Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Learn on Stanmorephysics is operated by Quantakom (Pty) Ltd, the responsible party for the purposes of the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). You can reach us at admin@quantakom.net.

2. What we collect

We have built the learning tools to need as little as possible from you:

• No account, no sign-up. We do not ask for your name, email address, ID number, school or date of birth in order to use the learning tools.
• Your work stays on your device. Answers, marks and study plans are saved in your browser, not sent to us.
• We do measure usage. Like most websites, we collect anonymous statistics about which pages are visited, and cookies are set on this domain. Section 5 explains exactly what and by whom.

3. Information stored on your own device

Your answers, marks, study plan and progress are saved in your browser's local storage on the device you are using. This information stays on your device: it is not transmitted to us and we cannot see it. It is not shared between devices, and clearing your browser data will delete it. Some tools let you export a backup file — that file is created and saved locally by your browser.

4. Information you may choose to send us

Two features send data to a server, and both are optional:

• Class progress saving (Information Technology). If you choose "Save to class server", you enter a name or class code of your choosing and your progress for that subject is stored against it. If you enter your real name, that is personal information. We recommend using a class code rather than a name. This feature is only available where a school or teacher runs the optional server; anyone with the code can retrieve the progress stored under it, so treat it as shared classroom information rather than private data.
• Running your code (Information Technology). When you run a Pascal or SQL exercise, the code you wrote is sent to the server, compiled and run inside an isolated, network-less container, and the output is sent back. The container is destroyed after each run and your code is not retained.

5. Cookies, analytics and advertising

Two separate analytics systems operate on the pages you are reading, and some pages carry advertising served by Google. Each is described below.

Umami — our own analytics

We use Umami, a privacy-focused analytics tool that we run ourselves on the same server that serves this site. Analytics data collected by Umami is not sent to any third party and does not leave our hosting.

Umami does not set cookies and does not follow you across other websites. For each page view it records the page address, the referring page, and general technical details such as your browser, operating system, device type, screen size and country. Your IP address is used only to work out the country and to generate a rotating anonymous identifier so that repeat views in a day can be counted; it is not stored alongside your activity and cannot be used to identify you.

Google Analytics — across this domain

Our main site uses Google Analytics, and because these learning tools are served from the same domain, Google Analytics cookies are present on these pages and page activity here may be included in that measurement. Google Analytics uses cookies (typically named _ga and _ga_…) to recognise returning browsers and to compile reports on how the site is used.

This means Google acts as a processor of that information and receives it as data controller for its own purposes under its terms. Data may be processed outside South Africa, including in the United States — a cross-border transfer for POPIA purposes. Google's handling is governed by its own privacy policy and terms, which we do not control.

Google Analytics is operated across this domain by our main site, and the cookie and privacy choices you make there apply here too. Its privacy and cookie notice is the full description of what is set across the domain and how to manage it.

You can also prevent Google Analytics from measuring your visit by using your browser's cookie controls to block or clear cookies for this domain, by using private browsing, or by installing Google's Analytics opt-out browser add-on. Blocking these cookies does not affect any of the learning tools — none of them need cookies to work, and your saved progress is unaffected.

Google AdSense — advertising

Some pages on this site — the home page, the notes, topic and lesson pages and the reading and practice screens of Information Technology, Mathematics Grades 8–11, Mathematics Grade 12, Physical Sciences and Mathematical Literacy — carry advertisements served by Google AdSense, each labelled as such. Study Planner and the legal, About and error pages carry none. Inside the apps, Google may also show its own formats on any screen — an advertisement anchored to the edge of the screen, or a full-screen advertisement between screens, each with its own close control — in addition to the positions we mark.

Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to your website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and/or other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings, or www.aboutads.info for other vendors.

On this site we go further than that default. Every ad request we make asks Google for non-personalised ads — chosen from the page you are reading, not from your interests or browsing history. Where we place the advertisement positions ourselves, each request is also tagged as being for a teen audience, which switches off interest-based advertising and remarketing and applies Google's own restrictions on the categories that may be advertised to people under 18. Where Google chooses the positions itself ("Auto ads"), its own rules also stop interest-based advertising to people it knows to be under 18. Non-personalised ads still use cookies for things like frequency capping and fraud prevention, which is why they are described here. Google explains how it uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Ad requests send Google your IP address, the page address and basic browser information, and that information may be processed outside South Africa, including in the United States — a cross-border transfer for POPIA purposes, governed by Google's own privacy policy and terms. You can block advertising cookies with your browser's cookie controls or an ad blocker without affecting any of the learning tools.

6. Other third parties

The Mathematics and Physical Sciences sections load a web font from Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com). When your browser requests that font, Google receives your IP address, the page you are on and basic browser information, and may process it outside South Africa. We do not send Google any other information about you through the font request.

Links to official past papers and other resources point to third-party websites, which have their own privacy policies. We are not responsible for their content or their handling of your information.

7. Learners under 18

This site is intended for Grade 8–12 learners, most of whom are children under POPIA. The learning tools are designed so that a child can use them without providing any personal information at all — no account, no name, no email address.

The analytics described in section 5 measure how pages are used, not who is using them, and we do not knowingly build profiles of individual learners. Advertising on this site is requested from Google as non-personalised and, where we place the positions ourselves, tagged for a teen audience, so it is chosen from the page being read rather than from anything about the learner, and Google's restrictions on advertising to people under 18 apply (section 5). Where a school uses the optional class progress feature, the school or teacher decides what identifier is used and is responsible for handling learner information in line with POPIA. Parents, guardians and teachers may contact us at admin@quantakom.net with any question or request about a learner's information, including a request to delete it.

8. How long we keep information

Information stored on your device stays there until you delete it or clear your browser data. Progress saved to an optional class server is kept until the school or the person running that server deletes it. Umami statistics are retained in aggregate on our server for as long as they remain useful for improving the site. Google Analytics data is retained according to the retention period configured in that account and Google's own policies.

9. Your rights under POPIA

You have the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to its processing, and to complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa. Because we hold almost nothing that identifies you, most requests are answered simply — but write to admin@quantakom.net and we will respond.

10. Security

We take reasonable technical measures to protect the limited information involved, including running submitted code in an isolated container that has no network access and no access to other users' data. No system is perfectly secure, and information you save to a shared class server is by design visible to anyone holding that class code.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it last changed. Material changes will be highlighted on the site.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy, or about information we may hold, can be sent to admin@quantakom.net.