Privacy Policy

Acedemy is operated by Pan African Social Infrastructure (Pty) Ltd t/a Hekima Africa ("Acedemy", "we", "us" or "our"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information when you use the Acedemy mobile app and the acedemy.co.za website (together, the "Service").

We process personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 ("POPIA") of South Africa.

1. Information we collect

1.1 Information you give us

• Account details: your full name, email address and password (or Google sign-in details if you choose to sign in with Google, or your HUAWEI ID profile if you use the AppGallery version of the app and choose Continue with HUAWEI ID), and optionally a phone number. With HUAWEI ID we receive a one-time authorisation code and, if you allow it, your display name, email address and avatar; we never receive your Huawei password.
• Profile details: your grade, province and school, an optional profile photo, and your notification preferences.
• Friends: when you add a friend, we look up the email address or phone number you enter to find their account. We never upload or scan your device's address book.
• Support: any information you send us when you contact us, for example at support@acedemy.co.za.

1.2 Learning activity

• Lessons viewed, practice sessions completed and topic mastery progress.
• Exam attempts, answers, raw marks, percentages, weighted scores and topic breakdowns.
• XP earned, levels, badges and daily streak activity.

1.3 Information collected automatically

• Analytics: product usage events (for example onboarding completion, lesson and exam activity) collected via Mixpanel so we can understand and improve the Service.
• Crash and diagnostics data collected via Firebase Crashlytics to help us fix bugs and stability issues.
• Push notification tokens (Firebase Cloud Messaging tokens, or Huawei Push Kit tokens in the AppGallery version) so we can send you streak reminders and updates you have opted in to. A token is stored for each device you sign in on and removed when you sign out or delete your account.
• Basic device information such as device model, operating system version and app version.

2. How we use your information

• To create and secure your account and keep you signed in.
• To deliver lessons, practice sessions and exams, and to track your progress and mastery.
• To operate XP, streaks, badges and the national, provincial, school and friends leaderboards — your display name, avatar and scores are shown to other learners on these leaderboards.
• To send you notifications you have opted in to, such as daily streak reminders.
• To respond to support requests.
• To analyse usage, measure performance and improve the Service.
• To protect the Service, prevent abuse and enforce our Terms.

We do not sell your personal information to anyone.

3. Learners under 18

Parents or guardians may contact us at any time to review, correct or delete a child's information (see section 8).

4. Service providers we use

We use trusted third-party providers to run the Service. They process personal information on our behalf and only as instructed by us:

• Google Firebase (authentication, Cloud Firestore database, Cloud Functions, Cloud Storage, Cloud Messaging and Crashlytics). Learner data is stored in Firebase's South African (Johannesburg) region where the service supports it.
• Huawei Mobile Services (Account Kit for HUAWEI ID sign-in and Push Kit for notifications) — only in the version of Acedemy distributed through Huawei AppGallery. Huawei processes your HUAWEI ID authorisation and delivers notifications under the Huawei Consumer Business Privacy Statement.
• Mixpanel — product analytics.
• Algolia — powers the school search during onboarding (school names only; your search queries are processed to return matching schools).

Some of these providers may process data outside South Africa. Where they do, we rely on their contractual safeguards as required by section 72 of POPIA.

5. Cookies and the website

This website does not use tracking cookies. We only store a single preference in your browser's local storage to remember your light or dark theme choice.

6. Data retention

We keep your personal information for as long as your account is active so that your progress, streaks and leaderboard history remain intact. If you delete your account (or ask us to), we delete or de-identify your personal information within a reasonable period, except where we are required by law to keep it. Crash logs and analytics data are retained according to the provider's default retention periods.

7. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS), Firebase security rules that restrict access to your own data, and server-side verification of sensitive actions such as exam scoring. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we work hard to protect your information and will notify you and the Information Regulator of any notifiable data breach as required by law.

8. Your rights

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• ask what personal information we hold about you;
• request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information;
• object to certain processing of your information;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; and
• lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at support@acedemy.co.za. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will let you know in the app or by email before they take effect. The "Last updated" date at the top shows when this policy was last revised.

10. Contact us

Questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle personal information? Contact our Information Officer at support@acedemy.co.za.

Pan African Social Infrastructure (Pty) Ltd t/a Hekima Africa
South Africa