Privacy policy

Who we are

Studymate is run by Keenan in South Africa. Keenan is our Information Officer, the person responsible for looking after your information. You can contact him at [contact email to be added] about anything on this page.

What we collect

• Your name (the name you ask us to call you) and your email address.
• Your school and grade, if you choose to add them.
• The files you upload, such as slides, notes and past papers.
• The study sets (questions and answers) made from your files.
• Your study progress: answers, scores, streaks, mistakes and test dates.
• Your plan (Free, Family or Pro) and whether your payments went through.
• When you agreed to this policy and the terms, whether you are under 18 and, if you are, your parent or guardian's name and email and that they agreed.

We do not ask for ID numbers. We never see or store your card details: payments are handled by Paystack, a South African payment company.

Why we collect it

• To create your account and let you log in.
• To build study sets from your material and show you how you are doing.
• To share questions with your class, but only if you choose to.
• To run your plan and payments, and to stop abuse of the free plan.
• To contact you about your account, for example to confirm your email.

We do not sell your information and we do not use it for advertising.

Your uploaded files

When you upload files, we send their content to Claude, an AI made by Anthropic, so it can write questions about them. The questions use original wording based on your material, not your lecturer's questions copied word for word. Once your study set is built, your files are deleted from Studymate. The study set itself stays in your account until you delete it.

Anthropic processes the content only to give us the answer, under its commercial terms for business customers. Please don't upload anything with other people's personal details in it, such as class lists or ID numbers.

Who can see your information

• Only you, by default. Your files, study sets and scores are private to your account.
• Your class, if you tick “Share these questions with my class”. Then everyone on Studymate at the same school and in the same grade can study those questions. Your files and your name are never shared.
• One person you choose, if you share a study set with someone by email. They can study that set.
• Keenan, as the person who runs Studymate, can see account details (name, email, plan, school and grade) to help you and keep the app running.
• Service providers that run parts of Studymate for us (listed below). They may only use your information to provide their service.

Where your information is stored

• Supabase stores our database, your login and your uploads while a study set is being built. Region: [region to be confirmed].
• Vercel hosts the website. Region: [region to be confirmed].
• Anthropic runs Claude, which reads your uploads to write the questions.
• Paystack handles Pro payments and card details.

Anthropic, Supabase and Vercel may process information outside South Africa, for example in the United States or Europe. We use them because there are no local services that can do the same job as well, and because they commit to protecting the information they handle for us. We only send them what they need to do their part.

How long we keep it

• Uploaded files: deleted as soon as the study set is built.
• Study sets and progress: until you delete them or your account.
• Payment records: kept as long as the law requires for tax and accounting, even after you delete your account.

Under 18s

If you are under 18, a parent or guardian must agree to you using Studymate. When you sign up we ask for their name and email and for confirmation that they agree. A parent or guardian can contact us at any time to see, correct or delete their child's information.

Your rights

Under POPIA you can:

• ask what information we hold about you and get a copy of it,
• ask us to correct or delete it,
• object to how we use it,
• withdraw your consent, by deleting your account.

You can download your data and delete your account yourself on your account page. For anything else, email [contact email to be added]. If you are not happy with how we handled your request, you can complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa (inforegulator.org.za).

Keeping it safe

The site only works over a secure (HTTPS) connection. Our database is set up so each student can only reach their own information. Passwords are handled by Supabase and we never see them. If something goes wrong and your information is exposed, we will tell you and the Information Regulator.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will tell you in the app or by email before the change applies. See also our terms.