Privacy Policy

ScholarMark is a global academic integrity platform providing AI detection and plagiarism scanning services to students and educators worldwide. Our platform is accessible at www.scholarmark.co.ke.

We serve users across multiple countries and are committed to handling your personal data responsibly and in accordance with applicable privacy laws in your jurisdiction, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK Data Protection Act 2018, and applicable data protection laws in Kenya and other jurisdictions where our users are based.

For any questions about this policy, contact us at crisndunguw@gmail.com.

We collect the following types of information:

• Account information, your email address and password when you create an account.
• Documents you upload, PDF and DOCX files submitted for scanning or review, stored securely to enable re-downloading of reports.
• Scan and review results, AI detection scores, plagiarism scores, sentence-level analysis, matched sources, and feedback generated from your documents.
• Payment information, payment is processed by Paystack. We do not store your card details. We receive only a transaction reference and payment confirmation.
• Usage data, pages visited, features used, and error logs, collected to improve the service.
• Location data, approximate country/region inferred from your IP address, used only for currency display and service improvement. We do not track precise location.

• To provide the scanning and review services you paid for.
• To store your history so you can re-download reports at any time.
• To process payments securely through Paystack.
• To send transactional emails (account creation, payment confirmation). We do not send marketing emails without your explicit consent.
• To display prices in your local currency equivalent.
• To improve the accuracy and reliability of our platform.
• To comply with legal obligations in applicable jurisdictions.

For users in the European Economic Area and United Kingdom, we process your data on the following legal bases:

• Contract performance, processing necessary to deliver the services you paid for.
• Legitimate interests, improving our platform, preventing fraud, and securing our systems.
• Legal obligation, where we are required to retain records by law.
• Consent, for any optional communications beyond core service delivery.

Documents you upload are stored in encrypted cloud storage for as long as your account is active. You can delete any scan or review and its associated document at any time from your dashboard. Deletion is permanent and immediate.

Your documents are used solely to run the requested service. We do not use your documents to train AI models, share them with third parties beyond what is strictly necessary to deliver the service, or use them for any other purpose.

If you close your account, all documents and associated data are permanently deleted within 30 days.

ScholarMark serves users globally. Your data may be processed by our service providers in countries outside your own. Where we transfer data outside the EEA, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission, or equivalent mechanisms required by applicable law.

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights:

• Access, request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Deletion, request deletion of your account and all associated data.
• Correction, request correction of inaccurate personal data.
• Portability, request your scan history and results in a portable format.
• Objection, object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Restriction, request that we restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances.

To exercise any of these rights, email crisndunguw@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days. EU/UK users also have the right to lodge a complaint with their local data protection authority.

We implement industry-standard security measures including encrypted storage, HTTPS for all data transmission, and authenticated API access. In the event of a data breach affecting your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and relevant authorities as required by applicable law.

ScholarMark uses essential cookies only, specifically the authentication session cookie required to keep you logged in. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking cookies. No cookie consent banner is required as we use only strictly necessary cookies.

ScholarMark is not intended for children under 13 (or under 16 in the EU/UK). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children below these ages. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us and we will delete it promptly.

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email or by a prominent notice on the platform at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Continued use of ScholarMark after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.