Privacy, in plain language.

1. Scope and controller

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 why and how personal data is handled for these services.

SPARC is an independent education product. 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, authentication identifiers, intended exam cycle, selected subjects, target score, exam date, intended course or institution, reminder preferences and other choices they provide.

Guardian approval

For a student under 18, we keep the guardian email privately, the age band and consent state, decision or withdrawal time, accepted Privacy and Terms versions, attestations, request identifiers, token status and expiry, and hashed evidence for single-use approval, management and recovery capabilities. We do not publish the guardian email, and the student's export masks it.

Learning evidence

Your answers, scores, skipped or flagged questions, confidence where collected, session and mock history, mistakes, topic or concept coverage, readiness calculations, streaks, milestones, planner activity and device-side sync identifiers.

Lara interactions

When you use an online Lara feature, we process what you send and the bounded learning context needed for the request—such as the question, selected answer, subject, topic, recent result or agreed strategy. Normal Lara requests are designed not to include your account email, phone number or full name in the prompt sent to a language-model provider.

Payments and access

For a Lara Assist Pass or Lara Tutor Season Pass, SPARC and Paystack process the details needed to quote, initiate, verify and reconcile the one-off payment. These may include your email, SPARC user identifier, order and payment references, product, amount, status, duration or season end date. SPARC does not receive or store your full card number, card security code or online-banking credentials.

Support, device and security

Support messages and replies, ticket references, details you choose to attach, app version, device or operating-system information, push-notification token, connection state, timestamps and server security logs. Please do not send passwords, one-time codes or full payment-card details.

Public website

Our hosting and security providers may process ordinary request information such as IP address, browser information, requested page and timestamp to deliver and protect sparc.ng.

3. Why we use it

We use personal data only where reasonably necessary to:

• create, authenticate and protect your account;
• deliver offline and online study features;
• calculate your own progress, readiness and next study steps;
• back up and restore eligible account and learning records;
• provide Lara Assist and, where purchased, Lara Tutor;
• quote, process and verify a one-off purchase;
• send notifications you have allowed;
• answer support requests and investigate content or software faults;
• prevent fraud, abuse and unauthorised access;
• keep required financial, security and legal records; and
• improve reliability using the least data reasonably necessary.

Depending on the activity, the lawful basis may be performance of our agreement with you, your consent, our legitimate interest in operating a safe and useful service, or compliance with a legal obligation. Where we ask for consent, it must be an affirmative choice and may be withdrawn; withdrawal does not undo processing that was already lawful.

4. What local-first means

Downloaded content and many study records live in a database on your device so study can continue without a constant connection. When you are signed in and connectivity returns, eligible profile, ledger and learning records may be sent to SPARC’s servers for backup, restoration, support or online features.

Uninstalling the app or clearing its storage removes the local copy from that device but does not by itself delete your online account. Deleting your SPARC account removes the server-side account and associated live user data SPARC controls, subject to the limited retention explained below. A local copy already saved on a phone may remain until you clear the app’s storage or uninstall it.

5. Who helps us operate SPARC

We use service providers for defined operational jobs. Depending on the feature, these include:

• Supabase and SPARC-hosted infrastructure for authentication, protected account data, backups, content delivery and server functions.
• OpenRouter and the selected language-model provider for online Lara generation using bounded request context. Current model choices may include Anthropic Claude, DeepSeek and Qwen models routed through OpenRouter.
• Paystack for checkout, payment verification and transaction records.
• Firebase Cloud Messaging for push delivery when notifications are enabled.
• Resend for support receipts, guardian approval and guardian management email.
• Cloudflare for public-site delivery, security and ordinary web-request logs.

Some providers may process information outside Nigeria. Where data is transferred across borders, we take steps appropriate to the transfer and applicable law—such as using providers with contractual and security commitments, limiting the information sent, and relying on a permitted transfer basis. Provider identities or processing locations may change as infrastructure changes; material changes will be reflected here.

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

6. Retention and deletion

Account, profile and eligible learning-backup data are generally kept while your account remains active. 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. Cache and protected backups may take additional time to cycle out.

When you delete your account, SPARC’s deletion service removes the authentication identity and associated live user records it controls, including profile, learning, mock, Lara, support, notification and entitlement records. A payment processor or a narrowly separated legal, transaction, fraud-prevention or security record may remain where a legitimate obligation requires it; retained information is not kept as an active student profile or used for marketing.

See Delete your SPARC account for the current in-app and web-request paths.

7. Your choices and rights

Subject to applicable law, you may ask to be informed, access your data, correct it, erase it, restrict or object to certain processing, withdraw consent where consent is the basis, request portability where applicable, or challenge qualifying automated processing. 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 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.

8. Children and guardians

SPARC genuinely serves JAMB candidates, including students 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, notifications and other online processing. Each under-18 purchase 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.

Email, matching codes, attestations, single-use links and continuing guardian control are safeguards, not absolute proof of identity or relationship. SPARC is not relying on an educational-processing exception to skip this flow. If you believe a child's account lacks the required authority, contact support@sparc.ng.

9. Security, changes and contact

SPARC uses safeguards including authenticated access, row-level data permissions, encrypted network connections, limited server credentials and access controls around support and account data. 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.