How we look after your family's information · Last updated 23 July 2026
Bala is a learning app for South African primary-school children (Grades R–7), made to be set up and supervised by a parent or guardian. This policy explains what information we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have. By using Bala you agree to this policy.
Bala is provided by TechBroz (Pty) Ltd ("we", "us"). Questions? Email support@bala-app.co.za.
1 Information we collect
Parent account: the parent's name and an email address and/or cell number, used to create and secure the account.
Learner profiles: each child's name or nickname, grade, home language, chosen avatar, and their learning activity — points, streaks, progress and results.
Homework help: if you use "Ask the teacher", the question you type and any photo or file you upload are sent to our AI provider to generate a step-by-step hint. Please don't include sensitive personal information in homework photos.
Support messages: if you contact us through Help & Support, we keep your message and the email you give us so we can reply.
Basic technical data: the minimum needed to run the app reliably (e.g. an anonymous device identifier for saving progress).
We do not ask for ID numbers, and we do not need your precise location.
2 How we use it
Provide the learning experience and save progress across devices.
Generate age-appropriate, CAPS-aligned questions in your home language.
Give Socratic homework hints — we guide the method, never just hand over the answer.
Run the friendly leaderboard and reward features.
Respond to your support requests.
Manage a subscription and trial, if you choose to subscribe.
We do not show behavioural or targeted advertising to children.
3 Children's privacy
Bala is intended for children used together with a responsible adult. Accounts are created and controlled by a parent or guardian, and we collect only the minimum information needed for learning. We process personal information in line with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). If you believe a child has provided information without a parent's involvement, contact us and we'll remove it.
4 Who we share it with
We don't sell your personal information. We use a small number of trusted service providers to run Bala:
Supabase — secure database, sign-in and storage.
Anthropic (Claude AI) — to generate learning questions and homework hints.
Vercel — website and app hosting.
App stores / payment providers — Google Play or Apple process subscription payments; we never see your card details.
These providers only process data on our behalf to deliver the service.
5 Keeping and deleting your data
We keep your information while your account is active. You are in control:
Delete anytime in the app: Parent Zone → Account & learner settings → Delete account. This permanently erases your account, all learner profiles and progress from your device and our servers.
You can also email us to request access, correction or deletion of your information.
6 Security
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including access controls on our database and encrypted connections. No online service can be perfectly secure, but we work to keep your family's data safe.
7 Your rights & changes
Under POPIA you may ask to access, correct, delete or object to the use of your personal information — just contact us. We may update this policy from time to time; we'll post the new version here with an updated date.