Privacy Policy
Last updated 5 November 2026
The short version
- Little Learners is for parents and guardians. Children play under their parent's account and never sign up themselves.
- We collect what the app needs to work: your account details, and your children's first names, grades and how they do in the games, so the games can adapt and you can see their progress.
- We don't show ads, we don't use tracking or analytics cookies, and we never sell your information.
- Your information is stored with Supabase in Ireland (in the EU). Payments are handled by PayFast; we never see your card details.
- You can ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, or to delete it, at any time.
This policy explains how we handle personal information under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). It applies to the Little Learners app and website.
1. Who we are
Little Learners is run by My Little Learners (Pty) Ltd (registration number K2026667215), Mondeor, Johannesburg, South Africa. Under POPIA we are the responsible party for your information: we decide how it is used.
For anything about your privacy, email privacy@mylittlelearners.co.za.
2. Who this policy is for
Accounts are for parents and legal guardians aged 18 or over. You create profiles for your children, and they play under your account. Children don't have their own login, email address or password, and can't sign up themselves.
3. The information we collect
About you
- Your name, surname and email address.
- Your password. Supabase, our sign-in provider, stores it scrambled (hashed), so nobody can read it, including us.
- If you choose “Continue with Google”, the name and email address on your Google account.
- The parent PIN that locks the Parent Hub.
- Your plan and its status (for example Pro, active, renews on a date), and the reference PayFast gives us for your subscription. We never receive or store your card or bank details.
- When you accepted this policy, and which version.
About your children
- The name you give each child. A first name or nickname is all the app needs.
- Their age, school grade, and (only if you tell us) whether they are a boy or a girl.
- The character and colour they picked, their points and badges.
- How they play: which levels they pass and their stars, each answer they give, whether it was right, the kind of mistake, how long they took and whether they used a hint. This is what lets the games adjust to your child and shows you their progress against the school curriculum (CAPS).
Collected automatically
- Technical information our hosting and database providers record to keep the service running and secure, such as your IP address, browser and device type, and the time of each request.
- A few cookies and similar browser storage that keep you signed in and remember which child is playing. See Cookies below.
What we don't collect
No photos, voice recordings, location, contacts or messages. No advertising or analytics trackers. We never sell personal information or use it for advertising.
4. Why we use it
| What for | Information | Why we may (POPIA) |
|---|---|---|
| Creating and running your account, signing you in | Your account details | To provide the service you signed up for |
| Adapting the games to each child, awarding stars and badges, and showing you progress reports | Your children's information | Your consent as their parent or guardian |
| Your subscription: payments, renewals, cancelling and resuming | Plan, status, PayFast reference | To provide the service you pay for |
| Keeping records of payments | Payment dates, amounts and plan | Required by tax law |
| Keeping the service secure and fixing problems | Technical information | Our legitimate interest in a safe, working service |
| Answering your questions and requests | What you send us | To help you, at your request |
5. Your children's information
POPIA protects children's information specially: we may only process it with the consent of a parent or guardian. You give that consent when you create your account, and we record when you did.
We use your children's information only to run the games and show you how they are doing. We don't share it for advertising, build profiles for anyone else, or contact your children. You can withdraw consent at any time by asking us to delete a child's profile or your account. The games can't work for that child without it.
6. Who we share it with
We use a few trusted service providers (POPIA calls them operators) to run Little Learners. They may only use the information to provide their service to us, under written agreements that require them to keep it secure.
| Provider | What they do for us | What they receive | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, sign-in, and sign-up and password emails | The information in section 3, apart from card details (which we don't have) | Ireland (EU) |
| Vercel | Hosts the website and app | Information passing between your device and our database | Ireland (dub1) |
| PayFast | Takes payments and runs subscriptions | Your name, email and payment details, entered on PayFast's own pages | South Africa |
| Sign-in, only if you choose “Continue with Google” | That you are signing in to Little Learners | Google's own policy applies | |
| ElevenLabs | The voice that reads game instructions aloud | Only the sentence to read, like “Can you find the letter A?”, never names or personal information | United States |
We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety. We will never sell it.
7. Information stored outside South Africa
Our database is in Ireland, and some providers work from other countries (see the table above). POPIA (section 72) allows this where the information stays protected to a standard similar to POPIA's. Information in the EU is protected by the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Providers elsewhere are bound by agreements with us that require the same protection.
8. How we keep it safe
- Everything between your device and our servers travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS).
- Database rules mean a parent can only ever see their own family's information.
- Passwords are stored hashed, and card details go straight to PayFast and never reach us.
- Only the people who need to, to run and support the service, can access personal information.
- If we ever believe your information has been accessed without permission, we will tell you and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible, as POPIA requires.
9. How long we keep it
- We keep your account and your children's information for as long as your account is open.
- If you ask us to delete your account or a child's profile, we delete it within 30 days. Copies in our providers' backups are removed when those backups expire.
- We keep records of payments (date, amount, plan) for 5 years, as South African tax law requires.
- Technical logs are kept by our providers for a short time, usually days, and then deleted.
10. Your rights
Under POPIA you can:
- ask whether we hold information about you or your children, and get a copy of it;
- ask us to correct information that is wrong or out of date;
- ask us to delete your information, or a child's;
- object to us using it, and withdraw your consent;
- complain to the Information Regulator (details below).
To do any of these, email privacy@mylittlelearners.co.za from the email address on your account. We may ask you to confirm it's you, and we'll respond within 30 days.
11. Cookies
Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser. We only use the ones Little Learners needs to work, plus a few similar settings kept in your browser's storage. We don't use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, and no third-party cookies are set on our pages.
| Name | Kind | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| sb-…-auth-token | Cookie (Supabase) | Keeps you signed in | Until you sign out |
| active_child_id | Cookie | Remembers which child is playing | 24 hours |
| little-learners-profile | Browser storage | Remembers the child picked on this device, so the app loads faster | Until you sign out |
| ll-report-tour-seen | Browser storage | Remembers that you've seen the progress report tour | Until you clear your browser |
| ll-cookie-notice-seen | Browser storage | Remembers that you've seen our cookie notice | Until you clear your browser |
| Intro voice flags | Browser storage (this tab only) | Stops the welcome voice repeating | Until you close the tab |
Because these are needed for the app to work, they don't need your consent, but we want you to know about them. If you block them, you won't be able to sign in. PayFast's payment pages are run by PayFast and may use their own cookies.
12. Changes to this policy
When we update this policy we change the date at the top. If a change affects how we use your or your children's information, we'll ask you to read and accept the new version in the app before you carry on.
13. Contact us, or complain
Email us at privacy@mylittlelearners.co.za, or write to My Little Learners (Pty) Ltd, Mondeor, Johannesburg, South Africa.
If you're not happy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa): inforeg.org.za.