Privacy, in plain language.

1. Who we are

This Privacy Policy applies to the SPARC Android app (package com.getsparc.app), sparc.ng, and the account, payment and support services connected to them. “SPARC”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to the SPARC product team, which decides how your information is used (in legal terms, the “data controller”).

We handle personal data under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission’s General Application and Implementation Directive 2025.

SPARC is an independent learning app. It started with JAMB preparation and is growing to help people learn other things too. It is not operated by, endorsed by or affiliated with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), any university or any government agency.

Our privacy contact is support@sparc.ng.

2. Information we handle

Account and setup

Before a new account is created, SPARC asks only whether the student is 18 or older. We do not ask for a date of birth, birth year, government ID, guardian phone number or identity document. After the relevant age or guardian step, account information may include the student's email address, name, sign-in details, what you are preparing for (for example, the JAMB year), selected subjects, target score, exam date, intended course or institution, reminder preferences and other choices they provide, such as whether Lara may joke with them.

Guardian approval

For a student under 18, we keep the guardian’s email address privately, whether they approved, declined or later withdrew, when that happened, what they confirmed, and which version of this policy and the Terms they agreed to. We never show the guardian’s email publicly, and it is hidden when a student downloads their own data.

Learning evidence

Your answers, scores, skipped or flagged questions, how sure you felt where we ask, your sessions and mock exams, mistakes, which topics you have covered, how ready you are, streaks, milestones and study plans.

How you use your time in a full mock. When you sit a full mock exam, on your phone or on a computer, SPARC records how long you spend on each question, the first answer you chose and any changes, how many times you opened each question, which questions you flagged, and the order you moved through the exam. We do not record what else is on your screen, other apps you open, or whether you leave the exam page. We use this to show you how you used your time and one thing to try in your next mock. It never changes your score or how ready we say you are. If you have Lara Tutor and ask her to talk through a mock with you, she can use these timing facts too. They are saved with your mock results, included when you download your data, and deleted when you delete your account.

Talking with Lara

When you use an online Lara feature, we use what you send and only what Lara needs to answer, such as the question, the answer you chose, the subject and topic, a recent result or your study plan. Your email, phone number and full name are not sent to the AI service.

Lara Tutor conversations, plans, reviews and letters from Lara are saved to your account so you can return to them. Letters you have received stay readable on your account after Tutor ends.

A simple record of use. Each time Lara Tutor or Lara Assist really answers you, we keep a date and what happened, for example “answered a message”. This record never contains what you wrote or what Lara said. We use it to handle refunds fairly, so a refund reflects what you actually used. If your bank questions a payment, we may tell Paystack or Google Play how much of that purchase was used. The record is included when you download your data, and it is removed when you delete your account.

Saved explanations. When Lara writes an explanation for a question in the SPARC content, we may save that explanation and show it to other students who ask about the same question and answer. The saved explanation is about the question, not about you: it does not include your name, email, account details or your personal study record. If you tap “This didn’t help”, we record that feedback so poor explanations can be removed.

Talking to Lara by voice (Lara Live)

When you start a Live session, your voice is streamed to our AI provider so Lara can hear you and reply straight away. SPARC does not store audio recordings. We save a written transcript of the conversation and the teaching page Lara draws on, so you can read it again later, including offline. During a Live session Lara may search the web for current information; those searches contain the topic being discussed, not your account details. We also keep the session length and minutes used so your balance is correct.

Pictures (Lara Visual)

If you upload a photo or screenshot, for example a question from your textbook, it is sent to our AI provider so Lara can read it, and it is stored privately in your account. If you ask Lara to create a picture to explain an idea, the generated image is also stored privately in your account. Uploaded and generated pictures are included when you export or delete your account. Please do not upload pictures of people, ID documents or anything private that is not part of your study question.

Payments and access

For Lara passes, Live minutes and Visual Credits, SPARC and the payment provider process the details needed to take and confirm a one-off payment. Depending on how you pay, that is Paystack or Google Play. These details may include your email, account number, payment reference, what you bought, the amount, whether it went through, your remaining balance and when access ends. SPARC does not receive or store your full card number, card security code or online-banking credentials.

Support, device and security

Your support messages and our replies, anything you choose to attach, your app version and type of phone, the details needed to send you notifications, and basic records of sign-ins and activity that help us spot misuse. Please do not send passwords, one-time codes or full payment-card details.

Crash reports. When the app crashes or something stops working, it makes a short report so we can find and fix the problem: what went wrong, which screen it happened on, the app version, your type of phone and its software version, and a random number for that installation of the app. A crash report does not include your name, email or SPARC account, and we remove details like email addresses and phone numbers from the app's error messages before a report is made. Reports wait on your phone and are only sent once your account is allowed to use online features. For a student under 18 that means after a guardian approves. If approval is declined or withdrawn, or you delete your account, waiting reports are deleted from the phone without being sent.

Public website

When you visit sparc.ng, the companies that host and protect it see ordinary visit details such as your internet address, browser, the page you opened and the time.

3. Why we use it

We use personal data only where reasonably necessary to:

• create your account, let you sign in and keep it safe;
• run the study features, with or without data;
• work out your progress, how ready you are and what to study next;
• show you how you used your time in a full mock and what to change next time;
• back up your study work and bring it back on a new phone;
• provide Lara Assist and, where purchased, Lara Tutor, Lara Live and Lara Visual;
• reuse good explanations so more students can get help, without sharing who asked;
• take one-off payments and keep your paid balances correct;
• send notifications you have allowed;
• answer support requests and fix mistakes in content or the app;
• find and fix crashes and errors in the app;
• stop fraud, misuse and people getting into accounts that are not theirs;
• keep required financial, security and legal records; and
• make SPARC work more reliably, using as little information as possible.

Depending on the activity, the legal reason we may use your information is that we need it to provide the service you signed up for, you agreed to it, we have a genuine need to keep SPARC safe and working, or the law requires it. Where we ask for consent, it must be an affirmative choice and may be withdrawn. Withdrawal does not undo processing that was already lawful. For a student under 18, the guardian’s approval is the consent for online processing.

4. On your phone and online

Downloaded lessons and most of your study work are saved on your phone, so you can keep studying without data. When you are signed in and back online, your profile and study work are backed up to your SPARC account, so they can be restored and used by online features.

Uninstalling the app or clearing its storage removes the copy on that phone but does not delete your online account. When you delete your SPARC account, it is paused and then permanently deleted after 14 days, unless you sign back in before then to cancel. If you delete inside the app, SPARC removes that account’s local study data after the request is accepted. If support deletes an account while a phone is offline, a local copy may remain until SPARC is opened, its app storage is cleared, or it is uninstalled.

5. Companies that help us run SPARC

Some companies do specific jobs for us. Depending on what you use, they include:

• Supabase and SPARC’s own servers for sign-in, storing your account, backups, your private pictures and downloading lessons.
• OpenRouter, which passes written Lara requests to AI companies such as Anthropic (Claude), DeepSeek and Qwen, for Lara’s written replies and explanations.
• OpenAI for talking with Lara by voice, her web searches during those calls, and reading or creating pictures.
• Paystack and Google Play for taking payments, confirming them and refunds.
• Google Firebase for sending notifications, if you turn them on, and for crash reports that help us fix problems in the app.
• Resend for sending support and guardian emails.
• Cloudflare for running and protecting sparc.ng.
• Healthchecks.io for letting us know if SPARC’s servers stop running. It receives only an empty “still running” signal from our servers. It never receives anything about students, accounts or lessons.

AI companies receive only what Lara needs to answer. They may keep it for a short time under their own rules, for example to check for misuse, so we cannot promise they keep nothing.

SPARC does not sell personal information, rent it to data brokers or share it for third-party behavioural advertising.

6. Transfers outside Nigeria

Several of these providers, including the AI providers, Google, Cloudflare and Resend, process information outside Nigeria. When information leaves Nigeria, we only do it in ways Nigerian data protection law allows, we use companies that have agreed to protect it, and we send as little as each feature needs.

For a student under 18, the guardian approval explains that Lara and other online features use providers outside Nigeria. The companies we use, or where they work, may change over time. Material changes will be reflected here and, for an under-18 account, will need a fresh guardian decision first.

7. Retention and deletion

Account, profile, learning backup, Lara conversations, Live transcripts, letters and pictures are generally kept while your account remains active, so you can return to them. Support, payment, fraud-prevention and security records are kept only as long as reasonably necessary for the issue, financial recordkeeping, service protection, a legal claim or another legal duty. Encrypted database and file backup copies are restricted to recovery work and expire on a rolling 30-day schedule.

Crash reports are kept by Google Firebase for 90 days and then deleted. Because they are not linked to your account, they are not part of an account export.

A saved explanation that no longer contains any link to a student is removed after 30 days without use, or sooner if students report that it did not help.

When you delete your account, you have 14 days to change your mind by signing back in. After that, we permanently remove your sign-in and the information we hold about you, including your profile, learning, mock, Lara, Live, letter, picture, support, notification and entitlement records. A record that a payment happened, no longer linked to your name or account, may be kept for financial and refund records. A small record of misuse or security problems, may be kept where the law or a genuine need requires it. It is never kept as a student profile or used for marketing. Unused paid balances end with the account.

See Delete your SPARC account for how to delete your account in the app or from the website.

8. Your choices and rights

Subject to applicable law, you may ask to be informed, access your data, correct it, erase it, ask us to limit or stop some uses of it, withdraw consent where consent is the basis, request portability where applicable, or challenge a decision made only by a computer. We may verify account ownership before acting so that one person cannot obtain or delete another student’s information.

You can change several profile and study preferences in the app, including whether Lara jokes with you, and disable notifications in SPARC or your device settings. To exercise a data right, email support@sparc.ng. We will respond without undue delay and within the period required by applicable law.

You may complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission if you believe your data-protection rights have not been respected.

9. Children and guardians

Many SPARC students, including JAMB candidates, are under 18. A new student answers “Are you 18 or older?” before personal account details are collected. If the answer is no, the app collects only a guardian email and stays locked, including offline preview, until approval. The guardian receives a matching code and a single-use link that expires after 72 hours.

The guardian must confirm that they are 18 or older, are the student's parent or legal guardian and may approve the account, and have read how the information will be used. Approval enables account creation, cloud backup and sync, Lara AI (including voice and pictures where purchased), notifications and other online processing. Each under-18 purchase, including Live minutes and Visual Credits, has a separate 30-minute approval for the exact product and NGN amount.

A guardian may withdraw using their private management link. They may verify a new email, authorise a handover to another guardian, or use a one-time recovery code if the old email is unavailable. Decline, expiry or withdrawal pauses restricted online features without automatically deleting learning data. The student and guardian retain support, export and deletion routes.

These checks help, but they cannot fully prove who someone is or that they are really the student’s parent or guardian. We ask every under-18 student’s guardian, without exception. If you believe a child's account lacks the required authority, contact support@sparc.ng.

10. Security, changes and contact

Only you can see your account data. Your pictures are stored privately, information is encrypted when it travels over the internet, and our team’s access to accounts is restricted. No device, software or internet transmission can be guaranteed completely secure. Protect your device lock, email account and sign-in details, and tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.

We may update this policy when the product, provider list or law changes. We will publish the new date here and provide additional notice where a change materially affects how personal data is used. For an under-18 account, a material change to the Privacy Policy, Terms, AI-provider arrangement or processing purpose requires a fresh guardian decision before the changed processing starts.

Privacy questions and rights requests: support@sparc.ng.