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Purpose and Principals

Purpose

Raising the Field

Mindcraft Learning provides educational solutions for children, parents and teachers, targeting all levels of development and access.

Raising the Field is about building up from the ground, rather than leveling the field by digging away from the top. We want all our children to enter the world with the best possible level of education.

Principles

Our direction is not set in stone.  We operate in a rapidly changing world, and want to stay flexible to be able to always serve our purpose.

Equality

Nobody should be differentiated against, through privilege, belief, caste, wealth, gender, culture, or physical disability.  We want to design solutions of the broadest accessibility, within the boundaries of our capabilities.

Exploration

Nothing is set in stone. We should never let complacency allow us to stagnate, and are always looking around for other ways to deliver value.

Mutual Benefit

We believe that the community educates our children.  We are a business, and take responsibility for the work we do, however we believe in the principle that we can only grow the quality of our education collectively. We want to stay connected with Parents, Guardians, Teachers and Sponsors so we are informed of the progress of students and opportunities to improve.

Sustainability

Our business must be able to continue to operate in order to be able to maintain our purpose and principles, and therefore commercial independence is fundamental and we operate as a private business entity.

Our existence should benefit the environment and communities we exist in and serve.  We look for opportunities to assist and contribute beyond the borders of the organisation while remaining accountable to our purpose.

Our Journey

We are on a journey, and we are learning things as we go, and will continually improve our solutions. We believe that value is wasted holding out for the perfect solution before giving it to our customers. To this point, we release material as fast as we can so our students get the most they can from us. This sometimes means that not everything is perfect on Day One.

We will never release something which we believe jeopardises the safety of the children or clients.

Terms and Conditions

Consent and Agreement to These Terms

The use of all Mindcraft Learning websites and related Services is governed by these Terms and Conditions (Terms).  By using the MindCraft Learning Services you agree to all terms of use, including our Privacy Policy and any other policies referred to.

Should you not agree to this we ask that you do not continue to use this website.

The Terms may be updated at any time at our sole discretion.  Your continued use of the Website assumes you maintain awareness of changes and remain bound by such.

You may print a copy of these Terms.

If you are under the age of 18, or deemed a minor in the laws of the country in which you live, you must obtain your parent or legal guardians’ advance permission and consent to use the Services or to engage in any commercial transactions with Mindcraft Learning.

If you do not understand anything in the Terms please contact us through the channels provided under Contact Information.

Violation of Terms

Should you become aware of any violation of the Terms, please report these to the channels provided under Contact Information.

Definitions

A Course is a specific Service which provides a student with access to learning material for a specific year’s curriculum.  Each Course will include Material, and details of the duration of the engagement. 

A Customer is any party who engages with Mindcraft Learning for the use of a Service, be it paid or free.

Data is any information which is processed, transmitted, or stored whilst delivering oe engaging with a Service.

A Document can be any collateral conveying information, whether it is a printed hard copy, a stand-alone digital file, or a webpage.

Guardian refers to any parent, guardian or sponsor who may be procuring Services for a Student or involved in supporting the learning of a Student.

Material is any data, content, code, graphics, webpages, or other collateral used to deliver the Services.

Mindcraft Learning (“Mindcraft”) is a South African business, registered for the purposes of providing further education support primarily to school students in South Africa. 

An Operator, per POPIA, is a person who processes personal information for a responsible part in terms of a contract or mandate, without coming under the direct authority of that party.

Personal Data or Personal Information may be used interchangeably in this Document and refers to any information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person, and where applicable to an identifiable, existing, juristic person, as laid out in the Protection of Personal Information Act of 2013.

POPIA refers to South Africa’s Act No. 4 of 2013: Protection of Personal Information Act, which governs the processing of all personal information.

Privacy Policy is the Document relating specifically to how Mindcraft will protect the privacy of our clients and staff, and what you should understand before engaging with the Services.

Product generally refers to an online Service, with a set price and duration.

Principals are general guidelines of defining our organisation’s objectives through behaviour and philosophy.

Purpose as defined above, is the guiding cause of our organisation.

Responsible Party, per POPIA, is a public or private body or any other person which determines the purpose of and means for processing personal information.

Services includes any material, physical or electronic, which may be procured or delivered for free from Mindcraft Learning.

Student is a person, usually a child, which is receiving learning support through the Services procured.

Terms refers to these Terms and Conditions, and any other Policy available on the Website.

Web Services in the context is a broad term including any service which is delivered over the world-wide-web using web-based technologies (e.g. HTTP).  This could include traditional webpages, but also for example file downloads, online games, streaming, or apps.

Website is this website (www.mindcraftlearning.com) and any related sites which may be used to deliver the Services.

Scope of These Terms and Conditions

This website is made available by Mindcraft to assist in the delivery of the Services to Guardians and Students.  These Terms and Conditions apply to any person who uses this Website or any Services for any means.

Accessing and the Use of the Services

Mindcraft Learning will provide services built primarily on Web Services.

Except where specifically provided for, Mindcraft is not responsible for obtaining and maintaining facilities, services, products and equipment which may be required by you to use the Services.   This includes but is not limited to computing equipment, network access, and security permissions required to use the Services.

Links to Third Parties

Our Services might provide links to other services which are not provided by Mindcraft Learning.  These links are implemented “as-is”.  While we will make every attempt to ensure any external content is appropriate and accurate, external material might be changed outside of our influence or control and we do not necessarily agree with, edit or sponsor any external content. 

Externally linked content and sites are generally subject to terms and conditions independent of this document or the Services, and you should understand and comply with these. 

Mindcraft does not in any way endorse or take responsibility for external content, views, and privacy policies expressed on Third Party services.

Should you become aware of inappropriate changes to such content, we urge you to communicate with us so we can amend our own use of this content. 

Content of the Websites

Mindcraft material is generally developed in line with national curricula in the case of school material, which will be indicated in each subject; or in line with the curricula outlined by the client in terms of custom material. 

Every effort is taken to ensure material is accurately represented however not everything represented by the services may be 100% accurate at the time of use.  We encourage you to make use of the contact services to advise us of any discrepancies, to ensure our students are receiving the best material possible.

Any information, ideas or opinions offered through the Services are not to be considered professional advice, and where such is deemed necessary, you should seek the counsel of a registered professional in that matter.

Intellectual Property and Copyright

Except where explicitly recorded, and wherever applicable, Mindcraft reserves all rights (including Intellectual Property rights) on all Services provided by Mindcraft.

The Material developed and published by Mindcraft is copyright.  It may not be used without a commercial permission or a transaction (i.e. an order and payment).  It may not be re-sold, re-purposed, copied, distributed, or shared in any format whatsoever without the sole permission of Mindcraft.

The Material makes use of third-party electronic material such as images and video.  This material falls under various protection categories and laws.  For the purpose of protecting our partners, consider any material sourced from the Services to be strictly copyright, except where it is noted otherwise. 

Some Material has been acquired through licenses or development agreements between Mindcraft and agencies or suppliers.  Except where explicitly communicated, Mindcraft has sole rights to use this material commercially or publicly, and you are not permitted to use any component of it.  Should you desire to use such material for your own purpose, you must engage directly with the supplier and acquire permission yourself.  Please contact us should you wish for information regarding access to this Material for purposes outside of these Terms.

Where Material has been acquired from free-for-use services such as under Creative Commons license, every effort to comply with the required recognition processes has been made.  Although we reserve copyright on all our material, such components will have separate terms attached and should you choose to re-use this material, you will be required to comply with these policies and engage directly with the service, rather than through Mindcraft Learning.

The government curricula used are publicly accessible from the national websites and media repositories.  All schools are required to follow a curriculum, but the Intellectual Property rights of this material reside with the originator (generally a Government Department).

Any attempt to circumvent the security controls in place on the Services, such as, for example, downloading video, or reverse-engineering code, will be considered an active and considered attempt to acquire content illegally, and will be subject to legal consideration and action.

Use of Third Parties

Mindcraft contracts third parties as needed for the development of the Services.  All such parties are subject to our Terms and strict privacy requirements are enforced.

Security and Acceptable Usage

The Website is for the purpose of sale of and access to the Services.  You may not use the website for any other purpose than this.

Unacceptable use might result in immediate termination of access to Services, and legal and / or criminal prosecution.  Examples of unacceptable use, include, but are not limited to:

• Any activity which violates the laws of South Africa or the region in which you are operating.
• Any discriminatory behaviour, for example, but not exclusive to, the distribution or pornography, discrimination, hate-speech, obscenity, harassment, threats, or defamation.
• Any activity not aligned with the Purpose, or used with malicious intent, such as attempting to solicit children into external engagements.
• Any use of the Services to distribute material outside of Mindcraft’s sole discretion, for example hacking the email service to distribute marketing email or malicious code.
• Any use of the public data for purposes which violate any privacy regulation.
• Any other violation of privacy rights.
• Any violation of Intellectual Property or Copyright laws both local and international.
• Fraudulent activity, misrepresentation, or intentional distribution of content not considered accurate or valid in the context of the Services.
• Any attempt to hack or bypass the commercial gateways of Mindcraft to gain access to the Material or Services.
• Any attempt to interfere with the normal operations of the Services, such as denial of service or purposeful and unapproved alteration of content of code.
• Any representation of Mindcraft’s Services independent of the Services, such as creating a frame or link to the Services, where such representation could be considered contrary to Mindcraft’s Purpose and Principals or generate revenue or traffic which would impact the sustainability of Mindcraft.

Security of Infrastructure

• Whilst Mindcraft has made every effort to secure the infrastructure hosting the Services, and the data within, new cyber-threats are frequently emerging, and it is almost impossible to avoid exposure completely.
• To mitigate against data leakage, we attempt to obscure any data which could be sensitive by good security practices and continuously update our services to reflect such.
• We urge Guardians to also familiarise themselves with good online practices, and to ensure that behaviour on the website does not unintentionally expose more personal data of the Student.

Risk, Limitation of Liability and Indemnity

Although we offer educational material, many external factors also play a role in the outcome on the Student education.  Mindcraft therefore cannot be held liable for any failure to meet such expectations.  The final responsibility lies with the Guardian to ensure their children are receiving an appropriate education.

Indemnity

As far as law permits, by using the Services you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us and all involved stakeholders harmless from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to attorneys’ fees) arising from:

• your use of and access to the Services;
• your violation of any term of these Terms;
• your violation of any third party right, such as but not exclusively, any copyright, trademark, trade secret or other property, or privacy right; or
• any claim that the Service caused damage to a third party.

This obligation will survive termination, modification or expiration of these Terms and your use of the Services.

Limitation of Liability

Mindcraft, their employees, or partners, shall not be liable for any damage, loss or liability of any nature arising from the use or inability to use the Services.

Mindcraft makes no representations or warranties, implied or otherwise, that, amongst others, the Services are free from errors or omissions or that the Services will be 100% uninterrupted.

Exclusion of Warranties and Representations

As far as the law allows, the Services are provided without any representation or warranty whatsoever, whether express, implied, or statutory. 

E-commerce

The Services are provided primarily through online financial transactions and therefore subject to e-commerce legislation.

Most Services take the form of access to digital or virtual content, or commissioning or work (contracting).

Mindcraft also provides Services independent of the online Services, such as consulting.  For the sake of clarity, in this section Services refers to online services.

All prices will be presented with VAT included at the current South African rate.

The Services are purchased through an online e-commerce portal. 

Financial transactions are facilitated through reputable third-party payment gateways.  Although Mindcraft has taken every measure to ensure the credibility and security of the provider, Mindcraft cannot be held liable for a failure of service at the Payment Gateway Service Provider.

No aspect of the actual transaction itself, such as credit-card details, is captured on Mindcraft’s website or database.

Online redirection between Mindcraft and the Payment Gateway Service Providers are secured using recognised encryption technologies.

Services may be once-off purchases, or subscriptions. 

In the case of subscriptions, the period of the subscription will be made evident on the product purchase page. 

Subscriptions will be automatically debited on the same day of the month or year in which the order was originally processed.  Should you wish to terminate the subscription, this can be done on either the Mindcraft Website, or on the Payment Gateway portal, which we urge you to subscribe to if the service is available.

Termination of a recurring Service is immediate, but access to the Service will continue until the end of the period paid for.  Refunds will not be given on term services of a month or less.  For refunds on annual services please contact us directly on the details provided in the Contact Information section.

Where promotional offers or discounts are offered, the term of the discount will be specified and will not generally be extended past the period.

Mindcraft reserves the right to revoke access to the Services should any financial transaction be missed.

Furthermore, Mindcraft also reserves the right to terminate the Service and delete the Data related to the unpaid Service where relevant and required by legislation should payment not be made for more than one period.

Product pricing may change at Mindcraft’s discretion, and will generally be based on inflation, however the price of any purchased fixed-term Service such as an annual curriculum (e.g. Grade 4 CAPS) will be maintained at the purchased price for the duration of the subscription.  The same Product if purchased a second time, for example for a younger child, might be subject to the increase.

Additional information required in terms of to meet the requirement of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 can be found at the end of this Document under Contact Information.

Electronic Communications

By using the Services, you are acknowledging that any communication including electronic communication between Mindcraft and yourself meets all legal requirements, including the requirement for communications to be “in writing”, concluded or sent from the physical address of the business.

Due to the nature of electronic communication, any message sent by yourself to Mindcraft will only be deemed as having been received on personal acknowledgement of receipt (not an automatic receipt).

Digital Marketing

Mindcraft will at all times attempt to comply with the direct digital marketing legislation laid out by the laws of South Africa, specifically the Consumer Protection act of 2008 and the Protection of Personal Information Act of 2013. 

Mindcraft might occasionally sent you marketing material advertising Services.  Prior to receiving such a communication, you will be given an opportunity to opt-in to direct marketing.

Should you wish to unsubscribe to marketing material, the option will be made available in any such correspondence.

At no point will marketing material be presented to Students using the Services.

Certain communication constitutes requirements to do business, and these will be excluded from any request to opt-out from marketing.  Examples of such communication includes, but may not be limited to:

• Registration and onboarding validation emails.
• Feedback and alerts relating to sponsored student activity.
• Financial transactions.

Should you terminate or unsubscribe from the Services, you will be given the option to opt-out of marketing correspondence at the same time, however you may also continue to receive such correspondence should you desire.

Interpretation and Miscellaneous Provisions

These Terms shall be governed and construed in accordance with South African law.  Any disputes arising in connection with these Terms and our Services shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

Should a competent court find any provision to be invalid or inapplicable, the parties agree that the intention of the provision will be still considered in the provision.

Privacy Policy

Introduction

As our core business is related to the collection of educational performance data of children, we take the privacy of our Customers very seriously.

We take reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised access, disclosure, or alteration of Personal Data. However, because of the rapid changes in the external cyber-threat landscape, we can never guarantee your Personal Data to be 100% secure.

Further Consent

In addition to the section Consent and Agreement to these Terms, you also consent that Mindcraft may process Personal Data in order to provide you or a Student sponsored by you with the Services, as listed in this document.

If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not continue to use the Services.

Whilst the supply of your Personal Data is voluntary, should you for any reason fail to provide the Personal Data required, we may be unable to provide the Service.

What Personal Data Do We Process and Why?

We process the following information in order to provide the Services:

For Guardians

• Name, surname, and contact email address. 
• A voluntary image or avatar of the guardian.
• For financial transactions you will be directed to a trusted third payment gateway service where your financial details will be required.  Mindcraft at no point stores this information.

This data is required for us to process a financial transaction, and to communicate student progress to the Guardian.

For Students

• Only a Guardian may create a student account.
• Name and Surname:  It is recommended that Student names be aliases which are misleading should the Data be compromised, so that a third party with malicious intent has no way of connecting learning performance to a specific person.
• The school and grade of the Student.
• A voluntary contributed avatar or image to make the process of identification simpler amongst peers.  We recommend not to use accurate biometric images to ensure the Student identity is not compromised. Please also see the section Intellectual Property and Copyright for advice on use of copyrighted material. 
• We will communicate with the student through the system, however occasionally we need to alert the Student to something. As a guardian you may elect to capture the Student email address, or have this email come through your own address.

This data is used to identify Students and allow us to be able to separate performance data between individuals. 

Moderated discussion boards will also be used where students will need to be able to identify each other.

For Institutions such as Schools or Education Providers

• Nominated individuals at the school such as teachers will act as Guardians under the same conditions as Parents or Guardians.
• Details of the School required to provide the Service are retained.
• Any nominated individual in the school who uses the Service will be stored.

Academic Performance Data

The core of our service we track micro details of the performance of the student on a separate database.  This database is secured, but does relate back to the student name created, which is why we prefer that less obvious names are used.

How and When Do We Process?

• Guardian and Student personal data is collected at the point of registration.
• Academic performance data will be collected throughout the Student interactions with the Services.
• Student performance data will be made available to the Guardian, Student, and if requested and confirmed by a Guardian, the Teacher.

Use of Cookies and IP Addresses

A cookie is a small piece of data which is stored on your browser.  Cookies may be used to assist in the sign-in process for people who have already registered.

IP Addresses are unique identifiers that allow computers to communicate over the internet.  In most cases IP addresses are anonymous and cannot be traced further than your internet service provider, however they can still be used to identify broader location data and some other information.  Our browser analysis tools use this information to allow us to analyse traffic so we can pick up errors or upgrade our infrastructure should capacity require.  It is however anonymous.

Storage of Data

Mindcraft uses Amazon Web Services in Ireland to host their services.  Privacy is strictly maintained through data encryption both in situ and in transit.

Marketing

See Digital Marketing.

Access to Personal Data

You have the right to request a copy of all personal data in our possession and, as a Guardian, that of a student under your Guardianship.  In the event of you being a Parent or Guardian, we will request evidence of legal guardianship prior to disclosure.

Please understand that this is a time-consuming task and such data may take up to two weeks to acquire.  To request such data please use the information at Contact Information.

Deletion of Personal Data

You have the right to request that Mindcraft deletes all incidences of Personal Data.  As this is a complex process, confirmation will be provided within two weeks of receipt of request.

In the case that you are a Guardian requesting the deletion of Personal Data of a Student, we will require legal evidence of Guardianship.

Please note that such a request will cause the Service being rendered to be inoperable and will result in termination of the Services associated with the Data.  Should there be no material breach of service, our refund terms per eCommerce applies.

Please also be aware that in terms of legislation, we will always keep a record of unique identification, so we are able to ensure we do not re-market to people who have opted out in the past.

Requests for deletion of data can be sent to details at Contact Information.

Mindcraft will delete Student accounts and associated Data within one year of the end of a subscription. The Data is held for this period as is understood that Patterns or Guardians may want to re-activate subscriptions in the future and may request historical information.

Security of Personal Data

Please see Security and Acceptable Usage for more information.

Third Party Access

No Personal Data will be disclosed to anyone outside of Mindcraft or even within Mindcraft where it is not required for the delivery of the Services, without prior consent of the Guardian. 

Changes to This Policy

Please see Consent and Agreement to These Terms for more information.

From time to time, we may revise this Privacy Policy to reflect company initiatives, changes in the law or technology or changes in our practices regarding the Procession and use of Personal Data. If this Policy is changed, we consider you to be aware of these changes should you use the website at a date later than the publication of such change.

We will not use or disclose Personal Data provided to us pursuant to this Privacy Policy in ways other than the ones described above, without informing you and providing you with the opportunity to consent to such modified conditions concerning the use and disclosure of your Personal Data.

Contact Information

Company Details:	Mindcraft Learning (Registration number 2018/261394/07)
Main business address of receipt for legal service:	5 Kasuur Street, Roodekrans, Roodepoort, 1724
Office bearers (directors):	Adrian van Eeden (director and information officer)
Official website:	https://www.mindcraftlearning.com
Contact email address:	[email protected]
Access to financial transaction data:
Payment gateway portal(s):	Payfast: https://payfast.co.za.
Website account management page:	https://www.mindcraftlearning.com/my-account/
Email:	[email protected] (expect a response within three working days).
Support:	Accessed through the website portal at https://www.mindcraftlearning.com/contact-us/