Privacy Notice

Last updated: 8 October 2026

ExamChat is a live support chat used during assessments. It lets a student raise a problem with an invigilator and get help without leaving their seat. This notice explains what personal information ExamChat handles and why.

Who is responsible for your information

Your university decides what information is collected and why — it is the responsible party (POPIA) / data controller (GDPR). eGrowth operates ExamChat on the university's behalf as its operator / processor, and only acts on the university's instructions.

If you want to see, correct, or delete your information, contact your university at [UNIVERSITY PRIVACY CONTACT EMAIL]. They will action the request through ExamChat's administration tools.

What ExamChat collects

• Who you are: your name, student number, email address, and the course, module and assessment you are registered for. This information comes from your university's records — ExamChat does not ask you for it.
• Your conversation: the chat messages exchanged between you and the invigilator or support staff.
• Voice notes: if you choose to record one, the audio is sent to the staff member handling your chat.
• Screenshots: if you choose to send one, you select an area of your screen and confirm before it is sent.
• Technical information: your IP address, connection times and error details, used to keep the service running and to prevent abuse.

ExamChat does not collect ID numbers, photographs, biometric data, or health information, and it does not monitor your screen, camera or microphone in the background. Voice notes and screenshots are only ever captured when you actively choose to send one.

Why it is collected

• To connect you with the right invigilator for your assessment and let them help you.
• To keep a record of what support was given, in case a query about your assessment is raised later.
• To keep the service secure, available, and free from abuse.

Your information is not used for advertising, sold to anyone, or used to train artificial-intelligence models.

Who can see it

• Invigilators and support staff allocated to your assessment.
• Administrators at your own university.
• eGrowth technical staff, only where necessary to operate or fix the service.

Each university's data is kept separate: staff at one institution cannot see another institution's students or conversations.

Where it is stored

ExamChat runs on Microsoft Azure, which is the only external provider involved. Information is encrypted while travelling over the internet and while stored in the database, including voice notes and screenshots. The hosting region and backup arrangements are set out in the agreement between eGrowth and your university.

How long it is kept

Retention periods are agreed with your university and set per institution. Recordings — voice notes and screenshots — are kept for a shorter period than text messages, because they can capture more than the conversation itself. For the exact periods that apply to you, contact your university.

Your rights

Under POPIA and the GDPR you can ask to:

• see what information is held about you;
• receive a copy of it;
• have inaccurate information corrected;
• have information deleted, where it is no longer needed;
• object to how it is being used; and
• complain to a regulator — in South Africa, the Information Regulator.

Requests go to your university as the responsible party, using the contact address above.

Contact

Questions about your own information: [UNIVERSITY PRIVACY CONTACT EMAIL]
Questions about the ExamChat platform itself: [EGROWTH PRIVACY CONTACT EMAIL]