1. Who we are
DesigneChi Training Academy (“DTA”, “we”) runs design training from Nigeria and is the data controller for everything described here. For anything on this page, including a request to delete your data, write to hello@designechi.com.
2. What we collect
Reading this site collects nothing but the analytics described in section 4. Everything below is collected only if you register for a cohort.
| What | Where it comes from | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | You type it | Our cohort sheet, Paystack |
| Email address | You type it | Our cohort sheet, Paystack |
| WhatsApp number | You type it | Our cohort sheet, Paystack |
| Country | You choose it | Our cohort sheet, Paystack, analytics |
| Experience level | You choose it | Our cohort sheet, analytics |
| Capstone brief preference | You choose it | Our cohort sheet |
| How you heard about the cohort | You choose it, optional | Our cohort sheet, analytics |
| That you accepted the terms | You tick the box | Our cohort sheet |
| Payment reference, amount and status | Paystack, after the payment settles | Our cohort sheet, analytics |
| Time of registration, and the page you registered from | Recorded automatically | Our cohort sheet |
| Your IP address | Recorded automatically | Server logs, analytics (see below) |
Only those fields reach the sheet, in that order. The code that writes the row holds a fixed list of columns, so a tampered-with form cannot smuggle extra data into our records.
Your IP address. Our server sees it on every request, as every web server does. We use it for two things: to slow down anyone hammering the registration form, and — only when your browser’s analytics has been blocked — as a stand-in identifier so a failed registration still shows up as one drop-off rather than vanishing. Your IP address is never written to the cohort sheet.
3. Payments
Your card details never reach us, and we could not store them if we wanted to. The payment window is Paystack’s, running on Paystack’s own domain. Your card number, expiry date, CVV, PIN and any one-time code go straight to Paystack. Our code cannot read them, and our analytics is explicitly blocked from recording that window.
To take the payment we hand Paystack your name, email address, phone number, country and which cohort you are paying for. Paystack is a licensed payment processor and an independent controller of what it receives; its own privacy policy governs that, at paystack.com/privacy.
After the payment window closes, our server asks Paystack directly whether the money actually settled, and for how much. Only a verified payment of the full fee gets a seat recorded. We do this so nobody can claim a seat with a made-up payment, and so a half-finished payment never reads as a confirmed one.
4. Analytics and session recording
Nothing below happens until you say yes. The first time you arrive we ask, with a refusal that is one click, exactly like the acceptance. Until you answer, PostHog is not started, its script is not fetched and no analytics cookie is set. If you refuse, we remember that and do not ask again for six months. You can change your mind at any time in section 9.
The only cookie set before you answer is the one recording your answer. We cannot honour a refusal without remembering it.
PostHog
PostHog records how the site is used: pages viewed, the registration form being opened, which fields failed validation (the field names only, never what you typed), the payment window opening, being abandoned or succeeding, and whether a seat was recorded. It also captures session recordings— a replay of mouse movement, scrolling, clicks and page content.
What the recordings cannot see. Every form field is masked before anything is recorded, so your name, email, phone number and any note you type are never captured. The Paystack payment window is excluded from recording entirely. Our analytics code also carries a standing rule, enforced where the event names are defined, that no name, email address, phone number or card detail may ever be attached to an analytics event.
Some non-identifying details are attached to events, because they are what make the numbers useful: your country, your stated experience level, how you heard about the cohort, the currency and the amount of a completed payment.
PostHog gives your browser a pseudonymous identifier stored in a cookie. That cookie is shared between designechi.org and scholar.designechi.org so that moving from the main site to the cohort page does not read as two different visitors. We do not attach your name or email to that identifier, and PostHog is configured not to build a person profile unless we identify you, which we do not.
Analytics requests are routed through this site’s own domain rather than straight to PostHog. That is so the measurements still work when a browser extension blocks third-party trackers — you should know that, because it means an ad blocker alone will not stop this. Section 9 explains how to actually opt out.
PostHog Inc. processes this data on servers in the United States, so registering from Nigeria, the UK or the EU means your usage data is transferred there. PostHog’s privacy policy is at posthog.com/privacy.
Vercel Web Analytics
Vercel, who also host this site, provide a page-view counter. It sets no cookie and reports aggregate numbers rather than individual visitors. Vercel’s server logs include IP addresses as described in section 2.
5. Why we are allowed to
- To deliver what you paid for. Your name, email, phone number, country and payment record are needed to give you a seat, add you to the cohort group, send you the joining links and the replays, and issue your certificate. Without them there is no way to run the course. This is processing necessary for our contract with you.
- To take payment and prevent fraud. Verifying with Paystack that a payment settled, and rate-limiting the registration form, are our legitimate interests in not being defrauded and not handing out seats nobody paid for.
- To understand how the site is used. The PostHog analytics in section 4 run on your consent, and on nothing else. We ask before starting, we take no for an answer, and you can withdraw it in section 9 as easily as you gave it. Vercel’s page-view counter is separate: it sets no cookie and reports aggregates, so it runs on our legitimate interest in knowing how much traffic the site gets.
We do not sell your data, we do not share it with advertisers, and we make no automated decisions about you.
6. Who can see it
Registration records live in a private Google Sheet. Access is limited to the DTA team running the cohort — the instructors and community manager named on the cohort page. Nobody else is given access, and the sheet is not published or shared by link.
Four companies process data on our behalf as part of running the site: Vercel (hosting), Google (the sheet and the script that writes to it), Paystack (payments) and PostHog (analytics). We do not pass your data to anyone else, except where the law requires it.
7. How long we keep it
- Registration records: for the cohort’s run and 24 months afterwards, so we can confirm you were enrolled and reissue a certificate if you lose it. After that we delete them, or strip them back to a count.
- Payment records: as long as Nigerian tax and financial record-keeping law requires. Paystack keeps its own transaction records under its own policy.
- Analytics: for as long as our PostHog plan retains it, currently about one month for session recordings and about a year for events. We do not extend that.
8. Your rights
Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, and under the UK and EU GDPR if you are in the UK or the EU, you can ask us to:
- give you a copy of what we hold about you;
- correct anything that is wrong;
- delete it;
- stop or restrict what we are doing with it;
- object to processing we are doing on legitimate interests, including the analytics;
- hand it to you in a portable form.
Email hello@designechi.com and we will answer within 30 days. You do not need a reason, and asking costs nothing.
Deleting your registration record ends your access to the cohort, because the record is what gives you a seat — we will say so before acting on a deletion request made mid-cohort. We may also have to keep the payment record itself for the tax period, even after deleting everything else.
If you think we have handled your data badly, you can complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission at ndpc.gov.ng, or, if you are in the UK, to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk. We would rather you told us first, but you do not have to.
9. Opting out of analytics
This switch is live. It takes effect in this browser the moment you use it — there is nothing to submit and nobody to email.
Analytics is currently not chosen yet in this browser.
Turning it off stops the recording immediately and throws away the identifier in this browser. The choice is remembered on designechi.org and scholar.designechi.org for six months, then we ask again.
The setting is stored in a cookie on this browser, so it does not follow you to a different device. If you want the analytics data we already hold about you deleted as well, email hello@designechi.com and we will remove it.
A tracker blocker will not reliably stop our analytics, because it is served from our own domain rather than PostHog’s. You should know that, which is why the switch above exists.
10. Under 16s
The cohort is written for adults and we do not knowingly register anyone under 16. If you are under 16, have a parent or guardian register on your behalf and deal with us directly. If you believe a child’s data has reached us, email hello@designechi.com and we will delete it.
11. Changes
If we change what we collect or what we do with it, we change this page and move the date at the top. If the change is significant and you are enrolled in a cohort, we will email you rather than relying on you to notice.
Questions, or a request about your data: hello@designechi.com.