Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 2026 · Mfundo
1. What we collect
Personal information you give us (name, email or phone, level, province, and, for Grade 7 learners, a parent/guardian email); account and usage data (features used, quiz and paper results, study activity, planner entries); your AI interactions (chat messages with the tutor, and any papers or work you upload for grading); and basic payment metadata (plan, amount, status). We never see or store your mobile money PIN or full card number, that's handled directly by Paynow.
2. How we use your data
To provide and improve the Service, personalise your learning and study planner, generate analytics and progress reports, and send you essential communications (e.g. payment receipts, security notices). We do not sell your data, and we do not use it for third-party ad targeting.
3. Which AI providers see your content
We use two AI providers, split by what the task needs. Your tutoring chat conversations (whether on the web, WhatsApp or USSD) and anything you upload to “Grade My Paper” are sent only to Anthropic (Claude), never to DeepSeek. This includes WhatsApp tutor replies and USSD quiz/tip generation, which go through the same Claude-powered pipeline as the web tutor. For lower-stakes, non-conversational content (auto-generated study notes, flashcards, quiz questions and topic lists) we may use DeepSeek to keep costs down, and automatically fall back to Claude if DeepSeek is unavailable; these calls only include the subject/topic being studied, not your chat history or identity. Practice-paper generation always uses Claude. Neither provider is permitted to use your data to train their models under our agreements with them.
4. Other companies that help us run the Service
We share data only with the providers needed to run the Service, each under contract to process it on our behalf and not for their own purposes: Supabase (our database, authentication and file storage host, where everything in this policy ultimately lives on their infrastructure), Paynow Zimbabwe (payment processing), Anthropic and DeepSeek (AI, see §3), Meta (WhatsApp Business Platform, which delivers your WhatsApp messages, only if you connect WhatsApp, see §7), Africa's Talking (delivers USSD sessions and related SMS, see §7), and Google (only if you connect Google Calendar, see §5, or if you sign in with Google, which shares the name/email/photo Google gives us at login).
5. Google Calendar (optional)
If you choose to connect Google Calendar from the Study Planner, you go through Google's own consent screen and grant a narrow permission (creating/managing calendar events only, not reading your existing calendar or other Google data). This is a separate, optional step from signing in with Google; signing in does not grant calendar access on its own. You can disconnect at any time from Settings, which revokes our access to your calendar.
6. Chat history & uploaded materials
We keep your tutoring chat history so you can pick up a conversation where you left off, and we generate rolling summaries of older messages to keep things fast; these are stored the same way as the rest of your account data. Papers or images you upload to “Grade My Paper” are stored so you can review past feedback, and are only accessible to your account.
7. WhatsApp & USSD (optional channels)
If you connect WhatsApp or use our USSD code, we process your phone number and the messages you send us in order to provide the Service. WhatsApp messages go through the same AI tutor pipeline described in §3, and your WhatsApp tutor exchanges are stored so you can continue the conversation. Where you also use the web tutor for the same subject, they appear together in your history. WhatsApp delivery is handled by Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform; USSD sessions (and any related SMS) are delivered via Africa's Talking. You can disconnect WhatsApp at any time from Settings. Standard carrier charges or USSD session fees from your mobile network may apply; these are set by your carrier, not us.
8. Data retention
We keep your data while your account is active. If you delete your account, your data, including chat history and uploaded materials, is permanently deleted after a 7-day grace period, except where we must retain limited records (e.g. payment records) for legal or accounting reasons.
9. Your rights
You can access, correct, export or delete your personal data at any time from Settings or by emailing support@mfundo.co.zw.
10. Cookies
We use minimal cookies: essential cookies to keep you logged in, preference cookies (e.g. theme) and privacy-respecting analytics. You can manage these from the cookie banner.
11. Children & Grade 7
For Grade 7 learners we require a parent/guardian email at sign-up and notify the guardian. Guardians may request access to or deletion of a child's data at any time.
12. Security
We use industry-standard safeguards: encrypted connections (HTTPS everywhere), row-level access controls so accounts can only reach their own data, and breach-checked passwords at sign-up. No system is 100% risk-free; see our Terms for how account security responsibilities are shared.
13. Zimbabwe Data Protection Act
We process personal data in line with the Zimbabwe Data Protection Act and apply reasonable technical and organisational safeguards to protect it.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the Service changes. Material changes will be notified in-app or by email; continuing to use the Service afterwards means you accept the update.
15. Contact
For any data inquiry, contact support@mfundo.co.zw.