Last updated 11 November 2026
Privacy Policy
Connect the Dots lets students show businesses what they can do, and lets businesses ask to contact them. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who can see it, and the choices you have. It is written to meet South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
1. Who we are
Connect the Dots (shamalamas.com) is run by Mitheel Ramdaw, trading as Shamalamas ("we", "us"), the responsible party for your personal information. Our Information Officer is Mitheel Ramdaw. For anything in this policy, email beard@beardtio.com.
2. What we collect
| Information | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Name, email address and profile picture | Your Google account, when you sign in with Google |
| Whether you are a student or a business; company name (businesses) | You |
| Students: institution, degree, specialisation, graduation year, top modules, skills, country and up to four portfolio links | You |
| Students: contact email, WhatsApp number and LinkedIn profile | You (all optional) |
| A title and image for each portfolio link (a "preview") | The public web page you linked to |
| Contact requests: who asked whom, the message, and whether it was approved, declined or withdrawn | Your use of the site |
| Your approximate country (to show prices in rand or US dollars) | Your IP address, read by our hosting provider; we don't store it |
From Google we receive only your name, email address and profile picture. We never access your Gmail, contacts, files or anything else in your Google account.
We don't collect ID numbers, payment card details or special personal information such as health or race.
3. Why we use it
- To create and run your account and keep you signed in.
- Students: to show your academic profile and portfolio to signed-in businesses, so they can find you.
- To run the contact handshake: a business asks, and only if you approve do we show that one business your contact email, WhatsApp and LinkedIn.
- To show notifications about requests and answers.
- To keep the service secure and to prevent misuse.
We process your information because you asked us to provide the service (to carry out our agreement with you) and, for what you choose to share on your profile, with your consent. We don't sell your information, use it for advertising, or send you marketing.
4. Who can see what
- Signed-in businesses can see a student's name, picture, country, academic profile, skills and portfolio links.
- A student's contact email, WhatsApp and LinkedIn are hidden from everyone until the student approves a request, and then only the business they approved can see them.
- Students see the name, picture and company of each business that asks to contact them, and the message sent with the request.
- Nothing is shown to people who aren't signed in.
Once you approve a request, that business has your contact details and is responsible for how it uses them. Our Terms only allow businesses to use them to discuss genuine opportunities with you.
5. Service providers and where your information is stored
We use these providers to run the site. They handle your information only on our behalf:
- Supabase: our database and sign-in. Your information is stored on servers in Ireland (European Union).
- Vercel and FastAPI Cloud: host the website and the API. Vercel also counts visits to the site for us (see section 9).
- Cloudflare: manages our domain name.
- Google: lets you sign in with your Google account.
This means your information is transferred to and stored outside South Africa, mainly in the European Union, whose data protection law offers protection comparable to POPIA. We choose providers that protect personal information to a standard at least as high as POPIA requires.
6. How we protect it
Connections are encrypted (HTTPS). Access rules inside the database itself decide who may read each piece of information, so contact details can't be read before a student approves, even through our API. Only the operator can reach the database directly. If a security breach affects your personal information, we will tell you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.
7. How long we keep it
We keep your information while you have an account. When you delete your account, your profile, academic details, portfolio, contact details and every contact request you sent or received are deleted straight away. Copies may remain in our providers' encrypted backups for a short period before they are overwritten.
8. Your rights
Under POPIA you can:
- ask what personal information we hold about you, and get a copy;
- correct it: most of it you can edit yourself on your dashboard;
- delete it: use Delete my account on your dashboard, or email us;
- object to how we process it, or withdraw your consent (for example by removing details from your profile);
- complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za.
To use any of these rights, email beard@beardtio.com. We'll reply within 30 days.
9. Cookies
We only use cookies the site needs to work: to keep you signed in, and to remember whether you chose rand or US dollars. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies.
To see how many people visit and which pages they use, we use Vercel Web Analytics. It doesn't use cookies, doesn't follow you across other websites and doesn't tell us who you are: we only see totals, such as the number of visits per page, country and type of device.
10. Age
Connect the Dots is for people aged 18 or older. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone younger. If you believe someone under 18 has an account, email us and we will delete it.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change affects how your information is shared, we'll tell you on the site before it takes effect.
12. Contact
Mitheel Ramdaw, trading as Shamalamas · beard@beardtio.com