Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

FutureReady Digital (Pty) Ltd ("FutureReady", "we", "us") is registered in South Africa (2026/345734/07) and based in Gauteng, Johannesburg. We operate the FutureReady Digital learning and school-management platform at futurereadydigital.co.za.

When a school uses the Platform for its learners, staff and parents, the school is the responsible party under POPIA and we are its operator. We are the responsible party for people who deal with us directly: learners who enrol through our enrolment form, tutors who open a workspace, website visitors and enquirers, and for all billing and payment records.

2. Personal Information We Collect

• Identity data: first name, last name, username, grade, school name, class code.
• Contact data: email address (optional for learners), phone number (optional).
• Enrolment data: the details on our enrolment form, including guardian details and consent for learners under 18.
• Learning and school records: lesson completions, quiz and assessment scores, assignment submissions, marks, SBA records, report cards, attendance, homework, badges and points, and behaviour records captured by the school.
• School administration data: where a school uses our school-management features, it may record learners' and parents' SA ID or passport numbers (stored encrypted), LURITS numbers, home language and nationality.
• Health and accessibility information: only where a school or guardian chooses to record it, such as medical conditions or allergies (stored encrypted) and hearing-accessibility settings like always-on captions.
• Wellbeing data: daily mood check-in ratings (1-5 scale) and optional written notes.
• Messages and uploads: messages, voice notes and files exchanged on the Platform, and conversations with the AI Study Assistant where the school has turned it on.
• Billing data: invoices, amounts, payment status and payment references. See section 6.
• Technical data: IP address, browser type, device type, login timestamps, session identifiers.
• Security data: a device fingerprint hash, used only to detect unauthorised account sharing, never for tracking.
• Parent/guardian data: name, email and phone for parents using the parent portal.

We do not ask for biometric data, religious or political beliefs, or criminal records, and we never receive your card number.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To create and manage accounts on the Platform.
• To deliver lessons, quizzes, assignments, forums and other educational features.
• To track progress, record marks and generate report cards and certificates.
• To award badges and points as part of the gamification system.
• To let teachers support learner wellbeing through mood check-ins.
• To detect and prevent account sharing or unauthorised access.
• To send notifications about grades, assignments, invoices and platform activity.
• To issue invoices, process payments and refunds, and keep the financial records the law requires.
• To improve the Platform using aggregated, anonymised usage patterns.

We do not use personal information for advertising or commercial profiling, and we never sell it to third parties.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

• Contract performance: processing needed to provide the services agreed with the school, tutor or learner, including billing.
• Consent: for optional features (mood check-ins, parent portal, AI Study Assistant) and, through guardian consent, for processing minor learners' data.
• Legitimate interest: for platform security, fraud prevention and aggregated analytics.
• Legal obligation: where South African law requires it, for example keeping tax and accounting records.

5. Children's Personal Information

Before any learner under 18 may use the Platform, a parent or legal guardian must have consented. Schools confirm this consent by signing our Data Processing Agreement; learners who enrol directly need a guardian to give consent on our enrolment form. Mood check-in data is visible only to the learner's class teacher and school administrator, never to other learners or external parties.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without explicit parental consent. If we discover such information was collected without consent, we will delete it immediately.

6. Payment Information

• Online payments are made on PayFast's secure payment pages. Your card or bank login details go directly to PayFast; we never see or store them.
• To set up a payment we send PayFast your name, email address, invoice number and the amount. PayFast sends us back the payment status and its transaction reference.
• EFT payments go into our business bank account. We record the payment against your invoice.
• Refunds: if you ask for a refund of an EFT payment, we ask for the bank account details to pay it into and use them only for that refund.
• We keep invoices and payment records for as long as South African tax and company law requires.

7. Data Sharing & Service Providers

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information. Data is shared only:

• Within the school: learner progress is visible to the learner's teachers and the school administrator.
• Parent portal: verified parents can view their own child's progress, report cards and attendance.
• With our service providers, listed below, who process data only to provide their service to us.
• Legal requirements: where required by South African law or a court order, or to protect a learner's safety.

Our pages also load fonts and icons from Google Fonts and cdnjs (Cloudflare), which receive your IP address when your browser requests those files.

8. Where Your Data Is Stored

The Platform, its database and uploaded files are hosted on Google Cloud in Johannesburg, South Africa. Two providers process limited data outside South Africa: Resend, to deliver emails, and Anthropic, for the AI Study Assistant where a school has turned it on. We use them under section 72 of POPIA, which allows such transfers where the recipient is bound by laws or agreements that protect personal information to a standard comparable to POPIA, or where the transfer is needed to provide the service you asked for.

9. Data Retention

• Learner identity and learning data: duration of enrolment plus 1 year.
• Mood check-in data: current academic year only.
• Device and security logs: 90 days rolling.
• Invoices and payment records: as long as South African tax and company law requires, even after an account is closed.
• Backups: encrypted daily database backups, each kept for 7 days.

After a school or tutor subscription ends, the account holder can export its data for 30 days, and schools can ask us for a full export, which we provide within 7 business days. After the 30 days we delete the personal information, except the records above that the law requires us to keep.

10. Your Rights Under POPIA

Contact our Information Officer at privacy@futurereadydigital.co.za, or use our data deletion form, to exercise any right. We respond within 30 days.

11. Security of Your Information

We use encryption at rest and in transit (HTTPS only), extra field-level encryption for ID numbers and medical information, role-based access controls, account lockout, device anomaly detection and audit logging of administrative actions. Card payments are handled entirely by PayFast on its own PCI DSS-compliant pages. If personal information is compromised, we tell affected schools within 24 hours of becoming aware of it, and the Information Regulator and the people affected are notified as soon as reasonably possible, as section 22 of POPIA requires.

12. Changes to This Policy

We review this policy at least once a year. Schools and account holders will be notified of material changes by email at least 30 days before they take effect. The current version is always available at this URL.

13. Contact Our Information Officer