Terms & Privacy - AI Teaching Assistant

Alex: Terms, Privacy and Safeguarding Notice

Version 0.3 · Effective from 21 September 2026 · Last updated 21 September 2026

This notice sets out the terms on which CloudLearn provides Alex, and explains how Alex uses personal data and handles safeguarding. It adds to CloudLearn's published Terms of Service, Data Protection and Privacy Policy, Safeguarding Policy, Cookie Policy and Exam Terms and Conditions at cloudlearn.co.uk/legal. If this notice and one of those policies say different things about Alex, this notice applies. On anything this notice does not cover, the relevant CloudLearn policy applies.

About us: CloudLearn Ltd, registered in Scotland, company number SC399410. Registered office: 94 Hope Street, Suite 2.11, Glasgow, Scotland, G2 6PH. Working (correspondence) office: 54 Cook Street, Glasgow, G5 8JQ. VAT number 178 4451 78. ICO registration ZA121964.

Contact: info@cloudlearn.co.uk · 0330 111 4006 · Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm

Your legal rights: Nothing in this notice affects your legal rights as a consumer, including your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Where this notice describes a refund or remedy we offer, it is in addition to those rights, not instead of them.

Key points at a glance

This is a short summary of the most important points. It does not replace the full terms below, which apply in full, so please read them. The section number after each point tells you where to find the detail.

• The first topic on each course is free. After that, using Alex needs a paid monthly subscription. (§3, §4)
• Prices are shown at checkout before you pay and include VAT. If we change our prices later, your subscription keeps renewing at the price you first paid. (§4)
• 14-day right to cancel, and how you can lose it. You normally have 14 days to cancel a new subscription. Alex is digital content, so if you tick the box to start using it straight away, you give up that 14-day right once access begins. (§10)
• Cancelling. You can cancel any time through your PayPal account or by emailing us. Cancelling stops the next payment; you keep access until the end of the period you have already paid for. (§8)
• If a renewal payment fails. PayPal will retry. If the payment cannot be collected, the subscription ends and access stops. (§12)
• When your course ends. We stop renewing your Alex subscription, and you keep access until the end of the paid period you are in; we do not start a new paid month after the course has ended. (§7)
• There is a daily fair-use limit on how much you can use Alex in one day. (§14)
• Alex is an AI, not a person. Its explanations and marking can sometimes be wrong. It is not monitored in real time and is not an emergency service. If you are worried about a child's safety, contact the emergency services on 999, Childline on 0800 1111 or the Samaritans on 116 123. (§26, §28, §29)
• Your information. To reply, Alex sends our AI provider (Anthropic) only the learner's first name and the conversation (not full name, email or date of birth), and it is not used to train AI models. More detail is in Part B. (§19, §21)

Contents

Part A: Terms of use and subscription

1. What Alex is
2. Who the contract is with
3. Free access
4. Subscriptions and prices
5. Changes during a billing month
6. Changing subjects in the first 7 days
7. Renewal and when access ends
8. Cancelling
9. Refunds
10. Your 14-day right to cancel
11. If something goes wrong
12. Failed payments
13. Acceptable use
14. Daily fair-use limit
15. Who can pay
16. Payments
17. Changes to Alex and to this notice
18. Our responsibility to you

Part B: Privacy

19. What data Alex holds
20. Why we use it, and our lawful basis
21. Who we share it with
22. How long we keep it
23. Your rights
24. For learners: privacy in plain words
25. Cookies

Part C: AI and safeguarding

26. Alex is an AI, not a person
27. What Alex is designed to do
28. When Alex can't help
29. Safeguarding concerns
30. Parents and guardians

Part D: General

31. Complaints
32. Law and courts
33. Other terms

Part A: Terms of use and subscription

1. What Alex is

Alex is an AI tutoring add-on for learners already enrolled on a CloudLearn IGCSE, GCSE or A-Level course. It is opened through a link inside the learner's existing course. Alex is not a course in its own right and does not give entry to any qualification; it supports the course the learner is already registered for on CloudLearn's Learning Platform.

Alex is an AI system, not a person (see §26). It can make mistakes, and it does not replace the learner's course materials, their human tutor, or their own study. Alex helps learners prepare, but CloudLearn does not guarantee any particular exam result or grade.

2. Who the contract is with

The contract for an Alex subscription is between CloudLearn and the person who pays for it (the account holder). Where the account holder is a parent or guardian paying for a learner, the learner is entitled to use Alex under this notice and may rely on §8, §9 and §27 to §30, as a third party under the Contract (Third Party Rights) (Scotland) Act 2017. The account holder may cancel or change the subscription without the learner's agreement.

3. Free access

The first topic on each course a learner is registered for is free: a complete diagnostic, teaching and quiz cycle for that topic. This lets the learner, and their parent or guardian, try Alex before deciding whether to subscribe. There is no separate trial account and nothing is charged or automatically converted to a paid subscription at the end of the free topic.

4. Subscriptions and prices

After the free topic, continued access to a subject needs an active monthly subscription. Subscriptions are sold in bands priced by how many subjects they cover. Current prices are shown on the checkout page before you pay. All prices include VAT.

When you buy, you choose which of the learner's registered subjects the band covers, if the learner is registered for more subjects than the band allows. The band, subjects, price and renewal date are shown to you at checkout before you pay, and PayPal emails you a payment confirmation.

If we change our band prices after you subscribe, your subscription keeps renewing at the price you originally paid. New prices apply only to new subscriptions.

5. Changes during a billing month

Each subscription runs month by month and covers the subjects chosen at purchase. You cannot upgrade or downgrade a subscription part-way through a month. To add a subject mid-month, you can buy a separate subscription, which has its own band, price and billing date. You can hold more than one Alex subscription at a time; each renews on its own date.

6. Changing subjects in the first 7 days

Within 7 days of buying a subscription, you can ask us to change the subject or subjects it covers by emailing info@cloudlearn.co.uk. After 7 days the subjects are fixed for the life of that subscription, including renewals, although we may agree to a change as an exception.

7. Renewal and when access ends

Each subscription renews automatically every month using the payment method you set up with PayPal, until you cancel it or until the learner's course enrolment for that subject ends, whichever comes first. Before each renewal, PayPal emails you a reminder through your PayPal account, showing the amount and date.

When our records show that the learner's course enrolment for a subject has ended, we stop that subscription at the end of the period you have already paid for: we do not start a new paid month after the course has ended, and you keep access until the end of that paid period. If our records are wrong and a subscription is stopped in error, please contact us and we will put it right, including any charge affected.

8. Cancelling

You can cancel at any time through your PayPal account (where PayPal confirms the cancellation), or by emailing info@cloudlearn.co.uk. Cancelling stops the next renewal charge, and access continues until the end of the period you have already paid for.

9. Refunds

This section is our own refund policy and is in addition to your legal rights (see §11).

• Unused period: if the subscription has not been used at all in the current paid period (no teaching session has been started on any subject it covers, apart from the free topic), we will refund that period on request.
• Used period: once a subscription has been used in a period, we do not normally refund that period, including where a subject is dropped part-way through a month.
• Discretionary refunds: we keep usage records for each subscription, so we can consider a partial refund in other cases, for example a technical fault that stopped the learner using Alex or other genuine circumstances. Please contact us.

10. Your 14-day right to cancel

Because you buy online, you normally have 14 days from the date of purchase to cancel a new subscription and receive a refund.

Alex is supplied as digital content. At checkout you can choose to start using it straight away. To do this you tick the box: "I want to start using Alex now, and I understand that I will lose my 14-day right to cancel this subscription once it starts." Once you tick this box and access begins, your 14-day right to cancel that subscription no longer applies.

If you do not ask to start immediately, your 14-day right to cancel applies as normal: you can cancel for a full refund by emailing info@cloudlearn.co.uk before access begins. You may also use the standard cancellation form set out in the consumer regulations; ask us and we will send it to you.

This right applies to each new subscription when it is first bought. It does not restart at each monthly renewal.

11. If something goes wrong

We will provide Alex with reasonable care and skill. If Alex does not work as described, or the service is not provided with reasonable care and skill, you have legal rights. Depending on the problem, these may include having the problem put right or, if that is not possible or not done in a reasonable time, a price reduction or refund. Please contact us so we can help. Advice on your rights is available from Consumer Advice Scotland (consumeradvice.scot) or Citizens Advice.

12. Failed payments

If a renewal payment fails, PayPal retries it under its own process and notifies you through your PayPal account. While PayPal is retrying, access continues. If the payment ultimately cannot be collected, the subscription ends and access to that subscription's subjects stops. A failed payment does not entitle you to a refund of an earlier period that was already paid for and used, and you can subscribe again at any time.

13. Acceptable use

Learners should use Alex to work through their course honestly, taking part in the diagnostic, teaching and quiz stages as intended. Learners must not:

• try to get round subscription or payment checks;
• let anyone other than the enrolled learner use their access;
• use Alex for material unrelated to their course;
• use Alex to write or substantially shape coursework or non-examined assessment (NEA) that will be submitted for marking; Alex will decline, because this could amount to malpractice under exam board rules;
• try to extract, copy, scrape or misuse the AI system outside normal tutoring use.

If a learner seriously or repeatedly breaks these rules, we may pause or end access to Alex. We will tell the account holder why. If we end a subscription for this reason, we will refund any payment for a future period not yet started.

14. Daily fair-use limit

To protect the service from excessive or automated use, each learner has a daily usage limit. It is set well above what normal study needs and resets every day. We do not display a running count. If a learner reaches the limit during a topic, that topic can always be finished. Alex will then explain that the daily limit has been reached and that a new topic can be started the next day. The limit applies whatever subscription the learner has; the subscription decides which subjects are available, and the limit protects the service for everyone.

15. Who can pay

The person who completes payment must be 18 or over and the holder of the PayPal account or card used. At checkout they are asked to confirm this.

For learners under 16, CloudLearn's enrolment process records a parent's or guardian's email address on the account. At checkout, the person paying confirms they are 18 or over (or 16 or over and paying for themselves) before any payment is taken, alongside PayPal's own requirement that account holders are 18 or over.

By completing payment, the account holder agrees to the monthly renewing charge described in §7, and authorises PayPal to take it each month until the subscription is cancelled or the learner's course enrolment ends. A learner cannot change or cancel a subscription that a parent or guardian pays for through the learner screens; the account holder can cancel as set out in §8.

16. Payments

Payments are processed by PayPal. CloudLearn does not receive or store card or bank details. PayPal is responsible, as an independent data controller, for the payment data it collects.

17. Changes to Alex and to this notice

We may improve or change Alex, for example to update teaching content or fix problems, provided the changes do not reduce the service you have paid for in a significant way. If we need to make a significant change that is against your interests, or to change these terms in a way that affects an existing subscription, we will give you at least 30 days' notice by email, and you may cancel before the change takes effect and receive a refund of any payment for a period not yet started. Price changes for existing subscriptions are covered by §4.

If we stop offering Alex for a subject, or withdraw Alex altogether, we will give you as much notice as we reasonably can. Because ending the service in this way is our decision and not yours, we will refund any payment for a period not yet started and, on a pro-rata basis, the unused part of the period you are currently in.

18. Our responsibility to you

We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable, or for loss to a business. We do not exclude or limit our liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud. Alex's explanations and marking can contain errors, so learners should check important points against their course materials or with their human tutor, and should raise anything that looks wrong using the feedback options in Alex or by contacting us.

Part B: Privacy

This part explains what Alex adds to CloudLearn's main Privacy Policy. CloudLearn Ltd is the data controller.

19. What data Alex holds

In addition to the enrolment data CloudLearn already holds on its Learning Platform, Alex holds:

• Identity: the learner's user ID, first name, and the email address on the account. For learners under 16, this email address belongs to a parent or guardian. Alex does not store full legal names for new learners; CloudLearn staff can look up a full name on the Learning Platform when genuinely needed.
• Age: month and year of birth only, never the full date.
• Study data: topics taught, answers given to diagnostic and quiz questions, marks, mastery status, and study plan preferences.
• Conversations: the full text of the learner's conversations with Alex. This is the largest category of data Alex holds, because a learner can type anything, which may occasionally include sensitive information such as details about their health or wellbeing.
• Subscription data: the band bought, the subjects covered, usage records, the timestamp of any request to start immediately (§10), and PayPal payment references. We never receive or store card details.

20. Why we use it, and our lawful basis

Special category data. Alex does not ask for, and does not need, special category data (such as information about health, beliefs, ethnicity or sexual life). A learner may nonetheless mention something of this kind while talking to Alex. Where what a learner shares raises a concern for their safety, we process it in order to safeguard the learner, relying on the substantial-public-interest condition for the safeguarding of children and of individuals at risk (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(g), read with paragraph 18 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018). As that condition requires, we keep an appropriate policy document setting out how we comply with the data-protection principles and our retention and erasure policy for this data. We do not use special category data for any other purpose, and it is deleted in line with §22.

Marking and mastery decisions are made automatically by Alex to guide the learner's study. They do not have legal or similarly significant effects: they do not decide exam entries or grades, and a learner or parent can ask a human tutor to review them.

Who at CloudLearn can see conversations: human tutors can read a learner's conversation when it has been escalated to them for help; our Designated Safeguarding Lead can read conversations connected to a safeguarding concern; and a small number of technical staff can access conversations where needed to investigate a fault. A small number of staff can see subscription and billing records through an internal tool, for example to manage pricing or correct subject choices within the 7-day window (§6).

21. Who we share it with

• Anthropic PBC provides the Claude AI model that powers Alex. On each tutoring turn, Alex sends Anthropic the learner's first name and the conversation so far, so Alex can reply; it does not send the learner's full name, email address or date of birth. CloudLearn is the controller and Anthropic is our processor, under Anthropic's Commercial Terms and Data Processing Addendum (DPA). Under those terms, Anthropic does not use this data to train its models (unless we expressly opt in, which we do not). Anthropic has confirmed that, for most of its API, conversation content is not retained after the reply is returned; for certain models it retains inputs and outputs for up to 30 days for safety and abuse-monitoring purposes, after which they are deleted, and on termination of our agreement it deletes the data within 30 days. Anthropic is based in the United States; transfers rely on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses together with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum (per Anthropic's DPA), which provide the safeguards UK law requires. Anthropic's own sub-processors are listed at anthropic.com/subprocessors.
• OVH hosts Alex's servers and database in the United Kingdom.
• PayPal processes payments as an independent controller (§16).

We do not sell personal data, and Alex's data is not used for advertising.

22. How long we keep it

"Last activity" means the learner's most recent Alex session. After these periods, data is deleted or anonymised.

23. Your rights

You have the right to access, correct or delete personal data, to restrict or object to its use, and to data portability, as explained in CloudLearn's main Privacy Policy. In Scotland, a young person aged 12 or over is presumed able to exercise these rights for themselves. To make a request, contact info@cloudlearn.co.uk. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113, although we would like the chance to help first.

24. For learners: privacy in plain words

Alex remembers what you have learned and what you have said to it, so it can help you next time. A computer company called Anthropic helps Alex write its replies, but it is not allowed to use your chats for anything else. Your human tutor can read your chat if Alex asks them to help you. If you tell Alex something that makes us worried about your safety, a trained person at CloudLearn will read it so they can help. You can ask to see or delete what Alex holds about you.

25. Cookies

Alex uses one cookie not described in CloudLearn's main Cookie Policy:

• Name: cl_session
• Purpose: keeps the learner logged in to Alex so they do not have to sign in on every page.
• Type: strictly necessary. It is needed to provide the service you have asked for, so it does not need consent. It is not used for advertising or tracking across sites.
• Duration: 30 days.

Part C: AI and safeguarding

26. Alex is an AI, not a person

Alex is an AI system built on Anthropic's Claude model. It is not a person and does not have human judgement, intentions or awareness. Its explanations and marking can sometimes be wrong. We explain this in plain language when a learner first uses Alex, before any teaching starts.

27. What Alex is designed to do

Alex is designed to stay within academic tutoring for the learner's registered subject and exam board: teaching course content, asking diagnostic and practice questions, and marking quiz answers. It has safeguards against inappropriate language and off-topic conversation, and it will not write or shape coursework or NEA (§13).

28. When Alex can't help

If a learner's question goes beyond what Alex can safely or appropriately answer, if a learner disputes an explanation Alex cannot resolve, if a learner asks for a person, or if Alex repeatedly cannot help, the matter is passed to a human tutor rather than Alex continuing indefinitely. The learner is told when this happens and can carry on learning in the meantime.

29. Safeguarding concerns

Alex is an AI. It is not monitored in real time, and it is not an emergency or crisis service. Alex is designed to respond supportively if a learner raises something worrying, and to encourage them to speak to a trusted adult or their human tutor.

CloudLearn reviews learners' conversations for safeguarding concerns and escalates any concern it identifies to the appropriate staff, where it is handled under CloudLearn's Safeguarding Policy. Because Alex is not watched live, this review is not instant. Alex therefore always makes clear that if you or someone else is in immediate danger, you should call 999, and that a learner who needs to talk to someone can contact Childline on 0800 1111 or the Samaritans on 116 123 at any time.

30. Parents and guardians

We encourage parents and guardians of learners under 16 to know that their child is using an AI tutor, in line with the parental involvement approach in CloudLearn's Safeguarding Policy.

Part D: General

31. Complaints

If you are unhappy with Alex or with how we have handled anything under this notice, please email info@cloudlearn.co.uk with "Alex complaint" in the subject line. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and aim to give a full response within 20 working days.

32. Law and courts

This notice and any contract under it are governed by Scots law, and the Scottish courts have jurisdiction. If you live elsewhere in the United Kingdom, you may also bring proceedings in the courts where you live, and you keep the protection of any mandatory consumer laws that apply where you live.

33. Other terms

If a court decides that part of this notice is invalid, the rest still applies. If we delay in enforcing a term, we can still enforce it later.