1. Introduction
Safeticha Ltd ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your privacy and safeguarding your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect your personal information when you use the Safeticha platform, including our website at safeticha.com, our mobile applications, and all related services.
By accessing or using Safeticha, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to read this document carefully and contact us if you have any questions about our data practices.
2. Information We Collect
We collect different types of information depending on how you interact with our Platform:
Account Information
- Full name, email address, and phone number.
- Role and account type (teacher, parent, student, or school administrator).
- Profile information, including qualifications, subjects taught, and professional experience (for teacher accounts).
- Authentication credentials (passwords are stored in hashed format and never in plain text).
School Data
- School name, address, contact information, and registration details.
- Student and pupil records, including names, classes, and student identifiers.
- Attendance records, grade books, assessment results, and academic reports.
- Behaviour logs and safeguarding-related notes entered by school staff.
- Timetables, class structures, and staff assignment information.
Payment Information
- All payment transactions are processed securely by Paystack, our third-party payment processor. We do not store your credit card numbers, debit card details, or bank account information on our servers.
- We retain records of transaction amounts, dates, subscription types, and wallet balances for billing and accounting purposes.
Usage Data
- Pages visited, features used, and actions taken on the Platform.
- Device information, including device type, operating system, and browser version.
- IP address and approximate geographic location.
- Session duration, login frequency, and interaction patterns.
Content Data
- Educational resources uploaded to the Marketplace, including lesson plans, worksheets, and assessment materials.
- AI-generated content produced through Ticha AI, including lesson plans, schemes of work, and report comments.
- Messages and communications sent through the Platform.
Children's Data
- Student data is inputted into the Platform by schools and their authorised staff, not collected directly from children. This data may include student names, ages, classes, grades, attendance records, and behavioural observations.
- We process children's data solely on behalf of, and at the direction of, the school that inputs it.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
- Providing and improving our services: To operate the Platform, deliver the features you request, maintain your account, and continuously improve the user experience.
- Processing payments and subscriptions: To manage wallet balances, process subscription renewals, handle marketplace transactions, and maintain accurate billing records.
- Communications: To send you important notifications, subscription reminders, billing alerts, system updates, and service-related announcements.
- AI-powered insights: To generate personalised recommendations, teaching suggestions, and academic insights through Ticha AI, based on the data you provide.
- Safeguarding support: To enable schools to flag behavioural concerns, monitor student welfare trends, and generate safeguarding-related reports for school staff review.
- Analytics and product improvement: To analyse usage patterns, measure feature adoption, identify technical issues, and improve our services. We use Google Analytics for product analytics.
- Legal and compliance: To comply with legal obligations, enforce our Terms of Service, protect against fraud, and respond to lawful requests from authorities.
4. Data Sharing
We do not sell your personal data to third parties under any circumstances. We only share your information in the following limited situations:
- Payment processors: Transaction data is shared with Paystack to process payments securely.
- Email and communication providers: We use third-party services to deliver emails, notifications, and in-platform messages.
- Hosting and infrastructure providers: Your data is stored on secure cloud infrastructure provided by reputable third-party hosting services.
- Within schools: School administrators can view and manage their institution's data, including student records, teacher information, grades, attendance, and behaviour logs. Access is limited to data belonging to their school only.
- Parents and guardians: Parents can access their linked children's academic data only, including grades, attendance, behaviour reports, and school communications related to their children.
- Legal requirements: We may disclose your information when required by law, legal process, or governmental request, or when we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.
5. Children's Data
Safeticha takes the protection of children's personal data extremely seriously. We are mindful of the principles outlined in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and child-specific provisions under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and we apply the following safeguards:
- Student data is inputted into the Platform by schools and their authorised administrators, not collected directly from children. We do not knowingly solicit personal data from children.
- Schools are responsible for obtaining any necessary parental or guardian consent before inputting student data into the Platform, in accordance with applicable local laws and their own institutional policies.
- We process student data as a data processor acting on behalf of the school (the data controller). We only process student data in accordance with the school's instructions and for the purposes of providing our educational services.
- The minimum age for creating an independent Safeticha account is 13 years. Users under the age of 13 may only access the Platform through accounts created and managed by their school or parent or guardian. Users aged 13 to 17 require parental or guardian consent to create an account.
- We limit the collection of children's data to the minimum necessary for providing educational services and do not use children's data for marketing, advertising, or profiling purposes.
6. Data Security
We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include:
- Encrypted data transmission: All data transmitted between your device and our servers is encrypted using HTTPS/TLS protocols.
- Secure password hashing: User passwords are stored using industry-standard hashing algorithms and are never stored in plain text.
- Role-based access control: Access to personal data within the Platform is restricted based on user roles and permissions, ensuring that users can only view data relevant to their function.
- Regular security reviews: We conduct periodic security assessments and reviews to identify and address potential vulnerabilities in our systems.
- Secure infrastructure: Our Platform is hosted on reputable cloud infrastructure with built-in security features including firewalls, intrusion detection, and regular backups.
While we take reasonable precautions to protect your data, no method of electronic storage or transmission over the internet is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security but are committed to promptly addressing any security incidents.
7. Data Retention
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. Our retention practices are as follows:
- Active accounts: Account data is retained for the duration of your active account. As long as your account remains active, your personal data, content, and usage history will be maintained on the Platform.
- Deleted accounts: When you request account deletion, your personal data will be permanently removed from our active systems within 90 days. Certain anonymised or aggregated data may be retained for analytics purposes.
- Financial records: Transaction records, invoices, and payment history are retained for a minimum of 7 years in compliance with applicable tax and financial regulations in Nigeria.
- School data: Student records, academic data, and institutional information are retained for as long as the school's subscription remains active. Upon subscription cancellation, schools may request a data export before their data is scheduled for deletion.
8. Your Rights
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Right of access: You may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Right to rectification: You may request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
- Right to deletion: You may request that we delete your personal data, subject to any legal obligations that require us to retain certain records.
- Right to data portability: You may request an export of your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
- Right to withdraw consent: Where we process your data based on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.
- Right to object: You may object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, including processing for direct marketing purposes.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at hello@safeticha.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.
9. Cookies & Tracking
We use cookies and similar technologies on the Platform for the following purposes:
- Essential cookies: These are necessary for the Platform to function correctly. They enable core features such as user authentication, session management, and security. These cookies cannot be disabled without affecting the functionality of the Platform.
- Analytics cookies: We use Google Analytics to understand how users interact with the Platform. This data is anonymised and used solely for improving our services and user experience; it is not used to track individual users for advertising purposes.
- No advertising cookies: We do not use third-party advertising cookies or trackers. Your data is never shared with advertising networks, and we do not engage in behavioural advertising or retargeting based on your activity on the Platform.
10. International Transfers
Safeticha primarily serves users in Africa, but your personal data may be processed and stored on servers located outside of Nigeria due to the nature of cloud hosting and our use of international service providers.
Where your data is transferred to countries outside Nigeria, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data in accordance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) and other applicable data protection laws. These safeguards may include contractual clauses with our service providers, reliance on providers certified under recognised data protection frameworks, and technical measures such as encryption.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our data practices, legal requirements, or business operations. When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
For material changes that significantly affect how we collect, use, or share your personal data, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you via email or through a prominent notice on the Platform before the changes take effect.
We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your data. Your continued use of the Platform after the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.
12. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:
Data Controller: Safeticha Ltd
Email: hello@safeticha.com
We aim to respond to all privacy-related enquiries within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may have the right to lodge a complaint with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) or the relevant data protection authority in your jurisdiction.
By using Safeticha, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and agree to the collection, use, and sharing of your information as described herein.