Privacy Policy
Last updated: 29 June 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Vula Career Guide (Pty) Ltd ("Vula", "we", "us", "our"), the Responsible Party, collects, uses, shares and protects your personal information when you use the Vula career-guidance service on WhatsApp and this website. We are committed to protecting your privacy in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
1. Who we are
- Responsible Party: Vula Career Guide (Pty) Ltd (Reg. No. 2026/021440/07)
- Information Officer: Kyal Stahl
- Contact email: privacy@vulacareers.co.za
- Address: 1 Dorchester Drive, Parklands, 7441
2. The information we collect
When you use Vula on WhatsApp, we collect the information you choose to share with us, namely:
| Information | Why we collect it |
|---|---|
| Your WhatsApp phone number | To deliver the assessment and your results, and to identify your session |
| First name | To personalise your experience |
| Surname | To personalise your career report |
| Age | To tailor guidance and to determine whether parental/guardian consent is required |
| Province | To suggest relevant institutions and opportunities near you |
| Assessment answers & results | To generate your career profile and recommendations |
We do not ask for ID numbers, financial information, or passwords. Please do not send us this information.
3. How we collect it
We collect information directly from you through your WhatsApp conversation with Vula. WhatsApp messaging is provided through our messaging partner (Twilio). We do not buy your personal information from third parties.
4. Why we process your information (purpose)
- To provide the career assessment and generate your personalised results;
- To recommend careers, entry requirements and qualification pathways;
- To show you courses and bursary/funding opportunities from sponsoring colleges, universities and training providers that match your profile;
- To improve and maintain the service; and
- To comply with our legal obligations.
5. Our lawful basis & your consent
We process your personal information on the basis of your consent, which you give by choosing to start and continue the assessment, and to perform the service you have asked for. You may withdraw consent at any time (see section 10). Withdrawing consent will stop further processing but does not affect processing already carried out lawfully.
6. Children's personal information (very important)
Vula is open to users aged 12 and upwards, with no upper age limit. A substantial proportion are school learners under 18. Under POPIA, the personal information of a child may only be processed with the consent of a competent person (a parent or legal guardian).
- If you are under 18, you confirm that your parent or guardian has given permission for you to use Vula and to share your information as described here.
- A parent/guardian may contact us at privacy@vulacareers.co.za to review, correct or delete a child's information, or to withdraw consent.
- We will stop processing and delete a child's information on request from a competent person, unless we are legally required to keep it.
7. Who we share your information with
We do not share your personal information with educational institutions, colleges or bursary/funding providers. Vula is funded by sponsoring institutions who pay to have their courses and programmes featured in your results — this is not a data share, it is anonymous exposure, and whether you contact a sponsor is entirely your choice.
We may share your information with:
- Service providers (Operators) who help us run the service under contract, including: Twilio (WhatsApp messaging), Supabase (secure database), Vercel (website & application hosting) and Anthropic (AI processing of assessment text). These providers process information on our behalf and are bound to keep it secure.
- Authorities where required by law.
We do not sell your information for advertising, and we do not share it with anyone else without a lawful basis.
8. Cross-border transfer
Some of our service providers store or process information on servers outside South Africa (for example in the European Union or United States). Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure your information is protected by a comparable level of protection, in line with section 72 of POPIA (for example through the provider's contractual data-protection commitments).
9. How long we keep it & security
We keep your information only for as long as needed for the purposes above, or as required by law, after which it is deleted or anonymised. We retain your information for up to 18 months after your last activity.
We protect your information with reasonable technical and organisational measures, including access controls and encrypted connections. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep your information safe and will notify you and the Information Regulator if a breach affects your information as required by law.
10. Your rights (POPIA)
You have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you;
- Ask us to correct or delete it;
- Object to processing, and withdraw consent;
- Not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that significantly affects you; and
- Complain to the Information Regulator.
To exercise any right, contact our Information Officer at privacy@vulacareers.co.za. On WhatsApp you can reply STOP to end messages, or DELETE to ask us to remove your information.
11. The Information Regulator
You may lodge a complaint with:
Information Regulator (South Africa)
JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001
Email: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za / POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
Website: inforegulator.org.za
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be available here, with the "Last updated" date shown above.