Privacy Policy

Tsela works for schools. Who is responsible depends on whose information it is:

• Learners and teachers at a school. The school is the responsible party. It decides why and how its learners' and teachers' information is used. Tsela is the school's operator: we process the information only on the school's behalf, under a written agreement with the school, as POPIA sections 20 and 21 require.
• Website visitors, school contact people and Tsela's own staff. Tsela is the responsible party for this information.

If you are a learner or a parent or guardian, please contact your school first about your information. We help the school answer you.

Most learners on Tsela are under 18. Tsela is only for learners at schools that have signed up with us. Children should not use Tsela without their school.

• Before a school adds a learner under 18, the school must have consent from the learner's parent or guardian (a competent person, as POPIA section 35 requires).
• A learner who asks to join with their school's code must confirm that a parent or guardian knows about it and agrees. A school admin then has to approve them before they can sign in.
• Learners do not need an email address. They sign in with a username.

Learners:

• First name, and surname if the school adds it, plus a username and password. We never store the password itself, only a scrambled version (a scrypt hash) that cannot be turned back into the password.
• Avatar choices and settings, such as language, how confident they feel (1 to 5) and reading preferences like bigger text.
• Their class and subjects.
• Practice answers and scores.
• Messages they send to the tutor and the tutor's replies, and study notes made from those chats.
• Short notes the AI writes about how the learner learns best (for example, whether pictures help). These are used only to adapt the teaching. They are never used to make decisions about the learner that have legal or similar effects.
• Wellbeing alerts. If a learner writes about self-harm, abuse or danger, Tsela shows the Childline number (116) and alerts their teacher. This can be sensitive information, and we treat it with extra care.
• Voice recordings, only when a learner taps the microphone. The recording is sent to our speech provider to turn it into text. Tsela does not keep the recording.
• Sign-in times and the number of wrong password tries, so we can lock an account for a while after too many wrong tries.

Teachers and school admins: name, email address, username, password (scrambled as above), the classes they teach and notes they write.

Schools: the school's name, the name and email address of its contact person, its plan and how many learners it has.

Uploaded files: textbooks, term plans and past tests that teachers upload, so Tsela can teach from them. These are kept in private storage.

Usage records: for each AI request, how much text was processed and what it cost, linked to the learner. We use these for billing and to control costs.

We only collect what Tsela needs to work. We do not use advertising, we do not sell personal information, and we do not use analytics or tracking tools.

• To let learners, teachers and admins sign in and keep their accounts secure.
• To teach: the tutor uses a learner's messages, class work and learning notes to explain things at the right level, give hints and check answers.
• To show teachers how their class is doing, who needs help and common mistakes.
• To keep learners safe with wellbeing alerts.
• To build lessons and practice from the school's own uploaded textbooks, term plans and past tests.
• To bill schools and to keep our costs under control.
• To meet our legal duties.

For learner and teacher information, we act on the school's instructions. The school relies on its own lawful basis, such as consent from a parent or guardian. For our own records (such as school contact details and billing), we rely on our agreement with the school and our legitimate interest in running Tsela.

When a learner asks the tutor something, Tsela sends their message, the recent chat and the relevant textbook pages to our AI provider, which writes the reply. We send only what is needed for each reply, and we choose providers whose business terms restrict how they may use it.

AI can make mistakes. Tsela is a study aid, not a replacement for teachers. It gives hints instead of doing a learner's work for them, and points learners back to their textbook and teacher.

We share personal information only with service providers who help us run Tsela, and only what each one needs:

• Anthropic (USA): the Claude AI that writes tutor replies, search results and study notes, and builds lessons from uploaded textbooks.
• ElevenLabs (USA): reads replies aloud, and turns voice recordings into text.
• Supabase: our database and private file storage.
• Vercel (USA and worldwide): hosts the Tsela website and app.
• Resend (USA): sends login emails to teachers and admins, only when this is switched on.

A learner's teachers and school admins can see that learner's work in Tsela. Teachers only see their own classes. We may also share information if the law requires it.

Some of our service providers process information outside South Africa, mainly in the United States. Under POPIA section 72, we only use providers who are bound by agreements, rules or laws that give the information a level of protection similar to POPIA.

• All connections to Tsela use HTTPS.
• Passwords are stored only as scrypt hashes.
• Sign-ins use signed cookies that the page's scripts cannot read (HttpOnly).
• After 5 wrong password tries, an account is locked for 15 minutes.
• Our database tables are locked so that only Tsela's server can read them.
• Uploaded files are kept in private storage.
• Teachers can only see their own classes.

No system is perfectly secure. If we find a breach that affects personal information, we will tell the affected schools and the Information Regulator as POPIA section 22 requires, as soon as we reasonably can.

The school decides how long its information is kept. We keep a school's learner and teacher information while the school uses Tsela. When the school's agreement ends, or when the school asks, we delete it or give it back to the school within 90 days. Backups can take up to 30 more days to clear.

We keep billing records for as long as the law requires, for example 5 years for tax purposes.

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• ask what personal information is held about you, and ask for a copy;
• ask for it to be corrected or deleted;
• object to it being used, in some situations;
• complain to the Information Regulator.

Learners and parents should start with their school. Anyone can also contact our Information Officer, To be added, at To be added.

If you are not happy with how your information is handled, you can complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za or by email to POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za.

Tsela only uses cookies and browser storage that it needs to work, such as keeping you signed in. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. Read the Cookie Policy for the full list.

The free demo uses a sample school with fictional learners and teachers. You do not need to sign in or give us any personal information to try it. In the demo, the tutor, search and notes answer from ready-made content: what you type to the tutor is not sent to any AI provider and is not saved. The demo accounts are shared, so practice answers and settings you change there can be seen by other people trying the demo until it is reset. Please do not type real personal information into the demo.

We may update this policy when Tsela changes or the law changes. We will show the new date at the top of this page, and tell schools about important changes before they take effect.

Trading name

Tsela

Legal name

To be added

Registration number

To be added

Directors

To be added

Physical address

To be added

Postal address

To be added

Email

To be added

Phone

To be added

Website

https://tselaai.com

Information Officer

To be added

Information Officer email

To be added