Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Dynamic Potential Global, trading as teachme.org.za ("TeachMe", "we", "us", or "our") is the responsible party for the processing of your personal information as contemplated in POPIA. We operate the teachme.org.za platform ("Platform"), an AI-powered Socratic writing coaching service for students in South Africa.

Our Information Officer is responsible for ensuring compliance with POPIA. You may contact our Information Officer at: privacy@teachme.org.za

2. Scope of This Policy

This Policy applies to all personal information collected by us when you:

• Visit or browse the teachme.org.za website;
• Register for an account on the Platform;
• Use the Platform's coaching features, whether on a free or paid subscription;
• Contact us by email, form, or any other channel;
• Make a payment for a subscription.

This Policy does not apply to third-party websites linked from our Platform. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.

3. Personal Information We Collect

3.1 Information You Provide Directly

• Full name and email address (required at registration).
• Password (stored in hashed, non-reversible form — we never store plain-text passwords).
• Institutional affiliation (optional, e.g. university or school name).
• Payment information — processed entirely by our payment processors (PayFast). We do not receive or store your card number, CVV, or banking details.
• Communications you send us, including support requests and feedback.

3.2 Session & Usage Data

• The text inputs you submit during coaching sessions ("session content").
• The Platform's AI-generated coaching responses during your sessions.
• Session timestamps, duration, and frequency.
• Subscription tier and feature usage.

3.3 Technical Data

• IP address and approximate geographic location (country/province level only).
• Browser type, operating system, and device type.
• Pages visited, links clicked, and navigation behaviour on the Platform.
• Error logs and performance data.

We do not collect sensitive personal information as defined by POPIA (such as race, health information, biometric data, or religious beliefs) and we have no legitimate purpose to do so. If you voluntarily include such information in your session content, it is processed solely to provide the coaching service to you.

4. How We Use Your Personal Information

We process your personal information only for specific, lawful, and legitimate purposes:

4.1 To Provide the Service

• Creating and managing your account.
• Delivering AI-powered Socratic coaching sessions.
• Processing subscription payments and managing billing.
• Sending transactional emails (account confirmation, password reset, payment receipts).

4.2 To Improve the Platform

• Analysing aggregated, anonymised usage patterns to improve coaching quality and user experience.
• Identifying and fixing technical errors.
• Developing new features and improving existing ones.

We do not use individually identifiable session content to train AI models without your explicit consent.

4.3 To Communicate With You

• Responding to your support queries and feedback.
• Sending service-related notices (e.g. changes to these policies, downtime alerts).
• Sending optional marketing communications — only if you have opted in. You may opt out at any time.

4.4 To Comply With Legal Obligations

• Retaining records as required by South African law (e.g. tax and financial records).
• Responding to lawful requests from courts, regulators, or law enforcement.

5. Legal Basis for Processing

Under POPIA, we process your personal information on the following grounds:

• Contractual necessity — processing required to provide the service you have signed up for.
• Legitimate interest — improving Platform quality, preventing fraud, and maintaining security, where this does not override your rights.
• Legal obligation — compliance with applicable South African law.
• Consent — for optional marketing communications and any processing beyond the above. You may withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

6. Sharing Your Personal Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We share it only in the following limited circumstances:

6.1 Service Providers (Operators)

• AI model providers — your session inputs are transmitted to large language model APIs to generate coaching responses. These providers are contractually prohibited from using your data to train their models.
• Payment processors — PayFast processes payment transactions. We share only the minimum information required to complete the transaction.
• Hosting and infrastructure — our Platform is hosted on a private server in South Africa. Cloud or CDN services used are bound by appropriate data processing agreements.
• Email service providers — used solely for transactional and service emails.

6.2 Legal Requirements

We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law, court order, or regulation, or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.

6.3 Business Transfers

If Dynamic Potential Global, trading as teachme.org.za, is acquired, merged, or undergoes a significant restructuring, your personal information may be transferred to the successor entity. We will notify you via email and an in-platform notice before any such transfer occurs, and you will have the right to request deletion of your data.

6.4 What We Never Share

• We never share your session content with your educational institution, employer, or any third party without your explicit written consent or a court order.
• We never share your personal information with advertisers or data brokers.
• We never share your information with anyone outside South Africa except as described in Section 6.1, and only with jurisdictions that provide adequate data protection.

7. Retention of Personal Information

• Account information — retained for the duration of your account and for 3 years after account closure.
• Session content — retained for the duration of your active subscription, then anonymised or deleted within 90 days of account closure.
• Payment records — retained for 5 years as required by South African tax law.
• Technical/log data — retained for up to 12 months, then automatically deleted.
• Marketing opt-in records — retained until you opt out or request deletion.

When retention periods expire, we securely delete or anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be linked to you.

8. Security of Your Personal Information

• All data transmitted between your browser and our Platform is encrypted using TLS (HTTPS).
• Passwords are hashed using industry-standard algorithms and are never stored in plain text.
• Access to personal information is restricted to authorised personnel on a need-to-know basis.
• Our server infrastructure is hosted in a secured environment with access controls and regular security reviews.
• We do not store payment card details — these are handled entirely by PCI-DSS compliant payment processors.

No system is completely secure. In the event of a data breach that poses a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by POPIA, within the prescribed timeframes.

9. Your Rights Under POPIA

• Right of access — to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to correction — to request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Right to deletion — to request that we delete your personal information, subject to our legal retention obligations.
• Right to object — to object to the processing of your personal information, particularly for direct marketing purposes.
• Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, to withdraw that consent at any time without penalty.
• Right to lodge a complaint — to submit a complaint to the Information Regulator of South Africa if you believe your rights have been violated.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@teachme.org.za. We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

10. Cookies & Tracking Technologies

10.1 Essential Cookies

Required for the Platform to function. These include session authentication and security tokens. You cannot opt out of essential cookies while using the Platform.

10.2 Analytics Cookies

We use privacy-respecting analytics to understand how users interact with the Platform in aggregate. No individual-level tracking or profiling is conducted. You may opt out of analytics cookies in your account settings.

We do not use third-party advertising networks, social media tracking pixels, or cross-site tracking technologies.

11. Children and Minors

The Platform is available to users aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 18, we require parental or guardian consent before you may create an account.

If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information promptly. Contact us at privacy@teachme.org.za if you believe this has occurred.

12. Cross-Border Data Transfers

The Platform is hosted in South Africa. However, our AI model providers may process session data in data centres outside South Africa. Where such transfers occur, we ensure:

• The recipient country provides an adequate level of data protection; or
• The transfer is governed by a binding data processing agreement that imposes POPIA-equivalent protections on the recipient.

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy

When we make material changes, we will notify registered users by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect and post a prominent notice on the Platform. Continued use of the Platform after the effective date of a revised Policy constitutes your acceptance of the changes.

14. Contact Us