Privacy Policy for "Go Verify" Portal

1. Introduction

Welcome to "Go Verify", the official digital fee verification and receipt management portal for Godfrey Okoye University. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal and financial information when you use our system to upload payment proofs and generate digital receipts. By using the Go Verify portal, you agree to the practices outlined in this policy.

2. Information We Collect

To facilitate the digital registration and verification process, we collect the following types of information:

• Student Profile Data: When you register, we collect your full name, email address, academic data, and a hashed version of your password.
• Payment & Financial Data: When you upload proof of payment, we collect the image file of your physical bank teller, electronic teller, or bank statement. We also collect details related to this payment, including the payment purpose, transaction date, and the amount paid.
• Staff Data: For university personnel, we collect your full name, email, department, hashed password, and system activity logs (such as timestamps of when you approve or reject a payment).

3. How We Use Your Information

The information collected is strictly used for university administrative and financial processes, specifically to:

• Verify your fee payments against official bank records.
• Automatically generate secure, QR-coded digital receipts upon staff approval.
• Track your payment history to automatically issue your "Smart Clearance" certificate once required thresholds are met.
• Provide a centralized dashboard for staff and administration to search records by registration number, date, or status.
• Maintain accurate audit trails for the Vice-Chancellor and Bursary department to prevent fraud and resolve payment disputes.

4. Data Storage and Security

We take the security of your data seriously. To protect your information, we implement the following measures:

• Secure Infrastructure: The system is hosted securely, with all payment proofs (teller images) stored safely in isolated cloud environments (AWS S3) and text data maintained in a highly optimized database.
• Encryption and Access: All user passwords are encrypted using secure password hashing. Access to the system is protected by strict role-based permissions, ensuring that only authorized Bursary staff and System Administrators can view your uploaded tellers.
• Data Integrity: The system employs measures to prevent duplicate teller submissions and maintains unalterable timestamps for every verification action.

5. Data Sharing and Disclosure

Your personal and payment data is strictly for internal use at Godfrey Okoye University.

• We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to any third parties.
• Your data is only accessible to authorized university staff (e.g., Bursary personnel, Administration, and System Administrators) for the explicit purpose of fee verification, reporting, and auditing.
• We utilize trusted third-party cloud infrastructure providers (such as Vercel and AWS) strictly to host the application and store data securely.

6. Data Retention

Your profile information, uploaded tellers, and generated receipts are retained in our secure, centralized database to serve as an ongoing audit trail and to allow you to easily retrieve your payment history if you lose your device. Data retention policies are governed directly by Godfrey Okoye University's institutional and legal regulations. Furthermore, backup and recovery procedures are implemented to prevent any loss of your financial records.

7. Your Rights and Controls

• Access: Students can log into their dashboard at any time to view their complete payment history, check the status of pending tellers, and download approved digital receipts.
• Dispute Resolution: If a payment is rejected, students have the right to view the status and utilize the internal support system to log a complaint for administrative review.

8. Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, your data, or if you encounter issues with your account, please contact the Godfrey Okoye University Bursary Department or the System Administration team via the support channels provided within the Go Verify portal.