English with SUE

Welcome to englishwithsue.com (“Website”, “Platform”), operated by an independent English teacher and education service provider (“we”, “us”, or “our”). Your privacy matters to us. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information when you visit our website, create an account, purchase a course, book lessons, or otherwise use our services.

This Privacy Policy is intended to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) of South Africa and applies to all users of the Platform.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal information:

Identity and contact information: your name, email address, phone number, billing details, and any other information you provide when contacting us, registering, booking lessons, or purchasing services.
Account information: login details, encrypted or hashed passwords, account preferences, profile information, and records connected to your use of the Platform.
Course and learning data: course enrolments, lesson bookings, progress data, completed activities, submitted work, lesson history, and other educational interactions on the Platform.
Communication history: emails, messages, support requests, and any information you share when communicating with us.
Transaction information: records of payments, purchases, subscriptions, invoices, refunds, and related billing events. We do not store your full card details on our own servers.
Technical and usage data: your IP address, browser type, device information, operating system, pages visited, referring URLs, session activity, and interaction data collected through cookies and analytics tools.

2. How We Collect Your Information

We collect personal information in the following ways:

Directly from you when you fill in forms, contact us, register, or pay.
Automatically when you use the Platform through cookies, analytics, and server logs.
From third-party service providers involved in payment processing, lesson delivery, communication, hosting, and analytics.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information for legitimate business and educational purposes, including:

Creating and managing your account.
Providing access to courses, lessons, and learning materials.
Processing payments, renewals, refunds, and purchase records.
Responding to enquiries and providing customer support.
Managing lesson scheduling and service delivery.
Tracking learning progress and improving the student experience.
Improving our website, platform functionality, and service quality.
Sending administrative notices, updates, and important account-related communications.
Sending marketing emails or promotional content where you have consented or where otherwise permitted by law.
Detecting misuse, fraud, technical problems, or unauthorized activity.
Complying with legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

We process personal information on one or more of the following legal bases:

Consent: where you have given clear permission for us to process your personal information.
Contract: where processing is necessary to provide lessons, courses, subscriptions, bookings, or other services you requested.
Legal obligation: where we must process information to comply with applicable laws or regulatory requirements.
Legitimate interests: where processing is necessary to operate, secure, improve, and manage our Platform and services in a reasonable and lawful way.

5. Payments and Billing

If you purchase paid courses, subscriptions, lessons, or other services through the Platform, your payments may be processed by third-party payment providers, including Stripe and PayPal, depending on the payment method or configuration in use at the time.

Payment information is processed securely by these third-party providers under their own terms, privacy policies, and security standards.
We may receive limited transaction-related information such as your name, email address, payment status, transaction ID, purchase amount, currency, and billing outcome.
We do not store full payment card numbers, CVV codes, or full financial account credentials on our own servers.

By making a payment through the Platform, you also agree that your information may be processed by the relevant payment provider in accordance with their own privacy practices.

6. User Accounts and Platform Access

If you create an account on the Platform, we may store your account credentials, profile data, purchase history, enrolled courses, learning progress, and related activity required to provide the service.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for any activity carried out through your account. If you believe your account has been accessed without authorization, you must contact us promptly.

7. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to improve functionality, understand user behaviour, remember preferences, measure performance, and support security and analytics.

These technologies may be used to:

Keep you signed in or maintain session preferences.
Understand how visitors use the website and Platform.
Measure traffic and usage patterns.
Improve performance, usability, and content.

You can usually control or disable cookies through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of parts of the Platform.

8. Analytics and Tracking

We may use analytics and reporting tools to understand how users interact with the Platform, which pages are visited, how services are used, and where improvements are needed. These tools may collect technical and usage information such as IP address, browser type, approximate location, device type, and on-site behaviour.

Analytics data helps us improve course delivery, website performance, and overall user experience.

9. Email Communications and Marketing

We may send you emails for the following purposes:

Account setup, login, billing, and purchase confirmations.
Lesson reminders, course access notices, and service updates.
Support responses and administrative messages.
Newsletters, offers, and educational updates, where permitted by law.

You may unsubscribe from non-essential marketing emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link in the email or by contacting us directly. Even if you opt out of marketing communications, we may still send essential service-related notices.

10. How We Share Your Information

We may share your personal information only where reasonably necessary, including with:

Payment service providers such as Stripe and PayPal.
Hosting providers, cloud infrastructure providers, and technical contractors.
Email, communication, scheduling, video conferencing, and support tools.
Analytics providers and service improvement tools.
Professional advisers, accountants, legal advisers, or regulators where required.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their independent marketing purposes.

11. International Data Transfers

Because the Platform may use international service providers, hosting infrastructure, payment processors, email systems, or software tools, your personal information may be stored or processed outside South Africa.

Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place and that your information is handled in a manner consistent with applicable privacy laws and this Privacy Policy.

12. Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including providing services, maintaining records, resolving disputes, enforcing agreements, and complying with legal, tax, or accounting obligations.

Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information, the nature of the service provided, and legal requirements.

13. Storage and Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction, in line with applicable legal requirements, including POPIA.

These measures may include:

Secure hosting and server protections.
Restricted access to personal information.
Password protection and credential security.
Encryption or secure transmission where appropriate.
Monitoring for misuse or unauthorized access.

No internet-based platform or electronic storage system is completely secure. Although we take reasonable steps to protect your data, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Communication via email, including through [email protected], is monitored and protected as reasonably as possible, but you should avoid sending highly sensitive personal or financial information by ordinary email unless necessary.

14. Children’s Privacy

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 18 without appropriate parental or guardian consent where such consent is required.

If you believe that a child has provided personal information to us without proper authorization, please contact us so that we can review and address the matter.

15. Your Rights Under POPIA

Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to:

Access the personal information we hold about you.
Request correction or updating of inaccurate or incomplete information.
Object to certain processing activities.
Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
Request deletion of your personal information, subject to legal, contractual, and legitimate retention obligations.
Request information about how and why your data is processed.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected].

16. Third-Party Links and Services

The Platform may contain links to third-party websites, tools, or services. We are not responsible for the privacy, security, or content practices of those external services. Your use of third-party services is governed by their own terms and privacy policies.

17. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in legal requirements, business practices, platform features, or service providers. Any updated version will be published on this page with the revised effective date.

Your continued use of the Platform after updates are posted means you accept the revised Privacy Policy.

18. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact us at:

📧 [email protected]