Privacy policy
This explains what we hold about you, why, who else sees it, and what you can make us do about it. It is written to be read, not to be survived.
The short version. We collect what matching needs and little else. We never sell your information. Mentors see your public profile, not your contact details. Our AI assistant only runs if you switch it on, and switching it off costs you nothing. You can download everything we hold, or have it deleted, from your privacy settings.
1. Who we are
iMentorLink is the responsible party for your personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).
| Responsible party | iMentorLink |
|---|---|
| Information Officer | |
| Address | [Registered address] |
| info@imentorlink.co.za |
2. What we collect
What you give us
- To open an account: your name, email address, password and date of birth. For anyone under 18, a parent or guardian email address.
- Your profile: field of study, career stage, qualification, sector, what you need help with, your goals, province and city, years of experience, expertise, and a headline or bio if you write one.
- A profile picture, if you add one.
- What you write: messages, mentorship requests, goals and milestones, progress notes, reviews, reports, and anything you ask our assistant.
- Verification documents, if you apply to be a verified mentor or institution.
What we record as you use it
- Security events: sign ins, failed sign in attempts, password changes, and changes to two-factor authentication, each with the time, the IP address and a short description of the browser.
- Session and attendance records for mentorship sessions.
A note on your profile picture. We do not store the file you upload. We decode it, crop it, resize it and save our own JPEG. That removes the hidden location data most phone cameras attach, which would otherwise publish roughly where the photo was taken.
3. Why we are allowed to
POPIA requires a lawful basis for each purpose. Ours are:
| Purpose | Basis |
|---|---|
| Running your account and matching you to mentors, opportunities and resources | Performance of our agreement with you |
| Verifying mentors and institutions | Legitimate interest in a platform where people are who they say they are |
| Keeping the platform safe: reports, blocking, security records, sign in lockouts | Legitimate interest in protecting our users |
| Sending you email about your own account, requests and sessions | Performance of our agreement with you |
| Sending you news about iMentorLink | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Our AI assistant reading your profile and question | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Holding information about anyone under 18 | Consent of a parent or guardian, under section 35 |
4. Who else sees it
Other people on iMentorLink
Your public profile is your name, headline, field, sector, expertise, years of experience, availability, province and picture. Signed in users can see it in search. Your email address and contact details are never shown on a profile, to anyone, at any time.
You can turn off being findable in your privacy settings. Your goals are private unless you deliberately share one with a mentor you work with, and you can unshare it again.
Service providers
| Who | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Our hosting provider | Running the platform and storing the database | South Africa |
| Our email provider | Sending account email | South Africa |
| Anthropic | Our AI assistant, only with your consent | United States |
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.
5. Our AI assistant, and the United States
Mentor, our in-app assistant, is powered by a model run by Anthropic. It only runs if you turn on AI help in your privacy settings. It is off by default.
What is sent
- Your own field of study, career stage, what you need help with and your goal summary.
- Your question, or the brief you write when searching for a mentor.
- The public profile details of the mentors our server chose as candidates: name, headline, field, sector, expertise, experience, availability and province.
What is never sent
- Your name, email address or ID number.
- Anyone's contact details.
- Another person's private information.
- Anything about who is verified. The assistant is not told, so it cannot say.
- Mentors who have turned off being findable are not sent at all.
This leaves South Africa. Anthropic processes in the United States. Section 72 of POPIA allows a transfer like that with your consent, and that is what the AI help switch is. Turn it off and nothing about you leaves the country: the assistant falls back to matching on your profile on our own servers, and everything still works.
6. People under 18
POPIA treats anyone under 18 as a child, and section 35 requires the consent of a parent or guardian before we may hold their information.
- We ask for your date of birth when you register. Nobody under 13 may use iMentorLink.
- If you are 13 to 17, we ask for a parent or guardian email address and send them a link.
- Until they confirm, your account exists but reaches nobody. You cannot be found in search, you cannot message anyone, and you cannot send a mentorship request.
- If they decline, the account is deleted immediately and we keep nothing.
- Once consent is given, we delete the guardian address. We asked for it for one purpose and that purpose is done.
A parent or guardian may withdraw consent at any time by writing to info@imentorlink.co.za. See our child safety page for what else we do.
7. How long we keep it
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Your account and profile | While your account is open |
| After you ask us to delete it | 14 days, then erased. You can cancel during those 14 days |
| Verification documents | Until a decision, then 12 months to answer a dispute |
| Security events | 12 months |
| Messages | While the conversation exists. If you delete your account, your messages stay as a placeholder so the other person's conversation still reads, with your name removed |
| Administrator audit records | 5 years, because they exist to hold us accountable |
8. How we protect it
- Passwords are hashed and never stored in a form anyone can read.
- Two-factor authentication, with recovery codes, on any account that wants it.
- Two-factor secrets are encrypted at rest. No administrator can read one.
- Accounts lock temporarily after repeated failed sign ins, and we email you when that happens.
- Verification documents are kept out of public storage and served only through signed, permission-checked links.
- Every administrator action on another account is recorded, and the account holder is emailed about it.
9. Your rights
Under POPIA you may do all of the following, free of charge and without giving a reason:
- See what we hold. Privacy settings, then "Download my data". It arrives immediately, as a readable file. It never contains your password or your two-factor secret, because a downloaded file is not a safe place for those.
- Correct it. Edit your profile at any time.
- Delete it. Privacy settings, then "Delete my account". Fourteen days to change your mind.
- Object, or withdraw a consent you gave. Every consent is a separate switch.
- Complain, to us or to the Information Regulator.
10. Complaints
Write to us first at info@imentorlink.co.za. We aim to answer within 7 working days, and to resolve within 30.
You may also complain directly to the regulator:
| Information Regulator (South Africa) |
JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001 complaints.IR@justice.gov.za inforegulator.org.za |
|---|
Changes
If we change how we use your information in a way that matters, we will email you before it takes effect, not after.