Privacy notice

Who we are

ExamGen is run by somethingAI.
Information Officer: Niel Steyn.
Contact: niel@somethingai.co.za.

Who accounts are for

ExamGen accounts are for parents and guardians. When you tell us about your child (their grade, the marks they score, or what they struggle with), you do so as their parent or guardian.

What we collect

• Your account: your name, your email address, your preferred language (Afrikaans or English) and your password. The password is stored in scrambled form that nobody can read.
• Waiting list: if you join the waiting list, your email address, your preferred language and which page you joined from, so we can let you know when ExamGen opens. We do not check whether you have an account.
• Your children's cards: for each child you add, their grade and, only if you want one, a nickname. You don't need to use your child's real name. We don't ask for a surname, birth date or school.
• Your practice tests: the grade, subject, language and topics you choose, and the practice test and memorandum we make for you.
• Practice history: which topics each practice test covered, which child's card it was made for and, if you or your child enter them, the marks scored. If you set up a practice reward, we keep the reward you write and the name you choose to show with it.
• Questions already seen: which questions your child has already had, so the next practice test does not repeat them.
• Your plan: which plan you are on. When paid plans start, Paystack handles your payment. We never see or keep your card number. We keep only Paystack's reference codes for you and your subscription.
• Technical information: when someone signs up or enters marks with a practice code, we record the internet (IP) address for about a day, to stop misuse. Our sign-in provider also records the IP address used to sign in, and our hosting provider keeps short technical logs.
• The struggle box: see "What you type in the struggle box" below. We do not keep it.

We do not use advertising or analytics cookies. We use only the cookies needed to keep you signed in and to remember your language.

Why we use it

To make practice tests for your child, to avoid repeating questions, to show your child's progress, to run your account and plan, to send you account emails, and to prevent misuse. We do not sell personal information and we do not use it for advertising.

Where it is stored

Our database and files are kept by Supabase in the European Union (France). Our website runs on Vercel, on its servers in the European Union (France). Your information is therefore sent outside South Africa. We use only providers that are bound to protect it.

Who we share it with

We share information only with the service providers that run ExamGen for us:

• Supabase (database and file storage, France): everything listed above.
• Vercel (website hosting, France): everything passes through it while you use the site.
• OpenRouter (an AI gateway, United States), which passes requests on to AI providers (currently Google, and Amazon or Google running Anthropic's Claude model, and ByteDance, for drawing pictures only; no personal information is sent): the grade, subject, language and topics, so that questions can be written and checked, and the text you type in the struggle box. We do not send them your name, your email address or your child's nickname.
• Resend (email delivery, United States): your email address and the emails we send you (for example welcome, payment, cancellation and account-deleted emails) and, if you joined the waiting list, your email address, so we can let you know when ExamGen opens. When you sign up, we also send ourselves an email with your email address.
• Paystack (payments), once paid plans start: what is needed to take your payment.

What you type in the struggle box

What you type in the struggle box is sent to an AI service outside South Africa (currently Google, through OpenRouter) so it can find the right topic. Before it is sent, we remove South African phone numbers, email addresses and ID numbers. Names cannot be removed reliably, so please don't type your child's name. We do not keep what you type: it is not saved in our database or our logs.

How long we keep it

• Practice tests: deleted automatically, usually within two days of being made, or sooner: as soon as your next practice test for the same child, in the same subject and grade, is ready.
• Practice history without marks: deleted after 45 days.
• Practice history with marks: kept for up to 24 months, so you can see progress.
• Questions already seen: 90 days.
• IP addresses: about a day.
• Children's cards: until you remove the card or delete your account. When you remove a card, we delete that child's practice tests, practice history and rewards straight away.
• Your account: until you delete it.
• Waiting list: kept so we can let you know when ExamGen opens, and no longer than 12 months after you joined.

When your account is deleted, we delete your account, children's cards, practice tests, practice history, rewards and question history. We keep two things that do not identify you: a count of how many accounts were deleted on each day, and our quality checks of questions (see below). Copies held by our email and payment providers (for example, emails already sent, and payment records the law requires) follow those providers' own retention rules.

Our team sometimes checks the questions on a practice test, to make ExamGen's questions better. Each check keeps a copy of the question and its memorandum, the subject, grade, language and term, our rating and comments, and sometimes a screenshot of the question. A check is about the question, not about you or your child: it does not include your name or email address. When the practice test is deleted (usually within two days, sooner when your next practice test for the same child in the same subject and grade is ready, or straight away when you remove that child's card or delete your account), we remove the link between the check and that practice test. Only ExamGen's administrators can see these checks. We keep them to improve our questions, and review them once they are 24 months old to decide whether we still need them.

Your rights

You may ask us:

• what personal information we hold about you;
• to correct it;
• to delete it;
• to stop using it.

Email niel@somethingai.co.za. You can also delete your account yourself on the Account page. If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, you may complain to the Information Regulator: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, https://inforegulator.org.za.

Changes

If we change this notice, we will update the date above. If the change is significant, we will tell you by email.