Privacy

Who we are

Sharpkop runs this website and the learner app. Write to us at [email protected] about anything on this page, or to use any of your rights below. We read that address and we answer it.

What we keep

Your answers and your marks: what you type, the photos of your working that you send, the marks we gave, and the reason for each mark you lost.

Your account, if you save your marks: your email address, your password (kept only as a one-way scramble, so nobody can read it), your name if you give one, your grade, your subjects, your exam language and your reminder time. If you sign in with Google, we also get the name and email address Google shares.

Your progress: your level in each topic, which questions come back and when, your badges, and the sets and timed papers you have done.

If you pay or someone pays for you: the plan, the dates, the amount and a payment reference. Your card details go to the payment company and never reach us.

If you join a class: your teacher sees your marks on the work they set and your practice level in their subject. They do not see your other subjects or the practice you do on your own.

On your phone: a cookie that keeps you signed in, or that recognises a phone that has not signed in, and a little saved data so questions and answers work with no signal.

To stop abuse: a scrambled form of your network address, not the address itself. We also count simple events, such as a mark being given, so we can see what works.

Why we keep it

To mark your answers. To remember what you got wrong so it comes back. To keep your progress when you save your marks. To take a payment. To let a teacher see the work they set. To stop one person using up marking meant for everyone. We do not sell your information and we do not show ads.

Who helps us handle it

Cloudflare hosts the website and keeps our database and the photo storage. Cloudflare also runs the check that you are a person, which appears the first time you mark an answer or sign up.

Anthropic runs the marking. Your answer, or the photo of your working, goes there with the question, only to be marked. We remove the location and camera details from a photo first, and we do not send your name or your email address.

PayFast, run by Payfast (Pty) Ltd in South Africa, takes card payments. It receives the details you type on its page, and tells us whether the payment worked.

Resend sends our emails: password links, receipts and reminders you ask for.

If you choose Sign in with Google, Google tells us who you are. If you turn on reminders, your phone’s own notification service delivers them.

Some of these companies handle information outside South Africa, and the marking company does so in the United States. We send each one only what its job needs. By sending an answer to be marked, or paying, you ask us to send what that job needs.

How long we keep it

Photos of your working: deleted 30 days after you send them.

Your marks and progress: until you delete your account. Answers marked for someone with no account: 90 days. An account for a learner under 18 that no parent has said yes to: 14 days after sign-up, then it is deleted.

The marking company’s full reply to your answer: 90 days. Scrambled network addresses: 48 hours. Simple usage events: 180 days. Sign-in sessions and reset links: until they expire.

When you delete your account it is closed at once and your photos are removed at once. We erase the rest 30 days later. Payment records stay, because accounts must be kept, but your name and email are taken off them.

Your rights

You can ask to see what we keep about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, or to object to how we use it. In the app, go to Me, then Settings. Download my data gives you a copy. Delete my data starts the deletion. For anything else, write to [email protected].

If you think we have treated your information wrongly, you can complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa (inforegulator.org.za). We would like the chance to fix it first.

Learners under 18

When you save your marks, we ask whether you are under 18. If you are, a parent or guardian has to say yes first. We email them a link and a code. Until they answer, we keep only what we need to send them the request and to let you come back to it: your email address, your first name, your password (as a one-way scramble), your grade and subjects if you pick them, and your parent or guardian’s email address. We keep no marks or answers on your account, and you cannot join a class. Practice you do before they say yes is kept without your name or email on it, for the 90 days given below, and moves onto your account only if they say yes. If nobody says yes within 14 days of you signing up, or a parent says no, we delete the account and those details, no later than 14 days after you signed up. A parent can say no, and can ask us to delete anything we hold about their child. The same rights as above belong to the parent or guardian of a learner under 18.

Information officer

Sharpkop’s information officer can be reached at [email protected].

If this changes

When we change what we keep or who helps us, we change this page first, and the date at the bottom moves.