jurisdiction may have additional rights. These may include rights to access, correct, delete, obtain a copy of, or opt out of certain uses of personal data, and to appeal a decision concerning a rights request.
Academeum does not sell personal data. Academeum does not use personal data for targeted advertising. Academeum does not use personal data for profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
Requests may be sent to privacy@academeum.org. Any appeal may be sent to the same address with “Appeal” in the subject line.
Complaints
Questions or concerns should first be addressed to Academeum at privacy@academeum.org.
Individuals may also have the right to complain to a competent data protection authority.
For Switzerland, the relevant federal authority is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.
Where the EU GDPR, UK GDPR, United States federal or state privacy law, or another data protection law applies, individuals may have rights to complain to another competent authority.
Requirement to Provide Personal Data
Some personal data is necessary for Academeum to consider an enquiry, assess whether it can provide Services, enter into an Agreement, provide teaching or academic guidance, safeguard persons, process payments, comply with legal obligations, and administer its work.
If required personal data is not provided, Academeum may be unable to respond to an enquiry, issue an Offer, provide Services, continue Services, process payment, meet legal obligations, or maintain the relationship.
Automated Decision-Making
Academeum does not use solely automated decision-making that produces legal effects or similarly significant effects on Clients or Students.
Academeum may use digital tools, systems, or platforms to support administration, scheduling, communications, security, analytics, or educational work, but academic and contractual decisions are not made solely by automated means.
Third-Party Websites and Platforms
Academeum’s website, communications, or materials may contain links to third-party websites or platforms.
Academeum is not responsible for the privacy practices, content, or security of third-party websites or platforms that it does not control. Individuals should review the privacy notices and terms of those third parties.
Where Academeum uses third-party platforms as part of its work, those platforms may process personal data according to their own terms, privacy notices, and data-processing arrangements.
Cookies and Analytics
Academeum seeks to use only cookies and similar technologies that are necessary for the operation, security, functionality, or basic administration of its website.
Academeum does not use advertising pixels, behavioural advertising tools, targeted advertising technologies, or similar marketing technologies.
Where required by applicable law, Academeum will provide further information and obtain consent for non-essential cookies or similar technologies.
Further information is provided in Academeum’s Cookie Policy.
Changes to this Privacy Notice
Academeum may update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect legal, technical, operational, or institutional changes.
The updated Privacy Notice will be made available on Academeum’s website or otherwise provided where appropriate. Academeum will take reasonable steps to notify affected persons of material changes where required by applicable law or where the change is significant.
Contact
Questions, requests, or concerns about this Privacy Notice or Academeum’s handling of personal data should be addressed to:
Academeum AG
Chamerstrasse 176
6300 Zug
Switzerland
Email: privacy@academeum.org
This Privacy Notice was last updated on 6 June 2026.