Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 2026
The short version
- We never sell your data or your child's data. Not to advertisers, not to anyone. Your child is never shown an advert, and there are no advertising SDKs in the app at all.
- We don't collect location data from your child, and no audio is kept beyond the session it was recorded in.
- Children under 13 have no social features at all.
- You can ask us to delete your account and everything in it at any time. We process those requests within 30 days.
- When your child uses the AI Coach, what they type — plus their first name and grade — is sent to our AI provider in the United States to generate a reply. Every other part of the app works without it.
- We follow South Africa's POPIA. If we change something significant here, we'll tell you rather than quietly updating the page.
This summary is here so the commitments are actually read. It does not replace the full text below, which is what binds us.
1. Who We Are
MzansiAcademyKids is a South African e-learning platform for children aged 2–10, built and run independently from Pretoria. We are the "responsible party" for your information under POPIA. Our mission is to help children build multilingual, digital, and cultural skills in a safe, ad-free environment. For anything in this policy, write to info@mzansiacademykids.app.
2. Data We Collect
We collect: guardian name and email address, child name and grade level, learning progress and session data, and device push notification tokens. We do NOT collect precise location data, long-term audio recordings, or any behavioural data for advertising purposes.
3. What Is Required, and What Happens If You Don't Provide It
A guardian email address and password are required — without them we cannot create an account or let you back into it. A child's first name and grade level are required for the learning content to work at all, since lessons are chosen by grade and the app addresses your child by name. Everything else is optional: push notification tokens are only stored if you enable reminders, and you can decline them without losing any learning feature.
4. Children's Privacy
MzansiAcademyKids complies with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). A child's personal information may only be processed with the prior consent of a competent person — under POPIA that is the child's parent or guardian. That is why only an adult can create an account, and why children never register themselves or supply their own details: the account you create is that consent. For children under 13: no social features are enabled, no location data is collected, no audio is stored beyond the session, and no advertising SDKs are present anywhere in the app. You can withdraw consent at any time by deleting the child's profile or the whole account.
5. How We Use Data
We use your data to provide personalised learning recommendations via AI, generate weekly progress reports for parents, send learning reminders (with your consent), and improve the platform. We do not sell your data, or your child's data, to anyone — not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not for any other purpose. We share data with third parties only where it is strictly necessary to run the service (see the next section), and never for them to use on their own account.
6. Who Else Handles Your Data
Running the service means some data passes through providers working on our behalf, under contract, and only for the job named: Railway (application hosting and database), Cloudflare R2 (images and audio files), Resend (sending you email), Firebase Cloud Messaging (push notifications), Sentry (error reports, so we can fix crashes), Groq and Hugging Face (the AI language models behind lessons, feedback and the AI Coach), and Google Play, Apple, PayFast or Ozow when you pay. None of them may use your information for their own purposes.
7. Where Your Data Goes
Some of these providers operate outside South Africa. In particular, when your child uses the AI Learning Coach, their first name, grade level, learning history and the message they type are sent to our AI provider to generate a reply — and those providers are currently located in the United States. POPIA allows this where the recipient is bound by an agreement giving your information a level of protection comparable to POPIA's own, and we rely on our providers' data-processing terms for that. If you would rather your child's information were not processed this way, do not use the AI Coach — every other module works without it.
8. How Long We Keep It
We keep your family's information for as long as your account is open. When you delete your account we remove your guardian and child data from our live systems, and it drops out of encrypted backups as those rotate. We do not keep learning data indefinitely for accounts that no longer exist.
9. Data Storage & Security
Your data is stored on Railway.app infrastructure. All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. Access to production data is limited to those who need it to operate the service.
10. Your Rights
Under POPIA, you have the right to ask what personal information we hold, to correct anything inaccurate, to delete your account and all associated data, and to receive a copy of your data. You may also object to us processing your information, and withdraw consent you have given. To exercise any of these, contact us at info@mzansiacademykids.app. Requests are processed within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with how we handle it, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator: Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg 2191 · 010 023 5200 · enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
11. If Something Goes Wrong
If personal information is accessed or acquired by anyone unauthorised, we will notify the Information Regulator and every affected person as soon as reasonably possible after establishing what happened. We will tell you what was involved, what we have done about it, and what you can do to protect yourself. We will not wait to be asked.
12. Contact Us
For privacy-related queries or general support, contact info@mzansiacademykids.app. We are committed to responding within 2 working days.
By using MzansiAcademyKids, you agree to this privacy policy. This policy may be updated periodically — we will notify you of significant changes.