Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

• Account details: your name, email address, and phone number.
• Payment information: amount paid, payment plan, and a transaction reference — card and bank details themselves are handled directly by Paystack and never stored on our servers.
• Profile photo, if you choose to upload one.
• Learning activity: lessons completed, quiz attempts and scores, assignment submissions, live class attendance, and messages you send to our AI Tutor.
• Anonymous usage data: which pages you visit and which advertising banner or link brought you here, tied to a random identifier in your browser — not to your name, unless you later create an account from the same browser.

2. How We Use It

• To create and manage your enrollment, track your progress, and issue your certificate.
• To process payments and keep an accurate record of what you've paid.
• To send you reminders about classes, payments, and your welcome session — by in-app notification and, where you've provided a phone number, by WhatsApp.
• To measure which outreach (banners, QR codes, referrals) is actually bringing in students, so we can spend our marketing budget where it works.
• To credit referral rewards when a friend you referred enrolls and pays.

3. Who We Share It With

We use a small number of trusted third-party services to run the platform:

• Paystack — processes card, bank transfer, and USSD payments. We receive confirmation of payment, never your full card details.
• Twilio — delivers WhatsApp messages (class reminders, welcome check-ins) to the phone number you provide.
• Cloudinary — stores profile pictures you choose to upload.
• Google (Gemini API) — powers the AI Tutor; messages you send it are processed to generate a response.

We do not sell your personal information to anyone, for any reason.

4. Cookies & Local Storage

We use a single, secure session cookie to keep you signed in — it is cryptographically signed and cannot be read or altered by anyone but our server. Your browser also stores a random, anonymous identifier (not linked to your name) used only to avoid double-counting page visits in our marketing analytics.

5. How Long We Keep Your Data

We keep your enrollment, payment, and certificate records for as long as your account exists, since your certificate must remain independently verifiable indefinitely. If you deactivate your account, we stop using your data for anything other than what's legally or operationally necessary (for example, keeping a financial record of a payment you made).

6. Your Rights

You can review and update your name and phone number, change your password, or deactivate your account at any time from your Dashboard. Deactivating is a soft action — it blocks sign-in and stops further use of your data, while letting BEMS staff restore your account if you ask us to. To request a copy of your data or ask us to delete it outright, contact us using the details below.

7. Data Security

Passwords are never stored in plain text. Payment processing is handled by Paystack, a PCI-DSS compliant provider — we never see or store your card number. All traffic between your browser and our servers is encrypted.

8. Children's Privacy

The Program is intended for secondary-school leavers and above. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16 without a parent or guardian's involvement in the enrollment.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We'll update the date at the top of this page when we do.

10. Contact Us

For any privacy question or data request, reach us at admissions@bemsinstitute.ng.