Privacy policy

1.1"We", "us" and "Yknot" mean Yknot Blockchain Solutions (Pty) Ltd, trading as Yknot, a company incorporated in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa with registration number 2021/791610/07. Our physical address is 21 Viceroy Link Road, Route 21 Business Park, Irene, 0178 and our postal address is PO Box 178, Cornwall Hill, Gauteng, 0178, South Africa.

1.2We are the responsible party for the personal information you provide to us through teachme.y-knot.io (the "Website") or through your other interactions with us.

1.3This policy explains how we use personal information we obtain from you and about you. If it changes, we will publish the updated version on the Website and change the date at the top of the page.

1.4This policy forms an integral part of our terms and conditions.

2.1This policy applies to visitors to the Website, to people who create an account or buy a Course, and to people whose employer or another organisation gives them access to a Course.

2.2It does not apply to third-party websites that may be linked from the Website, including Payfast's payment pages. Those websites have their own privacy policies, and we recommend you read them before you give them any information.

3.1When you use the Website, we may collect information that does not identify you, such as your browser type, device type and operating system.

3.2We collect the following personal information:

1. your name and email address, and, if you sign in with Google, the name, email address and profile picture on your Google account;
2. your learning record: which Courses you have access to and how you got it, your progress through each Lesson, your answers to Knowledge Checks and tests, the explanations and exercises you write, your Certificates, and a log of what you opened and completed;
3. what you write to the AI tutor, and its answers to you;
4. payment records: the Course, the amount, the date and the Payfast reference. We never receive or store your card or bank details;
5. the details you give us when you send an enquiry, ask for access to a Course, or contact us, and our correspondence with you;
6. whether the emails we send you were delivered; and
7. if you agree to analytics cookies (see section 10), how you use the Website: the pages you visit and what you click, and a recording of your screen on the learning pages, with anything you type hidden.

3.3Giving us your personal information is voluntary. However, we cannot give you access to a Course without your name and email address.

3.4We do not ask for special personal information, such as information about your health, religion, race or biometrics. Please do not include it in what you write to the AI tutor.

4.1We collect only as much personal information as we need to provide our Courses to you.

4.2We collect it:

1. directly from you, when you create an account, use a Course, write to the AI tutor or contact us;
2. automatically, through cookies and similar technology, as described in section 10;
3. from Google, if you choose to sign in with Google;
4. from Payfast, which confirms to us whether your payment succeeded; and
5. from your employer or another organisation, when it gives us your name and email address so that it can give you access to a Course.

5.1We use your personal information to:

1. create and administer your account and sign you in;
2. give you access to the Courses you bought or were given, record your progress, and issue your Certificates;
3. answer your questions through the AI tutor and respond to what you write;
4. process your payments and any refunds;
5. send you sign-in links, invitations and emails about your Courses and your account;
6. answer your enquiries and requests;
7. report your progress and completion to the organisation that gave you access to a Course, where one did;
8. understand where our Courses are unclear, and improve them;
9. keep the Website secure and prevent fraud and abuse; and
10. comply with our legal obligations.

5.2Members of the Yknot team may read conversations with the AI tutor for one purpose: to find out what a Course failed to explain. We never publish them, never quote them outside Yknot, and never include them in a report to your employer or any other organisation.

5.3If your employer or another organisation gave you access to a Course, its report shows your progress, completion and test results. It never includes what you wrote to the AI tutor.

5.4We do not send you marketing email unless you have agreed to receive it, and we do not sell your personal information.

6.1We process your personal information on the following grounds:

1. where it is necessary to perform our contract with you, such as giving you access to a Course you bought;
2. where we must do so to comply with a legal obligation, a request from a regulator or a court, or as otherwise permitted by law;
3. to pursue our legitimate interests, such as improving our Courses and keeping the Website secure, where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests; and
4. where you have given your consent, such as for analytics cookies. You may withdraw your consent at any time.

6.2We use your personal information only for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that another purpose is compatible with the original one. If we need to use it for an unrelated purpose, we will tell you and explain the legal basis that allows us to do so.

7.1We do not sell your personal information, and we do not disclose it to third parties without your consent, except as described in this section or where the law requires or permits it.

7.2We share personal information with the service providers that run the Website on our behalf, each only to the extent it needs to provide its service:

1. Convex, our database and backend, which stores your account and learning record;
2. Vercel, which hosts the Website;
3. Payfast, which processes your payments;
4. Mux, which stores and streams the videos in Courses that have them, and measures playback quality;
5. Anthropic, which provides the AI model behind the AI tutor. It receives what you write to the tutor and where you are in the Course, never your name or email address;
6. Resend, which sends our emails;
7. Google, if you choose to sign in with Google; and
8. PostHog, which provides analytics, and only if you agree to analytics cookies.

7.3We share your progress, completion and test results with the organisation that gave you access to a Course, where one did, as described in section 5.

7.4We require our service providers to keep your personal information confidential and secure, and to use it only to provide their services to us.

7.5We may disclose personal information where the law requires it, such as to comply with a court order, or where it is reasonably necessary to protect our rights or the safety of any person. Should access to your information be requested under the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000, we will notify you as that Act requires.

8.1Some of our service providers store or process personal information outside South Africa. Our database is hosted in Ireland, our analytics provider in the European Union, and several others, including our AI provider, in the United States.

8.2Where we transfer your personal information outside South Africa, we do so only as section 72 of POPIA allows, and we take steps to ensure that it receives a level of protection at least equivalent to the protection POPIA requires.

9.1We treat your personal information as confidential and take appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect it against loss, damage, and unauthorised access, use or disclosure.

9.2If we have reasonable grounds to believe your personal information has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.

9.3The transmission of information over the internet is never completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of information you send to the Website.

10.1A cookie is a small piece of data stored by your browser. We use cookies that are necessary for the Website to work: to keep you signed in, and to remember settings such as whether you collapsed the side menu.

10.2We use analytics cookies only if you accept them in the cookie banner. If you decline, analytics run without storing anything on your device and without identifying you, and no screen recording takes place.

10.3You can also set your browser to refuse or delete cookies. If you refuse the necessary cookies, you will not be able to sign in.

11.1We keep your personal information for as long as you have an account or access to a Course, and afterwards only for as long as we need it for the purpose for which we collected it, unless the law requires us to keep it for longer or you agree that we may.

11.2We keep payment records for five years, as South African tax law requires.

11.3When we no longer need your personal information, we delete it or de-identify it securely.

12.1Subject to the exceptions in the law, you have the right to:

1. ask whether we hold personal information about you, and request a copy of it;
2. ask us to correct personal information that is inaccurate, or to delete personal information we are no longer authorised to keep;
3. object to our processing of your personal information on reasonable grounds;
4. withdraw any consent you have given us;
5. object to direct marketing; and
6. lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) at POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za (see inforegulator.org.za).

12.2To exercise a right, contact us as described in section 14. We may need to verify your identity before we act on your request, and we will respond within a reasonable time.

12.3In some circumstances, for example where the law requires us to keep it, we may not be able to give you access to, or delete, some of your personal information. Where that applies, we will tell you why.

13.1You warrant that the personal information you give us is accurate and current, and that you do not impersonate anyone else.

13.2If you give us someone else's personal information, for example when an organisation gives us its employees' email addresses, you warrant that you are entitled to do so.

14.1If you have a question about this policy, a concern or complaint about how we handle your personal information, or a request to exercise one of your rights, contact our Information Officer, Dewald Krynauw, at info@y-knot.io, or write to us at PO Box 178, Cornwall Hill, Gauteng, 0178, South Africa.