Terms of Service & Data Privacy Policy

NOTICE TO USERS: THIS IS A BINDING LEGAL AGREEMENT. BY ACCESSING, CREATING AN ACCOUNT, PURCHASING, OR USING ANY PORTION OF THE SWAHILICOURSE ONLINE PLATFORM, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ALL TERMS, DISCLOSURES, OBLIGATIONS, AND POLICIES DETAILED BELOW.

1. Legal Binding Status & Identity of Parties

This Terms of Service and Data Privacy Policy Agreement ("Agreement") constitutes a legally enforceable contract entered into between you ("User", "Learner", "Student", "Customer", or "You") and SwahiliCourse ("Platform", "We", "Us", or "Our"), an online education entity founded, authored, and administered by Dr. Dunlop Ochieng and Hamis Yassin Mbaruku.

This Agreement governs all access to and use of swahilicourse.co.tz, including its underlying servers, databases, software applications, APIs, content streaming services, evaluation engines, real-time AI conversation tools, and digital certification verification portals.

2. Definitions

• "Platform" means the website hosted at swahilicourse.co.tz, its subdomains, software applications, streaming engines, and digital infrastructure.
• "Content" means all instructional videos, audio recordings, phonetics assets, interactive exercises, code, software, graphics, downloadable PDFs, and curriculum design across the 16 learning modules.
• "AI Tools" means the interactive AI Swahili Tutor, Voice Practice, and automated translation interfaces integrated within the Platform.
• "User Account" means the profile registered by an individual to access course materials and track progress.
• "Certificate" means the official digital credential issued upon validated completion of prescribed academic requirements.

3. Eligibility, Account Registration & Security Mandate

3.1 Statutory Capacity & Age Requirements

By accessing or registering on the Platform, you represent and warrant that you possess full legal capacity to enter into a binding contract in your legal jurisdiction and are at least 18 years of age. If you are under 18 years of age, you may only access the Platform under the direct oversight and legal sponsorship of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to be bound by this Agreement.

3.2 Accuracy of Personal Records

You agree to provide true, current, accurate, and complete legal identity information during the registration process. Your registered name will be linked to your academic progress logs and issued certificates. Providing false names, alias credentials, or proxy information constitutes a material breach of contract that may result in immediate account suspension, invalidation of academic records, and forfeiture of paid fees.

3.3 Single-User License & Credentials Security

Enrollment grants a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, single-user license to access course materials and interactive AI features. You are expressly prohibited from sharing, leasing, selling, or delegating your login credentials or session tokens to any third party.

SwahiliCourse utilizes automated security controls to monitor concurrent logins and abnormal access patterns. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts where unauthorized credentials sharing is detected.

4. Intellectual Property Rights & Acceptable Use

4.1 Proprietary Ownership

All Content—specifically including, but not limited to, the entirety of the 16 Learning Modules, video lectures, phonetics databases, audio recordings, interactive grammar frameworks, testing modules, AI prompts, software source code, UI designs, and logos—is the exclusive intellectual property of SwahiliCourse, Dr. Dunlop Ochieng, and Hamis Yassin Mbaruku. All rights are reserved under Tanzanian copyright law and international intellectual property treaties.

4.2 Acceptable Use & Prohibited Actions

You explicitly agree and covenant that you will NOT:

• Record, capture, stream, duplicate, mirror, broadcast, screen-record, or re-transmit any video, audio, or textual content from the Platform.
• Use automated scripts, bots, spiders, web crawlers, data mining software, or AI training scripts to extract, harvest, scrape, or catalog course materials or source code.
• Decompile, reverse-engineer, disassemble, modify, or attempt to derive the source code of the Platform or its underlying AI processing scripts.
• Sell, license, rent, upload to peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks, host on cloud servers, or publicly disseminate any course assets.
• Bypass, disable, or tamper with any digital rights management (DRM) technologies, access-control gates, or payment validation safeguards.

4.3 Copyright Notice & Takedown Procedure

If you believe any material on the Platform infringes upon a copyright you own or control, please send a written notification to our designated contact at info@swahilicourse.co.tz.

5. Data Protection, Compliance & Privacy Policy

5.1 Statutory Compliance Framework

We process personal data in compliance with the Tanzania Personal Data Protection Act, Cap. 44 (Act No. 11 of 2022) [PDPA] and apply appropriate administrative, operational, and technical safeguards for international users.

5.2 Categories of Data Collected

We collect the following categories of data for core operational purposes:

• Personal Identity Data: Full Legal Name, Primary Email Address, Telephone Number, Country of Location.
• Technical & Telemetry Data: IP Addresses, Device Identification Tokens, Browser Type, Operating System, Session Timestamps, and API Usage Logs.
• Academic Telemetry Data: Progress completion metrics across the 16 Modules, test scores, exercise activity logs, AI interactive chat inputs/audio inputs, certificate keys, and session histories.
• Transaction Identifiers: Payment confirmation tokens, timestamps, and gateway reference IDs. (Financial details such as card numbers are processed directly by certified PCI-DSS payment gateways and are not stored on our local servers.)

5.3 Lawful Processing Purposes

Data is processed strictly to deliver educational services, evaluate student inputs, comply with tax/legal obligations, ensure platform integrity, and manage interactive AI conversations.

5.4 Cookie Policy & Local Storage Protocols

SwahiliCourse uses cookies, local browser storage, and session tokens to facilitate account authentication, platform security, and module progression tracking. SwahiliCourse does not utilize third-party ad-tracking cookies or sell behavioral tracking data to advertising networks.

6. AI Tools & Fair Usage Policy

6.1 Access Restriction

Access to interactive AI tools (including the AI Tutor, voice synthesis, and real-time translation features) is granted exclusively to fully paid account holders (Module 4+ tier / $100 full course access license). Unpaid or restricted accounts are strictly barred from accessing these server-side tools.

6.2 Fair Usage Limits & Token Throttling

To prevent system abuse, bot scraping, or excessive third-party cost escalation, access to AI features is subject to our automated Fair Usage Policy. SwahiliCourse reserves the right to cap, throttle, rate-limit, or temporarily suspend access to AI features for any user account exhibiting anomalous, excessive, or automated usage patterns that exceed typical human learning activities.

7. Financial Terms, Pricing Structure & Refund Policy

7.1 Standard Course Fee

Full course enrollment—providing access to all 16 learning modules, interactive assessments, AI tools, and certificate verification—is priced at a flat rate of $100 USD (or equivalent in local supported currency as converted at payment checkout).

7.2 Grandfathering Protection Clause

Students who purchased course enrollment under prior pricing tiers (including the initial $14.99 rate) prior to August 2026 retain full legacy access to their paid modules and certificate entitlements without paying the difference for the updated rate.

7.3 Refund Policy

Due to immediate digital delivery, immediate access to server resources, and full exposure to proprietary intellectual content across the 16 modules upon payment activation, all course fees are strictly non-refundable except where required under mandatory statutory consumer protection laws or in cases of prolonged technical failure preventing platform access that cannot be resolved within fourteen (14) business days.

8. Limitation of Liability & Disclaimers

8.1 "AS IS" Disclaimer

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE PLATFORM, ITS 16 MODULES, ASSESSMENTS, AI TOOLS, AND RELATED SERVICES ARE PROVIDED STRICTLY ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.

8.2 Limitation of Liability

IN ALL EVENTS, OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THIS AGREEMENT SHALL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT ACTUALLY PAID BY YOU TO ACCESS THE PLATFORM IN THE THREE (3) MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE CLAIM.

9. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United Republic of Tanzania. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally within thirty (30) days shall be submitted to final and binding arbitration in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, under the rules of the Tanzania Institute of Arbitrators (TIArb).

10. Legal Contact & Official Inquiries