Terms of Use

These terms are the agreement between you and ClassMates. By using ClassMates you agree to them. If you're under 18, please read them with a parent, guardian or teacher.

Our Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines and Child Safety Standards are part of these terms.

Who we are

ClassMates is operated by TBD-OWNER: the legal name of the operator, its registered address and its business registration number. "ClassMates", "we" and "us" mean that operator.

What ClassMates is

ClassMates is a place to study together, safely. Students join study circles, focus together on a shared timer, chat, write notes, make flashcards and quizzes, and track their own goals and progress. Teachers, parents and guardians, moderators and school admins each have their own tools.

You can use ClassMates in the iPhone and Android apps, and in a web browser at web.classmates.lk. Using ClassMates is free. Some optional plans add capacity or tools (see "Paid plans" below).

Who can use ClassMates

• You must be at least 13.
• Students below the consent age need a parent or guardian to approve their account before they can join groups. Schools set this age; the default is 16. Outside a school it's 16, or higher where a country's rule says so (18 in Sri Lanka).
• Give your real birth year. We use it to apply age rules.
• Teachers and tutors must be adults. Choosing "Teacher or tutor" when you sign up doesn't give you any teacher powers. A school gives teacher roles. ClassMates checks independent educators by hand, and being verified is a label only. It gives no access to anyone's data.
• Parents and guardians must be the student's parent or legal guardian to link to them.
• People who register an organisation must be allowed to act for it. We review every organisation before it can add students.

Your account

• ClassMates has no passwords. You sign in with a code sent to your e-mail, or with Apple or Google where those are offered. Keep your e-mail account safe.
• One person, one account. Don't share your account or use someone else's.
• On a shared computer, the web app signs you out after 15 minutes without use. Always sign out when you're done.
• If your school gave you your account, your school can manage your membership, for example by moving you between classes or ending your membership.

The community promise

When you join, you agree to the ClassMates community promise:

1. Be kind and respectful.
2. Keep it about learning.
3. Protect your privacy.
4. Report anything that feels wrong.
5. Guardian AI helps keep chats safe.

The Community Guidelines explain each part. Groups can add their own rules, which everyone agrees to before joining. If we change the community promise, we'll ask you to agree to the new version.

Safety and moderation

• Guardian AI checks messages, shared notes and flashcard decks, files and links before your group sees them. It may suggest a change, warn you before you send, or hold something for a person to check. It can make mistakes.
• People decide. Only a moderator or safeguarding lead can remove content from a group, pause someone's sending, or restrict an account. They record a reason for every decision. AI never does these things on its own.
• You can appeal. You can ask a person to review any safety decision about you.
• Serious harm. Where someone may be at risk, we tell the school's safeguarding lead or our own safety team. Where the law requires it, we report to the authorities. See our Child Safety Standards.
• Limits are real. Daily limits, quiet hours, rate limits and age rules are enforced on our servers. Don't try to get round them.

Your content

• What you create is yours. Your notes, decks and files stay yours, even if you leave a group or an organisation.
• To run ClassMates, you let us store your content, copy it where needed, check it for safety, and show it to the people you share it with. This permission ends when your content is deleted, except for copies we must keep for safety reasons or by law (see the Privacy Policy).
• When you share something with a group, its members can see and use it inside ClassMates.
• Only share things you have the right to share.

Schools and organisations

• If you use ClassMates through a school or another organisation, it sets some rules for you: its Guardian AI safety level, which websites and file types can be shared, chat hours, and how long chat is kept.
• An organisation is responsible for using ClassMates in line with the laws where it operates.
• Organisation admins never read group chats. School reports show totals only, and leave out groups of fewer than 10 students.
• If you leave an organisation, your memberships there end and your own content stays with you.

Family linking terms

These terms apply when a parent or guardian links to a student.

• The parent or guardian enters the family link code from the student's ClassMates app. The student approves the link.
• By linking, you confirm that you're the student's parent or legal guardian.
• A linked parent or guardian sees summaries only: study time, streaks, badges, goals, whether the student is within their limits, and short safety summaries. Never messages, notes, quiz answers or calls.
• A linked parent or guardian can set daily limits and quiet hours, and send cheers chosen from a set list.
• A student can choose to keep their study time private. Limits and safety summaries still work.
• Either of you can end the link at any time. Summaries and limits stop when the link ends.
• Paying for a plan never changes what a parent or guardian can see.

Paid plans

• ClassMates is free to use. Some plans add capacity or tools.
• Reporting, blocking, appeals, Guardian AI checks, parent summaries, data export and account deletion are free on every plan. So is studying with your group: circles, sessions, the focus timer, chat, notes, flashcards, quizzes, goals and progress.
• Only adults can buy a plan. Someone under 18 can ask a linked parent or guardian instead.
• Purchases in the iPhone app are made with Apple through the App Store, under Apple's terms. You manage, cancel and ask for refunds there. Nothing is sold in the Android app.
• Organisation licences are sold to organisations, not to individual families.
• When a plan ends, nothing is deleted, hidden or locked. Only new use beyond the free limits pauses.
• Nobody else can see whether you're on a paid plan.
• Our Refunds page explains cancelling and refunds for payments made to ClassMates.
• ClassMates never handles payments between users. Don't use it to sell tutoring or anything else.

AI features

• Guardian AI is a safety tool. It can be wrong, so you can always ask a person to review its decisions.
• Where it's available, a student can use their own ChatGPT account for study help. Answers can be wrong. OpenAI's terms apply to that account. ClassMates doesn't charge for it.

What you must not do

• Break the Community Guidelines or a group's rules.
• Bully, threaten, harass or sexualise anyone.
• Share, ask for or link to anything involving child sexual abuse or exploitation. We have zero tolerance for it.
• Ask people for their contact details, or try to move them to another app.
• Pretend to be someone else, including a teacher or a school.
• Get round safety checks, limits, quiet hours, age rules or a restriction, for example by making another account.
• Get into accounts or data that aren't yours, collect data about other users, or try to break or overload ClassMates.
• Upload harmful files, spam or adverts.

Pausing, restricting or closing accounts

• You can delete your account at any time, in the app or at Delete your account. There's a 7-day grace period in which you can cancel.
• A moderator can pause your sending or restrict your account for a while, after a person has reviewed what happened. You can still read and study, and you can appeal.
• We can suspend or close an account for serious or repeated breaches of these terms, after a person has reviewed it.
• Your organisation can end your membership of that organisation.

Changes

ClassMates changes over time. We may add, change or remove features. When we change these terms, we update the date at the top of this page.

Liability

TBD-OWNER: warranty disclaimers and limits of liability, as drafted by legal counsel.

Law and disputes

TBD-OWNER: the governing law, and the courts or process for resolving disputes, as confirmed by legal counsel.

Contact

Questions about these terms: write to hello@classmates.lk. TBD-OWNER: postal address.