KDC TVET AI Tutor
KDC TVET

Privacy Policy

Your privacy matters. Learn how we collect, use, and protect your personal information as a student using the KDC TVET AI Tutor.

POPIA Compliant
Data Encrypted
Student Privacy First
Last Updated: August 2026

Our Privacy Commitment

We are dedicated to protecting your personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and other applicable laws.

1. Introduction

KDC TVET AI Tutor is an AI-powered learning platform created by Kay's Digital Creations (Pty) Ltd to support South African TVET students. We take your privacy seriously. This policy explains how we handle your personal information when you use our platform.

POPIA Compliance

We comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) of South Africa. By using our platform, you consent to the collection and use of your data as described here.

2. Information We Collect

To provide you with a personalised and effective learning experience, we collect the following information during registration:

  • Name and Surname – used to display on your dashboard and personalise your experience.
  • KDC Student Reference – automatically generated by KDC after registration is completed; used as a unique identifier and watermark on generated content. This reference is not a government identifier and does not verify your identity.
  • Email Address – for account verification, notifications, and important updates.
  • Phone Number – for urgent communications and account recovery.
  • Educational information – such as your TVET college, course, and N-level (N4–N6) to tailor the AI responses.

We also collect technical data automatically, including your IP address, browser type, device information, and usage analytics to improve our service.

3. How We Use Your Information

Purpose Information Used Legal Basis
Providing AI tutoring services Name, KDC Student Reference, educational details Contract fulfillment
Account management and support Email, phone number Legitimate interest
Platform improvement and analytics Usage data, device info Legitimate interest
Security and fraud prevention IP address, device fingerprints Legal obligation

4. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell or rent your personal information. We share data only in these limited cases:

  • Service Providers: Third-party hosting, email delivery, payment processing, and analytics services (e.g., Google Analytics, PayFast, Resend, Africa's Talking) that process data on our behalf.
  • Legal Requirements: When required by law, court order, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of KDC, our users, or others.

Your Data Is Safe

We never share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes. All processing is strictly for delivering the service you signed up for.

5. Data Security

We implement robust security measures to protect your data:

  • Encryption: All data transmitted is encrypted using TLS/SSL.
  • Access Control: Only authorised personnel have access to personal data.
  • Regular Audits: We perform security assessments and vulnerability scans.
  • Data Minimisation: We collect only the data necessary for the service.

6. Your Rights (POPIA)

As a South African student, you have the following rights under POPIA:

Right to Access Right to Correction Right to Deletion Right to Object

To exercise these rights, contact us at kaysdigitalcreations05@gmail.com. We will respond within 21 days as required by law.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected for, or as required by South African law. The retention periods below apply to the KDC TVET AI Tutor pilot and production deployments:

Data Type Retention Period Reason
Student account data (name, email, phone, KDC Student Reference) 5 years after last activity Academic records and support
Payment / transaction records 7 years Tax and audit compliance
AI Tutor question data (aggregated, per student) 24 months Service improvement and lecturer aggregate analytics
Assessment attempts and per-question results 24 months Aggregate topic analytics and academic progress records
Lecturer audit logs (lecturerAudit collection) 24 months POPIA accountability and access-justification
De-identified and aggregated statistics Retained indefinitely Academic research and DHET / TIA / SEDA reporting

What "de-identified" means here

De-identified statistics have been stripped of every identifier that could reasonably be used to re-link the data to you — no name, email, phone, student reference, Firebase UID, or per-student question text. Only counts, averages, topic names, and N-level / subject / campus summaries may be retained for research and statutory reporting after the retention periods above have elapsed.

7a. What Your Lecturer Can and Cannot See

When you are enrolled in a class linked to one of your purchased subjects, a lecturer formally assigned to that class can see a limited, aggregated view of how the class as a whole is learning. This exists so that your lecturer can adjust their teaching, plan revision sessions, and decide which topics to include in upcoming tests and exams. It is not a mechanism for monitoring you individually.

The full, plain-language disclosure of this — including the fact that the lecturer does not see your name, your email, your phone number, your individual scores, your individual answers, or your private AI Tutor conversations — is published in Section 13 of our Terms & Conditions. The summary below is provided here as a privacy-policy mirror of that section.

What your lecturer can see

  • Which topics your class as a whole is scoring lowest on in assessments — averaged across the class, never attributed to any student.
  • How many students attempted a topic, and the class's average score on that topic.
  • Which topics the class is asking about most in the AI Tutor, grouped when two or more students ask something similar.
  • For each aggregated question group: how many students asked, how many times, and when it was last asked.
  • The subject, N-level, and campus of the class you belong to, and how many students are enrolled in it.

What your lecturer cannot see

  • Your name, email, phone number, or student number.
  • Your individual scores on any quiz, test, or exam.
  • Your individual answers, or which questions you got right or wrong.
  • Your individual questions to the AI Tutor, or your private conversations with it.
  • Your activity outside the specific class they teach, or data from other subjects you may be enrolled in.

How this is enforced. Every lecturer view applies two privacy gates before any data is returned to the lecturer's browser:

  • At least two distinct students in the class must have produced the same signal before it appears in any lecturer view. A single student's question or a single student's wrong answer is never surfaced as a class-level topic.
  • For question data, the question must have been asked at least one hour ago, giving you private space to work through a problem without your lecturer seeing your live moment of struggle.

Every lecturer read of class data is written to an immutable audit log (the lecturerAudit collection) so that access can be reviewed if a concern is ever raised. If you believe a lecturer has acted outside these boundaries, report it to KDC at kaysdigitalcreations05@gmail.com.

8. Cookies and Tracking

We use cookies to enhance your experience on our platform:

  • Essential Cookies: Required for login and navigation.
  • Analytics Cookies: Help us understand how you use the platform.
  • Preference Cookies: Remember your settings (e.g., language).

You can manage cookie preferences in your browser settings.

10. Contact Us

If you have privacy-related questions or wish to exercise your rights, please reach out:

Information Regulator (South Africa)

JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001
complaints.IR@justice.gov.za | 010 023 5200

Exercise Your Privacy Rights

If you have any concerns about how your data is handled, or wish to access, correct, or delete your information, please contact our Privacy Officer.

Contact Privacy Officer