Privacy Policy

Written by Mohapi · Published 15 January 2026 · Last updated 22 August 2026

This policy describes what actually happens to information when you use matriclink.co.za. It is written to be checked rather than skimmed, so where something is stored indefinitely it says so, and where a third party receives data rather than MatricLink, it says that too.

MatricLink is run by one person, not a company. The responsible party under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) is the site owner, contactable through the contact page.

The short version

• Your matric marks never leave your device. There is no account, no login, and no server that receives them.
• Your marks are saved in your browser's local storage permanently, until you clear them. Earlier versions of this policy called that "temporary". It was wrong, and it has been corrected.
• Google Analytics loads on every page, and an advertising network called Monetag loads on most of them. Both receive data about your visit. That part is not anonymous in the way people usually assume.
• This page carries no advertising, and neither do the terms, disclaimer, editorial policy or contact pages.
• You can use the entire calculator with JavaScript storage disabled. It just will not remember your marks next time.

1. Your matric marks and the calculator

When you use the APS calculator, the achievement levels you select are read by JavaScript running inside your own browser. The arithmetic happens on your device. Nothing is transmitted to MatricLink, because MatricLink has no application server, no database and no backend of any kind. It is a set of static files.

So that the form does not reset every time you come back, your selections are written to your browser's localStorage under a single key named matricLinkMarks. That entry contains seven achievement levels (numbers from 1 to 7) and the province you selected. It contains no name, no ID number, no school, no email address and nothing that identifies you.

Be clear about the retention period: local storage has no expiry date. That entry stays on your device until you delete it or clear your browsing data. If you are using a shared or school computer, anyone who later opens this site in the same browser profile will see your marks pre-filled in the form.

To remove it, clear site data for matriclink.co.za in your browser settings, or use your browser's private/incognito window, which discards local storage when you close it.

2. Google Analytics 4

Every page loads Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-3LPNP0PMHG). It is used to see which pages people actually read and where they give up, which is how decisions get made about what to write next.

GA4 sets cookies in your browser (typically _ga and a property-specific _ga_* cookie) containing a randomly generated identifier. Through those cookies, Google receives your IP address, your approximate location derived from it, your device type, browser and operating system, the pages you view, how long you stay, and the site that referred you.

That identifier is not linked to your name by MatricLink, and MatricLink only ever sees aggregate reports. It is still information relating to an identifiable device, so it is treated as personal information under POPIA rather than dismissed as "anonymous statistics". Google's own handling of it is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.

3. Advertising, and the Monetag network

Advertising on this site is sold and served by Monetag, a third-party advertising network. MatricLink does not choose the individual adverts you see and does not endorse them.

The advertising script loads on most pages, but not on all of them. It is deliberately absent from this page and from the terms, disclaimer, editorial policy and contact pages, on the reasoning that a page you are reading to work out whether to trust this site should not itself be carrying advertising.

Where it does load, Monetag's own privacy policy states that it collects the address of the page displaying the advert, the address of the page that referred you, your IP address, your country and approximate geographical area, and your browser and operating system. It uses cookies and similar technologies to do this, both to select which advert to show and to detect fraudulent traffic.

That processing is Monetag's, not MatricLink's. MatricLink cannot see it, receives no report about you as an individual, and has no access to any profile built from it. What MatricLink does not send, in either direction, is anything from the calculator: your subject marks, your APS result and your province selection are never passed to Monetag or to any advertiser. They never leave your device at all, as section 1 explains.

The authoritative account of what Monetag collects and why is its own documentation, and it may change without MatricLink being told:

• Monetag privacy policy
• Monetag cookies policy

You can control this directly:

• Block third-party cookies in your browser settings. The calculator will continue to work normally, and so will every other part of this site.
• Object to Monetag's processing, or ask to opt out, using the contact route in its privacy policy. That policy currently names dpo@monetag.com for the purpose.
• Use a content blocker. MatricLink does not detect, discourage or work around them.

What this site can and cannot control about which adverts appear, and how to report one that should not be here, is set out in section 6.

4. What this site does not do

• No accounts, no registration, no passwords.
• No newsletter, no mailing list, no marketing messages.
• No contact forms that submit anywhere. The contact page uses a plain email address so that nothing is collected in the middle.
• No selling, renting or sharing of personal information with anyone, for any purpose.
• No embedded social media trackers, no chat widgets, no session recording, no heatmaps.

5. If you email MatricLink

If you send an email, that email and your address sit in an ordinary Gmail mailbox. It is used only to reply to you and, where you have reported an error, to correct the site. Correction reports are kept so that there is a record of what was changed and why, as described in the editorial policy. Ask for your email to be deleted and it will be.

6. Children and learners under 18

Most people using this site are 17 or 18, and some are younger. Under POPIA a child is anyone under 18, and their personal information carries additional protection, ordinarily requiring the consent of a parent or guardian before it may be processed. The design goal here is therefore the simplest one available: collect nothing that would need protecting.

What MatricLink collects from a learner: nothing. There is no field anywhere on this site that asks for a name, an ID number, a date of birth, a school, a phone number, an email address or a photograph. There is no account, no registration and no login. There is no server to receive any of it. The marks you enter into the calculator are processed on your own device and stored only in your own browser, as section 1 describes, and MatricLink cannot read them.

Because nothing is transmitted or retained, a learner under 18 does not need a parent's or guardian's permission to use the calculator.

What third parties still receive, whatever your age. This is the honest limit of the above. Google Analytics and, on the pages that carry advertising, Monetag both operate regardless of who is reading, and neither is told your age because MatricLink does not know it. The cookies described in sections 2 and 3 apply to a 16 year old exactly as they apply to an adult, and the controls in those sections are the practical remedy for both.

What advertising can appear, stated honestly. MatricLink cannot screen adverts before they are shown. The network does not offer a setting that blocks whole categories such as gambling, betting or dating in advance; what it offers is the removal of specific adverts once they have been identified. Monetag's own published rules prohibit pornographic advertising on its network, but that is its rule, not a guarantee MatricLink is in a position to make on its behalf.

So the accurate position is this: an advert that does not belong on a site read by learners can appear here, and the remedy is after the fact rather than before it. If you see one, report it, with a screenshot if you can. It will be sent to the network for removal and that is a request MatricLink will keep making. Reports from readers are the main way this gets caught, which is why this section asks for them rather than claiming a protection that is not in place.

Under 13. This site is not directed at children under 13. It is written for learners in or near their final year of school and for their parents. MatricLink does not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13, and since it does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone of any age, there is nothing held to delete. If you are a parent or guardian and you believe information about your child has somehow reached MatricLink, get in touch and it will be dealt with promptly.

7. Your rights under POPIA

POPIA gives you specific rights. Here is what each one means in practice on a site with no database, which is a more useful answer than a generic list.

8. Where your data goes geographically

Both third parties on this site process data on infrastructure outside South Africa. Google handles analytics data that way, and Monetag handles advertising data that way. POPIA permits cross-border transfer where the recipient is subject to comparable protection; Google and Monetag each address that through their own published data-processing terms rather than through any agreement specific to MatricLink. If that matters to you, blocking the cookies described above is the practical remedy, and it costs you nothing on this site.

9. Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, the "last updated" date at the top changes with it, and anything materially different will be described rather than quietly edited.

The 22 August 2026 update recorded a change of advertising network. Google AdSense was removed from the site entirely and replaced by Monetag, so the section describing AdSense and DoubleClick cookies has been replaced by section 3 above. Advertising was also removed from this page and the other policy and contact pages, and the section on children was expanded to set out what is and is not collected from a learner under 18.

The earlier August 2026 update corrected the inaccurate description of local storage as temporary, added the rights section, and added the original section on learners under 18.