Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how SchoolPad ("SchoolPad", "we", "us") handles personal data when a school, its staff, its students and the students' families use the SchoolPad platform: the website https://schoolpad.app, the web admin at each school's address (for example school.schoolpad.app), and the SchoolPad apps for Android and iOS (together, the "Service"). Most of this data is about children, and this policy is written with that in mind.

1. Who is responsible for the data

The Service is used by schools ("Schools") to share the daily agenda, the timetable, the exams, the marks, the attendance and the announcements of their classes with their students and the students' families. Two situations must be distinguished:

Data that a School records about its students, their families and its staff ("School Data") is controlled by that School. The School decides what it records and why, creates the accounts, and is responsible for it as data controller. SchoolPad processes School Data only on the School's behalf and on its instructions, as a processor, to provide the Service.
Data about the School as our customer (the School's name and contact details, its subscription, invoices and payments), and the messages you send us for support, are processed by SchoolPad as data controller, to run the Service.

If you are a parent, a student or a staff member and have a question or a request about your data, please contact your School first: it holds the records and decides about them. We help the School answer your request.

2. Data that is processed

2.1 Students and their families

The student's first and last name, student number, class and section, and status (enrolled, left, graduated).
When the School records them: gender, date of birth, photo, address, enrolment date, the names and phone numbers of the father and the mother, a guardian's e-mail address, an emergency phone number, medical notes and other notes of the School.
Which students belong to the same family (brothers and sisters), when a parent adds another child to the account or the School links them.

The School chooses which of these fields it fills in. Only the name is needed to create a student account.

2.2 School life

The timetable of the class, and the agenda: lessons, notes and homework, with the "done" ticks of the family.
Exams and marks, with the teacher's note and the averages calculated from them.
Attendance: absences, lateness and excused absences, with the teacher's note.
The school calendar and the announcements, and whether a family has read an announcement.
Online lessons: the title and the description of a live session or a recorded lesson, its date and time, the link of the meeting (and its passcode, when the teacher enters one) or of a video, the videos and documents uploaded by the staff, and which students opened a lesson or joined a session from the app, and when.
Messages exchanged between a family and a staff member of the School.
Files uploaded by the staff or sent in a message (photos, documents, audio or video).

2.3 Accounts and devices

Student accounts (used by the student and his parents): a username and a password generated by the School. Staff accounts: name, e-mail address or username, phone number, job title, role and permissions, preferred language and profile picture.
Security data: the password (stored only as a one-way hash), the device PIN (stored as a hash), the two-factor authentication secret and recovery codes when a user enables it, and the Google account identifier and e-mail address when a user links Google Sign-In.
Device data needed for notifications: the push notification token, the platform (Android, iOS or browser), the device name and the app version, and the date of the last sign-in.

2.4 Subscription and billing data

The School's name, address (subdomain) and school code, the contact details of its owner, the subscription plan, invoices and payments. Online card payments are processed by Stripe: we never receive or store the full card number. Families and students never pay in the Service, and we hold no payment data about them.

2.5 Technical data

IP addresses, the date and time of requests, the device type and error logs, kept to secure and operate the Service. Inside each School, an audit log records which user created, changed or deleted which record, and when.

2.6 What the apps do not collect

The apps do not ask for the device's location or contact list and do not use advertising identifiers. The camera, the microphone and the photo library are used only when a user chooses to attach a photo, a video or a file (the microphone only while a staff member records a video).

2.7 This website

This website has no user accounts and uses no advertising or analytics cookies. When you contact us through the contact form, your message opens in WhatsApp or in your e-mail application, and nothing is stored on the website: we receive only what you choose to send us. The pages load their fonts from Google Fonts, so your browser contacts Google's servers to download them.

3. How the data is used

To provide the Service: sign-in, showing each family the agenda, timetable, online lessons, exams, marks, attendance, calendar and announcements of its children, messages, notifications, printing and exports for the School.
To secure the Service: detecting abuse, blocking repeated wrong passwords or PINs, keeping audit logs and backups.
To manage the School's subscription: invoices, payment records, and e-mails to the School before its subscription ends.
To support the School and its users: answering questions and fixing reported problems.
To send service announcements about the platform (for example maintenance or new features).

For School Data, we act on the School's instructions. For the data we control ourselves, we rely on the performance of our contract with the School, on our legitimate interest in running a secure service, on compliance with legal obligations and, where required, on consent.

4. Who sees what

A family (a student account) reaches only its own children: the child of the account and the brothers and sisters added to it. It never sees another student's marks, attendance or messages.
A teacher works only with the classes he teaches or is the homeroom teacher of, and with the students of these classes.
Other staff of the School (owner, administrators, supervisors) see what the roles and permissions set by the School allow, which can include every class.
Marks are visible to the family only once the teacher has published them.
Messages are exchanged between a family and a staff member about one student. The School decides whether messaging is enabled.
Online lessons are visible to the families of the class concerned and to the staff who work with that class. The teacher sees which students opened a lesson or joined a session.
Files are stored privately and have no public link: a file or a video is opened through a temporary link that expires, given only to a signed-in user who is allowed to see the record it is attached to.
SchoolPad's team accesses School Data only when necessary to provide support requested by the School, to keep the Service secure, or to comply with the law.

Each School has its own separate database. Users of one School cannot reach the data of another School.

5. Children's data: our commitments

Student accounts are created by the School, not by the child, and are used by the student and by his parents. For this data we commit to the following:

No advertising. The Service shows no ads, and data is never used to target advertising.
No profiling. We do not build profiles of students or families for marketing or for any purpose other than showing them their own school information.
No trackers. The apps and the web admin contain no analytics and no third-party trackers. Firebase is used only to deliver push notifications.
No sale of data. We do not sell or rent personal data, and we do not use School Data to train artificial intelligence models.
No payment by families. There is no purchase in the apps.

The School is responsible for informing the parents about its use of the Service and for obtaining any consent the applicable law requires for its students.

We use a small number of providers who process data on our behalf, only to the extent needed:

Server hosting and network providers (servers, DNS, protection against attacks), where the School databases are stored and where uploaded files are received.
A cloud storage provider (DigitalOcean Spaces), where the uploaded files are stored (photos, documents, recorded lessons and other videos). These files are kept private: a file is reached only through a temporary link that expires, given by the Service to a user who is allowed to see it.
Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google), with Apple's push notification service on iOS, to deliver push notifications. They receive the device's notification token and the content of the notification (for example the title of a homework, or that a child was marked absent).
Google Sign-In, only when the School enables it and a user links a Google account: Google confirms the identity of the user, and we store the Google account identifier and e-mail address to recognise it.
Stripe, only for the online payment of the School's subscription by card. Stripe receives no data about students or families.
An e-mail delivery provider, for password reset e-mails to staff members and subscription e-mails to the School.

Live sessions take place outside SchoolPad. A live session is held in the meeting service chosen by the School (Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams or another one). SchoolPad stores only the link of the meeting (and its passcode, if there is one) and opens it when the user taps Join; the sound and the picture of the session do not pass through SchoolPad, which does not record them. That service does not process data on our behalf: it handles the participants' data under its own terms and its own privacy policy, and the School, which chose it, is responsible for that choice. The same applies to a recorded lesson given as a link to another site (for example YouTube or Google Drive): the video is hosted by that site, under its terms.

We may also disclose data when required by law or by an order of a competent authority, or to protect the rights and safety of our users and of the Service. In that case, and where permitted, we inform the School concerned first.

These providers may process data in countries other than Lebanon.

7. Security

Each School has its own separate database. Access tokens are tied to one School and rejected by any other.
Connections between the apps, the web admin and our servers use HTTPS encryption. Passwords and PINs are stored as one-way hashes.
A device PIN is removed after five wrong tries, and users can enable two-factor authentication with an authenticator app.
Role-based permissions, an audit log of changes, and regular backups.

No system is perfectly secure. If a personal data breach affects a School, we will inform it without undue delay, together with the measures taken, so that it can inform the families concerned.

8. How long the data is kept

While the subscription is active, and during the read-only period after it ends, we keep the School Data so that the School and its families can consult it and the School can renew. The School decides how long it keeps the records of students who left.
When a School asks to close its account, we provide an export of its data on request, then delete its database and its uploaded files within 30 days. Backups are overwritten within a further 30 days.
If a School does not renew for 12 months after its subscription ended, we may delete its data after notifying the owner by e-mail at least 30 days in advance.
Invoices and payment records of the School are kept as long as required by accounting and tax law.

9. Deleting an account

To delete your account yourself, use the page schoolpad.app/delete-account: enter the school code, your username (or e-mail address or phone number) and your password. The account is closed immediately: it can no longer sign in, and its device PINs and push notification tokens are removed.

Student accounts. Closing the account does not erase the School's records about the student (class, marks, attendance, agenda): they belong to the School and stay with it. To have them corrected or deleted, ask the School. The School can also open the account again by giving it a new password.
Staff accounts. The user's name may remain in the School's audit log and on the records he created, because these belong to the School.
The owner of a School cannot be deleted this way, because the School would be locked: the request is recorded and we contact the owner.

You can also ask the School to delete an account, or write to us at [email protected]. We handle the request with the School within 30 days.

10. Your rights

Subject to the applicable law, including Lebanese Law No. 81 of 2018 on Electronic Transactions and Personal Data, you may ask to access, correct or delete your personal data or your child's, to object to its processing, and to receive a copy of it. For School Data, these requests are addressed to the School, which controls the data; we assist the School in answering them. Users can change their own password, language and profile in the app. For the data we control ourselves, write to [email protected]. We answer within 30 days.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the Service or the law changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. For important changes, we inform School owners by e-mail or in the Service before the changes take effect.

12. Contact

For any question about this policy or your data: [email protected], phone and WhatsApp +961 71 250 928.